A different world
For decades I have struggled to get digital even close to comparable to analog. Then finally a couple years ago after lots of upgrading and experimentation I succeeded. Streaming is equally satisfying with analog, very, very comparable. The full soundstage, instruments suspended in space, tonal balance, dead silent background, and details of brass cymbals … etc. Red Book CDs through my CD player are bested by my streamer with Qobuz or Tidal with hi-Rez versions.
A new world. It takes a while to get it. No longer confined to music you “own” to play over and over. Replay is supplanted by exploration. You love an new (or old album) and hit, “add to library”. It is yours.
So, HiFi+ magazine has an article on building a European 21st Century Jazz Library. I just start with the first album in the list and listen (add to library), the 2nd album (add to library), the third… the forth, fifth… a whole new category of incredible music to sit along side Miles Davis and Hank Moberly. Just a couple days in the life of a audiophile streamer. I could have never predicted this as a possibility ten years ago.
You love music? The goal of having an infinite audiophile library is now possible. It is possible at any high end level… just requires knowledge that it can be done… and I guess give up the idea that there is something special about your CD collection, or players.
I have a 2,000 vinyl albums, play them, usually one a day. They are fun, occasionally sound ever slightly better… but not significantly, I like them for nostalgic reasons.
@dweller . It took a long time. But incredibly worth it. Like the gap between the promise of Windows and the reality, like 25+ years. I was in IT. My job was to separate the marketing hype from reality… it is so great when at long last it becomes reality. I am simply awed every day. |
Thank you guys. I really appreciate you chiming in. I have spent my career evaluating and introducing new technology to corporations. There is so much hype and confusion to obscure the truly great leaps forward. While not in the corporate environment, this is truly a Great Leap Forward in high end audio, something more close to my heart. I hate to see a lot of folks focus on old tech and miss out for years on what is possible now. After fifty years of working to experience outstanding audio and to get the entire world of music to boot… well, I am so lucky… I hope as many people as possible can experience it. |
Yes, that is correct. When you hit “Add to your library” it is adding the album pathway to my library, not the actual files.. So if you end your subscription you loose access. I was not trying to mislead. What my Aurender’s does is to create a consolidated library of all my music: by locating all files on the storage of my Aurender, my NAS, and all the albums I added from my streamer into my consolidated library.
This is so important, or you would hear all sorts of great stuff and never be able to find it. The cost of my physical music library was $80,000, the monthly cost of my Qobuz subscription is $14.99. The ongoing cost is so inconsequential in comparison to collecting physical media, I think of it as free.
I have own an Aurender N100… and listened to a N10, and now own a W20SE… each of those steps provided a very significant improvement in the sound quality. Aurender’s flagship.. the W20SE is simply amazing. With appropriate associated equipment it performs at the level of high end vinyl. |
I don’t know for sure. But I would put money that it would not create a problem. I have been an IT guy all my life. If I programmed it, I would embed the URL in the library as the reference. I would never delete it because what if there was an internet outage? You want the library persistent over time. |
Thanks. I think the EtherRegen was worth it… like one of the many tweaked that adds up to a great system. It was only $600 or something… less than a power cord.
I think my concern is that someone not familiar with the technology would come away thinking getting good streaming requires an advanced degree in networking… it requires no knowledge of networking what so ever. I don’t know if I mentioned this here, but I have been in IT most of my career… senior executive for the last thirty years. On the other hand, I don’t want to futz with it now that I am retired… and I didn’t have to. It is great if folks like playing with networking, honestly I am sick of it. I put the first PC on the network in a global semiconductor company.. and all of the other 4,000 on the next few years. I have spent millions on routers and bridges, T1’s and fiber… just don’t want to screw with it, and didn’t have to. One quick trip to Best Buy to buy an extender and my streamer was plugged in and working at vinyl level of performance… it is a very good streamer of course.
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I listen to streaming about three hours a day, and also spin a vinyl album once a day. Sometimes just for fun I’ll spin a CD (and compare to streaming). All of these formats sound outstanding to me, and typically when something sounds notably better it’s a well mastered tune… usually in streaming. But this discussion about the masters of a few albums mastering is just nitpicking. There are a few remasterings that not as good as one you got in the 70’s is just irrelevant minuscule noise. When you have a system that can stream at the same level of fidelity as CD… or even vinyl, a few albums might be not as good sounding (I haven’t run into any)… and a lot better are absolutely better… this argument just becomes non-sense. The world of audiophile level of streaming is so incredible it just leaves physical media in the dust.
Hey, I still buy a couple vinyl albums when I go to get my hair cut. There is a vinyl record store across the street. It’s nostalgic, I just got a new record cleaner… I have an incredible analog end… no ticks, groove noise, elegant… fun. But 95% of the time it is streaming. |
