61 yrs old. Audiophile for 40yrs. Went from turntables - last was HK/RABCO ST-8 with mid range Grado cartridges. Then switched to Philips CD player then a series of NAD players and never used the LPs and Ebayed them - then the turntable was Ebayed (before I knew about Audiogon). Loved CDs until I witched to Bluesound Node 2i and love it. I do miss "owning" music (still have 600-odd CDs) but the Node sounds at least as good as my Yamaha Aventage CD player (which I hardly ever use - thank goodness it plays DVD's/BluRays) and the convenience more than compensates. Long live streaming.
The problem with streaming
As I sit here listening to America Includes: "A Horse With No Name", I realized the problem with streaming. Who knows what source material you're getting with streaming? The album I'm listening to is a Warners Brothers green label. Sonics are absolutely incredible! The band sounds like they're in the room!
Navigating the pressings to find the best one can be challenging but that's part of the fun of the hobby. I doubt the same care is taken when generating streaming recordings. You're stuck with what they use, thus missing the incredible texture of the best recordings.
Of course, great care must be taken to set up the turntable and match all components downstream. I find the effort to be well worth it! There's just no substitute for great analog!