Streaming

At 75 now, I have a hate-hate relatioship with computers. I know I'm not very smart, but computers make me feel even more stupid. The last thing I would ever do would be to have to rely on a computer to listen to the music I love so much.

Not going to subject myself to that self-imposed torture. I will most likely die without ever streaming music, but who knows, you may love it.

Whatever you do, enjoy yourself! Regards,

Dan

It can be brutal. But if you are willing to go through a few headaches, the end result is simply magnificent. I am 68 and I got it done.

You can spread out the expense.  Buy a bliesound.  And a ethernet cord.  Blue jeans cable will make any length and Cat 5-8. I trialed Q buzz against Amazon.  It sounds just as good.  $9 a month.  You can trial as many as you want.  Then, if you like, a separate DAC can be purchased.  Schiit,  TOPPING, Denafrips, are few examples.  You will need a COAX for Bluesound to DAC at that point.  Good luck.  It will be fun going back and listening to the entire album that you haven't heard for years.  Don't shy away from nw music, more talented people than ever.

I bought a used Bluesound NODE 3rd gen and listen to free radio, iHeart and Radio Paradise.  I’m using the built in DAC.  It sounds wonderful!  MUCH better than my CD’s on a high quality player.  

I am a discriminating audiophile with pretty good hearing still, and I am quite happy with my $600 Bluesound Node, without using an external DAC and using wi-fi rather than an ethernet cable.  It was easy to set up the streaming, but you need to control it from a smartphone.  It was far more difficult to get it to connect with the music files on my computer, but I'm guessing that's not a concern for you?

You can plug the Node into your preamp and tape from it just as you would from any other source.  If you want to hear new music or different performances of works you already have, streaming is a great way to do it.  I subscribe to both Tidal and Qobuz for CD-quality or higher-resolution music, with no commercials.  Each has some content the other doesn't have, with Tidal being stronger for popular music.  With streaming you can also have access to hundreds of conventional and internet-only radio stations in any genre you can think of.