Setting Up My First Streaming System - Advice Needed

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by Killergurt

...I am not 100% decided that I want to "get rid" of my CD collection. ....

There are a couple of reasons not get 'rid' of your CD's -

1) Legally, and I admit enforcement is extremely low, you should be able to prove provenance/ownership of all your copyrighted materials.
2) Another break-the-glass back up.

-has anyone in this forum ever noticed a CD degrade? esp. early ones from say the mid 80's? There was a lot of hype at one point (started by Fremmer? (!! ) that CD's could degrade/oxidize/tarnish if not properly manufactured. I have never seen this.
This would be a visible degradation, nothing subtle.

[Kal Rubinson]

It was the early output of one particular UK pressing plant, iirc.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by jayvis

That is correct, but that shouldn't be a worry as long as you don't play CD frizbee with the dog. I find a scratched CD much easier to deal with than a crashed hard drive, corrupted software or internet problems. I've always believed in having multiple music formats available to me in my system. Variety makes the hobby much more interesting.

While I don’t have a dog or play frisbee, unfortunately, I do have a few scratched CDs in my collection that would not play in any of my CD players. But thanks to EAC, I had the ability to slow the speed of the disc drive and extract the data error-free. So I am now able to stream those CDs error free.

You do make a good point about the potential for a hard drive to crash. I highly recommend that anyone who spends time ripping CDs take the time to create back ups. My suggestion is to use a NAS with multiple drives to allow redundancy or use a cloud-based backup system. I actually use both.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by jayvis

The CD music format is now a more economical option than buying what I consider to be grossly overpriced hi-res digital music files.

Actually, a subscription to Tidal (or any similar service that streams at 44/16) is the most economical option for anyone starting from scratch or thinking of buying 1 or 2 CDs a month. For just $20 a month you get immediate access to tens of millions of songs.

Put another way, a 500 CD collection like the one from the OP would cost $7,500 (assuming $15/CD). With $7,500 one could pay $20/month and subscribe to a streaming service for 31 years and 3 months!

PS: I do agree that hi-Rez files are overpriced particularly those that have no more information than that of a regular CD but are being sold as hi-Rez.

PS#2: Tidal gives you now higher Rez MQA files at no extra charge.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by clpetersen

There are a couple of reasons not get 'rid' of your CD's -

1) Legally, and I admit enforcement is extremely low, you should be able to prove provenance/ownership of all your copyrighted materials.
2) Another break-the-glass back up.

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[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by nicoff

You do make a good point about the potential for a hard drive to crash. I highly recommend that anyone who spends time ripping CDs take the time to create back ups. My suggestion is to use a NAS with multiple drives to allow redundancy or use a cloud-based backup system. I actually use both.

You need both or, at least, two copies. A NAS with redundancy (RAID) is not a back-up but only serves to make recovery easier. A true back-up is completely independent of the NAS and, ideally, should be located in a different place.

I use multiple NAS drives in different houses which serve as mutual back-ups as well as to provide me with my entire library in each place.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by nicoff

Actually, a subscription to Tidal (or any similar service that streams at 44/16) is the most economical option for anyone starting from scratch or thinking of buying 1 or 2 CDs a month. For just $20 a month you get immediate access to tens of millions of songs.

Depends on your needs. Tidal does not fit mine in terms of content, format or navigation. I use it only to sample things out of curiosity.

PS: I do agree that hi-Rez files are overpriced particularly those that have no more information than that of a regular CD but are being sold as hi-Rez.

Agreed but there are a considerable number of true high resolution recordings, many of them in multichannel, and unavailable on any streaming service.

PS#2: Tidal gives you now higher Rez MQA files at no extra charge.

If you like what they offer.

Just saying: One size does not fit all.