Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine


Unpacking and going through my vinyl collection, it occurs to me that vinyl is it, whereas streaming is Audio’s red plastic cup.

The best wines taste low-shelf in the red plastic cup. Yes, the red plastic cup is cheap and convenient, just like streaming. Wine should feel the same regardless of the vessel - it’s the same wine - but it does not. So should music - but it does not. Streamed music may sound (nearly) as good as vinyl, but it feels... disposable. Vinyl does not. Vinyl is the thing. Vinyl is it! Just my opinion, of course.

devinplombier

I want to know if all the vinyl people had gotten into the hobby just 5 years ago would they still think vinyl sounds better ? 

@ronboco I can say from the stand point of my 3 adult children a resounding yes. They got bit by the bug while and university and prefer the sound of true analog over digital.

Now they are streaming with lower tier equipment and would rather invest in higher end analog vs falling into the digital black hole.

I enjoy both but prefer vinyl or digital. 

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Just yesterday my wife came home from errands and asked if I had heard Christian Sands performing “Can’t Find My Way Home”. She had been listening to WBGO in her car. She asked me to put it on “the system” in our living room, a motley collection of vintage Linn equipment. I stream through Roon/Qobuz to an akurateDSM. We turned it up to club level and swooned. When it ended, Lyn asked to hear Blind Faith’s original, which is somewhere in my vinyl collection. What we were able to do was cue it up on Qobuz, which then moved on to more Steve Winwood vocals. We were “in the moment”. There’s room for every source, although I no longer have a CD player, I still have my LP12, many hundreds of LPs and many thousands of purchased digital files. We can all take delight in the wealth of sources we have available.

 

BTW, we went on to see Mechele Ndegeocello live last night, a stellar show, and tonight to The Stone Pony for one of their 52nd Anniversary shows. A wealth of sources and experiences!