I want to upgrade my digital side … (currently Bluesound Vault 2i feeding the DAC of Oppo 105) … plan to spend around $2k … since I’ve ripped all my CDs to the Vault, thinking of spending it all on a DAC, and retire/sell the Oppo while it still has some value. I do have a few older CDPs I could retain as backup, but not sure why I would ever need.
Alternatively, was considering a better combined CDP/DAC like a newer Marantz or Yamaha … upgrades DAC performance some, and a reliable spinner for quite a few more years … but I have very few SACDs, so feeling like this would be the tail wagging the dog.
I can't believe there is so much misinformation on this thread. 1) Backups go bad. Are you backing up to paper tape? Tape? Backups don't fail, its people who fail to backup. If you are backing up to disk, all disks will eventually go bad, but the chances of both your source disk and your backup disk going bad at the same time is very rare. You do have to be smart about your backups: if you are getting disk errors, fix them or replace the disk, make sure your backups are operating every hour/day/week. 2) Errors reading music from HD. This is the most simplest thing to do on a computer. It's so easy, its built in all Macs, you insert a cd, iTunes reads and imports the disc, and you doubt;e click the album icon, and it plays. A 4 year old can do this. iTunes sucks for audio quality though! If you use any of the music apps that run on a computer: Roon, pure music, or a dozen others, you break up the parts of ripping music from the playing music apps. 3) Its been proven over a dozen years ago that reading music from a HD sounds better than from a CD player. I got rid of all my cd/sacd players almost 15 years ago. 4) If people play cds or albums because they can read the liner notes, you are missing out on much more important information that Roon provides. 5) networks are a problem! There hasn't been a better time to install a robust/secure network than now. Network installation is very very easy. If you don't know networks, buy a mesh network and plug them in. If you can't do this, get the 4 year old I talked about above to help you. 6) so much trouble putting servers in different rooms. It's called being smart. You don't want any type of server in your audio room.
"But the problem I see is that, because everything is at hand, your listening changes too and you just jump around rather than listening to a CD/LP that often the artist put a ton of time into to create a musical arc. It’s instant gratification time".
Yes-- the "playlist" has increasingly become the focus.
I’m almost 65yrs old, and I’ve been collecting physical mediums for music for over 50 years. I literally still have several hundreds of pounds of LP’s, CD’s, cassette and reel to reel tapes, and even some 8-track tapes that were produced in what was then called “Quadraphonic Sound”. But we live in the 21st century now, and there’s this relatively new thing called music streaming which I have found to be a Godsend to a lifelong music lover like myself. Granted that I spent quite a bit of coin to put together my headphone system during the pandemic lockdown. But for me the gains in SQ and convenience were well worth it.
While I love LPs and their art and notes, using Roon I engage and discover more about the artists, their connections, history, etc. When you compare Roon to CD UX, it isn't even close. 1pt fonts -- no thanks!
Totally agree that a mesh network(e.g. Eero) is totally simple to set up and will provide benefits far outside audio-related too. Cheers, Spencer
p05129 Its been proven over a dozen years ago that reading music from a HD sounds better than from a CD player. I got rid of all my cd/sacd players almost 15 years ago.
Yes no ones arguing that, but if what you put on the HD comes from streaming or downloading, it’s usually the "later compress re-issue" that you get, and therefore will sound shite compared to earlier CD of the same piece that aren’t compressed.
Just look at the difference just between these two, earlier CD issue v later re-issue that are usually the the download/streamed ones.
@sparksgja , When you get that urge to jump off the album to instant gratification you can instead queue to play AFTER the album completes. It's a good habit. Cheers, Spencer
@facten 100% agreement. I have 7,500 CDs, mostly excellently transferred or remastered (or digital like superb JVC version of Bill Holman Brilliant Corners analog 30 ips 1/2" two track 1997 recording only available on CD). No hassle, plop CD into transport and away we go. I have a high end DAC though (COS Engineering D1v). One of my friends only extracts his 3,000 (and some of my) CDs onto a thumb drive and plays that through his high end Meridian DAC. Liner notes on classical CDs can be superb booklets (such as Marston CDs). Streaming is okay but a huge hassle to achieve my analog and CD playback quality.
I’m so far in on physical media, I don’t want to spend the time or effort to rip just so I can sit on the couch and get frozen with indecision in what to play, or spend time making play lists, killer playlists, ultimate playlists.
I do that now with video content - I’ll sit 10, 20, 30 minutes at a time just waffling on what to watch with the endless choices.
I’ve had more problems with streaming than with physical media. My CCA just inexplicably disappears as a device to cast to - then it becomes an arcane ritual of rebooting router, modem, laptop, CCA, disable AV, re-enable - the exact sequence to get it back is random, non-repeatable, and mysterious. I become more fixated on the random dropouts, when it is working, that I never relax - always waiting for that sttttuuutter, or dropout that happens to destroy the mood.
That doesn’t even count when Wrecktum...um...Spectrum internet goes out. Their commercials say 99.9% reliability. You want to know what that really means; 8 hours, 45 minutes, and 36 seconds of "allowable" downtime per year - any time of day any length of time.
Streaming is great for sampling new music, but will never be a replacement to physical media for peace of mind and uninterrupted musical enjoyment.
But - that is JUST me. All other opinions are wrong, for me, because in my universe I am always right. :-)
"The value is, to give the provenance of what they stream/download to you, so you can say yes I'll pay (to uncompressed) or no won't pay (to compressed) issues of the same album."
Of course, the above makes complete sense but it wasn't the focus of my comments.
I was referring instead to the overall topic of the thread, which seems to boil down to an endless (and apparently irresolvable) dispute re: stream-ing vs. CDs.
I was referring instead to the overall topic of the thread, which seems to boil down to an endless (and apparently irresolvable) dispute re: stream-ing vs. CDs.
"And which sounds better" if you ditch the cd, don’t be in any haste yet to do it.
And I’m stating streaming/downloading to a hd, "can" be as good as playing an uncompressed early cd. If the streaming /download company will give that same early non-compressed cd issue, and not a later compressed re-issue, which is normally the case. Hence the need for provenance of what version your purchasing from those companies.
Physical media is king. As mentioned, knowing I purchased my LPs’, CDs’, cassettes & 8-tracks, and still use my CDs ! Burned the LPs’ not on cd to cdrs’
Plus the crash scenario, hard drives get corrupted, crash,...and when they crash. If you have a lot of music, make a copy of it all to a hard drive, maybe 2 of them. Just in case. It’s a matter of when they crash. Only downloads I have are a few rare tracks from apple store
I think a small majority here prefers spinning to streaming. ‘But that may because of the way the question was phrased. I was an inveterate spinner for a long time, but am gradually going to the other side.
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