To Stream or Not to Stream

You can also look for a DAC that supports upnp/dlna and run a UPNP server very easily in windows/Linux/Mac.  You can stream your CD rips and other mp3s.   BubbleUPNP app can cast to various renderers/dacs including Sonos.  It also recognizes my Boulder 866.  And it supports tidal and qobuz. And it's mostly free :)

Unless you have rare cds, good streaming through Roon will make your cd collection obsolete.  Liner notes still cool, though.

Agreed do not delay, jump in with both feet. Unless you have particular tastes, once you have Roon/Tidal you do not need your own music library. Even better is if your favorite albums are available on Tidal Hi-Rez, you will wonder how you ever lived with red book limited sound quality.

I believe the Aurrender is not compatible with ROON. So I was never interested in that brand. I have heard it and used it on a tablet when I was demoing Luxman gear. I like ROON better for streaming (maybe old dog learning something new). I also use killer ROON features like Convolution filters, tagging, multi-zone, grouped streams (for comparing gear) which I am not sure Aurrender supports.

I would not waste my time ripping your disks. I have ripped my disks  a few times starting around 2005 using dbPoweramp. The reason I would not rip my disks if I started today is that streaming services will have all these disks available for you.

In the event, that a disk in not available on the steaming services you can always play your CD. So I would keep my CD/SACD player and get a ROON compatible streaming solution. I have a 20 year old Sony SACD player that I love to listen to still.

I have 4 ROON READY streaming instances that serve the streming function of the Aurrender, 2 of them are Sonore OpticalRendu, 1 microRendu, and a Network streamer built into an integrated amp (Ethernet based). I stream all day using ROON. I cannot say I have had any difficult issues even though my setup is very complicated. Most ROON setups are rather simple and rock solid.

Wow, how the mighty have fallen.  Streaming, or rental music as I call it, has won the day here at last.  Well, you stream, I stream...we all...you get it.  It's convenient.  Its cheap. It sounds as good or better than whatever that was we were doing for the past 100 years.  Good riddance to that.  And don't ask me which platform I stream from because who cares?  Like, is there  really a  quality issue between them? Really?   But who am I to say.  Maybe we're not headed towards being OCD about which digital platform the unwashed ignorantly chose: "Oh..Tidal, are you still using that?"  Crazy, I thought we were not just consumers of music but archivists, preservationists and curators of rare physical antiquities.  No?  You mean everyone, anyone, now has everything at the tips of their fingers? A phone. A dac. Some ear-bud-thingies.  Good to go.  But there's a book (remember those?): "Dust and Grooves".  Inside are photos and stories of who we are, or were.   It's not just about the vinyl (although I personally drool over it), and not just about the music, but about the people who are the keepers of the flame, so to speak.  Get the book and take a long last look at what very well may be the last of us.