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

Streaming sound quality extremely dependent on entire streaming chain. Stream sound quality should equal rip quality once you have streaming chain optimized.

 

As for recording quality, all over the place, this for both physical media and streams. Streams often have the advantage in that there's often multiple mastering/releases of same album, this becoming increasingly rare as cd sales decline. Streaming services have deep enough pockets to allow access to nearly every recording ever made, and its far simpler to transfer these recordings to streaming service. Physical media requires pressings and much more difficult distribution chain.

 

 

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....
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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.

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A few years back, the younger generation got into vinyl. I told my nephew he was wasting his time. They thought it was the best sound, but they had bottom line rigs. 
I got rid of my cd player 4 year ago soon as I got into streaming. I won’t even rip my collection because since I’m streaming I’m really enjoying new and better quality recordings. I have lost interest in the older music I so cherished. I find my genre keeps changing now.