After having been a vivid collector of CDs back in the days (I sold all of them some 15 years ago…), I started collecting vinyl and depend on streaming services ever since. Currently, I make use of a Quobuz subscription and Roon to manage my library which also includes various high-res downloads stored locally (with backups in the cloud).
But I miss physical media, and vinyl doesn’t cut it for me. Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats listening to a good record with a dram of Scotch, but quality wise, it’s nowhere near digital sources, at least not within any reasonable price point.
Where to go from here? Paying for high-res downloads I often can stream at the same time feels strangely unsatisfying, while falling back to CDs might be an option, but leaves out higher quality tiers. Physical alternatives such as HDCD, SACD or DVD-Audio seem more or less a niche for enthusiasts of classical music (if not dead), with a very limited catalogue.
Can some of you share my feelings? How do you deal with it?
I’m a big CD guy. I do stream - Apple Music, it’s too convenient not to - but I still get the stuff I really like on CDs.
Apparently Atmos is better quality than a CD, but I’ve never heard a difference with my ears. I’ve got one album with both a Blu-Ray and a CD of the same symphonies and I’ve tried going back and forth between them and they’re the same, IMO.
I’m pretty skeptical about the long-term sustainability of streaming. I’ve watched as Netflix and its competitors are jacking up the price while reducing content, and I think it’s only a matter of time before the same thing happens with music streaming. I think we’re going to start seeing fewer and fewer small acts on streaming - I already know some local jazz bands that have gone back to CD only, because that’s the only way they can make a profit - and it’ll be mostly just TSwift and Drake on streaming. I’ve got no beef with the superstars, but I like to listen to way more than that.