Growing up beyond Sonos - streaming Hifi considerations?

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 13:34

Hi all,

I have a sonos speaker big one from 2015 I believe and currently stream from Windows PC to it using Spotify free version.

I hadn't used the speaker for years until 3 months ago. I've also got a Topping D50 DAC and Schiit headphone amp and some headphones for FLAC listening on my PC.

I have a very limited collection of FLAC files consisting of Led Zepplin back catalogue and Wolfmother, my original intention was to buy Audio CD and rip to Flac using Exact Audio Copy.

It seemed cheaper to convert CD than subscribe £20 - £25 per month to Tidal Hifi/Masters or Qobuz. Then I discovered roon software, that again is £120 a year on top or like £500-£600 life time membership, but seems to only work for Tidal and Qobuz and not Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music HD.

I could roon on a Pi 3/4 with a Digi HAT and ifi power supply but when you factor in annual membership, £500 for roon is normal CD ripped to flac better?

Some risk of CD format dieing, but then I could buy FLAC from HDTRacks (but expensive for > CD Quality)

Vinyl seems to be 3x the price of CD on Amazon so a non-starter in my mind. At least with CD ripping I can box up the CDs and put them in the loft, so I would have HDD back up RAID and physical CDs in the loft as back up.

What formats do people suggest in 2020 for a beginner?

Spotify is great as it lets me discover new genres and new artists I would not have a clue otherwise.

Sorry for the ramble! Please help

lucid · 30 Jan 2020 at 14:38

Given recent events with Sonos, and the ongoing issue of a lack of support for older smart TVs, and the tech industry's constant need to evolve, then if history teaches me anything it's not to put my long-term faith in software-based solutions and the companies that provide them. For that reason, I would have to think long and hard before paying for a lifetime membership for any software-only solution.

I suppose with Roon the question is will the company still be around in five years time? If you feel it will, and you value that level of curation of your music library, then springing for the lifetime membership and then taking anything after year 5 as a bonus makes sense.

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 14:48

lucid said:
Given recent events with Sonos, and the ongoing issue of a lack of support for older smart TVs, and the tech industry's constant need to evolve, then if history teaches me anything it's not to put my long-term faith in software-based solutions and the companies that provide them. For that reason, I would have to think long and hard before paying for a lifetime membership for any software-only solution.

I suppose with Roon the question is will the company still be around in five years time? If you feel it will, and you value that level of curation of your music library, then springing for the lifetime membership and then taking anything after year 5 as a bonus makes sense.

You see I’m with you there gene my hesitation here. I don’t want to get locked into anything.

I want my music experience to detach me from the world when I’m listening, remove all distractions.

I don’t really want to get locked into an eco system within an eco system say Qobuz within Roon with a nad bluos streamer/amp add an example.

I’m almost thinking a £300 Used iMac into a decent separate dac into a decent separate amp into some decent speakers.
This way I could play nas content, and any streaming service in the world without issues.

what do You do out of interest?

lucid · 30 Jan 2020 at 15:04

I don't stream a huge amount for primary listening. The temptation to surf for the next track and the next and the next takes me away from enjoying the moment of listening to what's playing now. It's a Buddhist idea; concentrate on now. I quite like listening to albums in their entirety too. That doesn't happen so much hopping around from track to track, artist to artist. I guess I'm old school.

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 15:24

lucid said:
I don't stream a huge amount for primary listening. The temptation to surf for the next track and the next and the next takes me away from enjoying the moment of listening to what's playing now. It's a Buddhist idea; concentrate on now. I quite like listening to albums in their entirety too. That doesn't happen so much hopping around from track to track, artist to artist. I guess I'm old school.

that’s exactly what I’m worried about, I do It with Spotify, not listen really and just search the related artists.
Hmm maybe a CD player is a better move

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 15:49

I use three squeezeboxes one in each room, controlled by a Synology Nas.

Works well and fast, open source so still is updated by pinkdot.

Superior to Sonos, for one thing not limited to 65,000 tracks

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:00

craptakular said:
that’s exactly what I’m worried about, I do It with Spotify, not listen really and just search the related artists.
Hmm maybe a CD player is a better move

CDP is fine but so much easier once music.is in flax on my Nas.

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:09

hornetstinger said:
CDP is fine but so much easier once music.is in flax on my Nas.

Yeah I might stick to my original plan and rip cds

hyperseven · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:20

Can you still get Tidal cheap via VPN? Used to be really cheap via Turkey sign up.

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:20

Just need a Nas with hd roughly 500mb per album rip with exact audio copy encode to flax and get audio media streamers

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:22

hornetstinger said:
Just need a Nas with hd roughly 500mb per album rip with exact audio copy encode to flax and get audio media streamers

Yeah that’s who I did my current cds, uploaded to my synology box and played back through foobar2000

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 16:25

If you're happy with squeezebox those are cheap now and as long as not interested in hd audio they're great. Probably £50 each.

My Synology ds418 only takes four hours to do a full complete rescan from scratch, it used to take 24 hours on my old Nas. Update new files scan is quick about 5 minutes.

a1ex2001 · 30 Jan 2020 at 18:21

just subscribe to Sonos most people can’t hear the difference on the kit like Sonos etc.

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 19:21

a1ex2001 said:
just subscribe to Sonos most people can’t hear the difference on the kit like Sonos etc.

yeah i'll do that in the interim but in the near future i'll get speakers and amp.

Leaning towards Larsen 4 speakers or Duevel Planets, but need a demo against more conventional designs.

mid_gen · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:11

Now is a good time for buying CDs....as vinyl is flavour of the month right now, second hand CDs are cheap as chips, couple of quid a piece.

If you're actually listening to records, it's not inconvenient at all to put a CD on. If you're just track-hopping, sure a streaming solution is probably better.

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:17

mid_gen said:
Now is a good time for buying CDs....as vinyl is flavour of the month right now, second hand CDs are cheap as chips, couple of quid a piece.

If you're actually listening to records, it's not inconvenient at all to put a CD on. If you're just track-hopping, sure a streaming solution is probably better.

More like 50p, shame no cex shop around here that sells CDs. Just dvd and bd

craptakular · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:40

Where do you guys get used cds?

Facebook, eBay, gumtree?

keylion · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:42

Ebay for me, very cheap and then I sell them on again.

hornetstinger · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:42

By the time you factor in postage it's not worth it.

Check out charity shops

keylion · 30 Jan 2020 at 20:45

craptakular said:
Leaning towards Larsen 4 speakers or Duevel Planets

I'd not heard of either of those speakers so I've just looked them up. Very interesting designs. I was going to suggest looking at some active speakers but they are generally functional design wise.