What am I missing?

Many good points brought forward in this thread. I’ve never had a vinyl collection worth talking about nor a setup that would make it worth listening to so I ditched it all 30+ years ago and went with CD format. Even today I feel Redbook format is the best- especially when ripped for solid state drive playback.

There have been a few threads in the past couple of days regarding music and its availability, accessibility, how we find it and prefer to use it. In reading these I see how many have/are embracing the world of streaming and although I understand all of the positive points I just can’t get past the sound quality- I don’t feel it’s there regardless of what format it claims to be.

As of today I stream music frequently with my low budget Sonos but that is only for auditioning new stuff to buy. As I don’t want to be totally closed minded to the fact that many others here are really happy with streaming I can’t help but think there must be some combination of equipment that would pull the streaming experience up to that of what I’m using now. But what is that $$ amount? 

Does it take $5K, $10K or is it more like $20K before you reach a level that equals or bests great Redbook playback? I’ve thought about it a lot but I’m just not sure. Maybe that question should become the topic of another thread.

Terrabyte drives have become dirt cheap.

Load from the source of your preference, with the means of choice.

Save the vid/images/lyrics of same with same.

Next itteration of means/media, transfer.

Soon enough, you can 'go to the concert, pick where 'at' it you want, and how you hear it'.

Our era is fading away, as is always the case.

Live the future, live with it...or stay put where you choose.

I prefer to pursue, in the method and means of my choice and costs.

Same deal, different day.... ;)

@whart 

Agree with all you say.  But

"At the same time, we are still enjoying a hi-fi renaissance in our little corner of the universe- more vinyl, turntables, tonearms, cartridges, etc. than ever."

No.  Not more than ever.  in the 50s 60s 70s everyone had a vinyl player and vinyl.  But certainly the most since CDs got embedded in the late 80s.

It is strange the biggest growth in vinyl sales is in the 20-30 age bracket, who spend their lives glued to their handphones, yet many want to listen via a near 100 year old technology.

I’m happily acquiring cds either buying or “mining” at record store thrift shops etc.  I rip them to my nas and they sound great, better than playing the cd itself. I’m not sold on the sound quality or reliability of streaming yet. To me, as long as your paying monthly you have the music. When you quit, your done left with nothing. Renting music. I can’t get past this yet. Maybe I will at some point. Until then my library of cds, XRCDs, sacds, and vinyl expands.

To me, it’s the recording, not the format.  Dynamic, well rendered recordings can be  heard in their glory in 16/44 Redbook CDA, whether streaming or from CD.  Using more data may squeeze a bit more realism out, but mediocre recordings are far more common in general, no matter what the bit rate. One thing I like about Tidal is the opportunity to compare releases of the same album.  Some are far better than others.  Not all Master files are the best ones…