!!!!!!!!READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!!!!!!!!! This video is NOT a technical dissertation. This video is NOT claiming that one format is superior to the other. This video is ONLY HERE to do ONE THING: Explain to my long-time viewers why I do not stream (wirelessly) to my audio systems. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Man, you did it! Thanks for laying it out so clearly.

Thanks for being upfront with us. This is why I love Zero Fidelity. I feel the CD player love and won't be giving up my Rega Planet anytime soon!

I can't afford 5k for cd player. Streaming sounds great to me. Love finding new or old artists from around the world.

Your honesty is refreshing. I am personally in the same boat as you.

I'm with you. I own hundreds of CDs and Vinyl records, but I do stream from Tidal too. For me the streaming is the best and the easiest way to try out new music before buying the CD/Vinyl (or both).

I guess I'm strange.. I use Amazon HD to peruse new and old music alike.. When I find a KEEPER album... not one with a few good tracks and a bunch of filler.. I BUY the album.. so 1) I can actually OWN it, and 2) I can actually support the artists that made it.. Redundant? possibly.. Also, sometimes I want to research who is doing remastering.. there are like 10 different versions of Dark Side of the Moon.. I wanted a specific remaster on CD so I bought it.. But I think supporting the artists that enrich your life by actually buying their physical album and throwing them a few bucks instead of compensating them with the streaming pittance they receive is a good thing...

You're honesty is awesome and it is why I love your channel. Keep up the good work you do! You ,Steve, Guttenberg and Andrew are the best audio reviewers !

Brilliant! Great video. I love your style. Thanks for all the reviews that you have done and please keep doing that as far as you enjoy.

It's OK. We are used to hearing from: The vinyl-only listeners, the class A only listeners, the vacuum tube only listeners, the ultra HD streaming listeners, the KZfaq audio 'is good enough' listeners, the bass-head listeners, the movie soundtracks are my reality listeners, the class A/B is always better than class D listeners, the sound-is-pretty-good in my Chevy with a subwoofer listeners, the "I've never heard live music without microphones, ever" users, the strings are better than horns listeners, and the objective, attempted-scientific listeners, and a hundred more. You can be whatever you want. It's good that you are self-calibrating. It would be good if we were all self-calibrating. Even if we paint our box smaller. Nobody can be all of the above. Nobody. [Although Floyd Toole comes close.] Calibration helps make sense of it.

I prefer physical media. If I spend money I want something tangible (yes I am old). However, I will stream from a hard drive to my system especially after a couple of whiskeys. No point in damaging good media because of good whiskey.

Brilliant video, Sean! Well said in every way. Thanks the passion in the videos you do. Always enjoyable and informative.

Great video, please don't apologize for your presentations. That was very informative. I agree with you about CD versus streaming quality.

Good for you, Sean! It just makes sense to keep the source the same to better judge the other components. I respect you more for this position. I'm still using CDs/SACDs as well. I expect I will stream in the future, but the whole streamer/server/DAC scene seems to be moving quickly, so I'm waiting for the technology to mature a bit before I jump in. When I buy something I keep it for a long time.

I am also an owner of that «wickedly awsome» AMR CD-777 SE, and I can just say the same. This CD player has a sound that I have not experienced with any other CD-player (a few over 10K$). It is a true masterpiece. Torsten Loesch at AMR really hit the nail with this player, and also the AMR DP-777 SE, if you want a DAC / pre, is at the same level IMHO. It is perfection of analogue sound with the benefits you mention of CD or digital media. - I own a CD collection of 9K pieces, and many of the musicians that play on those CDs are my friends. I don’t mind retelling what they say. At most streaming services they need at least 5000 streams of an album to equal the price of one CD sold directly from them or the record company. There are a few of us physical media guys out there, and we really do matter in the music industry, even in 2020. ;)

Sean, this post is so you. Honest, straight forward, intelligent, and thoughtful. Keep doing your thing. Many value you.

Love it. It's so important to be true to yourself, and I have a lot of respect for you laying this out like it is for you. You do an incredible job again and again. The only catastrophe here, is that I just now see that I'm not subscribed!? I used to be, and intend to stay. Wonder what happened? Keep it up. You're one heck of a reviewer. 💪

Not only do I respect your position I endorse it. I do stream in order to hear all the the latest classical recordings. I also am ripping all my jazz and classical CD s. However, I still buy physical media, vinyl as well as CDs, and when I am relaxing I play them, and my older CDs and records on my turntable or treasured SACD player. I hope you will continue to give us your reviews for many a year. Thank you Sean.

I totally agree with you Sean, I love listening the same way you do. I love my CDs. Please keep going the way you are.

You know Sean I've always enjoyed watching your videos and I'll tell you what the one thing I've always got a sense of from you is you always seemed on some level to be holding back. One of the things I often tried to do with the budget audiophile is this sense of honesty, this sense of not only being honest about the product that I'm reviewing but also honest about who I am. To be honest with you this is the first time felt you've really been honest with who you are to your viewers and I just got to say I love that.

I don't like the idea of "somebody else's hard drive." I want it on MY hard drive.

You know what? I just realized how awesome it is to be in this kind of a position. Why? Because it means that there are people out there who truly want to get my take on different Hi-Fi components. Even the stuff that's well outside of what I usually riff about. The truth is that when you're on the other side of the fence, the general sentiment is easy to miss or take for granted. Just know that in this moment, I appreciate all of it! I may not always be game to provide the kind of popular content that people want to see, but I'm thankful that you are nonetheless here to lay down your thoughts and feedback. Thanks for tuning in. Keep on listenin'!

I work for a high end dealer and can easily beat a $15k streamer (the best we can find for the money) with a $5k cd player. Depth and space especially are not rendered well via streaming. A CD is still read from physical pits on the cd, as opposed to magnetic information on a hard drive with streaming. I have access to both and always reach for a CD, as sound quality is my priority, or grab an LP. Thanks for keeping things real Sean over the years. Much love.

I found your channel on this video. I stream my music through a fancy DAC and believe that I have narrowed the gap to the narrowest point between hardware and software music listening. I LOVE this honest video of yours, even though it differs from my own practice. You have a new sub...

As a recording artist myself, I would like to THANK YOU !!! Not to mention the fact that streaming pays artists roughly a third of a penny for every stream !

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic! It took me a long time to get my streaming setup to sound “analog”. PC + Matrix XSPDIF 2 + i2s over HDMI to a PS Audio Directstream DAC+ Audirvana + Tidal. Changing even one of those elements including using the Tida app instead of Audirvana makes the “digitalness” of music reappear.

*Looks at his 1000 CD`s next to the computer monitor and smiles" You sir, have a new subscriber. (BTW, i also use Roon so i get the best of both worlds)

I respect you for standing up for what you believe in, keep up the good work.

Kudos to you Sean. I'm basically on the same page. Streaming does allow for a search to see if you like any certain type of music instead of just reading a review and thinking you might like it, therefore it makes a wise decision on buying what a person likes instead of , that was a mistake . Keep up the good work.

Thanks for your service! ❤️

I love to listen to my selfmade cassette tapes. And it's the perfect gift for every occasion. Love to explore new empty tape brands and record on it. I love to listen to the different sound signature between cassette tapes of different brands and to play the tapes on different cassette decks. Love to order new albums from my favorite bands on cassette tape. And i'm happy there is so much choice to it! So yes, it's an awesome kind of position!

I'm with you Sean. I do have a streamer for convenience when I'm having a party (not during Covid though or when cleaning) but my primary means of listening is thru Vinyl and the experience involved in collecting, the sound quality of vinyl/CDs, and the listening experience with vinyl just brings me more peace and joy. Its hard to get away from our phones, tablets, texting, Instagram, Facebook, or whatever in our hectic world, but the hifi listening experience with CDs and vinyl brings me back to a period in time when life was simple and easy and relaxing. Plus I actually think you discover more music and artists thru vinyl and CDs, because when your purchase an album you'll listen to the whole album and all the songs, where as with streaming you usually search for what you like and what you know and don't necessarily discover new music or listen to the whole album. I've found so many new songs from artists that I hadn't really heard before because of my vinyl love which otherwise thru streaming and radio would be never discovered. I think it'll be hard for you to avoid hifi audio gear that doesn't have DACs/streamers because many of them have it, and I don't mind if you skip talking about DACs/streamers etc because I don't have much interest in them but still would love you to review audio gear that includes them because I still want to hear your review and thoughts on the other aspects of that gear. You do your thing, and do what works for you, I continue to enjoy your commentary and all you have to offer to us and will continue listen. Peace!!

Thanks for your reviews. We acknowledge your honesty.

I hope you keep doing this channel. It seems that you have access to some gear that not everyone else has access to (that i've seen). Keep your chin up.

I'm totally with you here in every respect, and think of all the healthy exercise your getting that streamers don't get. 😎😂 I also love actually owning a collection.

You expressed it very well. Good job. Love all your reviews.

Love your reviews. Keep them coming.

I was all into physical but now that I gave streaming a chance(Spotify in my case), it's 90% of my listening. It's cheap enough for the ad free version and so worth it to discover new music or music you kind of want to try out but don't want to buy all that physical media(classical in my case). Streaming won't replace your collection of carefully curated master recordings but the variety sure complements it well.

Love my bluesound node 2i, a tiny box that holds my 40,000,000 song random playlist :), great video though Sean :)

I really enjoyed this video. I'm a listener who loves my CDs and LPs and the closest I come to a streamer with my stereo is an AM/FM tuner (which is the definition of zero fidelity). I do have an Amazon Cloud library that I sometimes listen to when I'm at my desktop computer. At the moment I'm feeling extremely envious of your disc player which costs as much as my entire setup, but I'm happy to listen to you take time to talk about your favorite source component. I've been wondering about it for a while.

Great vid, cheers for spending the time & effort.. You have helped me see that I really do want a high end CD transport as well 👍🙏

I have actually enjoyed your outlook on streaming and class D amps. I know when you say a class D amp sounds good or hard to distinguish from class AB I know you mean it and it must sound great. I like that same high standard with streamers as well, it will push developers to improve and again we'll know when we have something good when you say it. I know your not going to be the go to steamer/dac reviewer but I appreciate what you have to say about them.

Brutal honesty without being a jerk. How refreshing. I steam from Qobuz, but to each his own. Why would it impact me in any way how someone wants to play their own music?

Totally respect your opinion and listening to you speak about your preference just made me think your 100% right it's about the music. I stream everything but I love hearing other people's view on how they listen and how they enjoy there music. Thanks so much for this and I'm now subscribed

Although I have not always seen eye to eye with you on your videos. I 100% have your back on this one. Shared philosophy's here for sure. Well done Sir👌🎼✨

I listen mostly to CDs in 2020 and I probably will in 2050. And... you don't need a $5000 player, my Marantz CD 6006 cost me €422 and it sounds wonderful.

I’m still watching. Thanks for the content as always

Don't care if you deal with streaming or not. I very much appreciate your thoughtful approach on this channel, as well as your views on the audio industry. Even though my own listening is primarily through streaming these days I still enjoy the channel very much. Do it your way.

who cares what medium you use, at the end of the day being an audiophile should be first and foremost about the music and the emotional connection and experience it can give you. Yes trying out different kit is awesome, but actually sitting down and listening to an artist and the amazing experience they have created is the best part for me, cant speak for others of course.

Hi Sean, I like your stance on this. I first encountered a streamer in my brother's house about 5 years ago. They were having a competition to see who chose the best songs on their multi-room set up. Trouble was they couldn't even get past the first verse and chorus of each song before diving on to the next one! As someone who appreciates that the artists created a complete body of work, selecting the tracks to include and the sequence they wanted them played, I enjoy putting on the CD and listening from end to end. I have to make a choice about every 45-60 minutes and then relax. If I had to choose every 5 minutes it would be a pain in the ....... Finally, if you want streaming reviews, Darko is you're man, but hang on, hasn't he just gone out and bought a shed load of CDs? I think he has.

Great video man. Keep doing what you do 👍

CDs will always be my top choice for music source. Thanks for doing this video.

Well yeah, if I bought a $5,000 CD player I'd make sure to use it as much as possible. Lol.

With you a long way since streaming for years has been my method to find new music to buy in physical media - vinyl or cd whatever. A year ago I skipped using a laptop for streaming and started using an Auralic Aries G2. Expensive, yes, but really another level of wireless sound. Then I tried it out with the brands Vega G2 dac/preamp and used their proprietary hdmi based 'lightning link' and their 'ligting ds app'. After testing different hdmi cables and changing from Tidal to Qobuz as my streaming service I concluded that my beloved $15.000 Linn LP12 turntable was only better with top notch recordings. It is very often the case, that I can find a better version of a record on Qobuz, than the one I have in my vinyl collection. A few years ago I would say 'no way', but now I have 50.000.000 tracks to pick from and having a feast. My system: The Auralic combo is fed by Ansuz power cables/powerstrip and it sends it's signal to a pair of ATC scm50ASL active monitors. Very detailled, very authentic, very intoxicating😎

@ Zero Fidelity: Of course, the last choice is always yours, but just curious, have you compared HD music from streaming services such as Tidal? If so, how much better sounding is your setup to it?

Hey Sean, what kind/brand of sound diffusers do you have behind the speakers?

I remember listening to the AMR CD-77 and it was probably the most "analog" sounding cd player I've ever heard. Extremely musical, no fatigue, pure enjoyment.

"Sean-eee, you left your stereo system on the floor again"! "I thought we talked about this..."!

Thank you for your honesty. Understanding where you are coming from helps me to appreciate more your reviews. Time has tought me to listen and learn from others who may have different perspectives, because there is plenty of knowledge to gain by doing it. If you still care to read this, i acknowledge the sound quality of vinyl and CDs, but I don't want to deal with buying, caring, organizing, cleaning, loosing, etc. Instead, getting closer to an analog sound through streaming became my lifetime pursue, of studyng and learning, one tweak, one cable, one component at a time, a journey of inches. It's a lot of fun, and on top of it all, i get to enjoy the music along the way.

I have a streamer that I love for convenience mainly but I think there’s a huge number of people who are collectors as much as they are audiophiles. For these people there is significant enjoyment in organizing and cataloguing as well as the tactile experience of physical media, be it vinyl albums or CD’s. You explained your own reasons perfectly Sean and I had no issue hanging in there for the whole 10 minutes! Great stuff once again, thank you

Thanks​ for​ being​ an​ honest​ friend.

😄 love you rendition of us telling you its 2020 and to get with the program

Thank you for your insights...have a Streamer, but also 3 CD Transports, 2 that are single discs that are considered as Digital Turntables, that when I want that type of option, will select a recording that is an end to end listening experience. But to not let the 3 physical Transports lie dormant, came up with a Calendar that specifies which component will be listened to in that day. Happily the quality is close enough from the best to least that each is enjoyable.

Great job. You found the equivalent to vinyl in a cd player. Nice to know what you use. A fun video.

COMPLETELY AGREE with Sean. Life's too short for streaming. Vinyl, CD and SACD all the way! CANT WAIT for that ACCUPHASE review!!!

Tidal Master sounds pretty good to me with a Dragonfly Red DAC and PSB headphones 🤷‍♂️

I want you to know I watched the whole video and I'm such a fan I'm into Vinyl and I understand and appreciate your stance on cd material. Would you ever consider a turntable review? Or are you into just CDs? I love your amp and speaker reviews it has helped me so much

Still watching! Do what make you happy. Report things how you see / hear them. I enjoy your reviews. Thanks for your efforts.

It is a good thing that some streaming services are offering better quality audio (Amazon Music HD comes to mind), I do figure at one point streaming will catch up with physical media

I'm really interested in seeing other hifi set ups and finding out what makes it so special to their owners. Your setup looks so basic and yet judging by what you are saying about it, it sounds literally like a giant killer. The cd player alone sounds like the goldielox zone of cd players and those speakers look stunning in the wood finish. As for streaming, I have only just started down that road at 53, but cd and vinyl are my main media and streaming I use for finding new artists and playing in the car. What I really love about Spotify is the idea of creating my own playlists for different genres from rock and punk through to jazz and electronic and a bit of sca thrown in for nostalgia 😁 Thanks for showing us your system, really interesting 😊

Don’t change what you are doing! You are always reminding us that no one hifi component is the best for all people. Please remember that not all hifi reviews are for all people. Keep up the great work

Doesn’t change anything, your reviews rock👌

My main source is CD playback. Streaming is convenient way to discover new music then I go hunt for the album in CD format. With CD, I can find the best pressing that sounds the best but streaming cant.

I do all my "streaming" on KZfaq too, if I want to check out something before I buy the CD.

...and another thing... 😏😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐙🐉 Great vid Sean. I'm only just now seeing that tech moves on... The jazz filter is very good 🤯🔥😱😺🎱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐙🐉

I have a question for you. What are the two vertical sound panels made of? I want to build my own at some point and I'm curious about yours in this video.

100% with you Sean! I do stream tidal regularly for casual listening however LPs are my bedrock for serious listening. Also, streaming is like everything else computer related......constant bugging.....too many other people on home WiFi so songs lag, phone or tablet freeze's, app crashes, album added to tidal library is there one day and removed the next, sound quality (particularly compression and dynamics) are all over the place. I have way more issues streaming with 2020 tech than I ever do with LP 1950s tech.

One of the reasons I prefer CDs is that I simply enjoy handling physical media, leafing through the booklets etc. while listening. Also, I don't mind the manual CD changing a bit - in fact, it kinda serves as a means of attention span management for me as it provides a modicum of active involvement that keeps mind from straying away from the music.

I Appreciate honesty. Thank You!!

With this as background, I will now have to re-watch your recent Buchardt A500 video. Which was great, by the way.

Be yourself! You're doing fine.

Watched the whole video Sean and have same preferences of owning the media and can still get up and load the CD discs. I totally understood your recent review of the marzantz with steaming capabilities where you didn’t address that part of the device. You directed viewers who were interested in the streaming feature to a reviewer who did cover streaming so any push back by viewers wasn’t warranted.

Is there a difference in fidelity between streaming live and playing a file you downloaded/purchased from itunes? My itunes library going through my Rotel a12 w/ dac sound like CD quality.

Hi, I like your vids a lot! I have 2 questions: 1) Can you tell us more about you diffusers and absorption pannels used in your listening room? Especially the diffuser looks amazing.... 2) When you tell us in such detail the difference in flavours of amps and speakers what about acoustics? I mean, if you have a bad treated listening room, or far from optimal dimensions do have impact on the flavour as well. If I see such a narrow listening dimensions with many "problem" frequencies what are your opinions worth when it comes to flavour? Don't get me wrong I really appreciate your amazing talks about the Amps etc. What do you think about this scenario. Case: Someone buys a Yamaha 2200 with some nice Dynaudio speakers. In his listening room its almost perfect except the low mids are somewhat overwhelming. You can try to fix it by putting all kind of absorption / diffusers maybe. But what about a SPL measurement to see what the problem is exactly. I saw some nice REW (Room Equaliser Wizard / Umik-1) How to's with impressive results. You can even throw in a DSP in the signal path to do Room acoustic adjustment even on audio source component level. Is it an idea to spend a video about this topic because I think its a valid theorema related to flavours and behaviour etc of audio components. Sorry for my bad English and possibly I posted it in the wrong video but I really like to know what you have to say about this.

Man, now I really wish some time I get to listen to an AMR.

I don't see what the fuss is about. Surely the CD playback is very similar to the network playback on the Model 30. We're still getting plenty of relevant information regarding tonality and synergy, regardless of whether we would use that unit as a CD player, USB DAC, or network streamer. I think this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion.

Hi Sean! Very nice and honest review as always. Just a quick question... What are those speakers? That CD player looks quite amazing, you're lucky you own one of them!

So this is the AMR CD review! Good, so what about the amp and speakers?

I’m with you on streaming. I’m sooooo old school. I’m 61 yrs old, grew up on vinyl and then to cd. Love stereo. If I want to hear new music I go to you tube.

Long live to the CD! Many times per year my internet fails for few hours or even a day or two when they are installing new lines or who knows what. I don't remember when was the last time that didn't get electrical power in my apartment. So streaming is unreliable. It doesn't matter to me to get up, look for a CD and load it into the player. I have pretty much all the music that I like to listen in CDs and when I discover something new that I like, I'm glad to contribute to the artists for their work buying their music in a reliable and high quality format.

Shawn, never apologize for keeping it real!

Sean, do you roll tubes in the AMR player? Or do you use the original tubes supplied ? Do you know if 6922 family tubes are good with it?

Good answer Sean! I also prefer physical media and I don't care what people say

Way to go Bro... 👍👍👍💯💯💯👌👌👌. I feel ya. If my money tree ever grows enough leaves I'm eyeballing an Italian made tube CD player myself that when I last checked was in the 5k ballpark. Everything you've said spot on... which to me speaks volumes towards integrity of your reviews.

Great review .. and I am with you about listening to actual CD ... I am looking for both CD and SACD player .. any recommendations will be greatly appreciated .

Respect stand your ground 🤟🔊

My biggest beef with streaming is all the abysmal 'Remastered' versions that are made of 70's, 80's 90's etc music, for me personally it completely has ruined the experience of music from these eras and lot of it now I cannot listen to. Also when your subscriptions stop, you have nothing tangible, from all those months/years of streaming.

I’m the same I own a Consonance Droplet 5.0 I love it. Have you ever managed to have a listen to one? If so how does it compare with the 777? Thanks 👍✌️

I listened to your entire vid and I am glad to be a subscriber to your channel. Keeping it honest! I just added a Bluesound Node (2021) and run it and my Audiolab 6000cdt transport through my Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ I use Tidal etc. through the BluOS app. Got tired of hooking up my iPhone via the Mytek USB. I’m still a vintage gear/vinyl/CD guy. But had to try streaming. Love your AMR CD player👍👍

is it fetichism? i don't think so... like a good book... where i want to even smell the pages... with vinyls and CDs i want to see the pics of the sessions. read the liner notes. how the musicians looked for one or another recording; know exactly the year it was recorded, the musicians who played... hundreds of times you get to find out about session musicians... that particular bass player that only played on 2 tracks of an album, the trumpet player who was there for just one song, you find out who mixed the album, who mastered it, who recorded it, where it was recorded... that's ALSO the beauty of NOT streaming music! you don't get that feel and kind of information with the anonymous streaming.. besides, i can "travel back" and remember what was going on in my life when i bought such or such record.. why it was meaningful in that particular moment of my life... music has history; is palpable and is not just anonymous entertainment! it becomes as beautiful (even more) than my library... amen...