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 back on CDs.
I build a library with Roon and Qobuz but for what I consider 5 star albums, I buy the CD, rip it and replace the Qobuz version in Roon.
When I want to sit down with a drink and listen in a dedicated fashion I use the actual CD, it provides the “physical media” feels.
I came to this conclusion because of 3 things.
I like the idea and security of owning the absolute favourites.
CDs are both better and cheaper than Vinyl.
I am now entirely convinced that anything more than 16/44.1 is redundant.