Am I the only guy w little or no interest in streaming high resolution?

I stream my own stuff from my NAS via Roon, Tidal sub allows me to fill in the gaps and find new stuff. Roon streams HiRes stuff from my own collection very well and handles any translation that the endpoint requires. Tidal material mixes right in with my own and I rarely notice any real difference. Roon defaults to the highest resolution version available but you can still choose the one you want.

 

I stay stuck in the past

 

For what platform, as @Sevoflurane already asked, is this for? Windows? MacOS? Linux? iOS? Android? Can’t answer your question if you don’t respond with some details.

 

Tidal app allows me to fill in the gaps and find new stuff.
$19.99 a month in CD quality.

 

I think that it’s important to completely avoid criticizing the ways in which people enjoy their favorite music.

At least some of the same people who criticize others about experimentation with apps, files, tagging, organizing and various resolutions, think nothing of experimenting endlessly with cables, cartridges, Lofgren A vs. Lofgren B, Stevenson vs. Baerwald, rolling tubes and listening intently to changes they hope to hear when switching from a Mullard long plate square getter to an Amperex (Holland) long plate foil D-getter, not to mention the ongoing discussions about the best LP storage and organization shelves, and the various merits of alphabetization according to last name/first name vs. first name/last name vs. album title, and on and on. As a matter of fact, the dedicated analog music listeners have enjoyed decades more time to accessorize and incrementalize every facet of their music listening. But that’s all an observation, not a criticism.

Get it straight - people who are passionate about music should never be criticized for their choice of format!

 

I have slowly moved in this direction. I've been burned too many times streaming a snippet off the internet of a song, buying the album and not liking it. The commitment to all the hardware and setting up programs to be able to stream from my main music system also has held me back, but I am ready now to conquer this technology. Streaming using Roon sounds like fun and worth the expense for a lifetime of music and links to tons of information all at your finger tips as you sit and listen through your main system. All I need is a network connection brought to my main system and a network capable DAC, a few programs to download and a few services to subscribe to. I am ready! I will always love my physcial collection and plan on continuing to add to it but streaming seems the logical next step now that the music can be listened to in such high audiophile quality, the selection must larger so why not then?

 

The responses to this thread are fascinating, since there is no right or wrong answer. I "get" the "more access to music argument" but haven't--- in my two months of doing digital more seriously-- subscribed to a higher quality streaming service like Tidal or QoBuz yet. I also understand the "out of my cold dead hands" physical media argument and the resistance to "licensed access" (a boon to the rights owner, I would think, if no permanent copy is ever transferred), but can't you download from both of those services? (Last time I checked, QoBuz was not fully ramped up in the States, you could stream but not download, though that may be changing).
Some years ago, my local gym had a basic Pandora "Internet Radio" system set up and users could create channels-- I was always deleting somebody's Rihanna channel to make room for a blues or old rock channel and was surprised at the stuff I never heard, selected by algorithm. (I used to take phone pictures of the gym screen 'now playing' if something was interesting, then go track down the record on vinyl).
On buffering, I did find years ago that the signal for movies from Vudu (at the time, one of the better quality movie streaming sites) would get jammed; after some research and digging by the techs at Vudu looking back down the pipe from their server to me, they could identify short intervals where the bandwidth-- allegedly 25 M down at the time-- would drop precipitously for a very short time-- enough to send the streaming device into a tailspin. With better Internet architecture --I now have Google Fiber-- and the comparatively smaller file sizes of music, even high res- versus that of a feature film--I would think this should be less of an issue.
Whether it is a main source of music to replace hard media or simply a complement to other media as a source for more selections, it does seem to be the way of the future. As for quality and source information, I'm not sure that is the driver for the mass market. I think interactivity and the depth of the library would be. Like any group of enthusiasts, we occupy a smaller space in the market and probably won't help define its shape. The fact that there are services purporting to offer high quality delivery is itself an achievement given the low bar for "free," MP3, earbud type listening. Call me fascinated and watching, for now, perhaps to dive in at some point.

 

I am anticipating that I will be exposed to lots of new music which I can play a few times, the full albums, and then if I find I am really interested in the album I will then search it out and purchase a physical copy. In the past I've listened prior to purchasing the little previews avaible on Amazon and ImportCDS and purchased the album to find I really didn't enjoy the album or band. By being able to listen in my music room at my leisure will be much informative concerning what I would buy or not.

 

Sorry to go off topic but ...I have an interest in a NAS but the salesman at Best Buy told me it was very 2008--that I should go with a better router/wifi and just plug a hard drive into it. Any thoughts on that? Does a more powerful router make NAS obsolete?

 

Not interested in streaming.

 

If I lived in town with decent streaming I would probably start doing just that. But it's too slow here for reliable signals when someone is streaming video, we stream our TV content, at the same time I might stream audio. I could run long lengths of ethernet cable across the house but don't like the idea. When I'm on the computer I'm perfectly happy with a little T amp playing Pandora or some other internet radio. In m main system I want the best sound I can afford.

 

I stream every day, but I don't have any money invested in a digital setup. If I'm home and have the opportunity to relax and focus on music, I'm putting on a record because that's the only time and place where I can do that. Streaming is for convenience in all of the other situations where I want to listen to music. If money was no object, I suppose I'd invest in a real streaming solution beyond my phone/computer.

 

Please note that BestBuy does not sell a NAS! Every Router's external HD function I have ever tried was very slow. They also do not allow server services to run to facilitate all the things that a good NAS (QNAP, Synology, etc). Will it work? Maybe, but those limitations contribute to what gives streaming a bad name to start with. A better solution would be to connect an external drive to a miniPC and stream from there. The higher you go in resolution, the more important it gets. I know that back when I was using a Bluesound Node 1, things got very choked up serving 192K files to it.

A good router is necessary to a good LAN experience, but it won't replace a modern NAS.

 

Nope, 16 bit 44.1khz good enough for me

 

So with the NAS attached to the router I can access all files on the NAS, and using my tablet with my streaming music player of choice (Media Monkey), and send those flac files through my Chromecast Audio to my amplifier? And those are the two brands you recommend to a cost-conscious music lover?

 

I don't live in the Google ecosystem, so I can't speak to specific apps, but yes You should be able to accomplish that easily. Of course if you are just streaming music the most cost conscious way would be an external drive connected to your existing PC, or even get a used laptop. Streaming music is not terribly demanding.

 

That's what TIDAL streams.

 

Usually I'd be more thorough but I'll just sum it all up as quickly as possible.

The sales guy at Best Buy mislead you greatly. There is nothing wrong with going the route he outlined. However IN NO WAY IS IT SUPERIOR. He very much gave you bad advice.

Ignore completely what he said and move along.

 

Too many drop outs in my area and unlimited data plans are too expensive for streaming to be justiable outside my house. I download music to my phone and I’m ready to go.

 

Agreed, and I do that now from my pc, but I'm hoping to taking advantage of the portability of the tablet. Getting a good look at the network/music files using the tablet seems to be an issue for me at present. If a NAS would create a better network view and access through my tablet, with my Media Monkey app, then it would be of value to me. Right now I can only cast (to Chromecast device) the files I have residing on the tablet. That may involve more detail than I can easily provide to you though, and I really appreciate your help. I will continue to learn about this option. Thanks, Mark

 

I'm afraid I have succumbed to the allure of streaming...and it's not even hi res. I bought an Amazon Echo on prime day for less than 30 dollars. I figured I'd run it through an old Altec ipod dock/boombox in the kitchen so I could have some music while cooking & cleaning. Then came the offer of Amazon music unlimited three month trial for 99 cents a month. I'll always be a physical media guy, but there are times when that just isn't practical and that's what this setup is for.

I was up early this morning to take my grandkids to school and was waiting for them to get dropped off, just sitting there reading the news on my phone. Then I realized I could be listening to some music while I'm waiting and listened to the Beach Boys Sunshine Tomorrow. I have the cd set, but this wasn't a time for me to run down to the basement and listen to it. No it didn't sound great, but it was pleasant enough to listen to while I waited, and I was enjoying music at a time when there would otherwise be silence.

For right now I can't see a time where I'd want to pay more or buy more gear to listen in hi-res, that's what the vinyl, cds, SACDs, etc. are for.

 

Couldn't you cast to the Chromecast from the PC and use the Tablet to remote control the PC? I am, not sure exactly what the Chromecast can and cannot do. If you have a PC that is always on and available, you might want to get an AppleTV and serve everything from iTunes , though that would require moving your FLAC files to ALAC, there is NO simpler streaming solution that the AppleTV, though if you are in Google's sphere, that may not be the case.

Either way, a NAS would have a DLNA server that should be able to serve files to your player. If you don't like the Apple world, there is always the Roku or several other streamers that can read from a NAS, for that matter you could run a DLNA server on the PC. VLC is available for about any device and is about the simplest, most flexible player. I am not familiar with MediaMonkey, but I know a lot of folks use it.

 

I gave up on Tidal and streaming in general. I had an unusual number of albums on Tidal with missing songs. Klaus Schulze - Eternal [The 70th Birthday Edition] comes to mind. Tidal greyed out and thus was missing the first and last song; that's 89 minutes out of 151 that were missing. Or albums would just disappear from the service. A huge catalog of music from Scandinavian countries appeared and disappeared on multiple services. I also don't like how much more difficult it is to find a specific mastering of a recording. And less mainstream content is very sparse. In the end it was more aggravating and less fun than just shopping new music.

 

No, I prefer media I can hold in my hands. Vinyl, CDs, tapes, etc.

 

Well, uhmm, here is an answer to your answer. If you didnt like the question or have no interest you could have ignored it, it was a simple question. Excuse me if I am in the wrong thread. Second, dont assume you know what I "play" around with. And im pretty sure I was listening to good music when you were still sucking on a binky.
Now if you still have a burning desire to answer....have at it