Same as many, I have over a couple thousand vinyl plus hundreds of CDs. Love them all, wil always keep them, they sound great on my vinyl and CD rigs and are pride possessions. However that is going the way of the dinosaurs. Streaming is taking over whether we like it or not. The convenience, the price, the quality and the ever ending multitude of choices make it the clear leader in today's way of enjoying music. And to think I used to be like MC just a couple years ago, analog was king and that was that. Then I grew up, at 68 lol. Thanks to the few folks here who were relentless in talking up streaming. I would never have gone down this musical road without you guys.
What am I missing?
When discussing streaming we often hear the quality achieved by streaming compared to "cd quality". "Cd quality" seems often to be the standard by which streaming is favorably compared while cds have at the same widely fallen into disfavor as a medium. If "cd quality" continues to be a quality standard by which we judge streaming services -which it appears to be- why exactly do we hold cds in such disfavor? More sophisticated dacs can always be employed with cd transports as they are with streaming. I understand the convenience and storage issues with cds but I also understand that with streaming you will never own the music which you do with cds. This becomes even more unclear to me when considering the resurgence of vinyl and the storage and convenience issues involved with this medium. I don't believe the music industry ever wanted us to own the music we listen to but rather preferred we only rent and pay for that music each time.
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Ditto Curtdr. My seasoned audio friend parted with an integrated amp with an internal DAC to get a pure integrated amp so he needed a DAC. I suggested the well-reviewed Topping D90SE just for the heck of it, but he bought it and is enthralled with it. He has a near $20K analogue rig and he finally admits that digital music is "awfully close to the sound from vinyl." He is wedded to vinyl because of the tactile fiddliness of itl... the exact reason I parted with my SOTA TT several years ago and never looked back. I had several ~$1K DACs that all sounded okay, but then got an Ayre QB-9 in my system and consequently sold my TT the next week since it sounded so close to analogue. My Aqua LaVoce S3 is a fair bit better. |
CDs are still great, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't understand the resurgence of vinyl, as I lived w vinyl for many years and was so relieved when CDs came out for many reasons from space issues to easy care to sound quality... I do understand some people claim greater "warmth" from vinyl, and yes it's charming and nostalgic to spin discs and/or a novelty for younger folks who didn't grow up w vinyl-only options. I still have a Sansui turntable and still spin an LP from time to time, but when I do I'm always reminded why I prefer the simpler, easier compact disc. |
Cd quality has not been the standard for several years now ,a disc rotating with wobble is very hard to accurately read . a quality recording on a SS drive is far more accurate , the dac a is far better implementation. The key is that it takes quality throughout ,Ethernet cables , Hub usb cables most important the quality of the dac ,and the computer-streamer imo around $10-$12k minimum to achieve a pretty respectable digital setup which I am nearing that goal , but much more $$ can achieve much better results still, the Denafrips Terminator anniversary dacs, and Holo spring May KTE dacs are without question best of in class $4600-$7k range the Bricasti M1SE streamer-Dac has lots of filters and is very good at $12k and a very good buy .that may be on my short list for next year.
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I’m just about to get into streaming (late bloomer). I own lots of CD’s and have pretty good equipment and they sound pretty good (except for poorly produced ones). The advantages I expect from streaming will be (i) increased access to a whole world of music for a small monthly fee with the option to buy what I like, in CD form or otherwise, and (ii) claimed higher resolution that what I experience already. |
In my system I still believe CD's sound best, but by an increasingly small margin. However paying $20 a month for essentially unlimited access to music close to, at or above CD quality is a bargain. Access is great, do everything from your tablet, if I didn't own a CD player I now wouldn't buy one. The record companies In my opinion are a necessary evil, we would not have high quality recordings without them and probably very little access to good music. |
@larry5729 keep up Spotify really was the pioneer of streaming music. Really the first successful commercial streaming platform. |
I love my CDs and I love streaming. CD quality at 16-bits/44.1KHz was not arrived at lightly. In the late 1970s much research was done on how "good" digital needed to be in order to sound, well, "good". At the same time the technology of the day had to be considered as well - and meeting price points that consumers would adopt. So yeah, CD quality is what we got. I like it just fine. High Rez files might be better, and yeah, I've tried DSD256 files for what it is worth. But I keep coming back to my CDs because I have more than a few that are out of print, the labels went belly up, and they will never be on any streaming service. So there is always that to consider. |
Last year went to a multi family garage sale. They had boxes and milk crates of CD’s. After I started looking through the third box, the guy comes up to me and asked me if I’d buy them all. I asked “How much” and he said $150. After a few more minutes I bought the lot. 1100 CD’s.I kept around 100 and gave the rest away. So I ended up paying $1.50 a disk! |
I have about 1600 CD’s and about 1700 ripped CD’s on a NAS. There is a convenience in using the NAS, but the sound is about the same. I just started streaming 6 months ago and am currently using Amazon Music HD. The quality of their music is all over the place! Some tunes that they say are in high res sound horrible when compared to the CDs that I have. After the holidays, I’m going to do the Qobux and Tidal trials and see/hear what the difference is. |
It all boils down to how you run your business. I've bought CDs from European labels that charge around €12-15, and about €9 for the digital download version and some even have a MP3 category for less, along with an album version, usually for around €19-21. So, yes, the artist still can make money the old fashioned way as it all depends on one's morals and ethics, and for some artists, this is their only avenue for getting their music out and they count their blessings as the major labels won't touch them. It's kind of like buying things on Etsy instead of Amazon. If all artists demanded it, then things could change but all the world is doing is saying goodbye to the old boss and hello to the new one and depending on country of origin, they are stuck with the goofs in charge. The more successful artists can tour to make old fashioned killer earnings but then the fans have to deal with jackholes like Ticketmaster. Not every artist can do that. All the best, |
Lack of artist compensation is not an inherent problem with streaming, rather its business model. Present business model works because a critical mass of consumers don't value music greatly. Consumers could demand greater payouts to artists and artists could refuse to release music to streaming services, perhaps this would lead to fairer compensation. I doubt you'll ever see either of these scenarios take place, vast majority of consumers certainly happy with present situation, and artists want their music to be heard. Think about how many of these artists wouldn't get to be heard if only physical media existed. Distribution of physical media costly, unknown artists have no chance for exposure with that business model.
I still receive mailings from physical media sellers, don't see vast majority of contemporary artists in my streaming libraries with vinyl or cd offerings, mostly twentieth, thirtieth, whatever remaster of older popular artists. How many copies of a single release from artists llike the Beatles, Stones, Steely Dan, etc do I need! Physical media ain't making vast majority of artists rich! |
When you compare cost, even with the ongoing monthly subscription costs over a lifetime, the value of streaming is unbeatable. It would cost me at least multiples of $10k to own all the music in my streaming libraries. While I appreciate the art and tactile sensation of physical media, in the end its the music that matters most for me. |
People will always want to own physical media. Vinal, CD or DVD. Not seeing any of those formats go away in most people lifetimes. In 80's and 90's they said vinyl is dead. Guess sales just slowed and with most things it is all part of the cycle. I am enjoying the heck out of the cheap prices on CD's |
I have owned hundreds of movies in laser disk, VHS, DVD, DVD special addition, Blue Ray and on line. So, conservatively I have spent $500 on copies of permanent copies of Star Wars and many other movies. I bought vinyl, audiophile pressing, CD, and HD copies of Kind of Blue. We can stop this madness now. Over the next years the best available will become what is on line as all content becomes so. All documents, music, video, photographs… |
CD quality is the standard only because it was the first digital. The next was ripper files, then purchased files, now streaming.Since streaming services more and more have higher resolution files than CDs, streaming can frequently sound better (equipment dependent like all of audio). Qobuz for instance has over one half million high resolution albums. My streamer sounds better for these, in general than the CDs, and on pretty equal footing with my high end vinyl rig.
Streaming is simply an unbelievable good deal. Nothing to do with “the industry” not wanting you to own stuff. For the price of one CD per month you get access to millions of albums! This is a screaming deal. The trend has been for higher quality through streaming and the cost is going down not up. It is the future, period. I had 2,000 CDs. I gave them away. I never listened to them anymore since I got good quality streaming. Technological trends cause change for all in the area. For the consumer, it creates real bargains. For musicians it creates problems, how to, adjust to the new world. I know some. While they are not happy with the small payments for the use of their music, my close friend makes money through concerts. They will need to work this out over time. |
Your premise is a bit off. CD sales are up 21% and the number of units are up 47%. Hi Rez is not much of an advantage, sound wise, than Redbook if the CD is properly mastered. In fact, it can be indistinguishable between the two types. Personal ownership is still a thing for some as well as properly compensating the artists. Don't forget that the whole concept of streaming and sharing music started off as a way to rip off the artist and pretend you were dissing the man (record companies). I still get a laugh over that one. Now that it's SOP, let's get the tech down pat and enjoy the fruits of our crimes. The sad part is, a different group of owners are screwing over the artists and still charging you to listen without owning. Owning costs extra. All the best,
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The ownership (or the lack thereof) criticism is not valid anymore. If you own a streamer and local storage/server, you can always buy and download your music if you like. I stream mostly with Qobuz but I have ripped most of my CDs and have downloaded many DSD and other high quality recordings that I own. If anything, you get the best of both worlds. |
A huge part of my youth was spent hunting for LPs in record shops and in magazines and later for CDs and SACDs in shops and online. Anyone coming into Hi-End Audio now is blessed that they have millions of albums to choose from for a small monthly fee. With the exception of bootlegs everything is available and then some. Owning music really doesn't make any sense anymore, unless you already own it. Barring some dystopian future where the internet goes down we'll be scraping through the remnants of humanity for CDs or even better SSD drives. |
At least with my rig, I often get my finest fidelity via Qobuz’s’ Hi-Rez streams. A good half the time it beats out what I get from my LPs.
Though their streams aren’t officially Hi-Rez, Idagio’s streams can deliver me excellent sound, as well. I also have to say that my Sony CD/SACD player sometimes beats my record player, too, at least by a nose. What can I say? My analog rig ain’t bad, either -- updated SOTA Sapphire turntable with Alphason arm, Hana cartridge and Moon phono stage. To be sure, none of my components truly explore the frontier of what is the best of the best, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the heck out of the sound my components provide.
Also, oddly, I just don’t care enough that, when I stream, I’m only renting the material, not owning it. |
"CD quality" is heading toward being the 'base quality' for digital. You can already get higher quality then CD. Spotify and others are well below CD quality. I agree with you, the Music industry doesn't want us to own music, why would they? They can either sell you music once, or charge you forever, basically. They use to do it by going from 78's, to LP's and 45's, then 8-track/cassettes, then CD's and now 'higher quality' 180 gram LP's for old recordings. Notice I left out digital in that list, and it's because of MP3's and Napster (Free music!) that they needed to figure out a way to make money. They tried various coding/decoding methods, but that failed (Sony had a real bad time with it). They finally figured out they could make good money on subscriptions (renting as you put it). Personally, I like owning my own music and buy used CD's or buy Hi-Res when available for my Aurrender, but I bet they eventually kill both, and most people will never own any music. Records will probably still be made, people pay big money for new recordings. And they don't make the best digital copies, so it's really not worth it make 'illegal' copies. This is my take on it. If someone has a different take, I'm fine with that. I just look back at history and this to me is how we got here and where it's going. |