OP: Cool, good luck
( I had the OPPO 95 which was ok but the 105 is definitely better.)
@amaglioc @amaglioc. Good point about the non-standardization of “hi res” from one paid streaming service from another.
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I have at least a couple thousand albums on my pc and phone (mp3's @ 320 mbps) Those are fine for listening in the car, on pc or bluetooth speakers.
I was interested mainly in Tidal for true hi res but discovered that I would be paying $20 a month basically for life.(until it goes up)
From what I am hearing now it may not be true hi res anyway.
Looked @ Qobuz ($350 a year) Ouch!
Sticking with cd's for now, I have nearly a thousand.
Ended up buying a used Oppo bdp-105 from Audiogon after borrowing nutty's😎
The balanced outputs give me much more dynamics. + the video quality is top notch. Still comparing to my Arcam cd93.
Also have the option of possibly streaming down the road if things change.
THANKS TO ALL! |
Technically speaking, Tidal’s $19.99 tier streams in *full* res, meaning CD quality, not hi-res, which is confusing because they market “high res” but they’re not talking about 24/96. They have some MQA, but that’s another rabbit hole entirely.
A French streaming service called Qobuz will debut in the US in October and they do in fact stream some music in high resolution, the rest in “full,” and supposedly carry an outstanding classical music catalog. That’s not Tidal’s strength. I’m a big Tidal fan and hope they survive the current Wild West financial atmosphere. As for streaming itself, what a miracle. Having a large percentage of all the music ever recorded at your fingertips is a paradigm shift. |
Ya, all that competition b/w format through time is a lot of sales BS.
In the end for quality sound, IMO, it is the combo of the quality of the recording type (cd, tape,streaming, vinyl, etc) and the quality of the recording itself that determines final SQ.
Nothing wrong with CDs, especially since there are many well-regarded used CD players (with reliable discs/lasers) out there which are designed exactly to help CDs sound their best.
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PhillyB well said & wholeheartedly agree .
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Why not looses rip and playback using JRiver? It’s cheap and A nice app that can be used to connect your pc to iPhone or iPad for play back. |
Check this mahler123, I moved after my wife’s death from a 13 room farmhouse to an 850 sq ft Condo.
In moving 5 years ago I cut my heard down to about 500 Lp’s and 500 Cd’sfrom about 5,000 which had been 3,000 after I moved back from Germany where it was 7,000 .I now live with about 2,000 and my 850 Condo IS a CD/LP storehouse .
I guess its better than being addicted to drugs .Maybe .
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phillyb's post is a model of common sense. We need more like that in Audio forums. There is no reason to adopt streaming just because it's the next big thing. If your preferred genre is Classical Music, as mine is, you are a lot better off having a well organized CD collection. Computer Music meta data and streaming services serve Classical Music very poorly. I am currently burning my several thousand Classical CDs to a NAS primarily because I may have to vacate my ho9use for smaller premises in the near future due to health problems, and also because even if that doesn't occur, I'd like to prune the collection a bit because I get tired of feeling like I live in a CD warehouse. I am struggling with finding a good way to organize the cDs that have been digitalized. It's frequently faster for me to just grab the CD off the shelf than to find it on the NAS. In terms of sound quality, I am biased towards having adedicated renderer vs an all purpose PC. I use Bluesound and Oppos to play the files from the NAS and I think that sounds better than playing them from My MacAir and Audirvana+ as the Media player. I personally believe that having a bigger power source ion something like an OPPo vs a PC makes a difference, but there is wide disagreement on that topic. You can achieve good sound either way. A word of warning about Roon. It eats up a lot of computing power and works best on dedicated hardware. Roon acknowledges his on heir web site and came out with two dedicated Renderers for just that purpose.It also IMO is another program aimed at the Popular and Jazz listeners and doesn't offer anything special to Classical Music listeners |
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You are correct phillyb !But I continue to foolishly do it because just running my finger down the LP rim of music i love is a joy to me after a hard day .
I mostly listen to Classical Music but others love their genre too .
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They more music out there in old vinyl that is beyond any amount of new vinyl. I have a friend who has thousands of vinyl, yet can find 100 more at a good used record store. For myself I won't buy just to buy, I have really like it, play it not just collecting and they just sit collecting dust. |
phillyb
Gotta' agree. There are about 40 versions of the Verdi Requiem available on CDs (I have six of them) along with many versions of the Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Bruckner, Mozart, Dvorak,etc., symphonies, concertos, chorales,and strings. I collect what I like, and I suppose you do, also.
Aside from SQ limitations, not all versions of a specific work can be found on streaming. You take what they have to offer. Not Good.
Gave up my vinyl, but duplicated almost all of them with CDs. |
This CD bashing trend started by the same magazines that praised the recordings is now so dishonest. Read reviews and they wax on with the same praise they do for vinyl and streaming now days. Sound of vinyl improved from the 1930’s to the late 40’s and 50’s. Digital and CD are not any different, you learn as you go in any design and this goes for amps to speaker.
Having grown up with analog and vinyl when in a week more vinyl was so sold than in a year now days.
Streaming is now #1in sales and for good reason young folks like to take music with them, so a cell phone is ideal and a good set of ear buds. They want tracks not whole albums. It’s a new generation, and like always audiophiles are a speck in total sales.
I enjoy by vast CD collection as much as my vinyl. Each can be very good and both equally suffer from bad production and mastering.
To say one format is more accurate is nonsense. Every table, arm and cartridge i owned changed the sound of my vinyl, not to mention rake and vta settings and the support the turntable sat on and which mat I used impacted the reproduction not to mention the vinyl used, it’s thickness and which pressing you purchased.
I’ve heard later vinyl pressing sound like a transistor radio. That was the impact of the later mastering and pressing. Run from RE on the back lp cover. Best sound was always from the 1st pressings period.
By the 70’s lots of compression was used and lots of rock music sound like mud, dull, some thin and lifeless unlike the golden era sonically 50’s and early 60’s with the exception s being direct to discs like Sheffield Labs, M & K and a few others.
Not to mention back in the vinyl days dealers were experts at turntable setup with scopes to get your cartridge just right and they were local, next cartridge they installed that and set that up for you. I could never get it as correct as they could.
Today a dealer is far and in between to find with the skills they had back then in the golden era of our hobby. McIntosh clinics where you bring your McIntosh gear in and they spec if for you and adjust it for Free.
No shame in liking CD, keep buying them, nothing wrong with vinyl either, is boomers format. With both formats care must be taken and care with setup of each, room acoustic and power cords.
If your cell phone is good enough for you to enjoy or digital radio or Pandora where you do not really need to own anything and enjoy the music you like well that is good for you, but not for me. I enjoyed collecting and I have another 20 CD’s being delivered this week and all exceptional sounding. Many of my CD’s will never be on vinyl as many of my vinyl not on CD.
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Good idea
After trying streaming, I've gone back to my classical CDs
(Spinning a Bryston BCD-3)
Streaming may be OK for other than classical music, but too much is lost for most classical when the music is compressed into an MP3 equivalent and compressed for dynamic range. |
Thanks to all for the help!
I think I am going to stick with Cd's for now maybe upgrade my player(Arcam cd93) Thinking about a used Ayre😎 |
"1) All-in-one unit with ripper or rip from PC? ( Only connection to computer is a 50’ cat 6 ethernet cable)
yes, but it depends on the cable and its ability and limitations. there are 2 camps in this debate: shielded or unshielded? which is better? best value? both camps claim victory, but I would not use an unshielded ethernet if it were susceptible to EMi/RFI- interferences.
2) Will this long cable cause problems with streaming and/or ripping?
see above. I have researched ethernet cables to run from my computer to my ethernet Renderer and also from the NAS to the DAC. For lower cost, entry level, look at the Supra brand from Sweden, probably the best bang for the buck available with very good results. Moving up a notch is the Wireworld Chroma ethernet, then up to the Starlight ethernet. Both of these are "Cat 8". Again, there is a web debate on Cat 6 versus Cat 8, etc. While i;m not convinced that a Cat 8 is signficantly better than a Cat 6, I just bought a Wireworld Starlight Cat 8 for my NAS to DAC for about $200. It might be a little overkill, but I wanted to make sure I got a good signal, b/c I won’t upgrade this ethernet cable for at least 5 yEARS, so I kind of wanted to "future-proof" it.
3) Is an external hard drive OK for storing music?
Yes, in fact in many cases it is the preferred method: a dedicated NAS: Network Attached Storage device. you will need a NAS with ethernet connectivity. Connect it to your router and will have a power input. This is where Roon comes into play, see below.
4) Is Tidal the only streaming service that streams in true Hi Rez?
yes and no, it depends on the type of music you listen to. Tidal, AFAIK, is the one with most modern music options- I use it. but there are other hi res Apps coming out, QuBuzz or something is coming out, but I think it might be more classical. Investigate.
5) Can you download music that is streamed and store it in the streaming unit or external hard drive?
You can with Tidal, and you can download from Tidal onto your phone, or tablet too.
Interested in the Sony HAPZ1ES. It seems like a pretty solid piece. (Has 1tb of internal storage but would need more eventually - at least 4 to 6 tb). That is a lot of storage, but many people are in your camp, the HAPZies should allow an NAS to attach to the back of the unit, unless Sony has restricted you to do this in order to push you to buy a more expensive unit with more storage.
. Also very interested in Roon But not sure how it works or what I need to run that system."
I would recommend that you try Roon for a couple months. Roon and Tidal go hand in hand like peas and carrots (thank you Forrest Gump). Tidal provides the music but it is a "streamed" technology, not wireless.
But Roon does provide wireless service. So, if you have both, you can listen to Tidal on your computer, phone, tablet, and Roon will have an App on your devices, which you use to send the Tidal music over the air to your stereo. If you use the NAS attached to your router, I dont believe that you will need Roon for your main listening room. But Roon allows you to play music with different audio systems in the house wirelessly. Eg, in the kitchen or outside patio.
hope this helps, I have just regurgitated the things i have researched in the last few months for my own system!
Best |
I believe the sony you mentioned is limited to 2TB on the internal HD there is another thread that discusses this where some have swapped out the 1TB drive for an ssd. |
The long Ethernet cable will not be a problem. It can be up to around 100 ft. Mine is about 50 feet too.
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