New HDX owner needs advice please

My HD failed recently, so I agree backups are 100% essential. Guess I was was lucky though as the gurus at Naim managed to recover all the music off the failed HD and reloaded on the replacement. Excellent service that saved me a huge amount of time restoring a huge amount of data.

As the OP my HDX had been used for a short time before I got it and it had c500 albums on it. Was a bit concerned on the legality of using this as I cannot see how I owned those albums. As it turned out I had over 100 of the albums already,  over 300 I deleted immediately as not wanting. Of the rest I reviewed and bought ones I liked and deleted the rest.

One of the main reasons for hunting down a secondhand HDX was the possibility of music stored on the hard drive. My eyes lit up when I first switched on the machine to find over 450 albums plus when I check for downloads via my Nserve app found even more, ok some of the music is not to my taste but 38 Beatles albums was a fantastic bonus. Really happy bunny.....

My concern was more along the lines of owning music I haven't paid for. I have all the Beatles albums on CD, and stereo and mono versions on vinyl, and at least have the comfort that the artist has benifited from my purchase!

In many ways it is like buying a record player and the owner throwing in his entire record collection....for free !!. At the end of the day the original owner has already bought and paid for the music. Interesting topic in many ways, my feeling is that the days of physical formats ( cd ) are possibly heading for oblivion. Never thought I would say that but having used the HDX I can see why the likes of Linn stopped making CD players some years ago. Wonder if Naim might follow in the future....

As you say an interesting topic.

Not quite the same if you buy a record player with a record collection even thrown in free you are getting the physical media, and the original purchaser no longer has it. In the case the owner has, as you say correctly, paid for the CD, but quite possibly still owns it and plays it.

Not sure whether physical media or downloads matters - it is the act of buying either that is relevant i.e. the purchase of the copyright to play the music that is significant. Without this we might as just download all our music off dodgy sites on the Internet. Great for getting a big music collection but, apart from being illegal, not sure that it will ensure the longevity and creation of new music, which after all is the purpose most of us own good hifi kit. If the music dies, I've wasted a lot of money.

Not trying to sound self righteous - a thread towards the end of last year picked up a recent court ruling that technical all of us that stream music from a NAS, HDX, or whatever are acting illegally by ripping in the first place, and if this is the case then I'm guilty. But I do sort of justify my actions by ensuring I own a copy of every CD I rip, or that downloads come from reputable sites such as hdtracks.

Yes, you make some good points. Sounds a good topic for a new thread, who exactly owns the digital file on my hard drive. When the HDX was first introduced I did wonder if it really was the future and whether the physical act of owning a cd would decline if computer audio took off. 

I think it is morally, if not legally,  ok to keep the digital copies on the HDX hard disc if the original CDs or downloads no longer exist, but if they are still being used by the original purchaser or have been sold separately then the copies on the HDX should have been deleted before the HDX was sold.

It obviously is fine to sell on used CDs providing the seller doesn't keep a rip and I suppose by analogy it's the same with downloads.

Anyway we all have to choose to do what our consciences tell us is ok. Speaking personally, I recently bought a Naim CD player just so that I could play CDs that friends brought round or lent to me, without me having to rip them to my Unitiserve and then delete the rip later when I returned the CD.

best

David