I used to buy everything interesting in the $1 and under vinyl album bargain bins, even if I never heard it. It was a great way to expand my musical arena.
I’m taking every step I can to live ti be 100, including losing 50 pounds, walking a lot (up to 12 miles at times, despite two fake hips and about 5 bulging discs in my back). But I’m smart enough to know there is no guarantee. But, I’ve made it through something like 9-10 near death instances in my life, so apparently God must like me enough to keep saving me.
1 Like
Yes, that is indeed a great way of doing discovery. In fact, though I am seriously lagging behind you in time spent collecting and collection size, I still pick up cheap vinyl and CDs from local music and charity stores.
There is some self flagellating fun to be had in digitizing the worn vinyl acquired in my crate digging and pushing it through a de-clicking / de-popping and whatnot workflow and oftentimes get something out at the other end that’s perfectly acceptable (for my slowly ageing ears) and add it to Roon.
Must be a horror scenario for the bitperfect-and-nothing-else audiophile. 
1 Like
I have many tracks that are 1930s Jazz tunes obviously from acetates, as they are quite scratchy. If the scratchiness is below a certain level, I can really enjoy them. Once it exceeds a level that prevents me from enjoying them, I delete them. So far, I have only deleted one.
This is sensible.
I buy music when I find an album production that is exceptional. Often, the version of the album available for streaming is a remaster and not as good as the production I purchased. Or, it may not be available for streaming at all. Many of the DSD productions from APO fall in this category.
Sometimes I will buy an album even if the same is available for streaming. It’s usually because I like it a lot and want to provide additional revenue for the artists and engineers who made it. Plus now I have a version I like that could be deleted from streaming in the future.
All that said, the majority of my Roon library is from a streaming source (and still a fraction of the OP’s!).
Also, if you own it, you can take it with you. I doubt if you will ever be able to take Roon with you. I still LOVE Roon despite that one fact.
That is my strategy as well. I do not trust streaming services to keep all albums of all artists that I like forever.
Typically if you go to a reasonably well known artist you will get a good selection but often you do not get everything that they have ever done. I’d say a significant minority of what I pyhsically own is not available via streaming (or not on the services that I have used.)
I you have been around awhile (i am nearing retirement) and your tastes are eclectic you will definitely find a lot of older recordings are unavailable. If you like main stream stuff - that may not be a problem – but the more diverse your tastes are the more important it is to buy those albums that you really like.
1 Like
I never heard a better reason for buying a lifetime subscription, Neil. 
In the end, you can’t take anything with you.
As a kid in the 60’s, I belonged to a record club and owned every Beatles album every sold at the time. Now, at age 71, I have no idea what happened to all my albums. They disappeared when I left home for college. That’s what having 3 younger brothers will do for you. At this point, I want to own NOTHING except cash, CD’s, and bonds. And I don’t mean CD’s that you can play.
At 84 I’m afraid I’ll not live long enough to challenge that hoarding. Currently only a meagre 251.597 tracks, 80% classical, alreading nearly filling an 8TD HDD and now spilling over onto another 3 TB.
No question I’ll never listen to it all, buit it is interesting to have multiple interpretations of classical works to compare. If I was sensible (and obviously am not) I would pick one or two of the better liked ones and delete the others. But I just cannot bear to do that.
1 Like
Put those HDD’s in your will for someone who will appreciate them.
Until Qobuz became Roon integrated, I had about 100,000 tracks, give or take So, in less than a year, I’ve added over 800,000 tracks, currently up to 947,732
Call me old fashioned, but I don’t really understand how locally caching Tidal or Qobuz makes anyone a music hoarder. Stop paying, and your collection won’t play.
3 Likes
For the most part it is not even cached! I agree it is not hoarding, I would say even collecting the FLAC files is not really hoarding per se. Something becomes hoarding when it turns into an unhealthy, uncontrollable obsession, maybe like an addiction. It becomes a fine line between a hobby and an addiction!! For most hobbies, it serves as a release from tension, stress, fears.
For me, it is good to focus more on the music and the happiness it generates in the present moment. Don’t worry about the gear and the library and the meta data. That’s why I always like the What Are We Listening to Now thread!
3 Likes
Merriam-Webster’s definition of hoard is: to collect and often hide away a supply of. IMHO, that is what I do, exactly. I collect the musical files, and hide them away on my NAS. Oh, I just went over 1,000,000 tracks, and the Earth did not self destruct (neither did my Roon setup).
I’m now above 1,000,000 tracks, and still no musical Armageddon. And I still find new, great music everyday that I never knew existed. Currently listening to Barbara Dane, doing great old folk/blues numbers from the 50s and 60s. Roon makes it so easy to uncover all the musical gems, and add them to your library. Musical treasure hunting sure is fun, and satisfying.
An update on my latest stats: 67,971 albums; 1,004,381 tracks (112,440 PCM and 1572 DSD on NAS); 10,532 artists. Does anyone think I’m out of control, the proverbial bull in a musical china shop?? If Roon survives me, it can survive anything!!
Well, initially I didn’t think you had “a problem” but now you seem fixated on the numbers? 
It is great to have all this music available to us though so I understand the excitement.
I’m really not fixed on the numbers, but I have a need to grab every single tune I can find that I will enjoy, and get it into my library. I think that in my mind, if I don’t put it into my library, I might not ever find it again. The only reason I know the stats is that I listen 99.99% of the time in “shuffle” mode, by clicking on “Overview”, then “tracks”, then shuffle. On very rare occasions, I’ll listen to an entire album, but very rarely. I love the variety. Plus, I know if it’s something I eventually decide I don’t like, I can easily delete it. That, again, is a very rare occurrence. In the last few months, I have deleted maybe 10-11 tracks. I just think as I grow older, my musical tastes are expanding faster than the Universe! Either that, or I’m going senile.
I am today sitting at around 60,000 tracks with about half of that coming from Tidal and Qobuz. I keep buying the albums because of the uncertainty of these streaming businesses, they can go out of business, change their licensing agreements, etc. and then I would be left dry…
I would love to find a way to “export” the list of albums I have to an Excel file, keep thinking that I need to backup my view of all the content that is in my library and of which I don’t have a separate copy for the eventual scenarios when this content or streaming provider disappears…
So far I do screenshots of my Tidal library for safe keeping! not the most elegant way…