Maybe there are people here in the forum who spend so much money on audiophile equipment, CDs, LPs, downloads or similar purchases for new. Surely many dealers from this environment cavort here to find new customers. I lack the budget and the common sense to do so and my ears are also not able to reliably separate lossy and lossless in a blind test. This niche is very small, but finely paid in a decay and obsolescence process. Marketing won’t change anything anymore.
A good 320 OGG, MP3 or AAC is enough for me even with very attentive listening in many cases. Of course, I desperately search for favorite tracks where lossless Flac in 16-bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - stereo shows clear superiority.
I must be one of the billions of people who have never been able to do this financially or audiophilically. In the mass of my music I do not distinguish even variable bitrates in the quality level 192 to 256 kbits/s safely from lossy. Without a doubt, I have enjoyed decades of music far too long and far too loudly, so that damaged ears may be my weak point today.
Nevertheless I try to deal with 24-bit 96 kHz - stereo, because further experiences (color underpinned illusions?) grow only so. Also affordable headphones help to find smallest differences with most intensive effort. Is that still listening to music or already technical measurement with inadequate tools?
I invest between 50 and 100 € monthly in music. Few people are willing or able to save that from the budget.
I have never bought all LPs, CDs, cassettes only as new. At flea markets and among acquaintances I could get a dozen handpicked LPs or CDs for 1 or 2 €. Most people were happy to get rid of the physical stuff and if it is known that you are a passionate collector, people even give you boxes of goods and even at flea markets it could work out after good conversations to load the rest into the car without spending money. Sure, I also put many thousands of Euros into downloads, but not millions.
Still, it seems nonsensical for most people today to build their own collections. The average limit of market penetration is rather where most music services position themselves country by country.
There are many music services that seem to offer you significantly more for €10 a month in affluent areas than Roon, Qobuz, Tidal and Bandcamp combined could offer. The added value only comes from fine selection, music quality and fairness to artists. Roon wants to improve this digital experience even more for another €10 and encourage more consumption. It pays off in personal discovery to have more music tracks, genre, artists, etc. as a starting point. For audiophiles, it pays to put a lot of money into equipment and Roon takes advantage of this niche.
This also creates more buying and listening desires. Some things are overstated. If we think we’re the center of a broad market movement, any pie chart will push us back down to earth, we’ll be too small to be spotted there as a thin line.
No matter what and how much we have bought and collected. For a second or third person, our careful digitization is absolutely worthless, because musical tastes are rarely the same. That’s why so much physical stuff goes in the trash, which I hate. Give away at times to people who might like it!
Look someone in the eye when you pass it on. Then you might see a few tears of joy for a Novalis - Flossenengel - Waltz for a lost dream.
