Zing!
You’d only consolidate it into the old one if he started a new one. And then moan about that. 
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resuscitating
Aesthetically, yes but it’s handy for setup and accessing some of the various options on it.
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Here’s my two penneth;
You will mostly spend your time critiquing a streaming/digital set up unless you avoid doing it super cheap. You have a tip-top analogue front end, so don’t be tempted to think you’ll be happy with a cheaper streaming set-up. Minimum I would suggest, after much faffing around would be;
Half decent streamer (I’ve tried cheaper), Allo Digione Signature (£300), Auralic Aries Mini or Aries (£500ish), Magna ULTRA (£900), SOTM etc.
DAC, my preference has become a NOS based DDDAC 1794 after trying more modern jobbies, sounded closest to my TT. The DDDAC just allowed me to stop questioning the presentation all the bloody time and reading DAC reviews.
Biggest factor in the enjoyment of it all IMO is the service/interface, Spotify is ok for discovering/sharing/non critical listening, but you’ll soon pick up on lack of dynamics. To get closer to the visual treat and sound of vinyl I have found Roon, which integrates your ripped library with Tidal and presents it beautifully makes a massive difference, and stops me hankering for LP’s/CD’s. Reading artists notes, album credits, getting listening suggestions and seeing all your own rare albums presented nicely feels more personal than straight up Tidal or Spotify. Feels like ‘your’ collection, rather than the just something for the masses.
Oh, and the sound is tip top, and the DSP is excellent. Give it a trial, not free long term but I don’t even think twice having enjoyed it so much.
So, my DAC and streamer cost sub £1k, wouldn’t come close to many vinyl set ups on here, but has enough depth and range to the sound from FLAC and Tidal for me to not sit there and scrutinise what is missing.
I’ll get clobbered for this, but an IPad Pro with Roon is the best album cover I have 
(admittedly I don’t have any Zappa)
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Thanks for your helpful, considered reply Spencer. My main concern with Tidal is that it seems to have quite a limited obscure / non - mainstream music catalogue, when compared to Spotify.
Drink more. Buy more vinyl. Get used to vinyl being a phaff. Suffering makes it sound better.
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Try them all on trial periods, and see what they have of your taste.
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Name some artists / albums that you are worried about and I will see if they come up on my Auralic / Tidal app.
The Spacemen 3 omission is a legal dispute thing iirc and they aren’t on Spotify either.
And if what you like is niche enough, try lobbying the relevant labels to add their stuff to Qobuz and Tidal.
Not sure that’s actually possible ;/
Cheers Paul but I’m going to go for the 14 day Roon Free Trial and see how I do.
See above Adam.
I’ve ended up buying cd copies for a few quid on eBay and ripping the more obscure stuff, once it’s in Roon you’re done.
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OK, I must have something wrong here.
I’m using Tidal now (free 5 month trial) and Rammstein have only 3 tracks and no Albums ! Surely that isn’t right. Could somebody verify if that is right please ?
Thanks
They have about 13 albums on Qobuz
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Get Wayne’s Aurender
If still for sale. More spendy but it’s all you will ever need. Has to have a dac as well…
Tidal integrated. I’d check on the albums but my tidal code has expired. Sometimes can be a search glitch. Try looking for the album and it may bring up more. I’ve often found stuff by other than artist search.
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Way too spendy Steve, especially as I’m not at all sure this is the way to go.
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I wouldn’t buy an Aurender, too expensive. The Cambridge plus DAC or a NUC PC plus DAC will be fine. Bit perfect with USB asynchronous DAC is the way.
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Still plugging away with my squeezebox 3. Wondering whether I should buy an old micromega dac one day
Hope this has helped move the thread along 
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At the moment I’m using an HP Elitebook, USB’d to my Burson V5 upgraded EE Minimax DAC Adam. I’ve got Tidal Hi-Fi subscription.
Would that be a good enough rig to give a reasonable idea of the SQ ?
This appears to be correct. Annoying anomalies like this seem common on all the streaming services I’ve tried.