Hi-Rez Downloads/Systems - don't understand *

Can someone explain what the interest or advantage to setting up the PC/Digital/Hi-Rez life style. I gave up Vinyl when CDs came around and became an active collector of the shiny round disks. Now it seems PC/Digital/Hi-Rez is trying to do to CDs what CDs did to Vinyl. I have a fantastic CD set up and thousands of CDs. I also have lots of MP3s which are perfect for playing through my PC onto smaller desktop speakers or uploading onto my I-Pad to take to work. Does one really need to spend the money to create the system it would take to take advantage of Hi-Rez file format when you can buy the CD or Vinyl version and play it in your present system? Hi-Rez files are not cheap. I can buy two CDs for the price of one Hi-Rez album. I don't need to buy an expensive DAC or increase my hard drive space or configure anything so I can transmit the file across the airwaves from my PC to where my main system is set up. Seems like a waste of time and money and I am very tech oriented but am not attracted to this. What if anything have I missed?

 

If it doesn't interest you, then there's nothing to worry about.

jeff

 

dude switching cds blows,I love dumping all my music in the HD and randomizing 50k songs.your just a click away from any tune you want to hear.also the upsampling option gives you better sound.oh you could go buy an expensive esoteric,cayin,linn or naim player that probably wont sound that much better than a nice 800 $ dac with jriver on the PC.thats my two cents,its convenience and good sound.

 

Why change it? Sounds like you have a great setup already.

I don't understand the push for digital downloads, either. CD / SACD is good enough for me, plus I get the liner notes too and something physical to hold / own.

 

My take is that every medium requires trade offs. CDs have a relatively limited storage capacity - around 500 MB - so when the music was encoded that storage capacity was taken into account. File sizes had to be limited so a sample rate was chosen to accommodate that limit and not necessarily for the utmost in fidelity.

Other encoding options target the use of even less space (low resolution mp3 for example) because portability was more important than fidelity.

Now that storage is much cheaper per unit and much denser (and consumer grade DACs able to deal with this higher resolution) some intrepid folks are experimenting with higher resolution files in the hope that the use of more data will result in a superior sound.

My own belief is that high resolution files probably sound better but I have not taken the plunge despite having a DAC that can deal with the files because I value portability over sound for my digital files and use vinyl when I want to have the highest resolution source. I might dip a toe in pretty soon just for fun

 

You dont get it you dont use it, it dosent matter. Just like me.

I dont trust them.

 

So far, downloading all my music onto another medium holds zero appeal. I don't have the time or interest. I *like* the process of playing CD's and records. About as close as I get to involving a computer with my audio systems is to use an iPad Air to stream internet content via a cable.

 

I put all of my CDs on a hard drive in the FLAC format. Three reasons, I want as close as possible backup to my discs, I want the files to convert to discs to travel (and not worry about scratching the originals) and if I want to convert to MP3 or another format to stream to my phone or tablet so I can send to a bluetooth speaker by the pool. I always go to the original disc for a serious listening session though.

 

My ISP, Crime....ah Time Warner Cable, just experienced yet another service interruption. So no email, no internet.

Rely on downloads as my main source of music enjoyment? Never. I will not be hostage to the many faults of service delivery.

While waiting for 'restoration of services' - I plopped in several *physical* CDs and LPs and enjoyed the afternoon.

Had I drunk the 'koolaid' of streaming and downloads, I'd be w/o music. F that.

 

No, nothing. Just better masters here and there.

 

It does sound pretty on a nice system, that higher resolution, but the law of diminishing returns applies.

 

CDs are still one of the best ways to get digital files. You get lossless quality files. They're often priced less than lossless or even lossy downloads of the album. CDs are the way I get and choose to get the vast majority of my digital files. I buy the CD (either new or used) and rip it to get the files on the computer so I can do the digital lifestyle playback thing. I do buy some downloads when a CD version is not available. I also buy some high-res downloads, but not many. But mostly I buy CDs.

Most DACs that you buy now are capable of high-res playback at 24/96 or higher. Connect a DAC to the computer and you're high-res capable. There's also media server devices that you can use instead of a traditional PC or Mac if you don't want to put a full computer in or next to the equipment rack.

Then the software. I use JRiver Media Center. It allows for traditional playback of local music files. But can also do the local streaming client server style of playback. Have one computer set up as the server and then several clients connected. One client could be at your main system. One client in a smaller system in the kitchen. One client in the system in the den. Etc. JRiver can handle multiple zones. Allows access to your music in any room wherever you can get a network connection. JRiver also has an IOS and Android app that allows you to play on each client. So you can sit back in your listening chair holding a little tablet and select any of you music to play.

 

I play CDs in my car. At home, I listen via NAS -> Renderer -> DAC on my main rig. I still buy CDs since the majority of releases are on them and rip them to my NAS. Otherwise, I download HiRes files.

Different strokes...

 

I love looking at the album covers ripped to my hard drive and displayed using Jriver as much or more as I do looking at my cd collection. Depending on your set up and the particular hi res remastering it can sound better than your CD player. You can try it out for as little as 500-700 bucks including a DAC and decent USB cable (I use an audioquest Carbon) and decide for yourself. You can buy it all from music direct or someplace where they offer a money back guarantee and then make a truly informed decision for yourself.

 

Am I the only one who doesn't "get" [format I don't like]?

 

I think anyone who downloads music and has ripped their cds to hard disk would have terabytes of music on hand to play. Why would anyone be without music just because the internet is down for the afternoon?

 

Streaming is one thing, downloading files another. With streaming if you have service interruptions you have a problem no different than if you cable or satellite TV service went out. With downloads unless it occurs during the download itself no service interruption save power would effect playback. The same goes if your library has been ripped to your computer

 

I never got into the whole analogue vinyl turntable thing. I only auditioned a tube headphone amplifier more than a decade ago.

I stopped purchasing CDs a long time ago in favor of digital downloads. Most of my music library consists of MP3s. I subscribe to Spotify Premium and I listen to their music streaming service every once a week or so. Most of my listening sessions consist of browsing through my own music library as it contains the music that I'm interested in.

High resolution music albums are very expensive and I only have 46 of them. It's too expensive to build up a large high resolution music library. I just got a CEntrance Hi-Fi M8 LX XL4 portable DAC and headphone amplifier and it can do 24 bit 192 kHz playback of high resolution music albums. I plan to get another desktop or portable DAC and headphone amplifier for Christmas 2014. I still haven't made up my mind yet, but it looks like I'll get the Sennheiser HDVD 800 unless I change my mind again today and then I'll get the Chord Hugo. I would like to play back DXD 32 bit 384 kHz and DSD 128 music albums as I have a few of them and I would like to hear them at full resolution. We shall see once I have saved up enough money. High resolution music is very expensive to play with the proper DAC and headphone amplifier. The minimum that I'd have to spend is $1,200.00 USD for an Oppo Digital HA-1 which is a substantial amount of money to play DXD and DSD music albums to meet my requirements.

 

Has nothing to do with not liking. I have a few FLAC files and tons of MP3 files, I just don't know, because I haven't committed to the set up, if indeed the sound is that much more superior. If so, I might just begin to consider adopting, however so far at friends homes who have converted I don't hear the difference so I do not get or understand why I would switch. Through this post I am hoping opinions will appear that will bring a better understanding of why some people have and some haven't. So far I am not convinced, since I love sitting down and slipping a brand new disk in the drawer of the player and going back to my seat and reading through the insert that came along with my new CD. I love going to a new town and searching out the used CD market there and browsing through their bins in search of a new disk or two I can buy and bring back home or play in my car as I drive along the highway. There is something that seems a little too detached by scanning through lists of music files on a screen. I hope this clarifies my reasoning for the post.

 

I think FLAC files for backup are a great idea, and I am slowly working my way through a 4000 CD collection. Listening with a computer or music server still leaves me cold at this point. I have set up a laptop with JRiver software and dumped about 900 of those FLAC albums onto the hard drive to be played through a DAC but I rarely use it. I continue to shake my head when people talk about what a terrible chore it is to load a CD player. I do think it depends on your listening habits, and that may be an age thing. I'm 58 years old and I think in terms of albums. It is very rare for me to ever listen to less than what would constitute an album side. I think younger people who have always used digital files are more likely to listen to two songs from one artist then a song by somebody else and so on. Neither way is wrong, and there are times, like when I am out on the deck, when a playlist works really well. Bottom line to me is that there is no wrong way to enjoy your music collection.

 

Interesting how many folks here feel the need to comfort themselves in their lifestyles. "I feel like I MUST fall in love with vinyl again yet don't give a crap about it... Please help me change my mind"

 

Wow, this is a tuff group. Not having the extensive set up with DACs or FLAC files I am trying to find out if people feel there is a significant difference in sound worth investiging in and if there is some convenience factor I am over looking because it all seems inconvenient to use FLAC files as my main source of music and I get torn up. No I don't want to invest in a decent DAC or run wiring through my house to my dedicated music room from my server or invest in Blue Tooth without some research being done first even if it only costs me $500 or $600 dollars for the DAC to experiment with.

Well if the post is redundant or not headed properly, or people don't agree with my line of question and believe it is to comfort myself in my lifestyle well feel free to delete the post, thank you!

 

I thought your thread was completely legit or I wouldn't have posted in it. I have wrestled with many of the same thoughts myself.

 

It's a matter of lifestyle convenience.
All depends on you. If your at home all the time in one location, then yeah, who needs computer audio. Just play hard copies.
But if you have a second home or are on the go a lot, or just enjoy toying with computers, then computer audio has huge advantages. Portable storage space and freedom to choose technology to modify/playback that digital material.
Note: You can do the homebody thing with computer audio or hard copy only, but you can't do the road travel with hard copy only (at least not a full complimented library).

It's all a matter of preference, comfort and convenience that betters your lifestyle. There is no right or wrong answer.