The future is Streaming?

Posted by: Gavin L on 03 January 2016

I thought I would share a few thoughts on a recent purchase - an Arcam AirDAC. I bought it as an alternative to an Apple Airport Express. Mostly I am set up to listen to my 555 when I want to really listen to music. On the move I use song saved into ITunes at AAC 320. So I was looking for an inexpensive solution to listen to ITunes on the main HiFi too (more as background music).

I must say, the AirDAC is actually quite pleasant running through my 552. Detail is not bad, and there is some sound stage. Would only say that the image is a bit compressed, but that may just be the specification of he stream (assume it is less than my 320 Kbps in ITunes).

It has motivated me to set up a Spotify account. At this point it is mostly with a view to selecting CDs to purchase. With a high quality streaming service in the future, I can definitely see this source getting a lot more use.

I would be interested in others views of the AirDAC. Advice on streaming solutions would be interesting, but saving to upgrade other parts of my setup before that.

Gavin

Posted on: 04 January 2016 by Solid Air

Managing your own digital music collection (eg metadata) can be tedious. Once it's sorted and you know what to do, it's fine, but it presents a barrier to some people, who just want to listen to music. That will help to drive online streaming and, to an extent, 'closed' download solutions such as iTunes. But the market is moving away from closed solutions, especially the younger sectors.

In this context it's worth mentioning that the real industry threat is piracy. The choice for the industry isn't between CDs and streaming, it's between making a little bit of money or none at all. Hence their cooperation with streaming services, and the rather unedifying Tidal launch event.

Interestingly, the economics of CD production and vinyl record production are very different, and there's some evidence that vinyl will persist. Companies such as Newbilt are making cost-effective vinyl pressing machines which should continue to satisfy that (small) niche quite well.

Posted on: 04 January 2016 by Dozey

Yes. Streaming and vinyl LPs.