Music listening habits. And other considerations.

[AlmaataKZ]

Having swithced to computer-based music during the last year or so I have been mainly listening to playlists. I have may of them and they are mainly 'mood' oe 'style/genre' based and usually very long. (same ones are also on the ipod so even when not ar home it is playlist-based listening).

my computer failed recently so for the last several days I had to play CDs on the bluray player. And what you notice is that CDs are so short! I completely forgot that music can end, CDs need changinf and ... choosing! that is so different! the music just keeps stopping!

I thonk I prefer this aspect the playlist way. (I of cause also play individual albums on the computer but not from cd and only occasionally).

So, from this point of view I think I prefer the 'hard disc way'.

From SQ point of view I find there is little difference. (of cause there is difference between individual tracks say 24/96 good record and cd bad track, but overall it is all good be it phisical cd only or a mix of cd rips and 24/96 from hard drive)

another observation comes with the mac failure. if you use the compute rfor music, because it is a more versatile thing it has more versatiles ways to failure. so the concept of a dedicated hifi hard disc based palyer or streamer is not so bad because itis dedicated to musc playback and does not have other uses (e/g/ not running other soft for other tasks and has less hardware so there is less to go wrong). This of cause depends a little on if you use the computer for other tasks or not or if you only want one box that will do both computer jobs and music.

So,

1) I prefer hd and playlist-based listening to phisical cd

2) a dedicated server/streamer - not so bad idea, although both computer and server/streamer have their own pros and cons (which are mostly not SQ-related!)

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Why is 'edit' not availabe (before any replies). I cannot correct typos&spelling so apologies.

edit: edit is available on the second post but not on the original one (including before any replies).

Is it supposed to be this way?

 

[jaxwired]

I also switched to streaming from iTunes about a year ago. I absolutely love how everything is so accessible. No more hunting for the CD I want and switching to a new recording can be done from my chair. Great!

I don't use playlists though. I understand the appeal, but I like to listen to recordings in full. I feel like in some cases the whole is more than the parts and I miss that if I jump around from song to song. I guess it depends on the type of music you listen to.

 

[jaxwired]

The other thing about playlists is that you tend to cherry pick the songs and I worry I'll burn out on my favorites. I guess it's a little nuts, but I enjoy my music so much that when I find something I truly love, I tend to limit my exposure to it so I don't burn out on it. Yeah, that's nuts.

Also, listening to the entire recording I often end up falling in love with a song that initially didn't speak to me.

 

[Anonymous]

The other thing about playlists is that you tend to cherry pick the songs and I worry I'll burn out on my favorites. I guess it's a little nuts, but I enjoy my music so much that when I find something I truly love, I tend to limit my exposure to it so I don't burn out on it. Yeah, that's nuts. Also, listening to the entire recording I often end up falling in love with a song that initially didn't speak to me.

totally agree with that, not nuts at all imo

 

[Anonymous]

Ive bought less than 10 CDs over my life. All my music is computer (HD) based, if you are like me make sure you BACK UP your collection to a external HD (can be picked up for about £30+, dependant on size required). My computer recently died & i my entire library saved by my back up HD.

Occasionally use spotify for parties and when using other peoples computers. Actually moving slowly to CDs now as ive just bought some CDJ kit. But again will probably look for decks/mixer's that are computer compatible with my next upgrade.

CDs will probably stick around for another 10+ years, until wide-area-wifi covers most of the populated world, thus making high-speed wireless internet a real choice. By that point either Google (or someone) will (probably) have completed their HD free OS, switching to a server based system, with all files, programs etc saved on a central server (aim is to make laptops etc smaller & lighter).

But as both the 2 key aspects of this: 1) wide-area-wifi & 2) Google OS, are still in development stages (and facing problems), the 10 year deadline for wide spread use might be optimistic.

 

[jaxwired]

Ive bought less than 10 CDs over my life. All my music is computer (HD) based, if you are like me make sure you BACK UP your collection to a external HD (can be picked up for about £30+, dependant on size required). My computer recently died & i my entire library saved by my back up HD.

Occasionally use spotify for parties and when using other peoples computers. Actually moving slowly to CDs now as ive just bought some CDJ kit. But again will probably look for decks/mixer's that are computer compatible with my next upgrade.

CDs will probably stick around for another 10+ years, until wide-area-wifi covers most of the populated world, thus making high-speed wireless internet a real choice. By that point either Google (or someone) will (probably) have completed their HD free OS, switching to a server based system, with all files, programs etc saved on a central server (aim is to make laptops etc smaller & lighter).

But as both the 2 key aspects of this: 1) wide-area-wifi & 2) Google OS, are still in development stages (and facing problems), the 10 year deadline for wide spread use might be optimistic.

CDs offer something that downloads don't, resolution. Until downloads match the bit depth of CDs, it's all CDs for me.

 

[ID.]

CDs offer something that downloads don't, resolution. Until downloads match the bit depth of CDs, it's all CDs for me.

+1

I run a poor mans set-up, in that I use an iPod classic into my DAC. I almost always just have it on shuffle. It's good most of the time and I get music that I forgot I'd bought, but I do miss out on the whole album experience. I also have a tendency to get restless and keep skipping tracks without really thinking about or knowing what I'm in the mood for

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

I buy a fair amount of vinyl, an increasing amount of higher bit rate downloads, and a few CDs, so my listening is split about 70/30 between turntable and DAC. That said, last night I sat and created a long playlist focusing on recent purchases, it then mutated as I started to add favourite songs and bits of albums I hadn't come across in awhile.

Sure enough I soon had a few hundred songs in the list. I managed about three before I fell asleep. Back to vinyl tonight unless I can regulate and discipline my playlist compiling skills,

 

[Anonymous]

CDs offer something that downloads don't, resolution. Until downloads match the bit depth of CDs, it's all CDs for me.

I understand what you're saying (I think), but you're saying it wrong . Most music you download is of the two-channel 16-bit type, which is exactly the same resolution as on your CD. You're probably talking about low sound quality, but that is related to bit rate, not bit depth. That said, there are certain sites that offer 24-bit music downloads.

To get back on topic: I buy my music on CD. When the cd enters my home, it goes straigt into the pc, spins there for about ten minutes, and then ends up on a shelf where it sits being pretty. I use CDs only for dedicated listening sessions, which is perhaps a few hours every month.

At home, I haven't listened to any radio station for the past ten years. Music is played from my desktop pc (when I'm working), or from the HTPC in the living room. I don't use playlists much, usually I just have the player pick random songs from my entire collection. The one killer feature that I do use a lot is a separate "play queue". It's basically a jukebox feature: the player picks the songs, but I can choose which songs to play next. And if the play queue runs out, the player continues with random songs from the library.

Like others have said as well, I'm not used to changing CDs (or vinyl, for that matter). So having to get up and change CDs every hour gets tiresome (no I'm not decadent, I'm just spoiled with new technology -- if there is a difference).