I was born into this world in 1995, making me a “Millennial”, a term that generally refers to the generation of people born between the early 1980s and 1990s. I, like so many of my generation, have grown up in an era not only between analogue and digital mediums, but also physical and streamed. You could say, we “bridge the gap”, between formats.
I’ve owned a cassette walkman, CD players, an MP3 player and iPods in various incarnations… Over the course of my life, most forms of entertainment have gone from physical to digitally streamed. It didn’t happen overnight of course. Bit by bit the analogue faded for many and the streaming took over, and before I (or any of us knew it), we were immersed in new age technology in many aspects of our lives, particularly in music.
Today, we’ll be exploring the concepts of physical and digitally streamed music using a lovely piece of equipment that’s designed to give you the best of both, but can we really have it all?
Nostalgia vs Modern Day
I’ve often met customers who are struggling with whether or not to upgrade and digitise their current analogue system. They frequently tell me, “I’ve got rid of my CDs” or “My other half/kids want to be able to quickly stream from their phones”, and proceed to ask for advice – questions such as, “What’s the best decision for my system and/or household?” or “Is there a way to keep my current system and just add streaming?” or “Is 100% digital the way forward?” There are things to consider…
Physical media comes in many formats – We are all too familiar with records, especially with the “Vinyl Revival” showing increased popularity and sales in vinyl records year on year since 2007. Even the humble cassette tape is starting to see a renaissance within younger consumers, no doubt in the wake of vinyl's enormous resurgence. CDs are yet to make their comeback, with digital streaming making up to 85% of music consumption, and vinyl records outselling those shiny discs for the first time in almost three decades. Lets not forget to mention MiniDisc, Reel-to-Reel or even the LearJet Stereo 8 Portable 8-Track Player!
As things have evolved, digital streaming has become the most predominant format, with over three quarters of the world favouring it over anything else. This change in trend has meant that the charts are now counted in most part by the number of times a song, artist or album has been streamed, counting this towards their “sales”, moving them up or down the charts in relation to these numbers. Meaning that most songs that have been number one over the last few years has most probably been streamed more times than physically bought.
Contrastingly, it is argued that physical formats mainly exist nowadays as a marketing tool to attract collectors. For example, when the Spice Girls (I know what you’re thinking, “Can we go one blog without mention of the Spice Girls!”, the answer is No!) released their 25th anniversary edition of their first album Spice, it was available on six individual releases of vinyl, five cassettes and a double CD. Hardcore collectors such as myself would’ve bought all the variants (each one a different colour representing each Spice Girl, and a generic one), meaning the collectors have exactly the same album on multiple formats. Of course I’ve bought them all, but they sit on my display shelf purely to look pretty as part of one extensive collection. I only really ever listen to the album through streaming platforms such as Spotify, as I’m sure many others do!
Now unless you’re using streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz or Amazon Music HD, a small downfall with streaming is that many platforms compress the sound, meaning that the music somewhat loses the life it once had.
So what do we do? Do we scrap physical media altogether, considering how much of the world is now streamed? Or are both able to happily co-exist together? Let’s investigate…
The Audiolab Omnia
The Audiolab Omnia is an all-in-one pre-amp, amplifier, CD player and streamer system, where with just a click of a button, you can choose to stream or listen to your CDs; it even has a built-in phono input, allowing vinyl lovers to plug in their turntables too. So really and truly, all you need for this system are a pair of speakers and you’re good to go! The award-winning system comes in a black or silver finish, and it’s aluminium framework is typical of Audiolab’s modernised aesthetic for today’s living environments. Considering that the cost is sometimes a bit out of reach when buying all of these systems separately, the Omnia has a very effective price-point for it’s capabilities! So, without further ado, let’s plug it in and see how it sounds.
