Interesting article in the NY Times. I also buy and keep CDs, as I’ve noticed some are not available in Tidal and I worry about more becoming unavailable for streaming in the future. I do have all my CDs ripped on my Roon Server, and I really enjoy the sound of upsampling to DSD 64 with my Stellar stack
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Interesting article. I must say I still hold my CDs. Many are limited releases of 500 or less, predominately jazz. Some appear on various streaming services, but then disappear without notice. I still prefer vinyl to CDs or streaming, but there was and continues to be a focus on digital format releases versus analog vinyl by many smaller jazz bands. Now there has been a shift by bands to releasing digital downloads and cassette. Makes no sense in todays market. I imagine a lot of boomers are dumping the cassette decks at St Vinny’s and the millennials are picking them up for the “cool” factor. Cassettes only made sense for their portability in my world.
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Ownership forever!
Rule #1: the record labels do not have your best interests at heart.
Rule #2: if a label can get you to pay again for a recording, they will.
Rule #3: soundtrack collections will never be complete on a streaming service.
Rule #4: as everything moves to voice control, you will never get the version of a song you wanted.
Rule #5: see Rule #1.
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In the light of that…is why I store my music on a thumb drive
and play through Oppo 205…
Forget the streaming services…they change so much so frequently
and loose so much of them process In the end umiami is right on.
Look what Apple fiascos have happened with ITunes and members
storing their music only to find Apple wiped out so many members
collections and the ensuing grief…
For me it is store locally and keep your cds etc…
My .02
I support the musicians by purchasing their product, hard copies preferred.
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Agreed. Many of the artists I purchase direct have adopted a program of ‘Buy for (ie) $7.00 minimum - pay what you like.’ Great idea. Records & CDs were always about $20 average around my parts so I always convert the artist’s currency to be $20 equivalent and pay that.
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I have one physical copy of my CDs + 1 ripped digital copy on a server/player + 1 backup digital copy of it all on NAS drive! They’re accessed via Roon. I have over 1000 Vinyl LPs, and buy a few every now and then! I never considered digitizing them. Reading sleeve backs, gatefolds, inlays, etc. has a special flavor to me!
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I still buy quite a few each month, they are all ripped, many have all their artwork scanned and added to my online database. I like CD’s just fine and I will never sell them. No.
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I have a scanner, but I found myself using Microsoft Office Lens on my iPad as it auto-adjusts, aligns, crops, then save to pictures folder. I get Roon to use them. I do the same with Naim audio app when editing CDs ripped by Naim Core. The latter saves them to the SSD drive.
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Never have I purchased as many shiny discs as I am currently.
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I use Qobuz to audition potential albums to buy on physical media. There have been enough times I’ve gone back to stream something I love and, what do you know, it’s no longer available or only as samples! Yes, I have trust issues with any service like this and also know the sound quality will be great with physical media every time I play it. No potential bandwidth restrictions when you’re on a “closed circuit”.
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I love the loft expansion!
Well done.
Does it wrap around the room on three or more sides?
Cheers.
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I too am regularly, modestly expanding my CD and SACD library.
Like others have noted, I try to buy physical media for the music I really enjoy. I rip it to my iMac and back up to a NAS and “stream” my favorite albums and tracks via JRiver Media Center for critical listening.*
I use Roon with Tidal and Qobuz subscription to explore and discover new (to me) music and for non-critical listening (music on my less resolving home office desktop system, background music, “radio” riffing, etc.)
Finally, when I am in the mood to listen to a CD or SACD from beginning to end in one, uninterrupted setting, I often spin a disc on the PSA DMP instead.
So, my discs are not going anywhere, anytime soon.
FWIW/Regards,
*To me, JRMC playing music from my own “library” generally sounds a bit better than Roon does playing my same files or playing music from Tidal and Qobuz. There are some track-by-track exceptions, but in general I prefer to use JRMC.
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Also got a DMP and tend to prefer JRMC to Roon, so quite a few similarities taste wise I guess!
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The problem with holding on to all that stuff is someone has to deal with it eventually. We spent a year clearing out my in-laws house of “stuff” when they recently passed. It was an overwhelming project. They lived in a big old house in corn country Illinois. Initially, some things were desired by family but those items were few and far between. Estate sales helped but in the end it’s just “stuff.”
I have thousands of CDs and LPs semi-neatly stored in a crawl space in my house. I built shelves to fit all the “stuff.” 3,000 CDs (all ripped to hard drives) and 500 LPs. A lot. My daughters won’t let me sell the LPs and the CDs are worth pennies (and yes, immoral to sell given I’ve ripped them). I suspect most of it all will end up in the dumpster like most of my in-laws stuff. What to do?
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Keep them all, CDs, tapes and vinyl! Find other non-music related stuff to toss; that might make you feel better.
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Beautiful setup, Al. That’s really something.
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Maybe CDs will make a comeback like LPs after the military-industrial complex collapses and things like streaming aren’t so ubiquitous. It could happen (not hoping, just saying).
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I am too “seasoned” to be comfortable with keeping anything I own (business or personal property) solely on the “cloud”.
From my perspective as a curmudgeon (luddite?), it is just a matter of time before this networked system fails in some spectacular and material way.
Remember, you heard it here (first?).
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That is an excellent point about “Stuff”. My wife had to take care of her brothers place after he passed away suddenly. She tried to give away, sell, donate as much as she could but in the end a dumpster appeared. We have our home in the cities and a lake place in the country. Each has three complete audio setups with nice gear. I ask her what she will do if and when I pass and she says dumpsters, both homes. I know my daughter is not interested in the music collection or the gear. And I have an entirely new system on the way. Doh.
I have the Qobuz Studio Sublime plan so I am starting to be interested in purchasing 24.96 releases from them and still buy the hard copy as it is my hobby. For things that I really like I buy the CD and the LP and treasure them both. My poor wife…
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