Vinyl vs Streaming

@jay73 the conversation is a bit deeper than vinyl vs streaming. Here are just 2 of the critical points to consider - 1) the master you are listening to, 2) the associated equipment

Streaming services have high resolution remastered content or new content recorded in a digital domain. Depends on what music you’re listening to. If it’s Taylor Swift then it makes no difference (nothing against Swift or you listening to this…just an example) and I wouldn’t bother with vinyl at all. But if you are listening to albums recorded before the digital era, there are plenty of originals or reissues done in pure analog that will blow away the remastered versions. Right now it’s actually a great time for vinyl. I’ve been buying my favorites done by Analog Productions, Craft Original Jazz Classics, Rhino High Fidelity, Mobile Fidelity, if you buy a reissue mastered by Kevin Gray, Bernie Grundman just using these guys as an example, you’re in for a surprise. And well recorded original LPs in full analog in mint condition are awesome as well, albeit pricey in most cases. 
The remasters on streaming have the life sucked out of them for the most part. The tone, air, dynamics…just not the same as even the original CDs. 
 

Now to equipment. This matters a lot. I have a pretty good digital front end setup. I can enjoy it just as much as I enjoy vinyl if the source material is right. 
Looking at your system - MoFi Studio Deck is ok. Not going to deliver the best possible vinyl experience. Hana SL - good cartridge and can most likely get you more out of your vinyl mounted on a better table. 
I used to run MoFi UltraDeck with Hana ML into Sutherland 20/20 Mk2 LPS. It was alright but nothing special compared to the Bricasti M3 DAC I had at the time. I sold that analog set up to up my digital game. 
I have a much better setup now for streaming but I was curious what a better table can do. Got a VPI Prime X with Hana ML and Whest Two.2 phono stage. And that’s when it just kicked my butt.

With streaming I got to a point where my listening habits have changed so much that I enjoyed music less and was skipping thru songs satisfying my curiosity about how a particular track would sound thru this excellent digital rig. Add to this all the network tweaks to reduce noise and jitter. Evaluate it all using same playlist. Skip thru songs and check how things sound. And yeah sounds amazing. But with vinyl I put on my favorite album and I listen start to finish, it draws me in and it changed my listening habits, bringing my focus back to music. 
I’m very pickup of the vinyl I buy. I almost never buy digitally remastered stuff except when I’m really curious how it would sound, get disappointed in most cases. 
 

Playing Black Sabbath vinyl first album Rhino HiFi done by Kevin Gray, the sound is so raw and so realistic, I just can’t stream this lifeless remastered version of this album. No joy. I was blasting this on vinyl late at night that my kids and my wife were texting me threatening messages describing in great detail what they will do to me if I don’t lower the volume. If I was streaming this, I’d be done listening to this album in under 5min. So yeah to me vinyl is awesome. You just need the right source material and the equipment to showcase it. 
 

But…I do enjoy streaming as well. So don’t misunderstand me…it comes down to preference, mood, source material and equipment. Both can be amazing - try to enjoy the music. That’s what’s it’s about!

I’m sorry, but I am so tired of statements like”…except with some old die hards that are romantically attached or like some old recordings not available in the millions available in streaming is over.”  I am not romantically attached to vinyl. I just think it sounds better than streaming. The condescension and arrogance in such statements is offensive. 

Bang for the buck, digital is better -- although you could spend house money on digital, too.

I have heard vinyl's ultimate (or near ultimate) pinnacle of sound quality, with reference level equipment, playing cherry-picked pressings, and nothing digital has been its equal.

In fairness to digital, I have never heard a Wadax front-end, or an MSB Technology Sentinel front-end.  But it would probably take such competition to outshine what I have heard from vinyl.

My digital sounds very good (with the right files).  And my vinyl sounds very good (with the right pressings).

Which one is the winner?  It is kind of like comparing flavors of ice cream.

In my case, I give my vinyl the edge.  When I listen to my best digital, I ask myself "What could possibly sound better?".  Then I play one of my white hot stamper pressings, and it has a way of totally engulfing and enveloping me.

The best digital that I have heard leaves a sense of "Hey, look how real and natural I sound" (and it does sound real and natural).  But with the best vinyl, nothing sounds like it is trying to prove anything.  It sounds the way it sounds, just because it does (if that makes any sense).

So I have skin in the game as I have owned the same Linn LP12 turntable for more years than I care to recall. It has evolved and been improved so much over that time to a point where it can go toe to toe with most any turntable. I will never sell it and I am glad that I was able to keep and selectively add to my vinyl collection over the years.

I have also been enjoying digitally delivered music from my Lumin X1 streamer. I have taken care of most all the added housekeeping issues by connecting it to the world via High Quality optical isolation etc.

My turntable in cost terms is near enough on par with the streamer.

I enjoy both formats but for me it is not possible to say one is better or worse than the other. It is a different experience. Of course, the streamer is Uber convenient and invites you to follow a winding river bank you’ve not travelled before (excuse the metaphor) In doing so I have found brilliant artists and music I would probably never have been exposed too. It is also capable of extraordinary sound quality, which really can startle you, even when casually listening.

I would say of my turntable that although it can offer spontaneity of selection, is a completely different listening experience. I find myself flicking through albums in an analogue way and comparable to the way we swipe and scroll digitally. The experience diverges somewhat once an album is selected.

The mechanics of getting to the point of “needle drop” is a more considered process and does have a psychologically involving effect. For very obvious reasons, it makes little sense to listen to a track then take off the album for another. So, it compels you to relax and really listen to the full album as the artist often intended. Sometimes you realise the track or tracks you weren’t that fond of, now appeal and others you were drawn to, not so much. And sometimes listening to a complete album is a special, almost a religious experience.

Now to the meat of it, which sounds best?

Sorry to disappoint and I’m not trying to “cop out” but each can sound sublime and conversely both can sound pretty damn awful.

Again, we come back to mastering, engineering and the massive influence of these studio skills which can elevate your experience or leave you utterly bereft.

I don’t often do comparisons but I have done a few lately, more because I happen to have great copies on vinyl and Hi Quality streams of the same music.

A couple of recent examples to illustrate. I have the recent One-Step Capital AAA vinyl pressing of “Lionel Ritchie – Can’t Slow Down”. The stream when compared, did and doesn’t sound bad until I then played the vinyl, not only can it not compete in any way with this vinyl release, it is a totally different experience.  Its not close, the vinyl is vastly superior sonically and far more engaging to listen to. Incidentally even if Lionel Ritchie is not your bag and you have a good vinyl playback system, you may well find this is one of the best sounding records you will have in your collection.

I could say the same for most but not all UHQR vinyl recordings I think of Steely Dan, Gaucho, Aja and The Royal Scam, the streams of which sound ok until you compare with the vinyl.

Its not by any stretch all one way, I have many 100’s of tracks in my collection on Tidal, which make me believe my hearing just returned to a time when I was teenager. It can really be astonishing and breathtakingly great.

I think there is also another curved ball to consider. I like many, use Tidal often and Qobuz less so. Both platforms profess to make no changes to the files they upload although tidal do apply a normalization if required. Qobuz is always bit perfect up to 24/192.

However, it is clear to me that many CD quality Flac’s where you were hoping they would sound great, can and often do sound pretty awful. This I believe has more to do with the label who may send “upsampled” or “brick-walled” masters and so the end user, especially on the systems of probably most, if not all of this forum members, hear just that, a flawed substandard copy.

Many masters which were subjected to the CD loudness wars would also have been uploaded to both platforms and you cannot expect a silk purse from a sows ear. In addition, at least on tidal would have inevitably piqued the interest of the tidal “Luff policing” algorithm, resulting in the same experience as many disappointing compressed wall of sound listening experiences.

So, I am happy I didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water, as my much-evolved Lin LP12 is as relevant and vital to my music enjoyment as it has ever been. My streamer has added almost infinite choice but even more variable sound quality. This is not the fault of the streamer or even the platforms especially Qobuz and Tidal who can only upload what is provided by the labels. It is a consequence of the wrecking ball that record company accountants swung through dynamic recordings in favour of ours is louder on radio etc.. Consequently, the Labels ruined more than a decade and probably the heyday of CD recordings with super compression and loudness.

Vinyl hasn’t escaped this music adulteration at source and of course I know Vinyl has often been polluted by what amounts to CD to vinyl fakery and is often far worse than poor streams. This along with poor first-time buyers’ turntables, which are a nightmare to navigate even as an experienced vinyl user such as myself when giving advice to vinyl curious friends and acquaintances who ask.

So I must conclude by saying, there is no one winner here, but at least for me, having a really great streamer properly connected and isolated from RF / EMI etc.. has been an eyeopener in so many ways but it has also re-affirmed my love of vinyl playback and now I have two different but complementary ways of enjoying Music, which in my opinion the greatest most positive invention of human Kind......

OK if I absolutely had to, I would say the most enjoyable listen has been on vinyl and the most astonishing listen has been the streamer, especially with things like Sea wall off the Hans Zimmer soundtrack of blade runner 2049 and also because I don’t have them on vinyl, Saint-Saëns- Danse Macabre and Fink Trouble’s what your in (Live). Wowser!

I just upped my vinyl side big time.   When I don't have a lot of time I will stream.  When I have a few hours to kill it's usually LPs , maybe some CDs 

I love streaming,  it's actually a good deal.   But I like to own my favorite music.   

Last month we lost power for a day and a half.   I am the only house on this street with a generator.   

I fired that thing up and played records and CDs all day as my neighbors were all in the dark.