CD music as primary source in 2021. Not sure on Streaming.?

Chumpchops

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Does any one think cd will really die? Vinyl didn’t after 70 years. Don’t artists like releasing cds s they got more money from it then the streaming companies?

 It might remain uncool for a while yet but won’t it still live on decades yet?
Yes CDs will die.  Reason being is that their contents can easily be transferred and the intact files still be listened to on a number of digital destinations and repositories, without changing format.  It irritates some to say, but it is true that CDs only contain little burn marks representing 1s and 0s.    

Whereas there is only one vinyl.

Doubtless CDs will soldier on for a while,  Until declining volumes close the last factory.  

I still do buy a few CDs but rip them straight away and ditch them.

I’d rather buy a FLAC download, add it to my music library,  and then be free to place it on any medium that suits my listening purpose.   You can still burn a CD if you wanted.

 

JANDL100

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Qobuz Favourites - there is a cogwheel icon, I tap that and get 3 ways to present the albums, including date order and alphabetical by album and artist. 

 
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simon g

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Qobuz Favourites - there is a cogwheel icon, I tap that and get several ways to present the albums, including date order and alphabetical by artist. 
It depends on how you access Qobuz. This feature is not available within the Auralic app, for example. I think neither is it with Naim?

I've found one work around, which is to go to the Qobuz web site, change the preferred order there and then the favourites list will appear in that order next time you log on with the Auralic app. It's a major, well known, PITA though. Qobuz needs to sort it. I'm running Tidal and Qobuz at present; I suspect I'll stay with Tidal, but SQ with Qobuz is a noticeably better to me, but their catalogue is limited and has holes in some artist's catalogues.

 

oxymoron

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I won't multie quote all the posts about issues with filtering and searching libraries on Qobuz. Over the last couple of days I have been learning more on Roon and it turns out it has some excellent abilities to search, make tags, use tags and bookmark search criteria so the same criteria is instantly applyable by clicking the bookmark.

I cannot describe it better than this video does:



Im going to follow this video and apply it to my limited collection. So when I expand my library by adding Qobuz or local flac albums they will be properly tagged and appear in my defined bookmarks!

This sounds fantastic and is half the problem that put me off and by reading a lot of your comments is similar issues with other non-Roon apps.

Worth a view I think either way.

 
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hearhere

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The part in bold sadly isn't generally true for the reasons you go on to describe I think (coupled with it rapidly not being a small repertoire!)

The CDs on my shelves I have stored in blocks by type of music and then alphabetically within each. So if, say, I fancy listening to some folk music I have a browse of that section. What I would like is to be able to organise my favourites similarly to enable me to browse amongst them in a similar way but sadly this doesn't seem to be possible. I may be missing something but to me it seems relatively trivial to allow much greater filtering abilities of favourites so I do find this rather frustrating. Sometimes I look at CDs on my shelves to decide what to listen to before then finding it on a streaming service to actually play.
Yes, I store my CDs the same way you do, although I probably have different main sections.  This is how Tower Records, HMV etc present CDs in their stores and makes finding stuff simple.  I reflect this method in my Library in that I have main folders (Classical, World & Weird, etc) as my first filter, then by artist alphabetically by first name in non-classical (Amy Winehouse under A) but classical under Composer by last name.  The classical section in particular needs quite a bit of cut and paste though this is simple using the standard Windows feature.

Someone mentioned that Qobuz offers a Setting to change the order that Favourites are shown in.  That would be great if other apps such as BluOS had access to this feature.  As far as I know it doesn't so all Favourites are listed simply in date-added order - a fat lot of use if you have more than a dozen or so albums listed!   I tend to add just one album of my favourite artists because I can easily find their other albums using BluOS.  I've never even considered ;looking at the Qobuz app - in fact I was unaware there was one!  I'll take a look to see if I can change the Favourites order setting.  Hopefully once done, new albums added via BluOS will go in alphabetically.

I have written to Bluesound asking for this ability and to be able to copy & paste convoluted artist names that one may read about into BluOS Search, or even out of BluOS into something like All Music.  Also to be able to edit an accumulated playlist that includes albums with 24 tracks that one realised after pressing the Add button you don't like.  At present each track needs to be deleted individually.  Why can't the standard Windows feature of marking lots of random tracks (or a block) of unwanted stuff be used to delete all unwanted tracks in one go?  Peter

 

MartinC

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I tend to add just one album of my favourite artists because I can easily find their other albums using BluOS.
I tend to save the artist as a favourite to essentially achieve the same thing I think? Not being able to browse artists by genre either means it doesn't help achieve what I'd like though sadly.

 

Heckyman

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Hi all,

Firslty I dont have a huge CD collection, I got my first Hifi system late last year. when I got my used amplifier they have a matching CD player, so I bought them both.

The reason I wanted a system was to escape reality and just relax. My original plan was to go full streaming, I've been running Roon on a monthly subscription for now, with a Qobuz account. I can see the power of Roon but I don't find using it really relaxing. The spotify and Qobuz account, through roon is admittedly fantastic at finding new artists, but then I find myself buying the CD album from Amazon.

I find it much more relaxing just playing CDs, all the Apps and rubbish with streaming just seems to make it more complicated and destracting. I find myself not really listening, I just keep browsing or end up on social media. I never switch off if I keep using PCs, tablets, phone all the time!

Anyone else feel similar?

Am I mad to start buying CDs and building a collection in 2021?

I've not gone down the turntable route as vinyl is expensive and as I was a teenager in the 90s CDs were the thing.
Hi, 

I feel similar, however I find putting my phone/tablet next to my amp removes the temptation to “surf”... 

The great thing in 2021 is that there are so many ways to enjoy so much great music...

 

MartinC

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Having a play with Qobuz on my laptop it is possible to manually create a playlist of, say, favourite folk albums and then using the 'Display as grid' view option these are displayed as just one cover picture per album rather than as all the individual tracks. There is no option to sort this view but I guess it would sort of work for my browsing favourites by category approach.

In Volumio the above view isn't an option though sadly so if I do go down this line I'd have to browse for something to play in one app and then actually search for and play it in another, which is hardly ideal! The view also isn't available in the Android Qobuz app.

It does surprise me that functionality like this is still somewhat clunky given that streaming has been around for a while now.

 

Hifimad1

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I recently thought I would try a file based streaming (from nas) system using a good quality SOtM network adaptor, the best network switch ,chord network cables and a new Benchmark dac3 Dac and roon software and have recently started playing CD’s again via my Wadia 581se CD player.Well after the novelty of the streaming , all I can say is that the CD player sounds better in every aspect of sound quality.I’m both pleased but disappointed at the same time,having spent so much money and effort on the streaming but CD’s are definitely better in my system and by a large margin !

 
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MartinC

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I recently thought I would try a file based streaming (from nas) system using a good quality SOtM network adaptor, the best network switch ,chord network cables and a new Benchmark dac3 Dac and roon software and have recently started playing CD’s again via my Wadia 581se CD player.Well after the novelty of the streaming , all I can say is that the CD player sounds better in every aspect of sound quality.I’m both pleased but disappointed at the same time,having spent so much money and effort on the streaming but CD’s are definitely better in my system and by a large margin !
A quick Google suggests your Wadia has digital inputs? If so have you have you tried streaming whilst using the Wadia as the DAC?

 

Bodgit

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I’ve got the Wadia 861 and it’s works a treat. Digital in perhaps is not quite the quality of the CD transport but it’s negligible.

 

huwge

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None of the digital dacs I’ve been thru come close to giving me the satisfaction I get from my AN dac and so my DS lives in the ‘streaming’ only system in the kitchen/diner

I can, and do use streaming as a source for the AN via the oppo, it’s more than acceptable but to me inferior to it’s use as a transport (this wether using a the cd ‘rip’ or qobuz as a source for comparison)

I did have a dedicated teac transport and though better than the oppo it wasn’t enough to justify the large box it came in! 

 

oxymoron

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None of the digital dacs I’ve been thru come close to giving me the satisfaction I get from my AN dac and so my DS lives in the ‘streaming’ only system in the kitchen/diner

I can, and do use streaming as a source for the AN via the oppo, it’s more than acceptable but to me inferior to it’s use as a transport (this wether using a the cd ‘rip’ or qobuz as a source for comparison)

I did have a dedicated teac transport and though better than the oppo it wasn’t enough to justify the large box it came in! 
What AN dac do you have?

 

huwge

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as per wigwam info

an old DAC 3 which has been back to hq a couple of times for ‘tweaking/servicing’ but not for a good 5 or more years

one caveat, the synergy you get with additional AN components is significant

it’s why I may eventually swap out my much loved orbe for an AN tt

 

CTank

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In my initial years of being into HiFi, I was 100% analogue. This was the turn of the century, so new vinyl was scarce, and 2nd hand was cheap an plentiful.

Fast forward through to 2021, via having three kids, and everything is different. Vinyl prices are criminal, and CD's are given away.

In 2020, I bought my first ever new CD player (well transport), and have started building up a CD collection. New, I'm buying mostly Electronica and Jazz. 2nd hand, it's whatever the charity shops are throwing up (when they're open). Cheapest round here is 4 for a pound. Most expensive a pound each. Can't argue with that, and there's at least half a dozen decent charity shops in shouting distance. It's a golden age for buying CD's.

I do have Spotify for the commute, and wouldn't be without it. But I associate my laptop with work, and really don't want to have a screen on when I'm listening. So no real interest in modernising my streaming options. When I have a chance to listen to music and relax, the last thing I want to be worrying about is software, or broadband strength.

 
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StingRay

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In my initial years of being into HiFi, I was 100% analogue. This was the turn of the century, so new vinyl was scarce, and 2nd hand was cheap an plentiful.

Fast forward through to 2021, via having three kids, and everything is different. Vinyl prices are criminal, and CD's are given away.

In 2020, I bought my first ever new CD player (well transport), and have started building up a CD collection. New, I'm buying mostly Electronica and Jazz. 2nd hand, it's whatever the charity shops are throwing up (when they're open). Cheapest round here is 4 for a pound. Most expensive a pound each. Can't argue with that, and there's at least half a dozen decent charity shops in shouting distance. It's a golden age for buying CD's.

I do have Spotify for the commute, and wouldn't be without it. But I associate my laptop with work, and really don't want to have a screen on when I'm listening. So no real interest in modernising my streaming options. When I have a chance to listen to music and relax, the last thing I want to be worrying about is software, or broadband strength.
Never bought any CDs from a charity shop, not seen anything I want. You don’t need a screen when playing music, I turn my iPad off if I’m not using it, once the music starts. Most of the CDs I have bought recently, the used ones are as much as new. All my listening is streaming now, the choice is huge and many are new albums to me.

 

mr neds

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The problem with all streaming, both audio and video, is if your broadband goes down. Especially during lockdown, it’s been a blessing to have stacks of physical media to hand. There are also times when my chromecast won’t connect, so the same applies.

As I mentioned in another thread, when you’re out for your daily walk, keep an eye out for boxes on walls, with books, dvds and cds being got rid of. Take them home, bung them somewhere to decontaminate for as long as you’re happy with, then enjoy!

 
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