I Sold my CD Player!!! Streaming sounds so incredible!!!


Several years ago, was the very first time I had the opportunity to hear a very high end, high quality, streaming audio system.  Once I heard it, I was smitten, and I knew right then and there that this was me all the way!!!  I was absolutely blown away by the handy convenience of the little iPad (or cell phone) used as remotes to control the otherworldly access to a virtual ocean of music via Tidal, Qobuz or downloads.  I immediately recognized this new technology as the future of my own audio system, especially with all the new hi rez stuff out there that was now made available. I gave up vinyl when CD came on the scene (yes, I'm an old guy), and, now, perhaps, it would be finally time to retire my beloved CD player.  Long story short:  What put my streaming audio system over the top, as far as sound quality is concerned, was the assemblage of these core streaming devices-----( #1) A superb DAC, by Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty streaming DAC  (#2)  An outstanding music server, by Roon Nucleus Plus  (#3) An outstanding Audio Switch, by Pakedge Devices   (#4) Excellent Ethernet Cables, by Shunyata Sigma.  I also utilize numerous other tweaks and filters that further purify the streaming audio signal within my room and audio system.  At this juncture in life, I am just mesmerized by the combination of sound quality and convenience that I get through my streaming audio system.  I'm also happy and pleased to report that, I don't miss my old beloved CD player one bit.  Happy listening.              

kennymacc

Showing 2 responses by echolane

Quoting Mahler 123:  itturns out that there isn’t a single software program that I’ve encountered-and I’ve tried many, including Roon-that can organize Classical Music. I can find CDs faster on my shelf than in the media libraries. Also many of these recordings were not big sellers-perhaps 20,000 units- and some are recordings dating back decades. The availability of these recordings in the services such as Qobuz is spotty as their availability ebbs and recedes.
 

Replying to Mahler123>

Like you I listen to Classical Music, both opera and classical music.  As an audiophile with a very well outfitted Roon system and duplicated on the Naim Uniti Core that I started on by ripping my CD collection and editing the metadata and with a CD Collection of over 4000 albums, I have a little experience. I started with LPs in the 50s, graduated to tape cassettes, then CDs, I go back a few years.  I struggle to believe that you can file and find your CDs any better than you can organize your metadata in Roon and other systems that curate metadata.  Classical music has inherent problems that make it virtually imposslble to have a perfect file system.

But my real point isn’t to argue about that but to say that streaming my CDs is the best thing I’ve done.  I made the mistake of refurbishing my Bang & Olufsen turntable so I could return to using my vinyl collection.  It’s in complete rebuilt condition, sounds as good as a Beogram 4004 can sound and I’ve played it four times in 12 months.  The reason is so obvious, it’s that streaming is so ridiculously convenient, I can’t be bothered to struggle with handling the physical copy.  It takes awhile to locate a physical copy and set it up to play.  It takes less than a minute to start the same music selection streaming.  And my physical CDs no longer take up space in my house.  I even bought an expensive Ayre DX-5 DSD for my SACDs.  I’ve had it a year and play it almost never.  For the same reason.  And not only is streaming ridiculously convenient it sounds equal to or better than my expensive Triode CD player with optional tube.

i don’t need Tidal or Qobuz because my CD collection has most of what I want.  If I want something new, I buy the CD.  And because I only have to rip it once, I don’t need to buy new.  When I buy a CD, it costs almost nothing.  
 

I admit I haven’t made the logical next step, which is to donate or sell my CD collection.  For unknown reasons, I like to own the hard copy too, though I’ve never once turned to a ripped CD to listen to it again.

My vinyl collection is impossibly large.  It is always a lengthy ritual to find and prep a vinyl recording to play.  I just hate doing it.  So I don’t.  Luckily much of my vinyl has been professionally dubbed and if I have something that has t been dubbed,  I’ll buy the CD.  I ought to sell my Beogram 4004 but I probably won’t.

 

 

When you all rip your 4000 cds or 10000 cds, do you throw the files willy nelly into a nas drive (hoping metadata will save you) OR do you organize a folder tree by root folder genre --’>> Artist name folder (alphabetical) ---->> Album names folder?? ....which is how cds or vinyl sits in the racks

If the Metadata tracker fails, why can’t you all simply browse by folder to get to your favorite song bird for the day? Seems like a common sense thought process/solution is getting buried by promise of a failed "Metadata" miracle....
…………………………………………………………………………
I have a standard protocol I follow religiously when I edit the metadata the ripping software produces.

under TITLE I enter the composer’s name followed by a colon. Then I enter the title of the composition. The TITLE entry typically looks like this:

Korngold: Die Tote Stadt <Disc 1>

My streamer organizes my albums as I wish so I organize by TITLE. Along the side of the alphabetical list of TITLEs is a key containing all the letters of the alphabet. To find my Korngold album all I have to do is press the “K” and I am presented with a list of albums that have a title beginning with “K” and scroll through them until I find all my Korngold recordings. Then I look until I find Die Tote Stadt and press the play arrow.. It takes seconds and I would bet I can do that quicker than you can get up to search your albums to find something similar and then put it in your player and press play.

The problem with classical is if an album contains more than one composer it only finds the first composer listed in the title. I have repeatedly suggested that when editing metadata, the software should provide for more than one composer by allowing multiple titles for an album. I’ll probably be dead before that happens so I try to remember those albums that have multiple composers.

 

To summarize:  I don’t accept the metadata entered by the ripping software.  I edit the metadata so it is in my standard format.  All my metadata is entered in the same way so I can easily find my music albums.