If Steve Got You Last Week...

There are so many variables at play in different systems, not least the person and the room. And yet, without generalizations no one would have an opinion and there would be no fun discussions or debates. That doesn't mean there are no valid points made about the gear or technology involved, but they're typically overstated and underdetermined. At least that's what I've perceived.

On the other hand, one very real (and fairly transferable) fact about listening to CD's vs. streaming for me (I do both) is the the different framework for the experience. One selects and puts a CD on, then sits and listens for a couple songs, if not the whole thing. This is different than most of my streaming, which jumps from song to song. Often, too, I wind up seeing a text notification or some other distraction. This is my fault, but there it is a way of listening much more vulnerable to fragmentation than CD's. (Or vinyl.)

I'm not getting rid of streaming, but I grew up listening to sides of albums, and the iTunes one-song-at-a-time thing was initially repulsive to me. Now, it's mostly how I listen, and I'm questioning whether that is something I want to scale back upon.

I loved vinyl in my younger years, way before CD’s. An Oracle turntable, Black Widow tone-arm and a Shure V15 type III cartridge made those records sound oh, so sweet! Had a couple of thousand albums as well (wish I still had them, just for the monetary value).

Being a bit of a nomad, I used to move around, at least every couple of years, and a lot of those places had not much room even for my stereo let alone all those plastic milk cases that I used to drag the records around in, not to mention the weight of those things! Just got tired of dragging it all around, so it all off (way to cheap).

I think if I stayed put, I would probably still have all that stuff, but it seems that I’m still moving every 2-3 years. Between my bad back and small spaces it looks like I’ll be scaling up on my streaming hilde45, that is, once I rebuild!

I have always listened to CD's since they first came out. Just recently I finally acquired a dream 2 channel setup. It uses a Luxman D-05u CD player, Pass Labs INT-250 amp, and Goldenear Triton Reference speakers. However I have a lot of people come over to listen to music that I do not care to spend money on CD's of. For that raeson I got a Bluesound Node 2i for streaming music for them and searching for new music for me. I do not use the DAC in the Node but instead run it through the Luxman's DAC. As far as comparing CD to Streaming I find the same exact music track to be very similar. However I find it daunting when there are a dozen different tracks of the same song in streaming - different bit rates, MQA, remastered, remastered again in a different year, etc.

@grannyring

been through so many transports I cannot name them all the two best transports I have had and heard in my system are Audiomeca Mehpisto II this is the best I ever heard not including the mega priced ones that are out there, next Metronome (Do know my model number but has separate matching power supply). Both are excellent mid to high level players before you get into the mega buck stuff. Heard the Sim Audio and while it was a very good one, it was not up to the ones I mentioned above.

The big issue is the ones I own are not longer made. BTW, Pat’s CEC is also an excellent transport TL3N I think and his is not longer in production. Recently had the Electrocompanient 1-up version 4 which was also very nice sounding.

Happy Listening

Thanks Pete!