The end of the CD
- Thread starter KeithR
- Start date
Time wasted searching is usually done when I’m not listening, in the mornings, while having a coffee etc. It just takes a little bit more effort to put the iPad down and focus on the music when using it as a remote.
I’m happy for retail to die after 40 years of retail management, excessive hours, poor wages and poor product.
In the Uk we’re once again seeing the slowdown on the highstreet with many retailers shedding jobs, product quality deteriorating, product size shrinking and store closures.
And yes, you can order your coffee from your phone, collect as you pass go or have it delivered by deliveroo to any street corner. The future is here!
Time to stream Marc.
I’ve found streaming to sound better than my CD rips using a good burner, XLD accurate rip and CDs cleaned/treated with Ultrabit.
I’m sure there’s a technical reason.
I’m sure there’s a technical reason.
Marc, we can debate forever.
Do this. Pick the last concert you liked, and try to search for best performances on YouTube. Recommendations to explore will be available via Google. Then go to Barry's and check the same ones out. Also include the performances which feature on the costly original LPs for that piece.
Barry, and everyone, I’m a lot closer. My new favourite genre, Progressive Electronica, is what I’m hoping I’ll find well served by Tidal/Roon.
If I can find a couple of hundred of albums on streaming that I would easily miss shopping the old fashioned way, then it’s irrefutable streaming can only be positive as an experience.
If I can find a couple of hundred of albums on streaming that I would easily miss shopping the old fashioned way, then it’s irrefutable streaming can only be positive as an experience.
am extolling a way of listening that maximises the time i spend doing it....as Blue highlights the time spent sourcing is not listening time...it is a different bucket...such as during a commute...or stuck in a gray tube crossing continents....or reading WBF..
which reminds...i can't recall who recommended Diana Panton...but within moments of finding that recommendation on WBF...had added two of her albums to my Tidal Collection....so ty to that fellow WBF'er
and so when i can & want to hear Geddy...Yo-Yo....Kurt....Zoe...Bob...i pick up the iPad...use the thumbprint..and almost instantly Roon commands the data chain....and voila...bliss.
I own thousands of CDs of music that I really enjoy and continue buying more regularly, I know you have a great DAC Mike it’s the computer front ends which I find poor, maybe I should bring a transport over for you to try?
david
David,
a year ago I had a very good transport, the Aqua La Diva, with my Aqua Formula Dac. 2 things made significant differences for the transport. first; it did quite a bit better with an i2S interface cable which was proprietary with the same brand dac. in other words both were optimized for that interface and it showed. and second; the transport sounded much closer to the SGM server sitting on active isolation. yet; that fine transport still came up short to ripped redbook files on my SGM server. and the SGM server is now better than then, and this server is about to get another upgrade. so servers (of which the SGM is likely at the top of the heap) are getting better all the time. throwing the SGM into the pile with all computers is just wrong.
of course; this is in my system to my ears. you might (and typically do) have your own take.
my point being that just dropping a transport into a system and using a basic interface will not serve the redbook optimally. if you brought a transport, we would need to optimize it like anything else trying to compete with other optimized media delivery systems. and we will have lots of stuff going on. bring your reference CD's, I can quickly and easily rip them and you can then easily access them. recently I ripped a bunch of favorite CD's for jazdoc to listen to in my system. he has a very nice cd transport in his system. he was very impressed by how those rips sounded on my server-dac (and quickly adapted to my Roon interface to listen to them).
I also have thousands (3k-4k) of CD's. and although i'm not adding hundreds a year, I am adding files all the time, many of them hirez. not sure how much exposure you have to high rez files in a system you know well.
I think Mike already has MSB behind him
Tang
Tang, you are likely right about that.
no doubt I will get one of the new MSB transports (Reference or Select) to put up against the upgraded SGM at some point soon (MSB wants to know how that might go), as well as the new MSB Roon-MQA Ethernet renderer too. I have no plans to purchase a transport (more arms and carts seems like a better use of funds), but plans do change.
I suppose I could request from Vince to have a demo of one of the new MSB transports on hand for David's visit. and those new transports have a special new interface which is suppose to be the mother of all transport interfaces.
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BMCG, I’m pretty good on finding music I like and buying via dedicated online record stores, vinyl on Diverse Vinyl, vinyl and cd on Burning Shed, cd on Kinesis CD and Abstract Logic.
On the stuff I really like I can do a few Google, YouTube and ProgArchives searches and find additional albums/allied artists on Amazon and Ebay if n/a via these web outlets.
But I am fully aware things can be much easier via Tidal/Roon.
On the stuff I really like I can do a few Google, YouTube and ProgArchives searches and find additional albums/allied artists on Amazon and Ebay if n/a via these web outlets.
But I am fully aware things can be much easier via Tidal/Roon.
BMCG, I hope you do know how much better Geddy sounds off vinyl than digital LOL.
Cd or Tidal streamed.
Cd or Tidal streamed.
Hi Rez 24/96
and as I tend to point out pumped through a well fettled server /dcs chain
Jim Morrison also not too shabby in hi rez
The description of your server fills me with a little bit of dread.
Rush has never sounded great on digital, even upped to DSD512 on the SGM, so I’ll stick with the vinyl, thanks.
I’ve been playing around a bit w searches on the Tidal website, and it’s interesting, although patchy, for my chosen genres of prog, fusion, what I call “chamber prog” (ie prog augmented by cello, woodwinds, analog synths, fuzz bass), and prog electronica.
Rush has never sounded great on digital, even upped to DSD512 on the SGM, so I’ll stick with the vinyl, thanks.
I’ve been playing around a bit w searches on the Tidal website, and it’s interesting, although patchy, for my chosen genres of prog, fusion, what I call “chamber prog” (ie prog augmented by cello, woodwinds, analog synths, fuzz bass), and prog electronica.
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Hi Mike,
What I said above was more in jest than anything else, I don't need a direct comparison to know if I like something or not. In case of computer audio there's an inherent hifi quality that I hear in all of them and as long as that's there it's no better than an iPhone and free Pandora streamed over an Express network or any Satellite radio station for me. Looking forward to hearing your SGM.
david
Hmm, an hour spent on Tidal searches.
1- many of my genre artists not on Tidal
2- but a few are
3- some albums by these I’ve never heard of, not available on 12” or 5”
4- “you also might like” searches took me to:
A- bands I’d always meant to get into and never got around to
B- bands I’d never heard of, some of which immediately appealed, a few really bowled me over
—
I can’t deny this is pushing me in streaming direction, and 2018 may well be the year I swallow my pride, get past my reticence on a computer/tablet interface, and discover a small core of music I truthfully wouldn’t otherwise
I remain deeply committed to lp and cd, so Tidal will inform me twds lp purchases for classical and jazz, and I’m still happy to buy my specialist genres on lp and cd if they’re available on disc as well as on Tidal - I’m likely to go to a modest setup eg Innuous Zenith/Aqua La Voce, but as this is v unlikely to beat my tt or cdp on SQ grounds, buying lps and cds is something I’m never going to give up on.
1- many of my genre artists not on Tidal
2- but a few are
3- some albums by these I’ve never heard of, not available on 12” or 5”
4- “you also might like” searches took me to:
A- bands I’d always meant to get into and never got around to
B- bands I’d never heard of, some of which immediately appealed, a few really bowled me over
—
I can’t deny this is pushing me in streaming direction, and 2018 may well be the year I swallow my pride, get past my reticence on a computer/tablet interface, and discover a small core of music I truthfully wouldn’t otherwise
I remain deeply committed to lp and cd, so Tidal will inform me twds lp purchases for classical and jazz, and I’m still happy to buy my specialist genres on lp and cd if they’re available on disc as well as on Tidal - I’m likely to go to a modest setup eg Innuous Zenith/Aqua La Voce, but as this is v unlikely to beat my tt or cdp on SQ grounds, buying lps and cds is something I’m never going to give up on.
Dave, I’m as much a skeptic on computer audio as anyone.
But the well set up SGM I’ve heard monthly for 2.5 years now, absolutely ticks all the boxes you’d want for a digital source.
And more.
If you truly report that it still sounds “hifi” at Mike’s, I’ll be amazed.
No doubt if I was 100% committed to digital since 1983 as SGM owner Barry has been, I’d have no hesitation in junking my cdp/cd transport.
For me my reticence is borne of the fact that the vast majority of what I love is well served by the mature mediums that are lp and cd.
And I’m going into streaming in hope more than anything I find a decent collection of a couple of hundred albums this way that I wouldn’t the usual time honoured way.
But the well set up SGM I’ve heard monthly for 2.5 years now, absolutely ticks all the boxes you’d want for a digital source.
And more.
If you truly report that it still sounds “hifi” at Mike’s, I’ll be amazed.
No doubt if I was 100% committed to digital since 1983 as SGM owner Barry has been, I’d have no hesitation in junking my cdp/cd transport.
For me my reticence is borne of the fact that the vast majority of what I love is well served by the mature mediums that are lp and cd.
And I’m going into streaming in hope more than anything I find a decent collection of a couple of hundred albums this way that I wouldn’t the usual time honoured way.
there is a huge generational gap here - nobody under 40 even has a CD anymore. and if you read the article, the reason its dying is because stores want guaranteed buybacks of unsold product which the studios don't want - when amazon does the same, lights out.
but if you want to cater to older audiophiles in their 60s, be my guest. seems like a terrible, long term business. again, the biggest problem with this industry is people catering to old people. just like the other thread that said hip hop isn't real music.
but if you want to cater to older audiophiles in their 60s, be my guest. seems like a terrible, long term business. again, the biggest problem with this industry is people catering to old people. just like the other thread that said hip hop isn't real music.
Look at your own reply, with computer audio the latest is always the greatest, yesterday it was firewire and usb today it's ethernet! How about the routers, hubs & switches, which is the greatest latest? Cable, DSL or Satellite? Battery or AC? Which file format? Which interface? How many interfaces are there? Are all of them so great the no transport is in the same league? CAT 5? CAT 6? Audiophile Ethernet wires
david
I find it interesting you think analog is so simple - when our forum is clogged up with anything but. Digital seems simple to me by comparison by buying a server and streaming Roon/Tidal.
With TT i see belt vs DD, suspension vs non suspension, $10k active platforms vs passive stands, $17k cartridges (!!), and $30k arms now which come in a zillion varieties (unipivot, fixed, even a blend of both). multiple arms with different VTA or no VTA. oh yeah, what plinth material should I use?
So for an average person in their 20s/30s, I can't see analog as being remotely simple. Factor in that setup is incredibly difficult with some arms and cartridges as well.
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