Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine

In order of preference I listen to:

1. Vinyl
2. Ripped CDs, etc.
3. Qobuz

Leaving aside sound quality, there is something about vinyl that makes it a more absorbing experience for me. There are several reasons why this may be the case.

I think the fact that records present music in bite sized chunks of about 20 minutes per side and about 45 minutes per disc is an important factor. In education, they appreciate the need to structure lessons in order to prevent students getting bored.

So often, modern albums have padding to fill up the equivalent space of a CD. I find myself picking up the iPad and thinking "Are we there yet?" That rarely happens with a vinyl record.

The single vinyl album from the era before CDs came along was a succinct artistic statement. That’s the way I most enjoy music. After all, there weren’t many truly great double albums.

Streaming sq bypassed vinyl years ago. I sold my $15k vinyl setup and my 600 albums over 6 years ago and never looked back. I also sold my $3500 highly rated cd player almost 20 years ago because ripped music sounded better than cds. I still have a sacd player that I think I turned it on once in the last 4 years.

Whats comical about these digital vs analog posts are that the vinyl lovers have a nice analog setup but then use cheap crap for their digital stuff and they wonder why digital sounds like crap. Same goes for the digital sound, you have to really spend some good cash to get vinyl to sound good, at least 5-digits worth. With vinyl you will always have the maintenance issues, the wear issues, the lack of vinyl of your favorite artists, the need to get up to skip a track, on and on, plus the BEST sound from an album will always be the last time you played it because of wear.

This is just the old digital vs analog argument.  I prefer digital, but I acknowledge that one can get really excellent results with analog and in the end I would rather just enjoy the music and not obsess over the medium.  And anyone that has ever heard a good streaming system should know that music can sound fantastic streamed.

  However to return to the OP, I have a question:  Has he ever drunk wine while blindfolded from plastic cup and compared the experience to a fantastic crystal goblet, or whatever his preferred vessel may be?  Perhaps with someone pouring a few drops onto his tongue from each?  I suspect he wouldn’t know which was where the wine came from

Several months ago, I would have agreed with you.  My streamer was using the DAC built into my integrated amp.  I was starting to question why I jumped into this hobby, feet first, when I could have just streamed music from my phone or computer.  Then, I went on a mission to get rid of noise.  I got a new DAC, saw improvement.  Did the fiber media conversion with my ethernet cable, probably the best $186 I have ever spent.  After that, I picked up a used DDC to take advantage of the i2s input on my DAC. Another improvement.  Then, I added a power conditioner.  The power conditioner was like night and day.  Before I added it, I was convinced my speakers had to go.  Now I am thrilled with my system.

What a tendentious assertion.