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

I find that engaging in the ‘Which is better? Streaming vs CDP? ‘has gotten rather pointless. Both technologies are mature. They are both capable of excellent sound. It comes down to features. Does the convenience of streaming outweigh some of its disadvantages? Do you still have an attachment to Physical Media.

I primarily listen to Classical Music. I thought that I would burn my collection of thousands of CDs to my server and free up tons of space. I was happy with the SQ of my ripped discs and enjoyed the convenience of auditioning new releases from streaming services.

It turns 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.

So for me CDs will be part of the equation until I croak and unfortunately my heirs will be stuck disposing of them. Sometimes I just feel like parking in the recliner and using my server to access the ones that it can find

@echolane 

  Last week I tried to find Sviatislav Richter RCA recording of Bach Well Tempered Clavier Books I and II on my streamer.  My software is mconnect and Cambridge Audio Stream Magic.  I know that I had ripped it to the NAS.

  I have something like 17 tabs for the composer in both programs.  He is listed as Bach, JS; JD Bach; Bach with his birth date; Bach, J.S with his death date; and multiple other ways. The 100 or so Bach albums that I’ve ripped to the NAS are all dispersed amongst the various tabs.  Different discs from multi disc set are in different tabs.  If I want to play the 3 discs from St Matthew Passion I need to find it in 3 different tabs.  Guess what?  After checking all of these tabs, the Richter recording isn’t in any of them!  Nor does searching by Artist-enter Sviatislav, Richter, or all the possible combinations-bring it up.

  I go to my CD shelves, which I organized over the 30+ years of buying CDs.  I look under JS Bach, who is in the B section, find the CD set, pull it out and play it, and in 10 seconds I have music.  I had just fruitlessly waisted 15 minutes in the thickets of streamer software.

  The same problem exists with Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.  As for multi composer discs, don’t ask.

  So I again burn the Richter discs.  The Melco N 100 will usually give me a message if the disc already exists in the database; none occurs.  Again the discs don’t show up in any of the tabs except for “recently added”.

  So make a playlist, you say.  So I did.  I created a playlist and named it “Sviatislav Richter”.  I had to add each track individually.48 Preludes and Fugues.  96 tracks.  A couple of times my wife interrupted me, I lost concentration, made a few mistakes in the order.  then had to add/delete/reorder…. I could have gone to my shelf about 10,000 times and pulled the CD off and replaced it in the time it took to search these tabs and make the playlist.

  Buy Roon and your troubles are solved, you say.  I did a one week trial a few years back and it maybe made things maybe 10% better.  I thought the SQ took about a 10% dip.  Decided against the lifetime $500 fee. YMMV.

  Regarding the commercial services, I have had several discs, usually Nonesuch recordings, go in and out of the catalog in a few months time. Joshua Rifkin Scott Joplin recordings originally were on 3 LPs and were eventually, briefly reissued on 3 CDs.  After enjoying them on Qobuz for a month or so they disappeared.  Emails to Qobuz went unanswered.  One of the albums reappeared after a month and then disappeared a few weeks later.  Same with Karl Ristenpart Bach recordings.  I eventually purchased all of these as second hand CDs, downloads, or LPs, depending upon availability.

  My physical media are fairly well organized, and I can find them easily.  Classical Music just doesn’t fit music file systems, which were all designed to other genres.  I’ve tried several others besides the ones mentioned above.

I haven’t even gone into the issues that I had with with Bluesound Node, which became hung up for weeks doing and update, or the Bryston BDP3, which relies upon a software program that is unusable for any genre.

  So my experience is atypical but for me streaming has been a frustrating, cumbersome experience.  Nothing beats the plug and play of a CD player, and SQ is equal.

  I just want to enjoy listening to music without having to learn how to become an IT Consultant in the process 

I don’t know how to evaluate the environmental impact of the competing technologies. Yes, physical media has to be disposed of in some fashion, and may end up in a landfill. However if someone listens to their physical media repeatedly having amassed a large amount, they may not consume as much electricity going forward as someone who relies upon streaming.

Or the employment issue. LP and CD pressing plants employ, or used to employ, individuals. Then there are those who were employed in the distribution chain, and finally the shops. Streaming services don’t require much employment; I subscribe to one boutique service that has 2 full time employees. I would not include the people employed by ISP , because I suspect most of them would still have jobs if music streaming services were to disappear.