Youngsters these days.

I'm a Boomer who went the streaming route. I might have hundreds of CDs ripped to my server but Quboz has hundreds of thousands. My monthly service pays for itself since ii no longer buy CDs. To each his own. 

Vinyl is my first love and I literally have piles and piles of CDs.  Streaming is convenient, sounds great, and is the best way I've found to discover both new and old artists that I've never heard before.  

By the way, "OK Boomer" isn't really a compliment.  I'm nearing 60.

jhills

Why is it that youngsters just don’t understand ...

People have been asking that since the beginning of time.
It really doesn’t matter much what other people think.

Your grandson is right in a way.  You really should ditch the cd player and go to a good streaming setup. Rip all your cds to a NAS drive and use a streamer into a DAC. Not only is this more convenient, but you will experience a very noticeable improvement in sound quality. Don't forget streaming from the internet such as Tidal or Quobuz. This too will at the very least equal your cdp.

Oz

ozzy62

Rip all your cds to a NAS drive and use a streamer into a DAC. Not only is this more convenient ...

Ripping a boatload of CDs to a NAS drive sure doesn't sound convenient to me.

@cleeds
Ripping all my favorite CDS to a NAS drive also seems like a lot of work to me and probably a bit expensive....Jim

jhills,

Did you type this on an Underwood and have your grandson upload it to the internet?  I too, like my old CDs and LPs, but I find it more convenient to upload them to a streamer (about 5,000 CDs).  It is far easier to search my collection on an iPad rather than thumbing through the 5,000 CD's (I still have them shelved), plus, I don't have the hassle of reshelving the CDs I do decide to play.  Streaming services are also a good way to discover music that is new to you.  Internet radio stations are also good for finding new music.

I have found that with many older recordings, the particular versions/masterings that are available from streaming services often sound crappier than the original CDs; this is not always the case, so, it is not an issue of inherent inferiority of streaming, but, a choice on mastering that the re-issuing party made.  That is on reason for keeping your old CD's in either their original physical form or ripped to a server. 

I've never bothered to turn my LP's into music files, so I do spin records once in a while.   

You know, I recently went through a change of life. I sold all my records and stereo equipment, and with the money I made from the sales I bought a Bluesound PowerNode 2i streamer, a pair of ELAC speakers and some HIFIMAN HE-400i open backed headphones. With the rest of the money I could get a 60-year Qobuz subscription. Funny thing is,  now I don’t spend time or money looking for, buying, cleaning or organizing records. But I listen to MORE music, newer music, different music. Maybe listen to your grandson and let him buy you a streamer. This old dog learned a new trick and is loving it.

You have to consider a lot of youngsters are starting from scratch. They don’t have large CD or vinyl collections. From that point of view, you can either spend tens or hundreds of dollars a month building a (relatively small) collection or spend $10 per month to have access to pretty much every song ever made. From that perspective, it seems like a no brainer. And it sounds pretty good.

I’m not quite a youngster, but I’m definitely not an old guy. Haha. I am building a CD collection for a number of reasons:

1) CD’s simply sound better. In my experience and with my gear, CD playback sounds better than streaming in every scenario I have tried. Since my main priority is sound quality, CD is a no brainer.

2) I prefer to own music. There’s just too many things that can go wrong with streaming for me to use it as a viable format for my main rig. The internet’s down? Forgot your password? The app won’t load? The streaming companies servers are down? Whoops, you no longer have any music. Internet connection slow? Now the song is "skipping." Your favorite song got replaced with a poorly remastered version? Now your favorite song sounds like crap. That’s all completely unacceptable to me. I want to put a CD in the CD player and hear music. Period. No nonsense. I stream in my car and at work and on my phone. I’m not opposed to streaming, but it has no serious place in my main rig.

3) With CDs, I can pass my music collection on to my kids. The worst scenario I can think of is if I passed away and my kids asked my wife, "What music did dad listen to?" and instead of saying, "Go check out his music collection," she has to say, "We don’t know his password so all of his music playlists have vaporized." Music is too important to me for that to be a possible reality.

PS: Count me in that group that appreciates "Walkmans." I recently discovered that they can produce very good sound as long as you feed them clean, well regulated power.

DJones +1

We sold our house in MD and are in the early stages of having a home built in Western, NC.

To prepare out house for listing we "de-cluttered" and "staged" and am somewhat used to having less stuff in our living room.

So, instead of having an audio cabinet, receiver, CD player, speakers connected with wiring, etc. I decided to order a pair of KEF LS50 wireless speakers, which we'll drive with wireless sources (Spotify and Roon).

I suspect that the "younger generation" won't like the idea of matching this source with that amp, with those speakers, with those cables, etc. etc.  Streaming quality is so good now, no need to buy CDs and vinyl.  And that gives the manufacturer the opportunity to match the built in amplifier with the drivers, etc.

I do have a much more "high end" music system for another room, with over 1000 pounds of "traditional" equipment, but I'll be hiding out in my "man cave" to enjoy that.  But in our living room, de-clutter is the way to go!

old folks tend to be crazy over spending something that will please their eyes including walrus tusks for instance. 
over decade ago i've became a rational freak and would collect rain water for watering my garden when it's not raining and stopped my spendings for good except necessary items and i fully agree with your more rational son regardless of what you got to like.  

Thanks all for the comments and advise. 
While I probably will never give up my LPs and CDs, I might do well to upgrade to a newer (either new or used) CDP/DAC capable of running streaming devices. When it comes to streaming, never say never, I guess ;-) Jim

Who cares what a contemporary 24-year-old thinks about anything, let alone hi-fi? When I was 24, I had an ARC/bi-amped Magneplanar Tympani/Thorens-SME-Decca/Revox system. What's this kid have, ear buds?

@big_greg 
By the way, "OK Boomer" isn't really a compliment. I'm nearing 60.

I see that now. Guess I'm going to have to have a talk with that young man LOL.....Jim

In between doctor appointments, and yelling at the neighborhood kids to get the hell off of my lawn, I was shocked to learn that I am the only one in my family that owns a CD player. Nope, none of my kids or grand-kids even has a stereo system at all.

For those of you who have uploaded (or is it downloaded?) your CD collections, then subsequently donated them to the thrift stores, I have two words for you. THANK YOU.

Frank

@bdp24 FTW. 

@oregonpapa 
I can relate to all of that! And Thanks from me as well

@bdp24 
He has a killer computer and gaming system, but the sound system is just a sound bar and ear buds for on the go. OK I guess but nothing like the systems we were interested in at that age and I think I had almost as much $ in the audio of my car as the car was worth.

Jim

I'm kind of like the OP.  I have all this old(er) type equipment as well.  I'm in my 60's and like it all.  It makes me happy and that's what matters.
My wife & I joke about when we kick the bucket our daughter will break out the snow shovel and heave it all in a giant trash dumpster or ten.
Somebody's gonna bust a gut heaving the Krell amp in the trash.  May need a forklift.   I laugh quite often about it.
She's got a lot of work ahead of her.

Ah, baloney! I still like my CDs and having a physical product to hold in my hands and own. With streaming, you don't own, you rent. Maybe I'm a Luddite, but I still like a quality analog FM tuner as well as a 2 channel set up with separate components. 

There kids...

My kids were brought up with me making, fixing or something to do with stereos their whole lifes. It's what they know.
 My son and daughter both are jostling for position in the who gets what, from the Mcintosh, and speaker sheds. She wants all the LPs, 1930-90s 33,45,78. There is a bunch from her grandfather. 4-500 78s. Everyone in perfect shape. Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Billie Holiday, every country western singer on the planet...
It's not being streamed because they don't have it too stream. The stuff is that old..
Still quite a few of my old Reel to Reel, masters out there too, or use to be,  STREAM!

Hee hee, I listen to the Music Chanel all the time. When I get real serious
though, I crank up the old Victrola, YUP..Victrola.. Sound Horrible!!
I'll have to "re tip" and polish a stylus or two.

Hay Boomer, a term of endearment, you can't claim it, you have to live it.

NOW turn to the salsa station, and loosen up that brand new
hip replacement.. Hat on the floor..Turn up the volume.  Dance around the hat.. the dog following me.. Cha Cha, Cha, the Merengue, the Lambada,
Dance with the mail lady, dance with the mailman, DANCE.
65 years old and lovin' my retirement every single second...
Cha, Cha, Cha

Regards.

"Ok boomer" is a dismissive term of derision used by kids who have been programmed by our public schools to find wisdom and eternal truths incomprehensibly difficult to understand.  

He rents, you own. He consumes experiences, you accumulate wealth. People so hopelessly programmed are often beyond reach. About the only thing that might work is if you can find on LP some music he really likes and is into so much he actually stops what he's doing and listens to it. Which is unlikely. Nobody sits and listens to streaming. It plays in the background like glorified elevator Muzak. But if there is such a thing, and if his attention span hasn't been atomized down to the millisecond level, you just might be able to get him to listen long enough to a record to maybe for the first time in his life experience actual music.  

But anyone who says to their grandfather Ok boomer, I wouldn't hold my breath. 

@noromance, I had to look up FTW. For The Win, or F*ck The World? ;-)

But anyone who says to their grandfather Ok boomer, I wouldn't hold my breath.

He's a kid..MC, still wet behind the years, NOT EARS.. LOL
It's a pure term of endearment.. Besides. I can still bear hug
my 375 lb speakers around, at 65.. kids don't mess with the old fart
to much.. Youngsters...There so full of shit....

Regards..

I'm 73 years old. Streaming is what I do first thing in the morning. If I'm lucky.

@bdp24 The former for your comment. 
The GenZ kids I know are so chaotic, it's difficult to communicate on the same plane.

• "I'm 73 years old. Streaming is what I do first thing in the morning. If I'm lucky."

Boy, can I ever relate to that.   

“Nobody sits and listens to streaming. It plays in the background like glorified elevator Muzak“.

@millercarbon, give it a rest please! You started to sound like a broken record.

I am 59. I delayed going to CDs in the '80s as a LP purist. Then kicked myself ever since because LPs and CDs were a huge PIA. How many hours of my life were lost just cleaning LPs, how many hisses and pops did I hear even with upgrading TTs, cartridges, and cleaning products fairly often? Then I loved CDs and delayed switching to streaming - when I upgraded my system I ever bought SACDs and remastered and gold CDs of my favorite music. But steaming tempted me as there was always a list of CDs to purchase and replace and it was a PIA to get them out to play and put back in their often broken case and organize them. So I boughglt an entry level streamer. I had dozens of CDs now sitting open, in piles, gathering dust because I can't be arsed into putting them away. Streaming is Nirvana. As least as good sounding as CDs with virtually no hassle. Though,to be honest, I still have that big to buy an "album" now and again. 

What amazes me is why anyone would EVER play a LP again, baffling they've made a comeback. It's like wanting to have no A/C in your house or driving a horse and buggy. 

I’m not wedded to any particular media. I love streaming to absolute distraction but I also love a heck of a lot of my vinyl and a heck of a lot of my CDs and SACDs. I have neither the reason nor energy to want to transfer any piece of music to any other type of media.

Of course, because streaming is so easy and the quality can be so high, it’s fun to stream music I already have on vinyl, CD and SACD just to see what’s up. It’s totally great when the streamed version out performs my other versions. I do it in the same spirit as the more rabid among us who buy every edition or pressing of something in a quest to get hold of the one with the highest fi. The thing is, I just don’t have the energy or inclination to seek out every last Holy Grail of audio software. I’d rather just groove on the tunes.

Bottom line, let the various generations choose their poisons. Finally, oh yeah, it’s a good thing I now live a good three thousand miles from the nearest high end musical instrument store. Talk about a category of merchandise that can give me the shakes...

Whats a "CD"?..............

@oldhvymec 
You are lucky to have kids that will want and appreciate your audio, when you move on.

My son lives many miles away and has so many other interests, that does not include music, I doubt that anything to do with my audio gear or collection of LPs and CDS would be of much interest to him. My grand son does enjoy a surprising variety of music, but already expressed he has no interest in a lg. audio system, LPs or CDs and grand daughter, only ten, 3,000 miles away with her dad, is a little outdoors girl, interested in horseback riding, camping, hiking and fishing. Is sad that when the wife and I are gone, there will be no one, in the family, interested in our thousands of dollars worth of audio.
In the mean time, I will continue to use and enjoy my system and collection of LPS and CDs, every day. I will continue to upgrade a few things, here and there and never stop checking for a great buy in the media section of The Good Will....Jim

because having 60,000 albums at my fingertips, 1000s MQA/HD is a really good thing

Sigh... How many times have I heard "okay boomer" from my 24 year old son? Too many to count. However, after a lifetime of good sound in my house he knows what's sounds good and what's mediocre. I'm almost 64 (I was almost 40 when he was born). He's always known how important good sound quality is; proven by his wanting to use my home theater for his entertaining with his friends to watch their movies. His generation, as stated above, is not attached to the media we love so much. My CDs and LPs are my treasures and I love playing them on very decent system. When he moved out recently He took his pair of (British made) B&W DM601s to connect to his big TV via a Yamaha receiver. (I gave him both.) True to his generation, however, he told me to keep the Pro-Ject turntable (another gift) because he had no room and only five LPs. He's content on streaming his music. Different strokes, I guess...

I personally believe “Ok Boomer,” is just another divide and conquer tactic. Right vs Left. Red vs. Blue. Boomer vs Millenial/Gen Z. My Team vs Your Team.

Google trends shows that “Ok boomer” virtually didn’t exist before October 2019 after it was popularized on TikTok and right around when a whole bunch of news articles came out.

A quick google search for news articles turns up:

New York Times: “Ok boomer marks the end of friendly generational relationships.”

Washington Post: “Ok boomer, the kids are fighting back.”

NBC: “Ok boomer is dividing generations.”

Is it really NBC? Or is the fact that you are reporting on it and reaching millions of viewers and bringing the term into mainstream and generating division what’s really going on? If you hadn’t reported on it, would it have remained an obscure TikTok reference because who the hell even knows what TikTok is?

The solution? Don’t use the term. The last thing we need is more things dividing us. We are way more similar than we are different (whatever team you’re on).

Being north of 60 has caused me to temper my thoughts with the younger generation many times. In certain instances, it is as difficult as describing what color is to a person that was born without vision. In this case, I enjoy reading the liner notes and looking at album/CD artwork as much as listening to the music. Kind of like looking at the back of a cereal box at breakfast. It’s just part of the enjoyment. 

I resisted streaming for a long time. I think the technical issues have now been resolved to the point streaming should be indistinguishable from other physical digital media, or maybe better. I had a few CDs that skipped, but they ripped just fine.
I get the idea of enjoying the collection you have, but I hope I never when get to the point of no longer being interested in discovering something new. I also didn’t manage to buy every album I ever wanted to listen to. With streaming I can go back and hear albums I barely remember or completely missed. I’m so glad I’m no longer stagnant. I listen to my system more than I had in years.
Sometimes “Ok, boomer” is the appropriate dismissive phrase for an old dog that has no interest in learning a new trick, unable to see the obvious benefit because they think they already know it all. Your grandson was trying to help you.
“Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.”

My two boys are 23 and 18. The older one is in grad school and listens to an amazing array of music. I guess I started the fire and he has fanned the flames on his own. We turn each other on to new to us music on a regular basis. He had my old Kenwood amp and AR14 speakers in undergrad but the ARs were too big to fit in the Prius on the way out west so I bought him a pair of Quads when he got there - he is still rocking the Kenwood. That means his younger brother is getting the ARs for high school graduation along with a new Yamaha amp. He has recently found Pink Floyd and his tastes are really developing quickly - he’ll be teaching me new tricks soon. 
My point is that I see folks on here belittling their generation and it really pisses me off. Sure there are plenty of youngsters out there that don’t have much substance to them but that was true in my day too - look at all the folks that ruined my high school experience with disco. The fact is these kids will lead us out of our current mess. 
Regarding streaming - I am a huge fan. I have a gazillion CDs and hundreds of records. I still enjoy vinyl very much. But the amount of new music I’ve been introduced and reintroduced to through streaming is incredible. Bob Dylan has jumped out of my Mytek Manhatten and is currently standing in my room. 
From my vantage point The Kids are Alright. YMMV. 

+1 cat_doorman

When I was 45, I came to realize that the most annoying thing in the world is a 30 year old man...the 2nd most annoying thing is a 25 yr old man. It's true. As creative director for a creative agency, I also know these young people are fearsome and really wonderful to work with. 

It may not seem so, but I think the OP actually imprinted a lot on his grandson.  Young people listen to us older folks quite a bit.  It's just not so apparent at the moment...but it creeps in later. 

I'm fairly young (38) and I love my LP collection. My father turned me onto vinyl as a kid and in the last few years he has got us both back into playing and collecting. At this point I have a considerable amount of money wrapped up in my turntable and my record collection.

That said,  I also have a streamer and a nice DAC and I have subscriptions to Tidal and Qobuz. I recently got my father (65) into streaming as well after months of attempting to talk him into it. He initially had all the same reasons mentioned by so many others from his generation as to why he didn't need a streaming service. After one weekend of playing his his new bluesound node 2I and setting up trials for Qobuz and Tidal guess what? He absolutley loves it.

It is not about replacing our media collections or even stopping the purchase of new media. It's a way to discover new music and artists. It's a way to fill in the gaps in our collections. It is a way to find the next album you want to buy or hear an album you had forgotten about until something made it pop back up again.

My father and I live several states apart and we can send links to eachother recommending new music or sharing play lists. Dismissing streaming platforms entirely is just like my my grandfather telling my father his rock music in the 70s was just noise. But you guys are probably right, it doesn't have any value, just the youth of today embracing a throw-away culture...

Don't get me wrong: I do CDs, LPs, Qobuz, DLNA though my DS DAC, you name it. I embrace new tech without abandoning (the great) old tech...

I mostly use Walkman. New one. Digital. All the music fits on microSD card (1TB).

I (relatively) recently bought a SACD/CD player. I have not put more than 20 discs in it. All the discs are uploaded (dowwnloaded?) to a hard drive for larger system. As larry described above, convenience is hard to beat. CDs are not even in the same city anymore, but I am not donating them, just in case.

Now, streaming from the Internet is a little scary. You know, all these new fads, like Internet, are unreliable. That is why I like to have my own. I buy a record or two a few times a year. Listen to it once or twice.

The only thing that seems appropriate to be played on physical media (discs) is Requiem. For physical media.

I prefer my 4000 or so lp's, but my son streams, exclusively.  I bought him great earbuds and a portable dac for his computer, he's good. he told me a "dad joke": 
"My neighbors listen to good music.  Whether they want to or not."

Jim, not that I've any children or grandchildren.....but you might remind Snookems that:

1)  You made half of his parents a reality.
2)  When you got irritated, they called you 'Sir'.
3)  You and the 'other Boomers' contributed to making their 'lifestyle'  possible....partly by not holding said parent under until the bubbles stopped...
4)  How long can you hold your breath?

We didn't have to 'get involved', but we've learned an amazing amount by just watching....and avoiding 'babysitting'.

"Well....Uncle Jerry said that if I put Bach on and ran it backwards, there's demonic messages...."

I've got a bit of most of the formats....including some transcription discs bought from Habitat, just for fun...

Just play what you want. You can'rt take it with you.

If you really are thinking about buying a new CD player could i suggest that you opt for one that is capable of playing SACDs? SACD sounds so good that it is now my first choice when i am looking for a recording of a particular piece of music.
Remember, just as when we were their age, young people tend to do what they see their friends doing. So because their friends use their phones to do absolutely everything, it feels natural for them to use their phones to listen to music too. However, it is quite easy to convince anyone who is really interested in music that the sound quality can be improved if you are willing to experiment with some decent hifi equipment. To that end, I have made a USB connection available on my hifi so that when my children's friends come to visit they can simply connect  their iPhone to the USB connection and their music plays through my big speakers. Some of the more adventurous have even tried playing a vinyl record or CD and they have commented that they do hear a noticeable improvement in the sound quality, so i think i am developing some incipient converts. I cannot compete with the portability of a mobile phone though. 

I’m a CD guy so I shouldn’t have any problem with digital...and I don’t. Havn’t streamed yet but my kid does and its fine...except for the music itself. I’m not much for pop music unless in the car. At home, it’s classical and other period music, most sonatas, some blues, some folk, some alternatve rock, some classic rock and lastly, some Swedish heavy rock...ah, Sabaton..among others.

I plan to stream shortly and use bluetooth but I still enjoy finding CDs I like. The lastest acquisition is Brahms Complete variations played by Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy...very, very nice. On a brilliantclassics label import...try finding that streamed.
I don’t do vinyl except to resell to feed the hobby. Equipment used Hegel h160, Focal 807W, Marantz 6006 as transport. Cheap bluray for movies.

Vinyl? If I easily found what I liked, maybe I would, but I’ve no desire. Does it sound better? Not at the volumes I typically play at, which is low to moderate. If I want snap, crackle, pop...I eat cereal. Though, I remember that Hotel California sounded better on vinyl. That could be that I was younger with better hearing, or I romanticize that it did or perhaps it was mixed to sound better on vinyl. If I listed to more classic rock at home, I would seriously consider vinyl.

So, like the above have stated, streaming is fine when traveling, for home if in higher resolution. CDs are generally cheap. Leaving vinyl for those who have deep pockets and hipsters. Part of the fun is physically searching for finds. It’s not an adventure flipping through a website.

Lastly, it’s OK to be an OK Boomer...OK hipster?

Youth, like CDs...here one day, gone the next.

I can understand the allure of streaming, it is very convenient and youare able to discover way more music than you would ever own in the physical form. However, when I want to sit down and seriously listen through both my headphones and or loudspeakers, I much prefer the sound of my LP’s, CD’s, & my cassettes. I love the ritual of placing a physical form of media onto a turntable, a cassette well, or a cd tray. I do find streaming to be fun though....especially when I’m feeling a bit lazy and just want to browse. It’s also something fun to do with the wife, as I do not own every record ever produced, so it brings back memories when we find a song we both are familiar with and forgot about etc....

" My 24 year old grandson finished his tour in the service recently and has been staying with us for the past several months. He got himself a good job, to help out and take care of himself, while deciding what to do in the future - back to school, etc.
After he got a few good pay checks, I joking suggested he buy his Pa a new CD player. If looks could kill. "Why would you want a new CD player?" He asked. I told him "just to upgrade the one I have". "No one buys CD players anymore" he exclaimed. "Then what's your Idea of fine Audio, a WalkMan?" I asked. "WOW! There's not even any such thing as a WalkMan any more" he said. To which I replied, "Ya there is, we have a guy on our forum who swears by em". He just rolled his eyes and said "No - Streaming! Using an iPhone or iPad you can get a streaming package and get all the music you want". "Why would I want to do That?" I asked "I have hundreds of great LPs and CDs, that I'm perfectly happy with." To that he replied "OK Boomer".  I guess that meant he knew I was right.
Why is it that youngsters just don't understand the love that some of us old folks have for our old LPs and CDs and we  have no interest in paying for another monthly service, to listen to all the music we already have?
jhills"

Maybe he thinks if you want a new CD player you should buy it.  When I help my family I never ask for anything in return.