It seems that I'm an audio Rip Van Winkle

billgpdx posted:

Man, have things ever changed. 

...not all for the better, mind.....

Welcome back to the madhouse though!

best

David

Things have certainly changed.

Their is a lot to be said for streaming but I still really love the vinyl and cd format.

My plan is to enjoy both platforms.

Goodluck with your audition for new speakers. 

Streaming is great for finding new stuff. And then you end up buying it.

Cara Dillon - Wanderer LP has was delivered today. ☺

Although I still  prefer vinyl, I have not forgotten my CDs and certainly am not afraid of exploring new, and old, music via streaming. It's a new(ish) way of listening to music and it will reward you in the long run. Don't be afraid! 

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Give the guy a chance, Lindsay: one step a time! 

Your experience sounds a bit like mune when my CD player died a few years ago and I started searching for a replaceMent, to discover there is this new thing callesd ‘streaming’. The  term can be confusing, because it can mean playing files from your own home music store, and it can also mean playing across the internet from some remote subscription service. I switched to it instead of buying that replacement CD player, ‘ripping’ all my CDs to start my streaming library (and having just a couple of years earlier ripped my vinyl and made CDs of them, those too). I have not looked back - it is great!

Though some will have otherwise, to me streaming music from one’s own local store (equivalent to the digital files on a CD, but without the physical medium and so without the potential pitfalls that introduces, and associated error correction) is the best source there is. Digital has come of age - read people’s observations on the forum, especially with the Chord DACs, most notably Hugo which many have variously said sounds ‘analog like’, or just ‘natural’. Then the ultimate (as far as I have heard) is another Chord DAC called Dave, though it is pricey. Naim DACs it seems have a bit of catching up to do, whether stand-alone or inbuilt, as from the forum I get the impression that the majority who tried Hugo found it better to their ears - but certainly not all. However, Naim are about to release some new ‘streamers’, and it will be interesting to see how things have improved.

If/when you feel like moving into this side of things, There is plenty of info to be found on the forum, and of course people will be willing to share their views and experiences. 

Meanwhile, enjoy your search for speakers. In my view they are actually the most critical component because they impart the most of their own character to the sound, no matter how far up the price spectrum you go.

As an strict physical media user I tend to think of spinning a CD in a CDP as real-time streaming via the most direct route;  minimizing the gear chain and eliminating the middle man. Plus you get the benefit of physical cover art and liner notes.

Any streaming I do is sampling music on my notebook PC to help determine whether I want to buy a LP or CD. Nothing archaic about that approach AFAIC.

Let another 10 years pass and then visit a car dealer. Taxis will be flying like in The fifth element and you'll have to be very careful.. But I wish you a Milla Jovovitch.

Anyway, it seems you've been a happy man for ten years and that is much more than it can be said for the majority of those who have spent that time posting here about struggling with a plug disassembling itself.

Best wishes,

Max

joerand posted:

As an strict physical media user I tend to think of spinning a CD in a CDP as real-time streaming via the most direct route;  minimizing the gear chain and eliminating the middle man

 

I think the man is still there. You take a bit of plastic, spinn it around at a varying degree that  must be carefully controlled. Use a lazer to find the wholes in the plastic only the intended wholes counts. Then convert this info into a signal that can be sent to the dac inside the player. Many things can go wrong in this process.

Claus

joerand posted:

As an strict physical media user I tend to think of spinning a CD in a CDP as real-time streaming via the most direct route;  minimizing the gear chain and eliminating the middle man. 

Arguably “ripping” a CD and then perhaps using the files on a memory stick would cut out more of the middle man... reading a CD in real time is a fairly difficult job where’s ripping it allows multiple reads to ensure it’s read accurately.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Indeed. I cancelled my Premium subscription only yesterday.

Radio Paradise

joerand posted:

As an strict physical media user I tend to think of spinning a CD in a CDP as real-time streaming via the most direct route;  minimizing the gear chain and eliminating the middle man. Plus you get the benefit of physical cover art and liner notes.

Any streaming I do is sampling music on my notebook PC to help determine whether I want to buy a LP or CD. Nothing archaic about that approach AFAIC.

CD has more steps than streaming from a local store, so more potential for degradation - and based on my experience with CD players, likely to last longer before needing servicing or replacement.

GTB-Buckaroo posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Indeed. I cancelled my Premium subscription only yesterday.

I have never subscribed to Spotify, nor any other streaming service - but I find the free version of Spotify perfectly adequate for sampling new things to see if I like them. As with anything, limited of course by their catalogue, but I have certainly benefited from it.

GTB-Buckaroo posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Indeed. I cancelled my Premium subscription only yesterday.

As a Spotify Premium subcriber what is it you guys don't like?

Dave

Thanks for the comments all. While I found the streaming experience entertaining and a bit of a novelty, I can safely say that I still dig my (now old-school) setup. Spinning vinyl has been the one constant in my audio journey since the 1970's and I'll likely continue to do so until I'm no longer around. I was a very late adopter of CDs. But I came to own a couple thousand of the little discs, matching the number of big discs I also own. I suppose I should never say never when it comes to streaming as who know what the future will bring? When I came to the realization that the enjoyment I was receiving from my system had started to wain a bit with time, I thought that it might be time to finally re-visit my speaker situation. After experiencing an incredible number of speakers in my home from the likes of Naim, Harbeth, ProAc, Spendor, Neat, etc., I ended up finding happiness in a vintage budget-minded speaker: the Snell Type K. While the Snells were truly a lot of fun, I think that I was subconsciously missing out on much of what my albums and CDs had to offer. But my room presents a number of challenges and the sealed-box design of the Snells really did excel where so many others had failed.

I managed to get my speaker situation sorted rather quickly, if not painlessly. After an initial day-long journey to a remote dealer (365 miles round trip) I returned with a very nice used set of DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 8 speakers. (These floorstanders had impressed me quite a bit back when they were new, but then they were also out of my budget.) Sadly, the DeVore's just weren't all that happy in my system/room. Surprisingly, the issue revolved around a lack of bass, just the opposite of most of the speakers I've tried in my system/room over the years. Investing another day to return the speakers was even more painful, but as it turned out the remote dealer had another offer that I could not refuse. 

One of the speakers that my local dealer carries that met my requirements is the Rega RX3. These smallish floorstanders made a big impression on me during my initial listening experience with them. Enough so that I was planning to do a home demo at some point. Once again, their front-ported design had me hopeful for a good room match and the side-firing woofer unit added an additional touch of flexibility when it came to placement. As it turned out, the remote dealer had a number of these speakers available as B-stock for 25% off. After spending a good bit of additional time listening to the little Regas, I ended up taking an ill-advised chance and went ahead and made the purchase. I'm both relieved and happy to say that the RX3s are working wonderfully in my room and are really getting along great with my budget Naim gear. After scrutinizing both speakers closely, I've been unable to identify any physical flaws to the point that I stopped looking. Now I simply plan to get back to enjoying my music again (or is that all over again?). While I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised by what these rather small floorstanders are capable of. I should note that I've also been impressed with the likes of the small floorstanding designs from Spendor, Neat and Kudos in the past, so I'm not totally surprised. But getting a set of speakers to work just as well at home, if not better, as they do at the dealer's listening room does put quite a smile on my face.

For now that smile comes by way of albums and CDs (and occasional FM radio). But who knows — maybe streaming will enter the picture at some point in time down the road. I'm glad to know that so many of you are having a lot of fun with this option. While I admire your footsteps into audio's future, it seems that my feet remain firmly planted in old-school traditions. As far as Max_B's car analogy goes, I still enjoy driving a Honda S2000 with it's naturally-aspirated, high-revving engine. For that matter, I still own a motorcycle that features carburetors. I guess that it's hard to say whether or not I'm the curator or just another display piece here in the museum that is my life. 

dave4jazz posted:

GTB-Buckaroo posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Indeed. I cancelled my Premium subscription only yesterday.

As a Spotify Premium subcriber what is it you guys don't like?

Dave

Spotify Premium only gives 320kbps streaming, compared to Tidal HiFi for example which streams 16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files at 1411kbps.  Tidal is twice the price but the sound quality is leagues ahead.

GTB-Buckaroo posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Hi welcome back,

streaming is good but Spotify - what a load of crap.  

Indeed. I cancelled my Premium subscription only yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving in its wake a large empty space.

Yeah I’ve got a free Tidal trial which I am going to make full use of.    

Regards,

Lindsay

You should find youself in good company. I took a 13 year break from hifi between 2000 and 2013. When I returned, Naim amps were more or less how I remembered albeit no longer Olive. But streaming as a an actual hifi level source was totally new to me.

I never went in for subscription streaming since something in me just has to own the media. Plus I feel like when the shit hits the fan and internet services are disrupted due whatever global conflict looms, I can hole up in the back of beyond and stick on some tunes.

That said, I, like many here, buy music. Rip it. Store discs out of sight. And use a streamer as the main/only source. I find this source component to be a wonderful developnent. Whether you prefer to own music, subscribe to music, or a bit of both; the same source fits both camps.

When I rejoined the hifi world, I did so leaving CD player behind and never regretted it for a second despite not feeling like putting on a CD was ever a hassle. It took a year to rip all my discs "properly", but it was worth it. Everything worked from day 1 (not everyone is as lucky), and I never had to deal with the morning after cleanup of 20 discs after a listening session ever again.

The OP may have a similar epiphany. Living arrangements and lifestyles play a large role in how strongly someone is to cling to a CD player. 

Everything else is still pretty much unchanged though. People still cherish their vinyl. Most amps are still analogue devices. Speakers deliver more in smalker packages than 20 years ago. End to end digital from Linn and Devialet are not even that new. Just better executed versions of what Meridian used to do in the 90's. 

Anything that was good in 2007 when the OP last posted is still going to be good today. My hat goes off to anyone who checks out of this madness to enjoy the music. The OP is an example to us all.

The ethical side should be considered. Most Artists get about 13p a year for the material that gets streamed from sites. The rest of your subscription goes to the big Stream cheese.

The "big stream cheese" is just about breaking even. They charge a reasonable amount for the service. The licence costs are not inconsiderable. 

ECM recently licensed their catalogue to Spotify so it can't be all bad, can it? 

Dave

TOBYJUG posted:

The ethical side should be considered. Most Artists get about 13p a year for the material that gets streamed from sites. The rest of your subscription goes to the big Stream cheese.

The main issue isn't what the streaming service takes ... its what the record label takes.