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Help for an Old School Audiophile

I'm 56 and I've been in this hobby since the early 80's and have a modest system and have amassed a collection of about 1500 LPs, 500 cds, and 400 cassettes.  Between two different older hard drive tower cases I have probably about 10,000+ songs on iTunes and I keep those tower cases around thinking one day I'd like to put those songs on a cloud - although I totally don't know what that entails.  I have the free Pandora on my iPhone and still regularly listen to FM radio and have an aversion to paying for satellite radio when there are good stations in the Philadelphia market that I listen to.

Last week, I went into a local hifi shop and listened to a bookshelf pair of powered Dynaudio speakers that you could hook a laptop up to but also had RCA outputs to hook up a phono preamp to and the salesman was playing music thru his phone.  He had Tidal and also mentioned other names that I forgot the name of.  When I saw what he could do thru his phone, it kind of made me feel a little foolish for having all of these albums, tapes, and cds.

I don't watch a lot of tv these days except for sports and I'm amazed at how my 24 year old daughter can watch all this stuff with Netflix and by streaming stuff and I'm still paying lots more each month for cable.

I'm not gonna go out and change it all tomorrow or the next day but I guess my questions are this:

1.  What's the best way to get educated about all of the different options that I have?
2.  With regard to all the music on iTunes that I have, is it better and more cost effective to put that music on a cloud or should I just subscribe to Spotify, Tidal or some other music format and just throw out the old tower cases?
3.  Can I assume that most people who have music servers are using that for music in lieu of actual music collections?  Or do most people have both?  
4.  If I were going to one day purge my collections but still wanted access to all the music I have now, what would be a good - modest - step by step game plan?  
5.  Is it better to get a USB turntable or analog to digital converter and start converting my LPs to computer files or is that a waste of time?

The actual collections and all the gear can take up a little room, but they are cool to look at too.... on the other hand, having the extra space and being a minimalist has it's own merits.  I'll never own a kindle either :)

BTW:  (My current system consists of:  Tandberg 3012 int amp, Thorens TD125 mk II turntable, Kyocera D-811 cassette deck, Harman Kardon TD302 cassette deck, Creek CAS3140 tuner, Oppo DV970 cd/dvd player, Fostex B-100 BH speakers, custom 45 SET tube int amp)

Thank you in advance for all of your kind comments and suggestions, 
Lou


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Showing 6 responses by lou_setriodes

lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
First off, I want to thank everyone for all of their comments and advice. 

After seeing the powered DynAudio speakers played thru the salesman's phone, I was more curious than anything else and also knew that I knew very little about this kind of stuff.  My post was therefore more of a fact finding mission as the future is inevitable and I wanted to see what others were doing with their systems.  Truth be told, it doesn't sound as fun as watching the record spin or my cassette rewind.  So whatever I do, I'm going to take it in a slow progression.  The other thought in writing the post was that if, one day, I scrap it all for convenience and minimalism, or moved abroad but wanted to have lots of music, how would I go about doing that and the answers provided give me a very good starting point.

I do not have a desktop system and do enjoy my home system and listening to FM radio.  As a Lyft & Uber driver, I listen a lot more to Pandora in the car than I do at home.  When I want to listen to Pandora at home, I just run an RCA to mini plug into my phone and listen thru my system; however, at home, I usually find myself either listening to FM radio or one of my other sources (LP, cassette, or CD). 

Sound quality over convenience is a lot more important to me and at this time, I don't mind taking the time to change albums, cds, etc; however, I guess its all what you are used to.  For those used to the convenience of a music server and Tidal or Roon, you probably wouldn't want to take the time to change records, etc when you can instantly push a button and have music play instantaneously.

I'll re-read the entire thread as it's a lot for me to understand and digest and I thank you for your ideas, thoughts, and opinions.



lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
Update - my nephew recently set up Spotify Premium on my phone so I got rid of the free Pandora.  This is a huge upgrade from the Pandora and I'm enjoying making playlists for my car. 

My daughter has told me that it's time to just get rid of the 2 tower cases that hold those 10,000+ songs on Itunes because I can now get all of that music on Spotify.  

Baby steps, I get it, but that's how it's gonna go.  I also just got a new cartridge for my Thorens TT too.
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
It is a time capsule, for sure. Russ, thanks for the advice, I’m getting that inclination as well as I just acquired a rare Ariston RD80SL turntable and have been enjoying spinning records again.
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
Thanks again for everyone's input here.  Its now 2 years later since I started this thread, I'm now 58 and still haven't done a thing towards digitizing my collection.  Instead, I've been playing around with some different setups, buying, selling, trading gear, enjoying the hunt of finding stuff and hating it the next day.  The summer always seems to be a buyer's market as lots of people put away the hobby over the warm summer months, wanting to be outside and active while the weather is nice as opposed to inside listening. 

The Spotify on my old Iphone actually sounds pretty darn good when it goes thru nice electronics (Muse Model 100 amp and Model 1 preamp & a Gemtune GS-01 EL34 SE int amp) and I find myself wanting to sell or trade my gear for other things as opposed to all the learning and time it will take to digitize my collection.
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
Hi Mark,
I have no idea, I’m too old school to answer this question.  I hope someone else who is reading this can answer your question.  That sounds like a nice system you have, hope you can get some guidance here.
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
Update:  it’s 4 years later, I turned 60 a month ago, and the system has morphed into the following:
Fleawatt preamp
http://fleawatt.blogspot.com/2020/10/kenny-burrell-5670-tube-buffered-volume.html
Fleawatt amp
http://fleawatt.blogspot.com/2020/10/strayhorn-tpa3116d2-amplifier-available_17.html
Cambridge Audio Azur 840 cd player
Ariston RD80sl TT/Jelco arm/Grado cart
Nakamichi DR2 cassette deck
NAD 4300 tuner
TDL RTL2 speakers

The CD player has 2 extra DAC inputs.  Can I get a streamer and hook it up into the back of the Cambridge Audio and use that DAC or do I need some other piece of equipment?  I still have Spotify Premium on an old iPhone & Ipad too.

thanks!
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