Anything - Hot Take #1

[Skinny12]

What is a Hot Take? A Hot Take is a bold, maybe even stupid or super smart claim which can be voted for (or against) but -of course- dicussed about!

So, Hot Take #1

Even digital streaming is the big thing right now, physical media like Vinyl, Blu-rays and even CDs will win in the end, because humans are collectors and want to own things they can touch and feel.

[s--k]

Well ... two things can be true at once - unfortunately the future will be streaming, but streaming is crap!

[rontoon]

Well ... two things can be true at once - unfortunately the future will be streaming, but streaming is crap!

I used to think the same thing until I discovered Qobuz. For $10+ per month it's a great supplement to my physical library. I get to listen to all new releases and there are plenty of titles in high resolution.

[pm1532]

I've been in this weird position where at least half of any new band (to me) that I come across are those that either haven't made it onto a streaming platform or are not available on certain platforms in certain territories. Cardiacs not being available to stream on Spotify USA, but available to stream everywhere else comes to mind.

[joeblade]

Bit of a late adopter of streaming myself. Only just got Spotify last year. Prior to that, it was FLAC or MP3 on my PC or Phone (had a 200GB SD in my old Android phone).
I was also a bit of a music snob, I liked what I liked and didn't venture much further.

Streaming has allowed (/pushed) me to discover new bands. Some of the Prog Playlists on Spotify have been a real eye opener, so much music out there I am discovering now.

I am a "physical" kind of person though, I buy CDs and boxsets etc. I like physically owning stuff.

[lennyif]

I am an "all of the above" guy. Streaming is super convenient, especially when going out and about. That's awesome... but I still like collecting records of things that I want to listen to on a good system at home. Besides, stuff that's available to stream changes all the time. I'd rather just have something I love and know for damn sure I am going to have it. Physical media is super important in that sense. This recent Y scare is another thing that has convinced me not to sell my record collection.

I also have a rule with new music If I stream it more than 10 times, and feel like I will want to keep hearing it, I buy a physical version. If not, streaming is just fine. I checked it out and had my fill. Every tool has a time and place.

[aybesea]

I had to wrap my head around it but honestly if I can stream it I do. In fact I've got all of my boots in the cloud so that I can stream them on demand.

I used to have 30,000+ pieces off vinyl and 15000+ cds. Now I have next to none and an extra room in my house. I prefer the latter. If I can't just stream it, digital is my direction. I bought a 5 bay USB dock and mounted 5 8TB drives to hold my collection (actually the audio half, I have another 45TB of video). It all fits in a small case and stays neat. I like it much better.

[MrFender]

I'm an all of the above as well. Bought a new receiver last year that does it all through a phone app. Spotify, Pandora, web radio stations, whatever i feel like at the time. A 2 bay Synology setup with all of my CD collection and a bunch of live stuff also hooks into the receiver. Still pull out CDs for my old pre-video screen Honda - One of These Days/Echoes combo lasts almost the time it takes to get from my front door to the airport.

[Son of Nothing]

If not "all of the above" I personally think both physical and digital will coexist, and neither will "win".

FWIW, I don't do streaming but I do buy most of my new music as digital downloads now. Mostly from Bandcamp. It's totally broadened my musical horizons, and I still get to choose and curate and not have to deal with someone's algorithm feeding me stuff. For special things, sometimes I still want a physical artifact. But a lot of physical product these days is either pretty ordinary or some outrageously priced boxed set with a pile of irrelevancies bundled in.

I'm an all of the above as well. Bought a new receiver last year that does it all through a phone app.

Oooooh, what did you get? I'm interested in something I can plug a massive drive into so I don't have to deal with setting up a media server. But I do want direct access to my vast digital collection. Does such a thing exist?

[MrFender]

I bought an Onkyo TX-NR6050 (Black Friday deal at Costco!). My Synology server and receiver are both plugged into a 4 port hub and I really didn't have to set anything up other than start the media server built into the Synology software. It's really super easy, not many settings. Easy to set up the drive on the server as Z: (or whatever) in Windows. Just drag and drop the folders over in Windows Explorer and there they are on the app.

[aybesea]

Does the Synology allow you to stream audio when you are away from the house? I'm currently accomplishing this with a PCloud account and the Cloudbeats app, but I'm running out of space again and it's not cheap to add more. If there is a way to stream from my home instead (at least if there is a simple way), then I might look that direction.

If Synology (or whatever else you guys recommend) is an option, approximately how much would it cost me to get started with it?

[Kaiten_Mokuba]

Streaming serves its purpose but I always like to have a copy in some form (physical media / flac / mp3) because you never know when the stream might cease to be available.

For me it's not about having a format I can touch and feel, but having music I can access. You can't rely on a stream, it might be gone tomorrow.

[MrFender]

Does the Synology allow you to stream audio when you are away from the house? I'm currently accomplishing this with a PCloud account and the Cloudbeats app, but I'm running out of space again and it's not cheap to add more. If there is a way to stream from my home instead (at least if there is a simple way), then I might look that direction.

If Synology (or whatever else you guys recommend) is an option, approximately how much would it cost me to get started with it?

Yes, you can. You can create an account with Synology which links back to your server. Then it's just a simple login to their site that links you to your server. It gives you full file access so you can stream or even copy files over to your mobile device.

As far as the hardware, I run a basic 2 disc box (DS220J) which is pretty cheap (and not very powerful) with a pair of 4TB western digital red drives. You can run them anywhere from a Box of Disks (so 8 full TBs of space) to the various RAID configurations (so only 4TB or less but has redundancy). It's relatively simple if you have some computer knowledge but not saying it's all plug and play. The software is all loaded on the server and the interface is window-ish looking.

For 1 or 2 disk models, you can get them under $100 plus whatever drive you put in them.

[aybesea]

Thank you for the info, MrFender. I am definitely going to look further into this. The PCloud solution works very well, and I never need to worry about backups, etc. I currently have 16TB of lifetime storage with them, but adding more (as I said above) is an expensive proposition.

[tmeekins]

Digital media saved me from being a hoarder (and divorce! ha ha). A few Synology NAS boxes and a few streaming subscriptions and I get to live in a nice clean house without stacks of "collections" everywhere. I've done the same with my books and magazines. I pared down my 10,000+ CDs to about 20 that I still have emotional attachments to. I couldn't be happier.