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Anyone gone back to CD from streaming?

Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Still not heard a streamer/server that delivers all the subtlety and engagement of CD. I wonder if people who report that their listening habits have changed to a ‘grazing’ style in some way reflects that they aren’t as engaged, either?

That aside, I’m not signing up for a streaming service until I know the artists get a decent income from it.
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This is a major factor for me, the Artist getting a pitiful cut for what is their product.

My painter/artist mate doesn’t buy any music, just takes stuff from the internet.
If folks took his paintings without paying him, he wouldn’t be very happy, but he cannot see the double standards that he has.
I know that because he bought a load of records in the 1980’s he feels it gives him carte blanche to steal what he likes. He will happily splash 5K on a new mountain bike, to go with the many other bikes he has - he ain’t skint.
 
I went back to CD but as part of the digital mix. So I have a Roon server which holds my ripped CDs and combines this with a Qobuz subscription.
But I also buy and play CDs. I like having physical media for my best bits of music and the provenance of many streaming service files can be questionable.
Qobuz actually has high res files which are in fact click-suppressed needledrops!
I know IGD when I hear it :)

I ripped about a 1000 CDs many years ago (Apple lossless) but kept the discs.
 
My CD collection is now upstairs. I will bring down a few to listen to over time but most of my listening is streaming and has been for a couple. I still listen to CDs and vinyl but have never really been a ritual type listener. The positives of streaming for me are:

-the generally excellent sound quality of higher tier streams(if I wished to listen before buying a cd/vinyl I would use Spotify 320)
-the immediacy and elegance of access
-the ability to cut out filler tracks from generally great albums
-the excellence evolving software, including Roon and LMS

I find the sound virtually inextinguishable from cd. When it isn’t I presume provenance is the reason though it’s not a deal breaker for me. Vinyl does sound different though.
 
My Innuos Zenith has died, and just been sent back to Portugal. So it's back to CDs for me.
Negatives: Can't be lazy anymore. My Meridian 200 transport doesn't always like CD-Rs, in a random fashion. I have to burn anything downloaded that I want listen to. The CDs are sometimes hard to find, especially late at night when the lights are low. No Qobuz or Radio Paradise.
Positives: Playing stuff I don't usually play.
Sound quality is similar.
 
I am getting a home demo at some stage of a Zen Mini, be interesting to see how this changes my habits. I listen to a lot more CD than vinyl, I really value to convenience & consistency. I reckon I will move to further over to the dark side.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
My Innuos Zenith has died, and just been sent back to Portugal. So it's back to CDs for me.
Negatives: Can't be lazy anymore. My Meridian 200 transport doesn't always like CD-Rs, in a random fashion. I have to burn anything downloaded that I want listen to. The CDs are sometimes hard to find, especially late at night when the lights are low. No Qobuz or Radio Paradise.
Positives: Playing stuff I don't usually play.
Sound quality is similar.
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You’re the second person I’ve heard of recently whose Innuos has packed up. Hmmm
 
That aside, I’m not signing up for a streaming service until I know the artists get a decent income from it.
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I don't have a particularly strong view in this respect, particularly since it has been reported in the press this week Rihanna has achieved billionaire status:confused:

It does surprise me however that some fishies seem to think it's OK to rip a cd collection and sell the cds on, examples have appeared in other threads recently.

However, back on topic. I embraced local streaming of ripped cds whole heartedly and quickly accumulated a small collection of SB2s and 3s, so in at the beginning as it were. The appeal was being able to listen in any room in the house without carrying media from room to room and even have the same music playing in more than one location. RPis now fulfill the multi room function but I still use an SB3 modded by Vinnie Rossi (Red Wine Audio etc). A prototype he produced when the player was current but proved uneconomic to produce in numbers.

I tried Spotify and Tidal without becoming enamoured but maintain a single device subscription to Amazon (£3.99 pm) for those occasions when I read a review or otherwise hear a recommendation for new music, so I can try before I buy (and often don't so the small subscription is well justified!)

Discs rule:D

Jim
 
nbaptista said:
I listem cd’s and vinyl, but I enjoy streaming since I bought my Bluesound. Last night I saw that Billie Eilish hás a new album, and with Spotify the album is available right now.It is great, you can hear the album and save some money.
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It seems there are many differences in the streaming setups that folks are using. Some requiring PC’s, external DAC’s, passive volume controls, single system usage. Those type of setups to me lack the advantages and convenience I get from streaming with Sonos and seem more like playing vinyl or CD’s. Not sure I would be streaming as much as I do now with those types of setups.
 
How, I have a mobile app that controls the pc, it just means I'm in charge of the content bit rate and quality, I can Spotify if I want to hear something I don't already own, if I like it enough to listen to it I'll buy it.
 
Yeah, my post but I didn't explain my own thinking. I went (almost) fully streaming + vinyl for many years, but recently - after getting a cd transport - have been enjoying buying those '5 cd' boxes ("original album series" etc.) and although I still have my free Tidal subs (which expire next month) I find I'm listening mostly to CDs and RP right now.

With the addition of a much better DAC, I'm also wondering if it's worth buying that 'final' transport - the Jay's Audio Labs CDT2 mk3 looks good to me - and just making the most of the shiny discs and getting the cheapest option on a streaming service just for music discovery purposes. I'm finding that I consume music in two ways - active listening and passive discovery - with the active one being in front of my big speakers in 'me time' and the passive one best done with my wireless headphones and iPhone out on walks with the dogs....
 
I don’t like steaming very much. I’m old school: I enjoy the pleasure of handling CD’s and records.
However I enjoy steaming in the car of course, or for casual listening during a dinner.
Roon (what kind of a name is that?) is not for me.
 
I ripped my CDs a few years ago after buying a Bluesound Node, something has niggled at me since, I sold my CD player around the same time. I've still bought tonnes of CDs and vinyl and it just seemed a shame discs were just being ripped then put away.

A few weeks back I bought a mint Marantz CD6005, haven't stopped using it since, sounds so much better than the Node, I've since unplugged the Bluesound and I've decided I'll stick with CDs and Vinyl going forward. I'm going up the loft tomorrow to rescue the little shiny fellas from storage
 
JTC said:
Yeah, my post but I didn't explain my own thinking. I went (almost) fully streaming + vinyl for many years, but recently - after getting a cd transport - have been enjoying buying those '5 cd' boxes ("original album series" etc.) and although I still have my free Tidal subs (which expire next month) I find I'm listening mostly to CDs and RP right now.

With the addition of a much better DAC, I'm also wondering if it's worth buying that 'final' transport - the Jay's Audio Labs CDT2 mk3 looks good to me - and just making the most of the shiny discs and getting the cheapest option on a streaming service just for music discovery purposes. I'm finding that I consume music in two ways - active listening and passive discovery - with the active one being in front of my big speakers in 'me time' and the passive one best done with my wireless headphones and iPhone out on walks with the dogs....
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I completely abandoned CD at one point and spent several years fannying about (ah, the wisdom of hindsight) with file-based replay as my primary source.

I remember when I bought the Melco I described it as reminding me of the CEC transport and DAC I used to have until a lightning strike intervened. (Turns out valve electronics can cope with an act of God a lot better than solid-state, but that's another story).

Then I made the unfortunate mistake of borrowing a newer generation CEC and the penny dropped that being 'reminiscent of' is not the same as 'equal to.' There was never any direct comparison made, I just realised over a few weeks that the CD always sounded more engaging than the Melco, and that I simply relaxed more listening to the former.

I have another Mac mini in the office, replay is either via Dragonfly and Meze Classic headphones or old B&O actives. Good enough to hit the spot when the creative juices are flowing, and I'm pleasantly surprised by the breadth and sound quality of some musical content on YouTube, unexpectedly that's actually become my primary source of exploring new artists and music, or finding otherwise unavailable live performances.
 
No interest in streaming here. It's nothing to do with streaming vs CD playback quality. Actually, I realized that I have a CD collection of a relatively modest number: 800. Each one carefully chosen. That's a heck of a lot of music to engage with. Even listening to a couple of CDs per day, I get to play my chosen music once per year or so, on average. Then I have the same number of vinyl albums.....
I'm careful not to accumulate more music than I can concentrate on, and get to know and appreciate well. So streaming doesn't have much of a useful role for me.
 
You are where I want to be. I've purchased incontinently over the years, and have way too much listened-once-and-not-returned-to stuff, some of it waiting to be fallen-in-love with, some likely destined for local charities or record dealer, all is neglected in favour of incoming novelties... Yeesh.
 
HabUK said:
I ripped my CDs a few years ago after buying a Bluesound Node, something has niggled at me since, I sold my CD player around the same time. I've still bought tonnes of CDs and vinyl and it just seemed a shame discs were just being ripped then put away.

A few weeks back I bought a mint Marantz CD6005, haven't stopped using it since, sounds so much better than the Node, I've since unplugged the Bluesound and I've decided I'll stick with CDs and Vinyl going forward. I'm going up the loft tomorrow to rescue the little shiny fellas from storage
Click to expand...
I know how you feel.
I bought a 2nd hand Marantz cd6000 OSE as it was mint and very cheap.
Was going to use it as a transport but have been using it direct into the preamp and haven’t streamed since or used the dac.
 
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