Streaming Is To Audio What Red Plastic Cups Are To Wine

Of course, it’s not necessarily just a binary choice between vinyl and streaming Qobuz, Tidal, etc. See what I did there.😀

I am sure that I am not the only one who has quite a big collection of ripped CDs and rips of other optical discs as well as downloads and digitalised vinyl records in my local library of digital files. There’s even some of my own music included. I still buy the odd CD now and again.

Thanks to Roon, I can easily select any of these from a single screen on a tablet for each particular artists that integrates everything including what’s available on Qobuz. I really am spoiled for choice.

Yet often these days, I choose to play a vinyl record on my turntable. This a refreshing throw back to a simpler more innocent time. A reminder of a little mono record player sitting on the floor playing Beatles 45s. It’s also a different kind of sonic treat.

How blessed I am to have lived to see an age where all this choice is available in stunning high quality. How foolish it is to expend precious energy on audiophile neurosis.

There was a time when my digital and then streaming listening experience was clearly inferior to my LP12 running vinyl. My current digital experience with lots of evolution and cash has become more rewarding than my vinyl experiences. Being a strange person I can't get over the wear factor of the vinyl itself and all the equipment needed to play it wearing out as well. The pops and sounds of worn and wearing vinyl disturb my state of mind when listening.

That said, I never had the patience dating back to college to listen to both sides of an album. The artist's desire to mix genre's/tempos/style is a wear out for me. I am usually in the mood for a type of music, but I'm forced to listen to James Taylor for example mix in Jazz and Blue Grass into my pop. Plus most albums have songs that suck, time to move on. At least 3/4 of my vinyl is from one hit wonder pop stars. You buy the record and then struggle through the rest of the side. B side usually completely sucked.  Digital allows me to jump around easily and/or make play lists of my choice. Plus I don't live in the past as my subscriptions push me forward and let me sample for no additional cost all kinds of new artists and new sounds.

I acknowledge that often one already knows the music with classical, or if you preview an album on digital then buy it, you lower the risk. We are lucky to have all these options, but I'm not going back to 8 track, cassettes, radio, 78s, 45s, super discs, CDs, reel to reel nor 33s., but I'm glad that everyone can if they wish! 

@wokeuptobose 

Interesting to hear how different your listening habits are from mine.

For me, it's all about the album, whether old or new music. It would almost be sacrilegious to skip a track - shadows and light. Jeff Tweedy and David Lowery both have recent triple albums that I happily listen to all the way through. I hate having to stop listening before a record gets to the final run out groove. 

The only exception is if Roon Radio kicks in at the end of an album. I enjoy the serendipity of that much more than a playlist that I've made up myself.  

@newton_john wrote:

For me, it’s all about the album, whether old or new music. It would almost be sacrilegious to skip a track -

I am the same way, regardless of medium - whether I spin vinyl or a CD or stream, I almost always listen to complete albums.

The only exception is FM radio - and yes I do listen to FM quite a bit because we are lucky to have two good, commercial-free jazz and classical stations around here - but when you think about it, it’s not all that different in the sense that albums and radio broadcasts are both curated, whether by the artist or by the DJ.

@wokeuptobose wrote: 

if you preview an album on digital then buy it, you lower the risk. We are lucky to have all these options

That is absolutely true

Also @nubiann thank you for a great post! Although I prefer not to think of myself as a fundamentalist, I admit to feeling that all music media being equal, vinyl is a little bit more equal than the others. 🙂

I find it pretty amazing that a 120+ year-old electromechanical technology can still be a leader today in terms of sound quality, honestly.

devinplombier Thanks for your kind words of appreciation. I can see why the Fundamentalist connotation may suggest something it wasn't meant to. I apologise for not being clear about what I meant. In this context. I meant  = essential, or a foundational principle etc. I appreciate the word could imply something else and that was never my intention. Keep posting interesting discussion points, we thrive on it.