CD or Streaming... am I missing out?

CD for SQ, in my opinion, but also for owning music. Check out Ted Gioia's video on this question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmm1yq5Q4FE

I love having records and cd's, and there will be times where I rearrange, spend time reading liner notes again, or even stumble into things I've forgotten about. There's something important to me about the physical nature of the media. Streaming is great; it's convenient, it gives you opportunities to discover new things, and it can sound great. But I have a decent enough DAC and CDT that the better sound is here.

And I love shopping for used cd's and (mostly) new records. It's about all I've done outside the house since COVID hit.

 

Another point in favor of Streaming superiority is mobility. If you have latest phone in pair with DAC like Audiquest DragonFly Cobalt and nice pair of headphones, you can take your High Res music to your walk, workout, trip, work and other activities. I have this setup besides home system and very happy with it.

Mglik, get your self a new Grace Digital Link internet radio off Amazon for $159. I just got one last week and it is fantastic for a cheap but good streamer. It does hi-res as well if you ever need or want it. It has a coax digital out so it hooks up easily to your dac that you love. To me, this thing is the best cheap option out there and it works flawlessly. It sees my wifi and locks onto it immediately. It also does blue tooth to and from (to BT headphones) and has Chromecast built in. The included built in apps are pandora, iheart, and a few others, as well as thousands of internet radio stations. It will also do Amazon unlimited (there are plans on including Amazon HD in future firmware updates). So far I’m loving it.

Try plugging your office system into your computer to start. (I assume you have a computer in your office.) If you have a laptop or desktop, you should have at least USB out. The MacBook 3.5mm connection doubles as optical out. And a windows desktop may have USB, optical, and coax outputs. You may have options.

I recommend trying the free trials for Tidal, Qobuz, and Amazon high res. By the time you've exhausted the free trials, Spotify may have released it's CD quality tier. Spotify was far superior in its user interface when I ran my experiment. I currently use Qobuz for it's sound quality, but I'll be switching back to Spotify as soon as that CD quality tier launches. I used Spotify for about a 5-year period. The curated and rotating playlists, ability to discover new music, content layout, and access to content makes it the best. I find that Qobuz routinely lacks content I want to hear and doesn't help me to find the content I'd like to discover. 

Also, there's a social media element to Spotify. When you want to share songs with friends and family and you send them a link, the recipient is most likely to have Spotify account. 

I use both, CD and streaming and I have the Oppo BD 105 blu ray player and the Audiolab 6000N streamer with DTS Play Fi that gives me great convenience and access to many music apps Most of the time I'm using Qobuz and really enjoy discovering new artists that I've never heard before ( l live a sheltered life) and also hearing artists I've know for decades but don't have their CD
To improve the sound quality  l have the Exogal Comet plus external DAC and bypass the internal DAC in the Audiolab