I might be asking a rhetorical question here but I was curious as to the overall consensus on physical media. Do support it because, unlike streaming, media can’t take away what you’ve payed for? or are you against because it’s a waste of money when you can “acquire” it through “alternative means?” I’m also thinking about getting a 4K Blu Ray player for when my wife and I get a new place; preferably one that can also play self hosted media. What do you guys think?
Physical media in the sense that you actually own the hardware where it’s stored? That’s an absolute must!
But personally I wouldn’t want to deal with CDs and other outdated mediums.
I own every outdated medium (alas, need to repair the 8-tracks) and the devices to use them. They hold music that’s most of the times not available via any other method.
The content is more valuable to me then the type of medium.
So copy it off the old mediums?
Yep, so you still need the old mediums. Also, analog sounds different from digital unless you take a very high sampling rate. (Some hear the diffeeence, same like some see the differense between HD and 4K and some don’t)
I’d challenge anyone to A/B a 16bit 44kHz sampled digitization with the original and tell the difference consistently. This is one of the reasons I love pbthal vinyl rips, his rig is awesome, I could never afford it, and it captures the sound I’m looking for. The 24 bit 192kHz vinyl rips on torrent sites are chasing ratio IMO.
Depends on the setup. On my stereo it’s sometimes close, but always recognizable to me. (And yes, sometimes digital sounds more pleasing) On an average stereo, most just won’t hear the difference.
The biggest factors to tell analog from digital are