Do you realise you don't own your downloaded music.

Apparently it sounds better. Even Naim says this now.

They say streaming offers better quality than CD.

Using a well-known law of logic to reverse the statement then we have to believe CD sounds worse playing direct as opposed to having been ripped, streamed and played.

I'm still trying to get to grips with that argument.

Having read all Naim's press releases/public announcements they seem to infer that if I buy a CD, rip it to a server and then play it through a Naim streamer it will sound better.

God knows how they've got to that conclusion.

It sells.

John, I trust what you say completely. But could you tell me where I can read this 'pearl of wisdom' ?

Streaming and cd playing are just 2 ways of delivering digitised music to the amplifier. To get the digits off a cd the mechanism  has to read the digits by shining a laser into pits in real time in a wobbly electrically noisy environment - not easy, hence the engineering needed in Cd555s and the like. Ripping does not need to happen in real time and can be engineered to be bit perfect - no need for error correction etc. My experience is that some cds take ages to rip correctly even though they apparently play ok suggesting to me that they are unlikely to be perfectly read in normal playing mode.

In short, to me it is entirely logical that a ripped track will sound better when streamed than playing the cd itself "live". There are people on the forum who have ditched CDS3s in favour of NDX based systems and the jury seems to be out on CD555 vs NDS. Streamers seem to have the edge on sound per £ for many people. I certainly don't miss my CDS2/XPS. 

To return to the thread's main topic - CDs are cheaper to buy than downloads (surely this iniquitous situation can't last forever as the marginal cost of a download is close to zero for the distributor?) so I buy more cds than ever but immediately rip and store them which kind of solves the problem apart from extra boxes in the loft.

You own the disk, but who owns the ripped file? I suspect a copyright holder would argue that the rip is an illegal copy and that an additional royalty should be paid. The logical conclusion is "pay as you play" from a Spotify type service, with no physical distribution and sale of music. We're nearly there now. Is this what you expected from streaming?

Streamer here!!!! I go to concerts both classical and contemporary, I mix live bands, I go to folk clubs, I go to open mike nights, I play CD's, I play LP's (vinyl)..... Oh wonder no more.

I love it all and never close off any of my options including creating a playlist for a dinner party or passing the iPad around and letting my guests choose the music. If they want they can even ask for some vinyl!

Regarding the original question. I feel that if I purchased it, I own that copy.

Yeah.... like the marginal cost for writing an album is zero.  There is no "zero cost" for anything out there.  All companies have overhead....

Reminds me of Brian Eno's ' Music for Airports' and all sorts of Muzak.

Can we talk about serious music listening ?

If your friends can't listen to a whole CD by one person/group, you have the wrong friends

YIPPEE !!!!

Well - I have a streamer.  I have never created a play list (yet). 

And I do go to concerts - and even get dressed up for them.

I will listen to music alone - well I live alone so what do you expect - but I very very rarely would go to a concert on my own.

Andrew

Good lad  , but avoid those playlists, o.k. ? 

I'll stay away from the playlists - I tend to listen to albums as I think they were meant to be.

Some, however, have too much dross to play more than a few tracks.

Melting CDs reminds me depressing of my Musical Fidelity A1 that my then girlfriend would leave the vinyl on and it would go a bit soft.

My name is Vlad and I'm a streamer. I couldn't leave her. If I tried.

I also make playlists. And play CD's. And go to concerts.

At a listening session at the weekend, I streamed 3 Joni Mitchell albums (Blue, Court & Spark and Hejira). Then I streamed my current fave 3 guitar solo-containing tracks (Donald Fagen's "H-Gang", Teenage Fanclub's "Neil Jung" and Be Bop Deluxe's "Crying To The Sky"). Then I streamed the first two discs of the DG Debussy Edition (La Mer, Nocturnes, Nuages, Prelude de l'apres-midi d'un faun, Images). Then I listened to a bit of Radio Paradise (more power to their elbow).

It all sounded rather good to me - and I didn't have to leave my chair once! Or wonder what I'd done with each of the CD's.

The following day I even listened to a bit of TalkSport via DAB. This did not sound so good. But Liverpool got beat, and so it was a good weekend filled with audio magic.

LOL

When Life is simple and good: Long Live Long Play recordings!

Hello Elsa.

I am trying to keep my life simple-put it on the LP12-relax-enjoy!!

Tony.

Careful of the pressure sores Vlad !!

Thanks! However, I've been in such two-and-eight over the Uniti Lite announcement that it's not been an issue! I've calmed down a bit now. And Liverpool are still losing - COYB!

Streaming from the NAS is still going fine & I don't seem to be having the problems others are experiencing with n-Sream. 

Although this might not be the proper place, I'd like to thank all the contributors on this forum for their listening recommendations. I thought I was reasonably well informed on popular music, but I was wrong. A particular big thanks to those who have suggested recordings by Karine Polwart - what a find! Beautiful music and lovely recordings.

Cheers,

Vlad

Tony! The LP12 is ok, but ONEDOF is better..

Elsa.

Vlad, if you do not leave your chair, you'll soon be fat and out of condition and risk a premature death.

Soo, rise and shine and change the CD or LP instead!

I'm touched by your concern!

I'm afraid I was out of condition way before I started streaming. Now that I have my Uniti all set up, at least I'm tapping my foot and drumming along on my knees! Such is the musicality of Naim!

Vlad 

Elsa.

No doubt the ONEDOF is better-but I am still waiting to win the lottery!!! It certainly looks good too!!

Tony.