Don’t real audiophiles own their own media?

I got to agree but I believe you are going to get a lot of push back on this one.

I certainly don't see this as a black and white kind of thing. I stream a LOT. But I also own a decent collection of vinyl and cd/sacd. I continue to grow my collection, but I now focus on more collectible media. I'm more selective.

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Randy Myers said:

I got to agree but I believe you are going to get a lot of push back on this one.

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I’ll start the push back. Since I listen primarily to new music, streaming is essential for my musical enjoyment. I still listen to my old CD’s and records when the spirit moves me, but most of my time is spent exploring via Tidal and Qobuz. No hard fast rules here. I suspect I am different than most audiophiles in that I am not spending much time in previous musical eras.

What does owning your own media have to do with anything? I own 7 types of media, r2r tape, tape, vinyl, cd's, hdcd's, sacd's and hi-res downloads. Does that make me better than the person who only has cd's or vinyl? I have a dedicated room. Does that make me better than the guy that uses a family room or loft? In my mind the answers are no. Being an audiophile is enjoying the reproduction of music. Streaming doesn't make someone any less "worthy" because they choose not to buy physical media. I prefer streaming to be honest. Less of a hassle and have millions of albums at your fingertips.

Also, I would argue that in order to grow this hobby with the younger generations, we need to more fully embrace streaming. I am confident that as the quality of streaming continues to improve, the gap between physical media and streaming will continue to narrow. It has already narrowed enough for me. My children (in their 20’s) do nothing but stream. My son is a potential audiophile (currently listens with KEF LS50W) but has no interest at all in physical media. He is typical in his peer group.

Randy Myers said:

I got to agree but I believe you are going to get a lot of push back on this one.

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I agree there are going to be different perspectives on the topic. IMO it’s always been assumed that audiophiles would own their own media - as early on there was only tape, vinyl and later CDs. But now there is “rental” streaming.

When I worked in a hifi store I had a few customers that mainly listened to am/fm and spent thousands on tuners. Are they not an audiophile? The media was free.

I am fully aware that some people feel that they need to own a physical thing to feel that they own it. I was one of those people. Years ago when I first heard of Spotify, I thought it was a crazy idea. Then I realized that what I really cared about was the music and not about ‘owning’ anything.

For $15 I can own ONE physical CD that I can play for the rest of my life. Or for the same amount of money I can listen to TENS of MILLIONS of CDs immediately.

To me, the choice is easy: MILLIONS > 1.

Re: Don’t real audiophiles own their own media?

Ok, I'll bite... on this bait.

Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy. At least Pinocchio had a clear cut understanding what needed to happen to quantify him as a real boy.

What quantifies an audiophile to be a "real audiophile"?

So in your example, it is defined by the presence or lack of physical media.

Let's break it down then. How much to earn your stripes?

Would it be 100, 1000, 10,000 or more records and/or CDs or R2R tapes (everyone should be so lucky)

The biggest record collection exceeds 6,000,000 records. The World’s Largest Collection of Vinyl Records – Vacheron Costantin : Reed Young.


So 6,000,000 records is a "real audiophile"? Although he will never listen to even 1/1000 of them.... Everyone else is just a wanna be audiophile who one day wish to achieve the status of a real one?


Now let's consider facts. Stylus can reach temperatures high enough to actually melt the groove while playing the vinyl record depending on the parameters. Even if it doesn't the fact remains the same. Vinyl degrades over time or hundreds of spins or it can be wrecked with one bad spin on a faulty setup.

CDs? CDs suffer from DISC ROT... so much for that "perfect sound forever" Disc rot - Wikipedia

R2R tapes? Even worse demise... They need to be saved and it is a temporary fix at best.... They degrade over time. That includes DAT tapes (not that anyone even uses or remembers them anymore.)


So which media is FOREVER? And why should I bother holding on to aging physical media that either gets worn out or rots away eventually?


You guessed it. Ones and Zeros on a server in multiple copies. Nothing will change it if it keeps being duplicated as technology evolves. Well... a well placed asteroid might put an end to that as well... But who will care at that point?

Calvin said:

I agree there are going to be different perspectives on the topic. IMO it’s always been assumed that audiophiles would own their own media - as early on there was only tape, vinyl and later CDs. But now there is “rental” streaming.

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The audiophile that you are talking about is what I call the ‘old school’ audiophile.
There is now a ‘new school’ audiophile who is computer savvy and who is into streaming.

Not surprisingly, the ‘new school’ audiophile is also challenging a whole bunch of myths long held as truths by the old school guys.

Tidal and Qobuz have approximately 60,000,000 songs to listen to each. Take your pick.

I have once calculated what it would take to listen to all of them out of curiosity. The industry average is 3.5 minutes or 210 seconds... 210 seconds and 60,000,000 songs work out to be 399.54 human years of non-stop listening. Yes, I triple checked my math...

Need I say more? For the price of one CD a month I have access to the world library and not enough of a lifetime to listen to even a fraction of it. Why would I want to spend multiples and have multiples less to listen to?

The other argument of course can be but physical media sounds better. My vinyl, my vinyl! Yes, OK, vinyl is a fun listen. Better? I beg to differ. So my best analog rig was the SME 20.2/V/Dynavector XXII MKII. cart. Dr. Feickert protractor, fozgometer, VPI Typhoon cleaning machine, distilled water, cleaning fluids, brushes, ad nauseam... Over $20k invested. I researched and setup many cartridges over the years so I knew what I was doing. Was it better? It was different... A different presentation at best compared to my digital front ends over the years. What used to piss me off to no end is paying $50 for a record and being disappointed by the pressing quality/surface noise or the sound of a very bad digital master being cut into vinyl for profit and it was clearly audible.

These days... I have a choice of the same album between Tidal and Qobuz, whether I want it in 44.1 or 192 and 16 vs 24 bits... I like those choices and not having to clean my precious physical media...

So, a person who has never heard tape, vinyl or CDs, but merely streams is a real audiophile?

Calvin said:

So, a person who has never heard tape, vinyl or CDs, but merely streams is a real audiophile?

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Is a person who never used a rotary phone incapable of calling? What was your best TAPE experience out of curiosity? What machine, what recording?

Calvin said:

So, a person who has never heard tape, vinyl or CDs, but merely streams is a real audiophile?

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Why not? Isn’t this supposed to be about the music after all?

I think you need to define what an audiophile is before you try to answer the question.

Calvin said:

So, a person who has never heard tape, vinyl or CDs, but merely streams is a real audiophile?

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Of course, that individual can be a real audiophile. Otherwise, people who are already dead or about to die would be the only real audiophiles in the world.

nicoff said:

The audiophile that you are talking about is what I call the ‘old school’ audiophile.
There is now a ‘new school’ audiophile who is computer savvy and who is into streaming.

Not surprisingly, the ‘new school’ audiophile is also challenging a whole bunch of myths long held as truths by the old school guys.

Click to expand...

The one thing I do disagree with is "a 'new school' audiophile who is computer savvy and who is into streaming". I consider myself to be computer savvy, or at least all my bosses over many years have who paid me a decent amount to be their computer expert in one facet or another have at least . So I do computers but I do not stream. My digital files live on my server, on my portable player, and backed up on three devices.

I also consider my digital downloads as owning the media because listening to it does not depend on external connection (the Internet). An Internet outage and there is no music. Traveling in the country and you very well might be out of music.

I own my music. Does that make me an Audiophile and those that only stream not. Of course not. To each their own ✌.

Owning vinyl and thumbing through albums is a lot of fun. I’ll see an album I’ve forgotten all about and put it on and it always puts a smile on my face. I did that last night with this one:




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