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Technology is a Pain ..diminishing returns. Obselete

If you stick with Stereo analog and digital the costs are reasonable and and the technology really doesn't move that fast If you have a DAC you are happy with. But like the 60 and 70's where there seemed to be a new and better cartridge being introduced every week it could be challenging. Finally V-15 V-MR and Stanton stopped all the silliness.

Today with Dolby and Hollywood along with the Orientals driving the market keeping up with Home theater is just a waste of money. All these new 8K sets with the latest sound just for games. Not for me. Just when we get a few sources for 4K other than streaming here comes 8K. No wonder the networks are reluctant to go to 4K where we will need an adapter box to recieve cable and over the air broadcasts. Sounds like 2010 ll over again.
 
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I'm actually still using a Sony BetaMax HiFi machine at home. It works great for now, until it stops and I can't get it fixed anymore. I'm using my backup now, which turned out to be a better machine than the main. It needs attention.

It is funny though. I went from LPs and cassettes to LPs, Cassettes, and Cds, to only streaming from a NAS, via iTunes to my MacPro, back to LPs, Cassettes, CDs, and streaming! I like them all for different reasons. I might give them all up except streaming randomizer sucks! There are so many better ways to generate random numbers. But no, I like looking at album covers while I listen to the music. My mind wonders. I start thinking about the next song I want to listen to. ad nauseum.
 
Akustic said:
It goes obsolete faster than you can figure it out ..

I started programing on punch cards .. built and used the first PC"S .. yada yada ..
I'm still tech competent.. barely ..

But digital sources, storage, and streaming changes so fast that investing anything but small money just doesn't make sense ..
Read the Digital sources threads here .. it will make your head spin ..
The tech evolves so fast that it's not possible to keep up ..

I'm taking my Bluetooth box that has access thru the PC to the largest accessible libraries of music available and gone back to listening ..
Ultimate resolution .. nope .. save that for CD's ..
But for now it's just easier and I'm busy listening ..
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I to use Bluetooth and on my vintage reciever with a good loudness loop and three band frequency control it sounds pretty darn good ! I also listen to lps and cds and fm at night which is void of the drive time commercials
 
E-Stat said:
Being able to instantly access any album or track (along with 70 million tracks on Qobuz) across multiple systems is a beautiful thing.

Enjoy your endless world of disc shuffling! Which reminds me of the bad old days when you had to swap floppies each and every time you chose to run a different application. ;)
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Exactly. I can’t remember the last time I actually played a CD. When a new one comes in the door it gets ripped to the NAS and subsequently forgotten.
 
whoaru99 said:
I think obsolete is an overused/misapplied term in many cases. It's not like it doesn't work, it more like just not having the latest bells and whistles... which will always be the case.
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Obsolete as a word is under pressure. It used to mean outdated, lack of usefulness, now it just means when companies decide on end of life of a product.

Take that in: you used to buy something and run it into the ground... now they want you to buy something and use it until they tell you not to anymore.
 
idf.bts said:
Obsolete as a word is under pressure. It used to mean outdated, lack of usefulness, now it just means when companies decide on end of life of a product.

Take that in: you used to buy something and run it into the ground... now they want you to buy something and use it until they tell you not to anymore.
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Companies have always wanted to sell you a new model. That's why they make new models and come out with new features/options. Nothing new here.
 
Technology advancement is a real PITA. Wish I could go back to the good old days when you had to spend at least a $1,000 to get a decent sounding DAC. ;)
 
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whoaru99 said:
We're on a completely different page, but that's OK.

Companies have always wanted to sell you a new model. That's why they make new models and come out with new features/options. Nothing new here.
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Subscription heaven didn't exist 30 years ago. Quite a lot has changed when you observe subscription heaven's impact. Sonos is a perfect example of a product company turning into a data whore demanding logins and calling end of life on products.
 
idf.bts said:
Subscription heaven didn't exist 30 years ago. Quite a lot has changed when you observe subscription heaven's impact. Sonos is a perfect example of a product company turning into a data whore demanding logins and calling end of life on products.
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I don't have any Sonos, so you'll have to humor me...

Sonos just disables your hardware at some point of their choosing, or what are you specifically saying here?
 
E-Stat said:
....Being able to instantly access any album or track (along with 70 million tracks on Qobuz) across multiple systems is a beautiful thing.

Enjoy your endless world of disc shuffling! Which reminds me of the bad old days when you had to swap floppies each and every time you chose to run a different application. ;)
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2FarGone said:
Exactly. I can’t remember the last time I actually played a CD. When a new one comes in the door it gets ripped to the NAS and subsequently forgotten.
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An alternate viewpoint, based upon my experiences...

With convenience, often comes complacence, lack of involvement, and perhaps some lack of appreciation. Some folks simply view a car as a means to get somewhere and would be thrilled to have a self-driving car, while to others the act of driving and being completely involved in all aspects of the journey over the road makss the journey all the more worth taking.

I have my entire CD library ripped to FLAC files on an NAS, along with some purchased and downloaded hi-res digital albums and quite a few webradio stations programmed into Runeaudio and Kodi. The convenience of that IS, indeed, everything you say it is......however....

I still, much more often, find myself lovingly searching or browsing through my vinyl collection, making a selection, placing on a beloved turntable, affixing the clamp, dusting with a carbon fiber brush, carefully lowering the tonearm, adjusting the volume, then sitting and LISTENING with the album in hand. Same with a physical CD, minus a few steps of course. Playing physical media takes at least a bit of effort, and with that effort comes the desire to appreciate and savor the results....to listen..to an entire work as the artist/creator envisioned it...tracks in the correct order, leading to one another...flipping vinyl every 20 minutes or so....it is an involving activity that requires one's participation, and one tends to appreciate the music even more, especially vinyl, because there are a finite number of plays before wear and degradation occur...so one must fully appreciate each precious playing.

Playing the streamed/ripped stuff just isn't the same to me. I use our digital stuff daily, and do enjoy the convenience, but inevitably I find myself using the server for background tunes while I do something more important. When vinyl or a CD is playing, nothing is more important, and I have the liner notes and full info in hand to boot.
 
The "subscription" model is anathema to me. I write and arrange a lot of music and purchased and have used Sibelius extensively and professionally for many years. When they went to a subscription model, I moved to an opensource software, "MuseScore" (no affiliation). It's not as good, but still emminently workable. I've paid hundreds of dollars to Sibelius, and used to be able to decide to pay more for a new version if and when the new features were attractive enough to warrant it. I will absolutely NOT be forced to pay a subscription fee. Done.
 
2FarGone said:
Exactly. I can’t remember the last time I actually played a CD. When a new one comes in the door it gets ripped to the NAS and subsequently forgotten.
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My situation is much the same. Upon receiving it a CD it's ripped to an NAS immediately and then goes to the "stacks". I keep a TT and my vinyl. Some of my favorite LP's have been converted to FLAC. It's a time consuming process to do very many. Much of it is not available on any other format anyway.

As for the streaming thing. I will never buy any specialized/dedicated hardware that can have the support dropped on a company's whim. A modest laptop, DAC and an NAS is more than adequate. When a new service or "whatever" comes around I install the appropriate software and keep on trucking. Seeing as how some here run Win7 I'm fairly certain my Win10 laptop is good for at least a few years.

DAC technology advancements? I buy a new DAC. Everything else stays the same.
 
JoeESP9 said:
Seeing as how some here run Win7 I'm fairly certain my Win10 laptop is good for at least a few years.
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I run one laptop with a triple boot. Two selections boot into W10 and one selection boots W7. I keep the W7 boot specifically to run one program that will not install on W10 rather than to buy a new version of that SW that would run on W10 or W11. The version I have does everything I need so there is no strongly compelling reason to do so.
 
MuseChaser said:
An alternate viewpoint, based upon my experiences...

With convenience, often comes complacence, lack of involvement, and perhaps some lack of appreciation. Some folks simply view a car as a means to get somewhere and would be thrilled to have a self-driving car, while to others the act of driving and being completely involved in all aspects of the journey over the road makss the journey all the more worth taking.

I have my entire CD library ripped to FLAC files on an NAS, along with some purchased and downloaded hi-res digital albums and quite a few webradio stations programmed into Runeaudio and Kodi. The convenience of that IS, indeed, everything you say it is......however....

I still, much more often, find myself lovingly searching or browsing through my vinyl collection, making a selection, placing on a beloved turntable, affixing the clamp, dusting with a carbon fiber brush, carefully lowering the tonearm, adjusting the volume, then sitting and LISTENING with the album in hand. Same with a physical CD, minus a few steps of course. Playing physical media takes at least a bit of effort, and with that effort comes the desire to appreciate and savor the results....to listen..to an entire work as the artist/creator envisioned it...tracks in the correct order, leading to one another...flipping vinyl every 20 minutes or so....it is an involving activity that requires one's participation, and one tends to appreciate the music even more, especially vinyl, because there are a finite number of plays before wear and degradation occur...so one must fully appreciate each precious playing.

Playing the streamed/ripped stuff just isn't the same to me. I use our digital stuff daily, and do enjoy the convenience, but inevitably I find myself using the server for background tunes while I do something more important. When vinyl or a CD is playing, nothing is more important, and I have the liner notes and full info in hand to boot.
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I actually agree with you as regards vinyl, although my reasons are different. In my setup, vinyl simply sounds better to my ears than digital does. It requires far more attention, as you point out, so when I’m listening to vinyl I’m simply not doing anything else. It is, however, worth the added effort.

Digital is another matter, however. I personally take no pleasure in searching for a particular CD when I can locate the same music in seconds on my iPhone app. And my Qobuz subscription offers access to a an enormous library that I couldn’t even imagine having in my home, much less trying to find something specific in that ocean of physical media. Different strokes, as the saying goes. It’s all music, and it’s all good.
 
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