I own about 1000 CDs but rarely listen to them because streaming is so much more convenient. Kind of sad but a matter of fact. Getting my ass out of my Eames chair, searching my archive, putting it in the player seems so tedious in comparison. I think I’m not the only one
I only buy CDs to rip them for FLACs. The CD players i had, caused always problems after awhile. They would skip songs, or can’t find the first song. My FLACs are on an 2020 Motorola smartphone, connected via cable to my hi-fi setup. Its so much more convinient to operate.
The sound quality from a high quality CD player still is better than steaming
No doubt, whatsoever that a high-quality CD player can offer a superb, listening experience. But regarding it being better than streaming: How can this be true if streaming services like Tidal offer files up to 24 bit and 192 kHz, while CD is only 16 bit and 44.1 kHz?
The switch to 48kHz lossless as default totally changed that on Apple Music. I still use my CD players, but mostly via their digital inputs.
Bits are bits homie and lossless streaming is everywhere now
But it sounds so much better once you dive back into your Eames chair after walking around to put the disk in.
I bought a CD player and only afterward began reading up on streamers. I bought a Bluesound 2 months later and the player has gone unused since.
I’m the opposite. Streaming often gets me paralyzed by choice. Being able to browse through CD’s it’s much easier for me to find what to listen to.
I find this too. It’s not so much the choice for me though, it’s the not being able to easily browse through a list of artists/albums like you can on a computer. All the choice in the world, yet my mind goes blank 😂
Decision paralysis. Sometimes I wish I kept a spreadsheet of my physical collection, or organized it by genre, but mostly I like browsing through it. It’s a many-years-long curation by me, for me.
Discogs is your friend. Everything I ripped I added to my collection on Discogs, plus my records. It comes in handy so often when I see an album in a charity shop or a second hand store and can’t remember if I own it or not 😂
Roon does help with this quite a bit. It feels more like a digital version of your physical music collection, with a huge record store next door; as opposed to all the music in the world to choose from.
I am with you on this. I rarely stream and I use Qobuz and Apple Music. However my CD rips of over 2500 albums and my extensive vinyl collection keeps me busy and away from streaming
same thing happens when you have thousands of cd’s and vinyl though. At least with everything online or on a drive you can make playlists and just hit random.
I enjoy the ritual of physical media and listening to the entire album without jumping around
I have everything ripped and renew Roon every year and I love it. Mostly to try out new music and to put on things in the background, but if I’m home alone doing “serious listening*”, I like browsing my cd and lp collection more
*sorry. Silly term but I think most here know what I mean
Same - I like Qobuz but I don’t like the way it makes my listening jump around so my intense listening is still LPs and CDs
Personally, I use spotify when out and about (headphones) and to find new bands. I have a playlist of interesting new songs which if I really like I will buy the album (normally CD). At home I can stream spotify to my amp but if I’m sitting down to listen then I’ll play a CD. I also rip all my CDs, and have started re ripping them to FLAC so I can play them without getting up (old age). But while my amp has the ability to play FLAC files from a USB it seems I need a music server to give me the ability to build playlists to play digitally… Of course it’s more money, it’s always more money.
But ultimately I still love my CD collection, it has the versions of tracks that I know and like (streaming seems to have alternate versions) and it also actually HAS the song, which I’ve discovered a few times that a service just stops having tracks. Plus the ritual of putting an album on, while not quite as “purist” as vinyl, it is much more enjoyable than just poking an icon on my phone.
I am thinking about getting a Qubuz subscription but I listen to very obscure stuff so I want to make sure they have 95% of what I listen to.
I still buy vinyl records for the experience of having music that’s collectible and palpable. I do mostly stream, but physical media gives more quality to music.
While it’s totally just placebo I defiently like albums more if I can listen to it physically. Not sure why, I just don’t get attached in the same way if I can’t and the songs never fully click or ingrained themselves with me. Sometimes they do, but just not as often.
I’ve sold most of my commercially available CD’s as soon as it was obvious streaming would be here to stay. Still got about 1000 bootleg cd’s in a flight case and a few handfuls of standard cds that aren’t on streaming services.
Sell them and buy yourself something nice.
I’ve got Roon + Tidal with about a thousand albums ripped over more than 15 years.
There’s something about me playing from my cd or LP collection that makes listening a bit more intentional and thus enjoyable. I believe it’s because I curated my record and cd collection around albums I love from track 1 to end. So anything I play, I’m going to enjoy. With Roon, it can be quite random.
First let me say I LOVE physical media. But at least 90% of my listening is not a full album start to finish. The playlist is my go to listening mode and that is difficult to replicate with pure physical media.
I’ve ripped every CD I own to my Emby server and make the playlists from there. Serves me well in the way that I like to enjoy my music.
It’s possible to digitize your library for streaming off a home computer which you keep online.
A couple of touring dj’s who are famous for using vinyl in their performances used some kind of analogue (it had amp tubes) setup to digitize their vinyl only releases for when they traveled to places where their records were likely to be stolen.
I ripped most of my collection to FLAC and some MP3 years ago. I got rid of my CDs that were sitting unused for years about 4 years ago when I moved.
I used Plex to manage my collection for many years, but recently tried Roon and I’m hooked. It works great with Qobuz and my collection. I’m also really digging the Arc app when I’m out and about. It works great with Apple CarPlay. Much better than the native Qobuz app IMO.
I also got back into vinyl during the COVID apocalypse to scratch my physical media itch.
I see CDs making a bit of a comeback, but I’m not going down that road again I’m content with streaming and vinyl.