Have you asked yourself this question?

I won’t sell something. I move unused components to other rooms, but I don’t believe in discarding a particular media. They all have their pluses and minuses. In my view, why not have them all if you’ve got the room?

@daveyf 

Anyone who uses a computer for their digital source uses a USB to SPDIF or AES EBU conversion somewhere. It is either in the streamer or a separate piece. Anyone who buys digital files online or streams utilizes an asynchronous to synchronous conversion. If you want the best get the Alpha USB. I used one for years and it is excellent. My current preamp has a USB audio input. so I do not need it anymore. The only time this conversion does not happen is if the source is already clocked like a CD player.   

I listen to a lot of music from '60s and '70s as well as a lot of contemporary music.. back in the '60s stereo was very big and a lot of the records made then put a huge emphasis on stereo separation. one thing about streaming now is a lot of that music has been remastered and sounds beautiful.. I never was a huge fan but the "Association "made some good songs and you will not believe the sound quality when streaming their newest remastered album I think it's the greatest hits. I use Amazon prime ultra HD

If you don't listen to analogue source any more and there is still a lot of music you like that was recorded in analogue then your analogue source is simply not good enough. You have to upgrade or, yes, get rid of it.

The choices available today are myriad.  I am 75 and have had decent equipment for at least 55 years.  That includes most means of listening to music, vinyl, R2R, including 4 channel, cassettes, CDs including SACDs, streaming.  Having lost my analog gear and most all albums in a divorce many years ago O have not replaced them.  Yet now, I feel a strong pull to go analog again.

Yes, streaming is Very convenient, but I don't mind getting up every 25 minutes to flip an album.  There is value in reconnecting with your youth IMHO.  I must confess to having enjoyed a 1958 Bugeye Sprite, even though I recently sold it as my wife could no longer get in it due to her knees.

My point is that we all need to find our own nirvana with respect to listening and opinions of anyone else have no meaning to what can make you happy, find your on bliss and revel in it!

@motown-l ​​​​​​

+1 for emotional attachments. I still get joy remembering that feeling of listening to ELP and King Crimson on my buddy's 1978 Denon TT, Carver Amp and Cerwin Vegas in his attic in high school. Could never drop my analog either. :) 

@mijostyn  I was told that a SP/Dif to USB converter is not really a great way to go, if one is concerned with SQ. I do not know of anyone who uses this, so no personal experience. Do you have a thought on this? Anyone else use this type of connection?

Thanks for the topic, hifinut51...

I asked and answered your question in the mid-1990's.  My vinyl was a long curated, pristine surface, collection.  Raised around live music, I've zero tolerance for extraneous noise.  The front end was an Allan Perkins improved SOTA Star Sapphire TT w/electronic flywheel (line conditioner) and vacuum.  A Fidelity Research FR64-fx was a great dance partner, spinning better Grados.  Early dampening using Marigo VTS tuning dots and sandbox/granite under-plinth isolation.  Fine tuning an Arcam Alpha 9 cdp (dCS ring dac onboard) finally struck an emotional chord with digital efforts from Red House Records, RR, Proprius and a handful of other labels.  HDCD shone through nicely with the Arcam.  And again, a Marigo dot treatment, a well matched power cord and careful leveling of the box (don't ask.)   My active preamp had a terrific phono stage, a built-in expectation of any great preamp in that day.  My actual preamp, still spinning in Germany.  Search:

Nova Electro-Acoustics CPA-100A JFET Co... For Sale | Audiogon

Did the Arcam sonics match or improve upon the SOTA rig?  No.  However, the path was clear that I could not pursue both technologies, financially.  I have zero loyalty to the gear, only to the music.  Audial memory is faulty at best.  That said, my sound now easily exceeds, in all parameters that are meaningful to me, my recollection of that vinyl rig.  I recently lost a close friend with "big boy vinyl stuff" nearby, and I clearly would not have been able to keep up with the progress made in both worlds, financially.  My posts in AudiogoN cover some of my digital journey, so I won't belabor it. 

Oh, my close friend Thurston just is fine having moved to northwest Virginia.   He is setting up his big rig in the basement of a raised ranch... 35' x 24' with 2 concrete side walls and rug covered concrete flooring.  A big time Lampizator, Luminous Passive Pre w/volume, Dynaudio Heritage Specials and a soon to arrive McIntosh MC75 MKVI.  He's having a ball streaming!  (sold his vinyl)

Vinyl is fun, tactile, exhausting, frustrating and extremely rewarding.  I support you fully, Guys and Gals, wishing you nothing but the best.  If ever Powerball...I'm back in with both feet!!  Onwards!  Pin

More Peace     (bold print for old eyes)

@eagledriver_22 

Thanks for the response, but I really don't want to deal with selling and shipping individual records. I would much rather have people come my place and pick what they want or post them on Marketplace. 

I mix it up, digital and analog. All my CD's are on my Innuos Zenith. Will never get rid of my analog front end. Still love spinning waax and listening through my tube amplification. 

I still have a very good TT , phono pre-amp etc but almost never listen to it. Even though I started buying high performance  gear during ( possibly ) the golden age of tables.

Some vinyl still sounds fantastic.

Nowadays I can't get passed Clicks and Pops, takes me out of the moment......

Still, my Thorens remains with me.....

Did it years ago. Got rid of the physical digital media too. A lot less clutter now.

@daveyf 

You get a USB to SPDIF converter. Streamers always start with an asynchronous  data stream, USB. This is the way information is exchanged in the computer world. The question is where the stream is clocked for music. It can be clocked in the streamer, or in the DAC, or as in my case, a very trick master clock. 

Moon Audio and Arrender make really nice converters. The best is the Berkeley Alpha USB. I have one, but I do not use it any more as I have a master clock

@tony1954 

'Truth be told, if there was an easy method of sorting, cataloguing and selling a 1,000+ albums, I would have pulled the plug years ago.'
 

You may list and sell your record collection on this site (If it is easy enough for you)

https://www.discogs.com/

https://support.discogs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004051893-Quick-Start-Guide-For-New-Contributors

https://support.discogs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001562473-How-To-Sell-Music-On-Discogs

I own about 400 records, purchased used, and the ones I've kept are without surface noise. Including the cost of my vinyl rig, I've made roughly a $12,000 total investment in the platform. That $12,000 could get me a decent streamer, but not a top-of-the-line one, so I don't see a big cost advantage between vinyl and streaming, at least in my case. Also, the music I like best is from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, which was mastered specifically for vinyl, so it sounds great that way. When I am in the mood for more contemporary music, I stream on my Bluesound Node, and that's fine for me. But my go-to is vinyl, and I'm happy with it. 

it's also a good occasion for everyone to list what they have and don't use. The best of times!

Sell it if you do not use it. To keep it as a furniture is nonsense. I sold my Vikings ice skates long time ago :) What is the reason to keep high performance professional equipment if you don’t use it anymore!?

Haven't seriously collected records since CD’s hit the scene, but still have probably 500. Have a turntable set-up properly and spin a disc occasionally, probably more than anything to show people and let them hear it.

But now that I am retired and have more time to devote to listening to music its almost 100% streaming for me, the amount of great new music coming out and the ability delve into the back catalogs of artists make me wish I only had more time for it! Its more about the music than the medium.

I just bought a new turntable. I’ve been an analog fan for over 50 years, I like everything about it. It’d be difficult for me to give up the sonic pleasure it provides.
Streaming—the equipment and the services—is getting better and better but if you already have a nice analog setup, I think you should keep it around. My friends who dumped their records and players in the ‘80’s for digital wish they hadn’t.

@tony1954 

I think that you have already made your decision. Go with it.

@mijostyn I’m old school. The DAC i chose does not have a USB input, as I am looking for the best SQ. I chose it because it is a dual mono DAC and I believe that the SP/DIF connection via Co-ax sounds better than any USB connection I have heard. As a consequence of no USB, I am not going to be using my Mac Pro and will stream in the future only from a streamer that features a Co-ax output, which IME the better ones do. YMMV.

Funny you should mention this topic.

At the moment I am trying to decide this exact thing. Whether to sell everything analog or to keep my turntable (VPI Scoutmaster w/ Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge) and a few hundred albums.

To illustrate how divided I am. I have not listened to one record since my divorce and downsizing 8 years ago, yet I just bought a wall mount for the turntable and I am picking up a few records later today.

The main reason for this is a mixture of the convenience of digital and the amount of space that 1,500 records take up in a 700 sq. ft condo. When everything was analog, things just were what they were. Getting up every 20 minutes to change a record, cleaning your records, putting away a pile of records on Sunday morning, etc. However, I am about to turn 69 years old and I am just tired of the process.

Kind of like how, since retirement, I no longer golf in the rain.

Truth be told, if there was an easy method of sorting, cataloguing and selling a 1,000+ albums, I would have pulled the plug years ago.

@lewm - all that on half a gummy? Dang, I wish I could get a buzz that cheaply - I would need at least 20 of those gummies before I'd start to feel anything.... But I always enjoy cannabis with my music.... 

You just need to eat gummies more often.

The other night, I sampled one half of a gummy bear that someone gave me, just to see if it would do anything.  Then I settled in to listen to LPs. Although the music was utterly sublime, I soon realized that I was in no condition to perform the mechanical tasks needed to play records, without risk of damaging LPs, the stylus, the entire audio system.  So I shut down the system.  Took me that whole evening until the next morning until I felt normal. Booze never does that.

Three turntables, five tonearms, two streamers. Streaming accounts for around 1% of my listening time, and it is mainly to see whether I want to buy the LP. My streamers sound good enough. I just loose interest and go do something else. Vinyl glues me to the couch.

Analogue requires more careful set up and if you have high end gear you would probably do as I do and avoid spinning vinyl in combination with drinking, as one slip can tank a possibly very expensive cartridge.

I have more than 4,000 LPs and I have a similar number of albums in digital form on my server, and I often go back and forth. I have three main systems and I recently added a modest turntable to the third system  so I had the option of spinning vinyl in that system too (Roksan Radius 5/Nima/Goldring Eroica LX).  I owned an LP12 some years ago, and would say that its is a decent sounding table (when, as with all tables, it is properly set up) and needs no apologies.

It is entirely up to the individual whether or not to continue in analogue - personally I'd be out there acquiring more LPs to play.   If he decides not to go that way he will likely find willing buyers for his gear and vinyl.

@drmuso 

I have made the comparison on several occasions and playing a file from your hard drive sounds better than streaming. It is counterintuitive. It is only numbers and should sound identical, but it does not. I stream tio check out new music.

@daveyf 

Not at all Dave. You get a Qobuz subscription and stream with your computer through a USB input on your DAC. Getting a dedicated streamer is IMHO not at all necessary and a waste of money. We all have computers now and many of us have DACs. It is very convenient but not the very best sound. It is a great way to check out new music.  

I have recently added to my digital system, with the interest in adding streaming in the future. I think the way to go is with a mix of digital and analog. For the days when i want the sound of digital and all that it offers, transport to DAC; when i want to go analog, then that is an option. To exclude one in favor of the other, if affordable, makes no sense to me. Also, I actually think that good digital is more complex than good analog...why, because one has to consider way more variables.

Maybe I am more used to vinyl and all that it requires ( as I have always owned a vinyl rig), but my recent foray into digital ( DAC’s, streaming, switch’s, upsampling etc.,) and learning more about streaming, makes me believe digital streaming is far more complicated.

I was about to type "No" but dogberry beat me to it.

What Dogberry said. And really, I don’t care what anyone else chooses or why they might choose or have already chosen to do it. No one is hurt by these decisions.

No.

I've thought about it, but don't want to sell my analog gear or records.

One thing others haven't mentioned is that there is often artwork and info on LP liner notes that one might not find on a streaming service.  It might be on a CD, but often in a less useable form.

Soundwise, I think streaming can equal or surpass vinyl pretty easily, especially if you stream hi-res files, and you can't beat the convenience.  I'm probably listening to streaming over 90% of the time now.

How many russian pianist interpreter of Scriabin , not the pianist of the actual 20 years but before that as Merzhanov or Flier or Sofronitsky or Yudina or Neuhaus or Bunin, Feinberg, etc ?

Scriabin is for me one of the great composer not a marginal one , he reinvented piano playing and tonal/atonal colors after Chopin and Lizst before Schonberg recipe rule ...His music is a spiritual journey too ...

How many interpretation of the works of Sorabji streaming ? This mad composer is a genius too , among others his  5 hours Clavicem ballisticum and his  transcendental studies pieces numbering to 100 on many cd  ... Are they all there ? with whom at the piano ? 😊

also Maghister - you might be suprised by the depth and variety of Scriabin on streaming….my orchestra conductor buddys fave composer…. in LOVE with his streaming rig …while his LP 12 gathers dust…. ( but i have a plan to fix that… )

there is also a good bit of positive introspection going on, which i believe is expressed by the “ audiophile / music lover KNOW thyself…..

enjoy the trip…. i’m fairly sure..but not 100% sure…we only get… ONE

i think the question to ask is how can i use the one to IMPROVE the other…..

what do they say “ competition improves the breed “…..

also Maghister - you might be suprised by the depth and variety of Scriabin on streaming….my orchestra conductor buddys fave composer…. in LOVE with his streaming rig …while his LP 12 gathers dust…. ( but i have a plan to fix that… )

For myself I equally look forward to a session where either Source types are to be used. I can't any longer find any reason to express a preference.

Each Source replayed for a short period of time are quite capable of becoming very engaging and wanted as a means of entertainment. 

I have been thinking about it because my digital has surpassed my analog 

Analog set-up: Clearaudio performance DC table w/ clarify arm AMG cart

Musical Surroundings Nova  2 phono and 250+ records 

Digital set-up: Aurender N10  PS Audio Mk2 DAC and Million+ song to stream

Enjoy the Music

Tom

For my 2-channel setup, I play mostly analog (except for some YouTube vids). For my headphone setup, I play mostly digital.

I'm in a similar situation. I have what I think is a good digital source now (Chord Dave DAC, Chord Streamer) that is better in so many ways than my vinyl set up.

I have not played a record in months. I don't think I've played more then a hand full of records this year. My vinyl set up is no slouch either (Acoustic solid table $6000, Soren tone arm $2500, VDH Cart and others) All going into my Mac C2700 pre-amp MC stage. I have about 3000 records as well.

I'm now considering selling off all the analogue as I just don't use it much anymore. Sad as I thought I would be a record guy for life but digital has come so far I just don't care to go through the fuss of good vinyl playback anymore. Record cleaning, storage space, table set up, etc, etc. I just don't see the value in it anymore. I don't get joy from the fiscal side of record playback as many do. I'm also not an avid collector of records for the collection side of it. I just collected because it was the best back in the day, not so much anymore. 

As others have said, a lot of my music playing is streaming. It's convenient. However, when I want to sit and really listen, most times I fire up my Linn LP12 Vahalla and enjoy my LPs. Yes, I can also sit and 'really listen' to my digital front end and enjoy it. For instance I fired up Santana's Caravanserai last evening via stream. Why? I wanted to hear the nuances of the multilayered recording without the "hash" of my well worn LP. Heresy, I admit.😁 Then there's other times when I really DO want to hear my Sheffield labs Dave Grusin Discovered again in all it's analog glory...

What's my point? I have none really other than listen to what makes you smile. Don't over think it too much.

Happy listening.

If

- you do not use your analog system anymore for good, never, ever again

- you will not miss looking at your records (or even the nice looking rig)

- you don't want spending time to fiddle with the set up and cartridges

- you will not get 'tired' listenting to digital only (who knows that)

Then, taking your place, I would most probably sell it.

I for myself did sell the analog rig and all vinyl once, when I was 22 and coming back home from a longer trip. I needed  💲😁. I have bought new systems during the past years and in the meantime have collected around 900 records. Today, analog and streaming go together just fine. And I do like the whole procedure which comes with listening to vinyl.

yes

it will come to that some day

but i am emotionally invested in my records, yes they and the analog gear are just things, but those things represent tremendously wonderful memories and experiences, hard to let go for that reason

I don't think of it as an either/or; why not both and anything new that comes along  (and a hybrid and EV parked next to my inline twin turbo six).

As far as succession; my daughter has claimed my rig, vinyl and CDs in their entirety. Also, I'm ok with transitioning between mediums; sometimes one then the other depending on mood or circumstances. 

And I totally get simplification and streaming stuff. There's much enjoyment in simplicity.  So this dilemma is good to have in retirement, something to think about today and solve tomorrow.    

Streaming i did not ...😁 And i will never do ...

Try to find an erhu album or a tabla tarang album or a sarangi album or some fine russian pianist playing Scriabin ?

Or a Nordic countries long past jazz album ?

I never listen to most of the proposed too much well known  music in jazz , in world music too , save in the classical domain...

I could live with only Bach and choral music but i had fallen in love with musicians of all culture long time ago, jazz included ...

JasonBourne71,

I totally agree with you, how anybody can call that Linn LP12 setup lackluster is beyond me, I guess he doesn't know much about the Linn LP12 lol.

I do all formats but could easily live with just streaming. I have moments where I want to streamline and then moments where I like the accumulation of the physical media. I'm not as adamant as some on their belief that record playing is superior to streaming. There is something to be said for listening uninterrupted. 

sometimes i talk to myself too and ask all sorts of questions even those I don't care for any answers.

Since I don't have an analog system, it is much easier to decide not to acquire one.    Listening to other people's audio system, I don't get the urge to get one, perhaps because I am accustomed to digital sound.  But IMHO, I don't find analog superior.

Jerry

I forgot to say out of the convenience factor , there is no romanticizing the material format for me at all ... I was moved or not by the music not by the front cover of a vinyl ....😊

Twenty minutes anticipating the end of a LP side and feeling in the obligation to disturb my meditation by the idea that i have only 5 minute left at most eyes closed was too much for me ... The annoying clicking noise too was much ...

Just saying that i feel the past  misery ...😊