seethroughyou wrote:

The forums from all manufacturers is loaded with people complaining about how they spend more time maintaining their networks, firewalls, dynamic vs static, VPNs, refresh firmware, work around glitches, power down, rebuild....I think when it works well, it's great but a big part of me especially being a classical listener with all the metadata problems wants to go back to the simplicity of he 1980-2000s. Open, load, press play....

 

 

Who feels the same?

 

Who went back to CDs as vinyl after using streamers?

 

Am a Luddite?

 

Unreasonable fears?

 

Streaming better for some music and not so good for others?

 

 

 

Because it is currently mainly geeky, techie types who do this. The market needs an audio hub that is designed for the old, the witless and those that don't have the time to waste or can't be 4rsed! It should have simple controls and  hide/automate all the unnecessary stuff which is not directly related to actually playing music.

Actually I never 'went back' to CD's (don't talk to me about Vinyl).

I never stopped buying and playing CD's, when not available on Spotify ----- and yes, if you are a sophisticated listener ;-) like me, there really is a lot that you don't find there.

I don't rip these CD's anymore, just pop them in - you can find all sorts of information on the internet, if the cover notes is not enough.

Occasionally I listen to some of my previous ripped/NAS-based material.

I spend a lot of time back then - way too much time - tagging files.....online streaming is so much easier/better. They do all the sour work for me and Spotify gives me gapless playback in addition.

I have used the same DLNA server for years, not a problem.

If I want to listen to albums, that require gapless playback, I use the Logitech Media Server (also on the NAS) and - as playback device - my good old Squeezebox Touch.

But mostly the built-in rendererers in the BV or in the Essence serve me well.

No 'going back' here.

Streaming - from a music service - is here to stay....in perfect harmony with my CD's and my music/concert BluRay discs

Access to and playback of music has never been better ;-)

MM

Puncher wrote:

The market needs an audio hub that is designed for the old, the witless and those that don't have the time to waste or can't be 4rsed! It should have simple controls and hide/automate all the unnecessary stuff which is not directly related to actually playing music.

Ban boring signatures!

seethroughyou wrote:

Puncher wrote:

The market needs an audio hub that is designed for the old, the witless and those that don't have the time to waste or can't be 4rsed! It should have simple controls and hide/automate all the unnecessary stuff which is not directly related to actually playing music.

This describes me completely. Such a player is the Holy Grail of audio.

That "audio hub/Holy Grail" was once called BM5/BS5 in B&O jargon...

seethroughyou wrote:

Puncher wrote:

 

The market needs an audio hub that is designed for the old, the witless and those that don't have the time to waste or can't be 4rsed! It should have simple controls and hide/automate all the unnecessary stuff which is not directly related to actually playing music.

 

 

Ban boring signatures!

 

 

 

This describes me completely. Such a player is the Holy Grail of audio.

I think you're right, such a thing is definitely needed. Shoot, I'd use one and I manage the network/streaming/PC/tablet based solution fine, but I'd prefer something simpler.

I have ripped all my CDs (and the new ones I buy) into iTunes (not that I like iTunes, Apple has over the years turned it into a basket case kludge instead of an elegant simple music management setup), and I use Spotify. I still have all my CDs and a fair number of old LPs. I seldom play either, some days I'll get into an LP nostalgia craze and give my Beogram a good workout, just the other day I played a stack of CDs to make sure my BS9000 was still working, but in general what I love about streaming is one, I can actually find things rather than searching through my CDs, as they inevitably no matter how well I organized them, drift as I wasn't good at maintaining that organization, and two, I can sit relaxing on the couch and pick and choose from any of my music without moving from my comfy zone! After a long day you just want to have music, not hop up constantly.

I feel the same way @seethroughyou. I had started with a full stereo back in the 70s with radio, cassettes, and records, and added CDs in the 80s. Then I moved my CD collection to the first of my computers in the 90s. Due to obsolescence and hardware failure, I've had to reinstall my CDs several times over the years - the first of many frustrations with non-physical media. Having my entire collection at my fingertips was a strong positive, so I soldiered on. 

Then I moved to an Apple infrastructure with a Mac Mini running iTunes on constant shuffle and AirPlay to a few Airport Express units through the house and my Playmaker. Now my mini is long in the tooth and is due for replacement as a preventive measure as much as anything - it's been running 24x7 for a few years now after all. I think I moved all my music to a NAS that acts as my personal cloud. I say "I think" because I have not checked that all new songs loaded into iTunes are being stored on the NAS - they may be stored on my mini hard drive for all I know. I've been though the iTunes settings, but really? Could they be any more obscure?

I've had network stability problems in the past, which I remedied by making a wired connection between my cable router and an AirPort Extreme. This seems to have solidified my network woes for the past couple of years. It just seems like I've had to go through a lot to get to this rather simplified configuration. 

So now I should be able to switch songs or playlists using the remote app on my iDevices - except Apple killed that feature in one of their updates, so now the best I can do is use the add feature to select the next few songs I'd like to hear. Everything was just fine until they messed it up and there does not seem to be any plans to fix it. I would like to think I'm in this for the long run, but that does not seem possible with the new software/cloud paradigm, so hardware seems to be the only thing I can rely upon for my music.

I've been through a half dozen different computers and at least a dozen different online/cloud music services. I can put my record I bought in 1975 on my Beogram and just relax. The same goes for my CD collection I started in the early 80s. So, for background music while cooking in the kitchen or taking a shower in the bathroom, it's "Tape 2" for the iTunes stream. For critical listening, I use my Beogram or Beogram CD players in the living room, for the simplicity, quality, and reliability. So maybe I'm not a full Luddite, but I certainly have my reservations that a media-less solution if viable as a long-term option. 

I started with Windows media player, Rhapsody, and a few others I'm sure before I settled on iTunes. But just like Napster, Rhapsody, Tidal and Pandora on the ropes, and SoundCloud, PonoMusic failed, many of the other services are on the ropes as well. Which one can you point to and say will still be around in two years, five years, ten years? I won't place any of my money on it. So why build an entire product line on such a fleeting environment?  

I recently found the complaints I had about records - pops, ticks, surface noise - were more due to the quality of records I was buying (RCA or Columbia House - 11 albums for a penny!) than the media itself. My latest purchases of higher production quality albums had put many of those concerns to rest for me. So put me squarely in the corner for physical media.

Dom, you make a good point about the quality of albums. Back in the day sometimes you got lucky and got an LP from one of the major labels that was pressed early in a pressing masters life, sometimes you got one from the 10,000+ pressings and it was awful. I've found in browsing used record stores you sometimes find albums labeled "promotional pressing" which is a good find, as these were early pressings distributed to radio stations for promos, often not even played, which were better than average pressings.

If you love your LPs, I can recommend two things. First, buy good vinyl/plastic sleeves to replace the paper sleeves that came with most albums, they protect the LP far better. Secondly, get a record cleaning machine or system. I use a Record Doctor I got from Audio Advisor, not as sophisticated as some machines but inexpensive and effective. Clean even new albums, and then put them in nice vinyl sleeves and you'll avoid much of the problems with LPs. Yes, I once was a vinylphile, but I got better. 🙂