Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine

@rbstehno 

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.

I have followed a similar path to you over the past couple of decades, However, that is a nonsensical straw man argument. I know plenty of people with excellent streaming setups who also enjoy vinyl - some even prefer it. 

In any case, the OP did say specifically that this topic is not about sound quality. 

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.

It's all part of the charm 😉

Newton-John, did you read the original post? He stated: “Yes, the red plastic cup is cheap and convenient, just like streaming.” This tells me that his streaming setup is cheap and if you go cheap, it’s going to sound bad, then no matter what your other source is, it will sound better than the cheap digital. He also compared the sound of his cheap streaming setup to some vinyl,  so unless he’s comparing the color of the pieces, he is judging sound quality.
 

Setup an MSB dac for $100k, dsc for $200k or a wadax for $200k, then have him compare the sound quality. I have friends with $100k vinyl setups and they like the sound of vinyl over their $20k digital system. If they bought a better dac, the difference in sq between the 2 would be closer where they could be more equal or 1 would be a little better. Btw, I didn’t like his dac sound so I would have probably gone with his analog sound quality too.

I would also state that you would have to spend 3x or much more on vinyl to get vinyl to sound better. Say you have a nice $10k dac setup with the best cables, streaming software and components, you would have to spend at least $30k or much more to get the same sound quality. The cartridge alone would be $5k - $10k or more, arm $3k - $5k or more, tt base, cables, phono preamp, and a nice preamp. Digital system you can go directly into the amp without a preamp.

@rbstehno 

The OP, @devinplombier said "Folks, this is not about sound quality or, heaven forbid, cost of gear. Vinyl and streaming can both sound great."

I would also state that you would have to spend 3x or much more on vinyl to get vinyl to sound better.

This is not true. I spent less on the vinyl side than streaming. But as the OP said, this is not about the cost of gear, either.

Perhaps we could all benefit from being a little less literal.  An apt analogy might be religion; for some, I imagine that the rituals surrounding their religious practice help them more easily or effectively to connect spiritually.  And yet, objectively, you could easily argue that those rituals should have no material effect on one’s religious practice.  Heck, I’m an atheist, but if I’m in a church around the Christmas season, I invariably cry like a baby when we sing Christmas hymns because that ritual brings up so much family history.  It somehow bypasses my brain and gets deep into my heart.  A red plastic cup would probably get in the way of that connection.