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Any way to listen to wav or high bit files with anything approaching audiophile sound?

Forgive the question, but this is my first time posting on Audiogon in a few years and I'm not up on some of the latest technology.  I'm doing a project where I'm going through as much music as possible for a blog I'll be creating where I find my 1,000 favorite albums of all time and ranking them.  I'm most of the way through my thousands of CD's (don't do LP's), and I have decent audiophile equipment, though nothing top of the line.

For other music, I'm going to have to listen to it online or purchase a digital version of the music, as there's no way I can afford to buy thousands more cd's, or they're out of print on cd's (as much of the music I love that I don't have is somewhat obscure), or they never existed on cd.  Some albums I know I won't be able to find. 

First off, is there a way to legally find more obscure albums online other than illegal downloading? 

Secondly, is there ANY way to listen to said music in anything remotely approaching audiophile sound quality?  Does it have to be a certain file type or bit rate?  I've always stayed away from digital files in the past, but now I kind of need them.  Is there some kind of audiophile digital storage device where I can download music to and play it on my stereo system?  I'm pretty ignorant about these things, so again forgive me, and any help would be appreciated.  I don't expect the music to sound quite as high fidelity as using cd's on audiophile equipment, but what are my options to get as close as possible?
soulgoober
graphicalone
4 posts
 
What a funny thread. Being tech heads, we're debating the quality of the streamer/DAC when we all know the source quality is most likely the limiting factor. For context, I'm listening to Bria Skonberg's COVID concert from Louis Armstrong's garden on Cal Performances' concerts at home series. I have no idea what the bitrate is or even what transport Cal Performances is using, but boy am I enjoying this concert.

For the OP, here's a possible decision tree:
  • Where are you finding the majority of your music? I'm a Qobuz guy and it's very good, but a lot of obscure stuff is not on Qobuz (or Tidal or Amazon HD). If you find what you want here, then by all means, spend some money on a decent streamer.

But, if you find most of it:
  •   On YouTube (highly likely), then the quality is going to be all right. Turn on your computer and get a $99 DAC like the EarStudio and plug it in to your preamp or get some nice headphones. Enjoy the music!
  •   On Spotify or Hoopla, same thing.

These sources are all going to give you compressed music. It's adequate to stir old memories and warm feelings. But if you're looking for more obscure than YouTube (Good luck!)

  • On CD's you find on eBay or at the Salvation Army, use your CD player. An upgraded DAC will make you happier with all your CDs if you can hear the difference, but I wouldn't spend $500 on the DAC unless you have a system that magnifies the bad stuff. A lot of (not all - check audiosciencereview.com if you want graphs) the $100-$300 DACs are quite good.
  • On HDTracks for sale, you can buy some really nice recordings, but the selection is limited. Most of the older stuff is in CD quality. There are other places where I've found really beautiful recordings, but you're not likely to find an obscure album from 1977. Same hardware rule applies, because you're limited by source quality. A better DAC than your CD transport (we don't know what it is) is probably going to help.
  • There will be a lot more music for sale on Amazon than will be available for streaming. The quality will probably be CD.
I think your project sounds like great fun and I have a friend who is doing the same thing during Covid. He's posting alphabetically so we can follow him. He really,really enjoyed "B" and all his old Bob Dylan and Beatles records. Most of the things we're blowing the dust off of won't be pristine and that's part of the joy of rediscovering it.
PS: it's very tempting to plug a Chromecast Audio into your new DAC and sit in your chair with your laptop and cast the music to your stereo. Unfortunately, Google's implementation of Chrome browser -> Chromecast Audio is remarkably bad. Same thing's somewhat true of Apple's airplay and bluetooth. I use my Android phone or my iPad and Chromecast audio and I've been much happier.  But most of all, enjoy the journey!
richtruss
163 posts
 
I think the Bricasti M5 offers terrific value for money, I use it with BubbleUPNP.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
Unfortunately this project is flawed and doomed to failure.

Having searched quite a few sources, the consensus seems to be that around 50,000 albums and singles were released each year until the streaming era when the figure has risen to at least 100,000, some say millions - it must be a lot more than 100,000.

So, going back to say 1945, and allowing streaming at only 100,000 for ten years, that's a bottom estimated total of 3,600,000, probably many more.

Listening 12 hours a day he might cover 100,000 in a year, assuming a substantial proportion of singles.  So let's hope soulgoober is young, although I will be 107 when he finishes.  Happy listening!

Perhaps I will just use the Rolling Stone list.
jgueron's avatar
jgueron
20 posts
 
I produce a weekly radio program of World Music and YouTube has become an invaluable tool to discover music! Even from obscure composers like Gurdjieff.  Do not laugh, the quality of sound depends on how it was recorded and filmed.
For pleasure, I have connected my Roku to a DAC connected to my preamp the results are surprising!  
Another great resource are the web instances of British magazines dedicated to music! In my case I subscribe to Songlines, a magazine dedicated to World music. Every issues has a compilation CD or two that you can download. The same publisher produces Gramophone, if you are into Classical music it’s a most!  Where else you will find “Top 10 Berlioz Recordings”  

if you use DuckDuckGo as a search engine you will find 40 plus uS magazines and blogs dedicated to Rock, Independent music and much more

The world is full of music and an incredible effort to digitize it and 
Make it available on line is fantastic Just visit the Library of Congress and even your local public library you will be surprise what gems you will find! 
And of course you could listen to my weekly radio program 🙄😊

I hope this was helpful

PS I do have a Node 2i and I am very happy with it
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 
Just get a topping bc3 bluetooth module, a v90 dac by musical fidelity, and a samsung galaxy tab a 10.5 and be happy. Streaming on the cheap and it all works flawlessly. No need to buy expensive streamers etc..the tablet has Qualcomm’s aptx and Sony’s ldac. Get amazon hd music free for 90 days to try out. You would be amazed how nice this bluetooth topping bc3 sounds. Yea, it can be bettered, but at what cost? I’m a casual streamer, so this set up works great for my purposes. The only accessory I  needed to buy to make it all work was a toslink cable, mini to full toslink. Unbelievably simple. The only issue is that samsung pulled aptx hd from the bluetooth codec menu, however Ldac is still usable. Even at the lower resolution codec settings, it still sounds wonderful to me.
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