Listening Habits: Streaming Subscription vs buying digital media
 

Do you have a favorite streaming service? Do you still buy CD’s ? I have not bought any digital media in years and never listen to my cd’s anymore. Curious what your listening habits are ?

I have bought physical media (vinyl, CD, SACD) in the last year. I stream via Tidal. The CDs are ripped and saved to my Roon system for ease of use via lossless transfer. We also have Spotify for the family.

I still buy vinyl regularly (maybe too regularly). I stream via Qobuz but buy the download if I really like something. I only buy silver discs to rip if that's the only format something is available in.

I listen to a mix of PCM and DSD files ripped from discs and tracks streamed from Qobuz.The ripped file library is presently over 3100 albums. If there's something I find I particularly like on Qobuz, I'll usually buy the disc of that, rip it (using XLD) and add it to the library of ripped files.

I'm still about 85% physical media, part of that is that I do have space and have always been somewhat of a collector. I struggled with this when I completed my dCS Rossini stack, I spent a bit of time going back and forth, comparing streaming from Qobuz and Tidal to CDs and SACDs in my collection. Discs (and vinyl) was pretty much the winner about 98% of the time. I do stream to check out new music and to listen to stuff that I'm not that excited about buying but anything that I really like, I go ahead and order the disc. That being said, I already had a fairly large vinyl and disc collection, I'm not sure I would say the same if I was just starting out. Streaming for the most part is very very good.

- Buck

I would agree, Buck, that I find the (ripped) disc of an album sounds better than the same album streamed via Qobuz.

Kind of a coincidence here, just yesterday, I was taking a look at a few classical labels that I really like, Hyperion and Channel Classics. Both offer downloads of high res 24/96 and 24/192 files on most of their releases. Anyway, I was curious just how close if not better their high rez downloads are compared to their CDs. I downloaded a 24/96 file of a Brahms string quartet and a 24/192 file of a new Stephen Hough Schubert piano disc, both from Hyperion. Loaded them onto a USB stick back into the Rossini. I compared the physical 16/44.1 CDs to the downloaded files. It was VERY VERY close, I spent about an hour listening and gathering some thoughts.....in the end the CD upsampled to DSD by the Rossini transport bettered the high rez files, but it was extremely close. I could hear slightly more texture, just a touch more realism from the discs. It's pretty hard to draw specific conclusions here since there are so many filters I could have tried, including upsampling to DXD. Anyway, point is, if I have the room and the disc costs the same as the files, I guess I might as well buy the discs I suppose.

- Buck

Interesting comparison Buck. I have a lot of DSD and hi-res pcm downloads from Channel and Hyperion, which sound very good to me, but have no disc player to make that kind of comparison. Almost makes me want to get a disc player...almost.

Buck,
Thanks for your post. I have a number of different resolutions for files, 16/44, 24/88, 24/96, and 24/192 and 64X DSD (no "super-hi res" DSD), and I've found that the quality of the mastering matters more than anything else, hands down.

The very best-sounding digital recordings I have unequivocally are the XRCD24 Audio Wave Blue Notes re-mastered by Alan Yoshida, and they are all "just" 16/44.

I read a comment by an digital audio music reviewer once that if Alan Yoshida had mastered everything ever done in digital, we would never need "all that other stuff", namely 24/88, 24/96, and 24/192 and whatever-X DSD. And, I agree.

Cheers.

I am 100% physical media here, CD, XRCD (incl XRCD2 and XRCD24), K2HD, MQGCD, Bluspec2, UHQCD, SHM-CD, SHM-XRCD, SHM-SACD and SACD. Extensive library here and I have not/will not stop buying physical media as that not only gives a sonic result I strongly prefer after hearing a large number of systems using the various approaches at their best, it also benefits the artists themselves more in the long run.