Why are so many people spending so much money to build “perfect” streaming system?

@mikelavigne  first post says it all.

And one can make setup simple or complex, spend a lot or not so much. You can get damn nice sound quality with lower expenditures, spending more gives marginal increases, and then one may get past this certain plateau of marginal increases to where sound quality goes into revelatory territory.

I have well over 3.5k physical cd media, around 3.5k vinyl and even with this relatively large collection streaming has so far much more to offer, I've found SO MUCH new wonderful music! I'd have to spend multiples of $10k on physical media to match whats in my streaming libraries. And I can play all this music in stream of consciousness mode, I love all genres of music and playing a particular track may bring to mind another completely unrelated track in totally different genre, its like my own personal radio station attuned directly to my mood, and this with SQ that competes with the best of best vinyl setups I've heard in over thirty years involvement with high end audio.

IME, there is no longer any reason to even start a physical media collection, just go straight to streaming, don't divide your expenditures over various sources, you'll get to great destination sooner than later with this focus.

Do you like classical music? How many recordings of Wagner’s Ring Cycle do you have? I have 5. Can you get 5 different recordings on ANY streaming platform?

@laoman

i listen to 70% classical. there are dozens of recordings of most any classical composition. unlimited access to classical.

Tidal is very good for classical. Quboz is the best for classical since it has higher resolution files, whereas Tidal uses MQA. personally i prefer the naked higher rez. but 16/44 streaming files can sound fantastic. either one can take you a long way with classical.

i own 12,000 Lps, of which 5000 are classical. 3500 CD’s, one third classical. but most of my classical listening is streaming.

i have a few ’Ring’ recording on Lp. i’m not home right now, so off the top of my head i can’t recall which they are. i enjoy Opera but really don’t know it.

@walkenfan2013 -- just to add one comment -- are you unaware of the amount of money that can be spent on turntables and phono preamps for LP playback? You can easily exceed $100K for a turntable if you wish. Same thing for CD players -- you can spend tens of thousands, and that's without going to a separate DAC.

With audio, as with almost any hobby, you can get as carried away as your urges and budget permit. But you can put together an eminently enjoyable streaming system for no more than you'd spend on an equivalent level vinyl or CD setup.

I got out of work early....   listened to a crappy car stereo all day.    First thing I did was fire up my system to decompress a little.   I'm listening to a Playlist that my Aurender compiled of tracks I chose on Qobuz,  Tidal, and some tracks on its internal SSD.   It plays them all from different sources seamlessly.  

Its an amazing machine ,  it takes the "computer" out of computer audio

Album Art,  Track names , and transport keys on the front panel are a huge plus 

I love this thing ......   if there was ever a purchase that I almost didn't make , that turned out to be one of the best ever, this is it

@walkenfan2013 

I agree with many contributors here. The point is not about how much money is spent, or can be spent, but how little that can be spent and how that will open up a world that is so enjoyable. 

Until around 4 years ago, I avoided streaming in my system. Then I bought a new system and chose streaming as my only listening avenue (I still have an Oppo 105; it rarely gets used, but when it does, it is for watching movies). I find no need to play CDs or other physical media as the sound quality from streaming is so good; it becomes addictive and I've made small sound-quality leaps a long the way with my streaming system and am contemplating going all in because I want to get to what I feel my endgame can be. The pleasure that it brings is a blessing. Please don't wait or wonder, just give it a try. For the cost a CD a month, you'll have access to most of the music in the world. No, the music services may not have everything by every conductor or all of an artists work, but with the sheer amount of music available, you'll be able to explore at will. Good luck in your journey.