DCAudioDIY.com

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... ince-1980s

CD sales are replaced by streaming services. Wonder how much Vinyl sales fell due to streaming?

Shashi,

Actually, I bought LPs of a few albums that I listened to first on Qobuz. The choice was get the CD (a downgrade, sonically), buy an ephemeral HiRes download, which would be just like what I already get from Qobuz, or buy another HiRes format such as LP. Since I have a nice vinyl setup, I opted for the latter. I got the CD for free as an insert in the LP jacket. Deutsche Grammaphon is releasing some of their new releases on LP (mainly their top artists and conductors), plus select back catalog.

David

P.S. I guess I could buy an SACD if available to have HiRes physical media, but now that I have be upgrading my digital system, optimized for streaming, I have a much better standalone DAC than the one built into my Marantz SACD player. Better to listen to HiRes PCM in that case.

P.P.S. It is also important to continue to support musicians, so buying physical media like LPs (or even CDs or downloads) is important to keep artists employed. When we finally open up again post-COVID (sorry, lets don't start on that again), buy the CDs from the artists directly if you can. Whenever I go to a concert, I make a point of buying the CDs they offer for sale. I have lots of recordings from early music groups and individual performers (some of whom have taught classes I also attended) that I bought directly from the performers. Sometimes these are produced at their cost to sell for income, some are given out by record companies directly to the performer to sell and the performer pockets the proceeds.

I have been listening to Qobuz and Tidal trying to choose which one. Tidal has more selections and I like the browser interface when working on PC.
When listening on my system I have to give the nod to Qobuz.
I think Qobuz is closer to files on NAS
I do discover music I am listing to buy and will probably buy LP's

Paul,

I have not tried Tidal, so cannot say anything about it, except general skepticism about MQA quality compared with HiRes bit-perfect flac files from Qobuz. With a fast internet connection, not sure if the compact transmission that Tidal provides is necessary. Qobuz has a pretty substantial catalog for what I listen to (mainly classical), but to get to it, you either need a PC to run the Qobuz app, or use Roon with a remote controller on a tablet to really open it up. I have used the Qobuz plugin with LMS, but found that it was lousy for finding music from the interface except for new releases.

David

I have used both Tidal and Qobuz through Roon. While I like both streaming service catalogs, I have no interest in MQA, whether acquiring MQA files or supporting MQA hardware. My preferences for owning music is vinyl, 24/176 or higher PCM, and DSD128 or higher DSD. For background or casual listening I suppose any format is acceptable but why not seek out and listen to the best. So I will continue supporting Qobuz, but not Tidal, and hope that Qobuz will expand their catalog with music in all genres with the highest possible resolutions for purchasing or streaming.

https://www.linn.co.uk/blog/mqa-is-bad-for-music

Hey, but if you want to acquire MQA music files and hardware, fine. It's not my desire or thing and I will see you in my rear view mirror.

My DAC is not MQA, it isn’t even hires. I use the BorderPatrol DAC which is 18 bit
I find it being the most musical of any I have tried.
I have only heard demos of MQA at the audio shows and was not impressed.

According to this article, Vinyl sales jumped a whopping 46% in 2020 compared to 2019. Interestingly, the article attributes the increase to more accurate reporting of data by record stores due to pandemic.

Interesting....


https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreaboss ... b5e2ae1a74

These articles and others like them show a very different world. Things have definitely changed while I was sleeping. Of the $12.2 billion in total music revenue, $10.1 billion comes from streaming with Spotify and Apple Music accounting for $7 billion. So much for music ownership with digital downloads accounting for a mere $674 million, vinyl at $626 million, and CDs at $483 million.

I suspect the music industry is following the same path of the video industry with video streaming at over $50 billion. Of course of all this is a fraction of the video game industry at $180 billion. My experience with streaming movies has taught me that many free movies are no longer free and some are only available for rental and not purchase. This is on top of cable service and streaming services. What does this have to do with audio?

Many of us with large vinyl collections have always known that many of our treasures would never be released in digital. And in the digital world if you don't own you will always be a forever renter (streamer). Hey but you can't fight the numbers and you know where the industry wants you to be. I guess if I was starting out today I would be a forever audio streamer without any music collection or ownership. Instead I am a forever audio streamer with a music collection, perhaps the best and worst of both worlds.

Streaming satisfies my need to hear new recordings, new artists and new music. Listening to what I own satisfies my need to hear familiar recordings. As Don just wrote, the best of both worlds.

By the way, I really enjoyed Harnencourt conducting the Schubert symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. It's available with Quboz.

https://www.amazon.com/Symphonies-Chamber-Orchestra-Europe/dp/B08J5934NT

ray

Ray,

Thanks for that recommendation, I will check it out tonight. I remember Harnencourt back during the early music revival, I have so many of his recordings on vinyl (Telefunken) with the Concentus Musicus of Vienna. But he, as so many other early music conductors, stepped over to historically informed playing with modern orchestras. It actually is quite refreshing approaching Romantic music from an early tradition, a way of looking forward rather than looking back from a 20th century perspective.

David