I agree. But this is where it started:
…and I was merely trying to correct some misleading info here.
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Yeah… this is true! My questions were answered long ago by all you fine folk. 
Not gonna lie though… I did enjoy the little back n forth about what others are doing, streaming, ripping, music quality… loved it! 
But yes, agreed. This thread is well and truly done. Thanks again all.
@Jakub_Burdych What we’re you saying again about… 
(Joking of course! 
)
What “different release versions”? take a recent ECM, or Intakt, or Whirlwind, or Clean Feed, or Sunnyside, or Ropeadope, or BIS, or even DGG release. Where are those different versions, and if there are any, what evidence do you have they specifically manipulated for streaming?
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I did not say that music is specifically manipulated for streaming, nor did I say that all music (especially new music) has a better quality release somewhere else. 
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No, @Jakub_Burdych, I completely agree with you. If I’m after anything a few years old, I trawl eBay for a CD and rip it. Modern recordings are of course usually very high quality, but anything that’s been “remastered” a few times is usually questionable- especially thanks to the “loudness wars”.
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I used I Tunes for years as well. When I ripped my cd collection or bought albums I used Apple lossless audio codec, ALAC. Those files are in my Nucleus internal storage now and play fine. I believe you could go back and convert your library if you wanted to.
It is still better to own your music than to just stream, in my opinion. Artists at times pull their content from streaming services. Yes it is more work to buy and rip but for my money… worth it. Use streaming services for exploring new music and then purchase what you find. Also, often spinning up a CD, SACD, or LP is better sounding, more involving, and more enjoyable. Each media source has its place. Physical media is not going away though streaming will continue to be the dominant form of listening.
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I disagree. I’d rather invest my money somewhere else and use streaming for high resolution music. One is not better than the other, just a different way to enjoy music.
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Agree with this! If I had a fire and lost all my music or was born 40 years later and wasn’t steeped in the record shop world, and in searching the used record stores in my formative years, there is no question that I would be 100% streaming. But I’m an old dog…
I think about how good kids these days have it in some aspects (not the job market though). A never-ending firehose of porn delivered to a supercomputer in their pocket (so much for getting a quick glance at a friend’s dad’s playboys). And they have access to nearly all music for the price of a burrito and a coke each month.
I love the smell of a used record store, and the good ones used to have these lunatics behind the counter that knew ALL music from 13th century lute tunes to the punk scene and everything in between. You could say, I like X, Y, and Z, and they would list off like a dozen other artists that I’d never heard of, but turned out to be pure gold.
I guess by collecting music, I’m somehow hanging onto my youth. My squandered and mis-spent youth.
Sheldon
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Amen brother!
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Luv it, me too, that movie with John Cusack and Jack Black working in an old record store, classic! Eg I was in Prague before Covid and I visited every record and audiophile store in the city, the people were great, the physical aspect of browsing is cathartic, coffee, in a listening room trying out combinations of new and vintage speakers and amps, listening to opinions, without the physical aspect digital music becomes comfortably numb haha
H
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Hey John,
Don’t think I’d be experiencing ‘proper quality’ if I tried to turn a lossy file into lossless - as it’s already missing bits (literally) to begin with!
I’ve read the threads and articles, but you might try one album and compare it to a FLAC file. It might let you enjoy more of your music. Our opinions about numbers can color what we choose to listen to. It’s just a suggestion.
Digital vs hard media is another debate , I started collecting in 1967, still am I miss the 10 metres of vinyl and the thousands of CDS but it does provide a level of domestic harmony
WAF is real …
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One huge issue with streaming music is “This track is not available for streaming” Just hit that AGAIN 10 minutes ago, and it sucks. Missing on Apple Music, Qobuz, and Tidal. (I bet “The Pirate Bay” has it…)
Sheldon
I live in Prague! Glad you had a great experience.
Top marks for MiniDisc! What a format!
I think he means re-rip your CDs to lossless rather than convert lossy files to lossless (as the latter wouldn’t do anything other than create larger lossy files). During recent months of lockdown I used spare time to finally re-rip the last 1,000 or so CDs to FLAC that I had ripped to mp3 many years ago. My reripping to FLAC project has lasted about 10 years (to be fair, about 2 years of ripping, then 7.5 years of doing nothing except ripping new purchases, then the last 6 months to finish the last 1000 CDs). Now have about 4,000 CDs ripped to FLAC. The sad part of that, is about 3,000 of these I previously ripped to mp3 before I knew what I was doing. 
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@garym, I was really suggesting both. So I’ll ask a question: When you play your MP3’s what is the resolution? Is it 320 kbps? Even if you just convert from MP3 to Apple lossless (I’m thinking you would still use Itunes), ALAC, your DAC will play at 44.1 khz. Does an increase in file size really matter if the sound is better? I’m asking you both because I don’t have any MP3’s. Of course re-ripping would be a better solution.