Streaming or “Screaming”?

You can do that with Spotify, which I did download on my iPad. I would never dream of trying to take that music onto my hifi but I agree listening to stuff you haven’t heard is handy on paper. That said, I looked at it once and it’s never been opened since.

A long time ago I tried using a Wadia 170 iPad dock. I had a 160gb iPod and put loads of music on it using Apple lossless. Even this made me lazy and once I started to hit shuffle play my listening dereriorated because it was easier than choosing. The result was that it was more like radio and eventually became background music. Initially it soundef as good as cd (both through a Theta DAC). Over time it revealed itself to be inferior and eventually it became wearing.

I genuinely feel streaming will lead many to background music listening because it removes the tactile choice of physical medium. Also the focus on preparing the music to engage with it. It also removes any love of the gear.

Liike you, I get irritated by jargon, but I hate the crappy little products more. People are doing backflips over cheap and nasty little chi-if boxes retailing fior tens of pounds and probably costing less than a fiver to make. They won’t be collectible, they won’t last and they won’t be repairable when they fail. Where is the pride of ownership in things like that?

As someone who loves the build, design and aesthetics of hifi as much as it’s sound, this irritates me when this stuff comes to dominate forum discussion to the exclusion of proper kit. This is the nub of my frustration. One classic example is a tiny metal case to stick the Raspberry Pi in. It’s doing the rounds of forums and frankly it looks gross to start with. Besides, nothing is going to disguise a Pi. It will never look like a Krell, so i am struggling to see the attraction or the need to discuss it. To me it’s about as interesting as a crochet toilet roll cover.

To each his own. I have absolutely no problem with anything people choose to buy and listen to. My rant above was exactly that. An opportunity to let off steam and hopefully alert others to the creeping advance of things that don’t hold a candle build wise to traditional hifi. If forums continue to devote so much space to streaming, it will only help kill off the sort of stuff I’m passionate about. Im all about the gear. I love it and I treasure it’s design, build, aesthetics and ergonomics. It’s this passion that drives me to defend it. Please take my words above in this spirit.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so here’s a contrast between something that interests me and something I’d like to take a hammer to. I’ll leave You to guess which is which.

I hate to say it about a brand I like but Naim streamers sound crap to me. But then I guess they are only Naim in “name”.just a computer in a box with a Naim badge.

Tape decks can be beautiful. I wish I’d bought a CR7 or Dragon before prices went up again. Actually an RX-505 would’ve been cool too. I could watch that all day. I had the chance to buy a working Dragon for £600 a few years ago. One of my regrets not grabbing it.

No love of computers, streamers or cheap junk here either. I always fancied a Revox Reel to Reel.

Naim streamers sound crap, because they are now made entirely for profit, whereas their CD Players were made for sound and enjoyment.

The NDX I owned wasn’t a patch on the CDX2, although as stated elsewhere, neither are a patch for my CXC/Beresford combo at an of 8th the price, so that shows me that Naim CD Players aren’t half as good as I originally thought.

Streaming is a thing, that if done well can sound outstanding. But it isn’t anywhere near as easy to achieve as just buying a CD Player and plumbing it into your system.

I have recently ordered a Rasberry Pi, because what I heard one do a at a good friends place was outstanding and quite unbelievable, when compared to his CD Player which cost around £4k.

My current Logitech Squeezebox Touch isn’t bad, but not quite as good as the CXC.

I frown upon you

Personally I like stuff that looks like it has been well engineered. The more it looks like a bit of professional gear, the keener I am.


I don't think the Naim players look anything special.


These days it is mainly blue LEDS that get on my tits. Can't be doing with them. if it doesn't have blue LEDs then it's fine, anything else I like after that is a bonus. The power on light on my Krell is blue, ruins the look of it. I need to get that changed to the proper colour one day when I've got nothing better to do.

I’m soooo superficial lol

I do love those blue LEDs though, especially with white or silver kit. The Campion has the brightest LED I’ve ever seen.

I have tried streaming several times, but each time it's seemed more trouble than it's worth, so I've gone back to CDs/records. Also, every time someone 'explains' how computer audio works, I end up confused.

Judge: 'Mr Smith, you have been talking for over an hour now, and, really, I am none the wiser'

FE Smith: 'Possibly not, m'lud, but you are considerably better-infomed'.

That kinda mirrors my own “efforts”, but I tended to be put off before but I got going, I bought a squeezebox classic and never got last the instructions. I bought a NAS drive with stiff already on and struggled to even get my laptop to find it, I’m still perplexed as to how much Fay is involved. Plug and play out of the box like a CD player seems a long way away.

I gave a double challenge in that I’m one of those people who finds PC stuff frustrating and boring, plus I seem to have little or no aptitude for IT. Apple have made a fortune from the existence of people like me. iPad has been a godsend for me but it’s given me expectations that everything just needs a tap of the screen and it works like magic. You can’t do that with a PC.

I used Apple products, because I find they sync successfully and do exactly what they say on the tin. Whilst I work in IT, I am not at all technical, so don't want to reconfigure this, or modify the code on that... I just want something that works and Apple do this in abundance.

But ironically, Apple have made a lot more money since Steve Jobs' passing as opposed to when he was running the business.

Aren't they still officially the richest company in the world?

I don't understand the appeal of reel to reel recorders. Unless you have access to high quality original tape recordings, they can only put out a sound (nearly) as good as what they have recorded. Original tapes are rare, old and likely to suffer from the usual age related tape issues, print through, shedding oxide etc. Also, using one requires a fair bit of faffing about.

I'd sooner stick with my nice MiniDisc deck and I don't even use that!

I did like the MiniDisc format, I used to have a Sony player and walkman and loved them.