Listening habits.

The fall of cds? 
Listening to albums exclusively?

What are you talking about?

@rvpiano 

I never stopped listening to records, even after the CD craze.  I bought a lot of CDs but always preferred the sound of LP’S.  Until recently.  Now, with my new streamer, the gap between analog and digital sonically has disappeared. But I still listen to records.   Never stopped.

My vinyl/streaming gap has also just closed significantly. In my case, this was due to some rearrangement of the network and upgrading of ethernet cables. These relatively minor changes have taken away an unpleasant edge to the sound of streaming of both local files and Qobuz.

So after a couple of years of complete vinyl domination, I can see me adopting a more balanced approach in future. This would be going back to the way it was before 2019 when I started my vinyl hiatus. Maybe, I have been over compensating for my error of dispensing with vinyl during my wilderness years.

After a vinyl session this afternoon, I have been listening to streaming. A high res rip of Phaedra by Tangerine Dream from the seventies and a couple of recent albums by the appropriately named Modern Nature have proved to be just as engaging as the vinyl albums played earlier. Although in a slightly different way.

I wouldn’t say my love affair with vinyl is ending, but she is no longer my only mistress.

Absolutely worth having both streaming and physical media available for playback. 
New original recordings properly mastered sound amazing on streaming. Older stuff that was remastered is not worth the effort with streaming for the most part. That’s when you play an all analog version of that album on LP and hear it the way it was intended. 

@newton_john thank you! Never heard of Modern Nature. Pretty cool stuff!

@audphile1 

Last year, I attended a presentation by a guy who has been involved in both designing Linn Products and on their recording side. He said that most people would be amazed at how far back in time you have go to get an all analogue album.