I Sold my CD Player!!! Streaming sounds so incredible!!!

I haven't played CDs in a long time, but I still buy CDs very often. 

I bought a Aurender N150 a couple years ago and it is excellent, but the reason I went with Aurender over Roon was the built in hard drive.

I have Qobuz and use it sometimes, but I mostly listen to my music library which is CDs ripped in WAV format onto the built in solid state hard drive. Streaming sounds pretty good and the Hi Res stuff is above the regular CD quality streams... BUT my ripped music library on the internal hard drive absolutely blows away anything on Qobuz... Often when I hear a new album or artist I discover on Qobuz I will buy the CD and add it to my collection..

Well, business models have never favored vast majority of artists, musicians. Until the day comes they can leverage their art it will never happen.

I'm sure most popular artists would prefer a system where they and their record company could monopolize their hard copy. Again, I return to the more obscure artists who'd never have the resources to press, market and distribute their music to the vast public.

I'd also posit streaming is a more democratic system in regard to bringing far more music to the public than would exist otherwise. Keeping in mind some artists underpaid, greater affordability of music means poorer folks have access to music they may not have with previous business models.

I well remember the bad old days, when I was young and poor, saving up for the few albums I could afford, the others I desired had to be satisfied listening to radio. Vast majority of stations were tightly programmed, very limited playlists, even the free form FM stations genre specific. Jazz and classical limited to far end of dial, usually with weak signals. Think about how much better the youth have it today, I have budding audiophile nephews who because of exposure via streaming know some of those obscure artists I also enjoy. We also support these artists via attending concerts from time to time. We wouldn't even have heard of these artists without streaming.

in the final analysis its silly to argue about the utility of streaming as it pertains to the distribution and enjoyment of music. At issue is a cost/benefit analysis for artists via past and present business models.There is valid argument vast majority of artists have never been properly paid for their endeavors. I'd just like to know since when has capitalism been fair to vast swaths of the masses. Streaming is here to stay, its up to artists and consumers upset with present streaming models to create a new, fairer business model. Lacking that, artists and consumers have the free choice to contribute and/or consume their music via streaming. Some will boycott streaming, providing absolutely no help to the artists, use your energies coming up with new business model that benefits artists more greatly.

There was a time when it was said that CD is a thing and is here to stay. Streaming will eventually be done away with or relegated to the level that CDs and Vinyl are now enjoying and it will again, be done at the behest of some capitalistic moron out to make a buck at everyone else’s expense.

You can count on it. All they are doing is changing the delivery system, over and over again. The very same mindset gives us remake after remake with movies and reruns on streaming services. Some executives are losing their jobs over that one. It won’t be long before movie studios will be "discovered" and the old ways make a sort of comeback.

Capitalism is not a naturally occurring phenomenon and it all depends on how it’s administered. Debating all of this misses the point, though. The money is already there for the artists, ready to be equitably disbursed. It’s just been siphoned up by higher ups who’ve rigged the system and that is not capitalism by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a legally endorsed theft. They lobbied mightily to have it this way.

All the best,
Nonoise

I've been in the music business in some form either as a successful working musician or live sound engineer for decades. Joined the Honolulu Musicians Union the first time in 1968. There are no "big bucks" available to the vast majority of serious musicians (some orchestra union musicians do OK) in the singer/songwriter/band world. To think there is is delusional. To think there used to be is also delusional...ask Linda Ronstadt...if you manage to get noticed by streaming, again, the value is publicity, and maybe you can get out there and play somewhere...maybe.

In my experience, streamers can be good but don’t engage me as the CD.
Not only for the sound, but for the physical aspect (reading the booklet, collecting and organizing them…), for the simplicity within the system (just plug it to the power, use a pair of interconnects, and that’s it) and last, for the thrill of the hunt (in music stores, discogs, amazon…).

The one streamer that I found pleasing to listen to (for an hour or so) was very complex and expensive system with several boxes. Side by side, a good CD player (much more affordable) was equal in sound quality - it was the Marantz SA-KI Ruby.