Ok .. technology has moved ahead and I think I stayed in the 80's and 90's. Still have a VCR and a DVD Player. I haven't shopped for music in decades so I am not fully on top of the medium that things like movie soundtracks are available on. So how do you get your music .. download as a freeware or paid subscription? Does downloading give you quality .. and I should remind you I am a dinosaur from the Vinyl and CD era so that is my definition of quality.
So how do you get your music .. download as a freeware or paid subscription? Does downloading give you quality .. and I should remind you I am a dinosaur from the Vinyl and CD era so that is my definition of quality.
I have a merry mix – large collection of CDs, now ripped to files and living on a NAS, music purchased from places like Presto, Channel Classics, HDtracks, etc. and streaming from Qobuz and Apple Music.
Yes, downloading or steaming can get you very high quality, reaching and surpassing CD quality, if you choose the right place to download or stream from.
I have always bought CD's (since invented; before that vinyl) and:
Converted to MP3 ( for use on iTouch) for on the go (camping)
Copied MP3's to an SD card for use on the road. and
Copied to CDRHDD player (full, not MP3) for home entertainment system with full dynamic range. Played through a stand alone high end DAC.
I used to be a vinyl LP and later tape guy ( the high quality CR2 cassettes). I spent hours recording direct stereo FM Jazz broadcasts from CKFM in Calgary ( the Uni Jazz station back in the 1970s). About two years ago I found all those old tapes in a box, but had no way of playing them anymore. I bought a converter box, but when I listened to them, the quality had dropped significantly, but then so has my hearing.
I still have a box of LPs and a turn table, and they still sound great, but you know the ritual of getting them out and playing them has gotten old, along with me, and Spotify and Utube are just so easy.
Like Alex, I am a guitarist, and the miracles of Utube backing tracks make practice very easy, not to mention all the free tutorials.
Modern equipment, like my little Positive Grid Spark amp, connects to Utube via Bluetooth, and the app they provide for my tablet allows me complete amp modelling, effects, etc without leaving my chair. No expensive pedal boards required anymore, effects are a finger touch on my tablet. Streaming backing tracks, with chord diagrams, key information, etc. The advances recently are amazing.
firstly, my life would not be worth living without spotify lol
for absolute everyday listening either at work or in your garden, the ease, the amount of music together with a half decent speaker there is nowt better!
i have plugged my spotify from my phone through my home hifi on occasions but this really shows the (bad) shortfalls of a compressed format and i find it fatigueing to listen to after a while, but .......... through a nice "bright" sounding blue tooth speaker it is wonderful!
i am a purist dinosaur also, but for serious listening i play my records, sit down and go into another world in my lounge room!
pat
I have a large collection of CDs and SuperAudioCDs and at some point ripped to files as well, but I've found it's way "too complicated" for my technical brain to use them now. So I'm using Apple Music on all my devices and not looking back to CD/SuperAudioCD/ripped files. I'm old (have no time to manage all this libraries and files) and too lazy. Convenience is the key for me now. When I was 30 I really liked sitting and waiting for a CD to be ripped, did some artwork, making a library. Now it's just the matter of: "Hey, Siri! Play Pink Floyd The Wall album."
I have about 10,000 or so various tracks ripped from CD's in FLAC format on a hard drive connected to my wireless router.
These can be enjoyed in the loungeroom via the soundbar/sub setup or, in my music room (my wife calls it the spare room) on my Hifi streamed through a Yamaha WXAD 10 connected to my amp.
My preferred listening is to my vinyl collection on the main hifi in the music room...
I have about 10,000 or so various tracks ripped from CD's in FLAC format on a hard drive connected to my wireless router.
I really have to hurry up and do the same. I have a Plex server with 46TB on it (I like movies!!). I should just put my music on there for the house to stream.
Right now my music is on my main PC, laptop and iPhone. All of it in lossless compression. (FLAC and ALAC) with the original files (mostly WAV) on an external drive. It’s a pain to keep these all in sync.
Love finding random music on youtube - Two cello's "Thunderstruck" never would have believed a cello could make noises like that.
If I find an Australian artist I keep returning too, I'll normally go and get the album at some stage though. (I'm sure Seth Sentry would laugh if he saw the demographics of this house... but we even have bought some of his jigsaw puzzles)
But otherwise its youtube, I was so set in my music tastes before (prenet/pre cd even) - that someone made a whole world of music just a click away is awesome.
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(via pigeon carrier of course)
