Why the joy of physical media in today's streaming world

[edjamesx]

I always keep media on my HTPC and set up media server , so i can seamlessly stream music to any devices at my home. By this way no need to rely on online streaming , and it works flawlessly. And quality also great. Better to get the FLAC format music files for best quality.
Only effort is to build the library and media server setup!.

Using of physical media is good to listen (like CDs) , but pain to use it ..

 

[himadri]

Same experience even if it is streaming from an HDD. I still find CD far more immediate and transparent even when the digital file is HiRez ..

I have been trying out tidalhifi for the last week or so. I already have Spotify. Thanks to the lockdown and new fibre optic network and lakhs of IT professionals working from home , suddenly the band width of the whole country has jumped from 1 Mbps to 100.(I live in a steel township in central India).
I feel , the convenience and large library of hi resolution streaming will eventually finish off CDs. Vinyl will remain though.
The sound quality will however be dependant on the quality of the source equipment and the file.
In my case, my J river, fidelizer, and Wave file based windows laptop still sounds better than my entry level marantz CD player with external DAC.
So far , my J river based windows laptop with tidal hifi can't match either the stored WAV based file or the CD player.
It might be different case with a high quality roon and tidal based streamer though, which in all probability will be the most common type of audiophile digital source in future.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Most significantly , physical media especially vinyls occupy a space and is a great conversation starter , or for that matter , a portal into an era or genre of music which can influence young minds when confronted with it.

True. Many aspects of our lives have transformed from group to the individual pursuits. Socialising itself has changed - while earlier you visited someone with your family, now each one of you visits their social media page separately. The hand-held screen has changed mankind.

 

[Bloom@83]

I’m not on any social media including Facebook and Twitter. Rather I was , gave up on all of them 4 years back and never been better. I guess I’m old school.

Anyway physical media gives me something tangible to hold onto , and makes me actually focus on active listening without multitasking.
Streaming is all about the quantity of music available at the tip of your fingers which somehow diminishes its intrinsic value and almost eliminates the joy of discovery.
Even for movies I prefer downloading stuff and getting Blu Ray discs when I can afford rather than allowing Netflix to dictate my choices and taste.

My personal take on it. Not meant to disparage anyone fully into streaming. To each their own poison.

 

[Sean de Silva]

OT but just to let all of you know that

Dogs have masters..
Cats have slaves

 

[shafic]

why perfectly great sounding systems are swapped so often in the name of a upgrade . Because we get used to the sound and look for change, not necessarily better .

Perfectly said

 

[greenhorn]

Physical media was expensive and incovenient. A cassette cost Rs 125 and a CD cost 600+ - the same 25 years ago as they do today - back when things were a lot more expensive. Today Streaming has made them significantly cheaper, so it's a fun pastime I love to indulge myself, I do not want to go back to the days of starving for weeks to save up my pocket money to have enough to buy a cassette, then hunting all around the city looking for the cassette of a song that came on MTV, having to endure the heartbreak of it being chewed up by my cassette deck or fall prey to fungus.

It's nice to indulge nostalgia. I would leave it there

 

[Bloom@83]

Expensive , yes. Inconvenient- no.
It’s like the ebook vs physical books . Having 20 well worn and read books in the shelves is worth infinitely more than 20gb of epubs and pdfs on Kindle.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Physical media was expensive and incovenient. A cassette cost Rs 125 and a CD cost 600+ - the same 25 years ago as they do today - back when things were a lot more expensive. Today Streaming has made them significantly cheaper, so it's a fun pastime I love to indulge myself, I do not want to go back to the days of starving for weeks to save up my pocket money to have enough to buy a cassette, then hunting all around the city looking for the cassette of a song that came on MTV, having to endure the heartbreak of it being chewed up by my cassette deck or fall prey to fungus.

It's nice to indulge nostalgia. I would leave it there

Expensive , yes. Inconvenient- no.
It’s like the ebook vs physical books . Having 20 well worn and read books in the shelves is worth infinitely more than 20gb of epubs and pdfs on Kindle.

And never the twain shall meet.

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

@Bloom@83
You have taken me to my long lost childhood days. Even now I can remember how I used tohang around my father and told him to play some records. Besides , I can remember before the Durgapuja my father took me to a record shop for buying records. Later in my college days I used to save my pocket money( paltry it was) and buy my fav cassettes ( mostly Rabindrasangeet and RDB hits). Then in late 90's I began buying CDs. I am an old school man and I like the physical media as some sweet memories of my bygone days are associated with all these. Those who are of my age in our forum can understand what physical media means to us. Though I don't ignore the streaming media I always like the so-called inconvenient physical media. Yes , streaming media makes entertainment easier, accessible and convenient but inconvenience of physical media will ultimately give one satisfaction IMO.
Regards

 

[greenhorn]

And never the twain shall meet.

Actually they can. CD was that answer. I was never in a position to afford CD's when they were new, and went directly to streaming as an early adopter. Only vinyl and tape are what I would call inconvenient

 

[Hiten]

Streaming/Music server and Physical media. Both have their merits. In future if I am inclined to stream music or have server I would be inclined to have choice of ... listening to selection of songs by streaming or music server AND have physical media which I can listen to whole album. One can have both I guess depending of availability of the media format one prefers.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Actually they can. CD was that answer. I was never in a position to afford CD's when they were new, and went directly to streaming as an early adopter. Only vinyl and tape are what I would call inconvenient

Oh ok. I thought you meant all physical media was inconvenient. Thanks for the clarification.

There’d still be others who find even CDs inconvenient and expensive. While the later is a fact (through for the price you pay, you own the content unlike in streaming), many of us actually find the (seeming) inconvenience very rewarding. It allows a palpable interaction through multiple senses (touch, sight), provides a joy of ownership, and a sense of nostalgia. Besides, it enforces a discipline to listen to the whole album that’s so rare to cultivate while streaming. Album-listening is a joy of its own - it evokes rich imagination/memory (the album theme or the movie storyline) that’s limited while listening to singles.

 

[Bloom@83]

Even for cost factor - Tidal Hi -Res \ MQA streaming (which is the only streaming service comparable to CD-like sound and worth subscribing to )is quite expensive living in India ( yes some would point out registering from Tidal Turkey but content is not worth it ).
I’d rather buy two used vinyls or 3 new CDs for 1500 INR in a month than shelling out the same to high res streaming. So even on that factor streaming loses out for me.
When Tidal US content becomes competitively priced in India like Spotify or Apple Music then only its worth getting a dedicated good quality streamer.

 

[Miany]

IMHO, there is no point in debating whether physical medium is better than streaming. Both have got their own merits and demerits.

Physical medium, as @SachinChavan was highlighting, takes you to a different mindset before the actual listening happens and this can make the listening more enjoyable. Again, may not be true always, if someone doesnot pay attention to the album/artist and is going to play a single song from the entire CD.

Streaming, apart from the convenience on offer, the other advantage is that you discover more and more artists based on your listening preferences. Me, for instance, have discovered quite a good number of artists this way and often listen to their work. I have a tidal account, i feel thats worth every penny that i pay them, for the quality and sheer diversity of music that they have.

Coming to the SQ part, thats debatable and a lot depends on your gear. I certainly dont want to get into that. In my setup, almost all the CDs that i play matches the quality of tidal; the only difference being our local regional contents, which i feel that the CDs have a slight upper hand.

 

[mail2sumanth]

Guys.. there is one more thing you are missing. If you put the quality part aside. You will be pushed to use streaming services more and more In the name of convenience. That is where the money Is. It drives everything for productions. You don’t own anything anymore In streaming world. They can take down services and tracks as they wanted Depending on how long they licence for. believe me it is a mess on the other side. Physical media are like stone tablet scripts they can last long if preserved correctly. there are many albums and tracks not available to stream And they will be lost for ever just because there is no demand. So you still need to maintain your personal library. It’s like a honey trap, i have been too long on the other side, so I may sound little scary