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Help for an Old School Audiophile

I'm 56 and I've been in this hobby since the early 80's and have a modest system and have amassed a collection of about 1500 LPs, 500 cds, and 400 cassettes.  Between two different older hard drive tower cases I have probably about 10,000+ songs on iTunes and I keep those tower cases around thinking one day I'd like to put those songs on a cloud - although I totally don't know what that entails.  I have the free Pandora on my iPhone and still regularly listen to FM radio and have an aversion to paying for satellite radio when there are good stations in the Philadelphia market that I listen to.

Last week, I went into a local hifi shop and listened to a bookshelf pair of powered Dynaudio speakers that you could hook a laptop up to but also had RCA outputs to hook up a phono preamp to and the salesman was playing music thru his phone.  He had Tidal and also mentioned other names that I forgot the name of.  When I saw what he could do thru his phone, it kind of made me feel a little foolish for having all of these albums, tapes, and cds.

I don't watch a lot of tv these days except for sports and I'm amazed at how my 24 year old daughter can watch all this stuff with Netflix and by streaming stuff and I'm still paying lots more each month for cable.

I'm not gonna go out and change it all tomorrow or the next day but I guess my questions are this:

1.  What's the best way to get educated about all of the different options that I have?
2.  With regard to all the music on iTunes that I have, is it better and more cost effective to put that music on a cloud or should I just subscribe to Spotify, Tidal or some other music format and just throw out the old tower cases?
3.  Can I assume that most people who have music servers are using that for music in lieu of actual music collections?  Or do most people have both?  
4.  If I were going to one day purge my collections but still wanted access to all the music I have now, what would be a good - modest - step by step game plan?  
5.  Is it better to get a USB turntable or analog to digital converter and start converting my LPs to computer files or is that a waste of time?

The actual collections and all the gear can take up a little room, but they are cool to look at too.... on the other hand, having the extra space and being a minimalist has it's own merits.  I'll never own a kindle either :)

BTW:  (My current system consists of:  Tandberg 3012 int amp, Thorens TD125 mk II turntable, Kyocera D-811 cassette deck, Harman Kardon TD302 cassette deck, Creek CAS3140 tuner, Oppo DV970 cd/dvd player, Fostex B-100 BH speakers, custom 45 SET tube int amp)

Thank you in advance for all of your kind comments and suggestions, 
Lou


128x128lou_setriodes
mlsstl
1,438 posts
 
I digitized my CDs (and LPs and open reels) and moved my collection to a server years ago, long before any of the streaming services were available. I now either stream from my own collection (about 60,000 tracks) or Qobuz. I don't even have a turntable, tape deck or CD player attached to my system. I used a Raspberry Pi as a streamer into my Bel Canto integrated amp with its own DAC.

If I had to redo the whole process these days, I would have converted far fewer albums in my collection since the majority of the standard-issue commercial stuff is readily available from the streaming services.

However, there is one caveat -- if there are rarities in your collection, you'll still want to convert those. My open reel collection contained a number of albums that were never commercially released and others that have been out-of-print for a long, long time. So, check your collection for items like that and rip anything that isn't available from your streaming service. USB thumb drives can store an enormous amount of data so you may not even need to rip things to a hard drive.
sar67's avatar
sar67
31 posts
 

Hello Lou-Setriodes,

I, too, am an old-schooler!  I do not have a solution for your question, but a question myself. May I ask for your expertise and guidance? ow can I connect my music collection on a FLAC USB to my pre-amp listed here? My sound system is an early 80s ‘stack’ system.

None of the components are digital: Bryston 2B solid state amp, Conrad-Johnson PV-11 pre-amp, MIT 330 interconnects, MusicWave phase-equalized speaker cables, California Audio Labs CD Alpha and Delta drive, Dual 1129 turntable. B&W 803 speakers.

I would appreciate your suggestions and guidance on the matter.Thank you.

Mark Saracino


lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
687 posts
 
Hi Mark,
I have no idea, I’m too old school to answer this question.  I hope someone else who is reading this can answer your question.  That sounds like a nice system you have, hope you can get some guidance here.
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes OP
687 posts
 
Update:  it’s 4 years later, I turned 60 a month ago, and the system has morphed into the following:
Fleawatt preamp
http://fleawatt.blogspot.com/2020/10/kenny-burrell-5670-tube-buffered-volume.html
Fleawatt amp
http://fleawatt.blogspot.com/2020/10/strayhorn-tpa3116d2-amplifier-available_17.html
Cambridge Audio Azur 840 cd player
Ariston RD80sl TT/Jelco arm/Grado cart
Nakamichi DR2 cassette deck
NAD 4300 tuner
TDL RTL2 speakers

The CD player has 2 extra DAC inputs.  Can I get a streamer and hook it up into the back of the Cambridge Audio and use that DAC or do I need some other piece of equipment?  I still have Spotify Premium on an old iPhone & Ipad too.

thanks!
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,520 posts
 
Word of advice; Keep your original media. As the digital world changes, you’ll still have your master media. I still have my 60s LPs, you can never tell what is going to be preserved for the future or not. 
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