Sound Quality or Convenience?


OK, asking this question to audiophiles might seem inane, but I have read enough threads (not to mention For Sale ads!) that make me think that we sometimes feel ok sacrificing sound at the altar of convenience.

Would like to hear your experiences, along with perhaps some theoretical quantification... such as how much SQ can be let go for how much convenience, etc. For those who chose this path, was it a keeper or did you want that SQ so much you went back to it?

My own is a probably a familiar one: Maggie 3.6, which were not just visually er, challenging, but also required a lot of work to yield that magic. I gave up on the magic in favor of much easier speakers, and then did it again a couple of years later. I now own Zu Druids, which are as diametrically opposite to Maggies os one can get. They look and sound great (to my ears, this is NOT repeat NOT a Zu thread) and are easy to work with in terms of space, weight and amplification.
kck
How many folks would consider buying a preamplifier (or linestage) without a remote control? Not necessarily full function but volume and/or mute capabilities. Like air conditioning, it's hard to give up once you've had it.
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I think you can easily have both. Digital technology and SS electronics have brought us both excellent sound quality and convenience.

I do not miss hours spent cleaning LP's with cleaning fluids and static brushes...not one tincy wincy little bit. Or hours spent searching for Japenese pressings because US versions were often woefully poor. A CD is a CD is a CD and if it has the same bits on it then it all sounds the same whereever it was made....even one burned from my harddrive.

Nor do I miss messing around with CD Jewel cases...the electronics and servos in a CD Mega changer take care of all that whilst my Mac lets me browse, select, stagger, shuffle and cue music from the CD mega changers with no hassles. One day I will rip teh CD's to a harddrive....just waiting until hardrives get big enough to do that cost effectively and without compression.
Shadorne - I don't know how big your music collection is, but I have to believe hard drives are big enough now to do that now. WMA files in lossless compression get you approximately 2:1 compression. At 300 CDs per 100Gb and 500Gb drives costing $250, it only costs about $500 to store a 3000 CD collection on a music server.

Couple that with removing the need for a transport and being able to use a USB DAC and you've got both convenience and, likely, the best sound quality from your CDs you've ever enjoyed. I have a little small-form-factor PC that is ultra quiet (no fan), with two external HDs (1TB storage) also ultra quiet, all controllable through a flexible and intuitive user interface I can operate from my laptop anywhere in the house. I don't think I've sacrificed much, if anything, in sound quality to get ultra-convenience, at least for red book source material.
SQ almost definatly,

I recently setup a music server using a Roku soundbridge and my dac. It is great having the convience I will admit. BUT I had to go and put Celin Dion Falling Into You on the hard drive and sit down to do some critical listening. I noticed the bass was a little shy and the highs seemed a little bright. I have tried three different digital cables to help aleviate this situation to no avail.

So I am back to my transport and dac for critical listening.

Although I don't listen to my vinyl that much it is still a pleasure and definatly not convient.

Michael