Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine

Folks, this is not about sound quality or, heaven forbid, cost of gear. Vinyl and streaming can both sound great.

It is about intentionality and, to a significant extent, agency, and what that word means in the nascent AI era.

Not to put too fine a point on it, when you stream you are sitting immobile in your chair or couch while passively receiving content selected for you by a specialized AI. Yes, it leads to interesting discoveries; but it also blunts the meaning and relevance of the traits and characteristics of the underlying work of art: there is little vested interest in a piece of music that just appeared out of the blue, that you can listen through if you like it, or swipe left if it’s just meh, and right away another one will be queued up for you.

Algorithms are good at putting music in front of you that you’re going to like, resulting in little dopamine jolts that keep you in your seat at 3 am, enduring mediocre musical stretches because the next one might be fantastic!

In that way, streaming is the equivalent of doomscrolling. Yes, it’s convenient; you don’t have to get up every 20 minutes or whatever. In fact you don’t have to get up at all if you don’t feel like it. Is that progress? What does your doctor say?

For the record, I stream. A lot. It is super convenient, especially when I’m working. But when I’m in the mood for more meaningful listening, I often turn to vinyl. 

I have spent hours, literally researching vinyl vs digital.  
I came across a post by a recording engineer, who was paid by a 'major' label to produce a collection of CD's.  He had access to everything that was in the archives of that label.  Original master tapes, Original unopened vinyl, First pressings of vinyl, CD's, you name it, he had it all available. 
His conclusion was this:  Depending on the recording, with the same musicians, the media did not matter as far as sound quality was concerned.  Some CD's sounded better than vinyl, some vinyl was better than CD, some original tapes were the best.
I have vinyl, use my Rega RP6 about twice a year. I have a music server, and listen to my 15,000 music tracks daily.  
I even stream on occasion, and find new bands, new music I like by streaming. Then I buy it on CD, rip it, put it away.  

My method.  

We each use streaming in different ways for different purposes. I mostly stream single albums of my selection . No AI suggestions here. Sometimes I then buy the CD

I don’t do and have never done vinyl, but I have heard top tier vinyl and in that comparison it was better than the “equivalent” digital source.  The comparison was in a local shop over a decade ago on a $300,000+ system. 
 

I think that the actual result from a purely sonics perspective is very dependent on the system as both can be amazing. The tactile interaction with vinyl media (and even to a much lessor degree with CDs) can add to the experience.  A lot of our listening experience is physiological so for some the vinyl experience could truly make the experience better. Some have had that experience and then as their experience with digital improved their joy in the vinyl journey was overcome by the convenience of digital. 

I’m in my late 50s. I grew up listening to vinyl. Went through cassettes and then to CDs. Then onto streaming. Now back to vinyl. Now with the type of system I could only dream of having as a kid. Vinyl sounds sooo good. But man, with a good DAC and great interconnects, Qobuz streaming sounds sooo good. Sad for any of you one dimensional types that can’t fully enjoy both. Your loss!