Streaming vs Physical Media

Another plug for Qobuz  A few minutes ago, I had a hankering to hear Eric Clapton-led, original Brit super-group Cream's first single "I Feel Free." Knowing that my British pressing of Fresh Cream did not contain the cut (it has a marvelous studio recording of Spoonful instead), I searched for the 45 I knew I had. No dice. It seems to have disappeared. So I cued up Qobuz and, sure enough, not only did they have the exact cut I craved to hear, it sounded as good as I've ever heard it.

I became an "audiophile" in 1968 when all I knew was that a very good system would enhance my love of  "listening to music". Hence, over the years, I have collected 6000 LPs, 4000 silver discs, and a few dozen cassettes. In addition I have perfected my streaming setup to reside as an equal to the physical media. I also use a tuner.

Any of the above formats, excluding cassettes and tuner with their obvious limitations, offer a wide range of sound quality. Take CD, which can sound from sublime to absolute digital screech!?! LPs, from sublime to noisy, warped, non-concentric, indistinct hash!?! Streaming, from sublime to you have to take what they give you, which is often mediocre and not a lot of fun to listen to!?!

If I was new to the hobby today, would I invest in physical media? Probably, but you have to store it and move it, but you own it!! And hands on has its own tactile joy. An evening playing LPs, with all the steps of flipping and cleaning, and reading album notes, is an evening well spent!!!

@singingg 

  I agree that all these formats, streaming included, have their pros and cons.  Having just had a few days of vacation in a remote area with bad wi fi I was very glad to have 50 or so albums loaded on my phone.  Even in my home I prefer Physical Media slightly for sonics and then minus the WiFi hassles.

@mahler123 Very succinct point. I agree 100%.

There should be no wi-fi hassles. Because for the very best audio everything should be wired (with the exception, of course, of the control tab or phone). Ripped CDs should sound better than CDs on most players and at least as good as CDs on the very best, and very expensive, players.

And as @mahler123  writes, when you are beyond the reach of the internet you can have the media on your phone. Or you can have gigabites of media on a small USB disk in your pocket. You don’t have to carry around a CD player and buckets of disks.