DS Forums

 
 

HOW do you listen to music?


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 24-01-2015, 23:02
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188

This thread aims to explore the relative merits of all the different means available to listen to music: digital/physical; streaming/downloading; blind punt/try before you buy; proprietary/open source; via record company/direct from artist; location-specific/mobile; hi-fi/domestic system; stereo/surround; even recorded/live. It's a constantly evolving set of methods to serve a perennial human need, so there should be always something for us to discuss. Happy to hear views of all
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 24-01-2015, 23:20
Ænima
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 34,147
When I'm at home, it's through my PC. In the car, it's through my phone. I've got a bluetooth adapter that I just leave plugged in, and a 64gb memory card with my entire iTunes on it, which is about 36gb right now.
Ænima is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-01-2015, 23:30
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
When I'm at home, it's through my PC. In the car, it's through my phone. I've got a bluetooth adapter that I just leave plugged in, and a 64gb memory card with my entire iTunes on it, which is about 36gb right now.
Hi there. Is the bluetooth in the car - in order to expand your phone's storage capacity?
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-01-2015, 23:47
Ænima
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 34,147
Hi there. Is the bluetooth in the car - in order to expand your phone's storage capacity?
No. It's so I can play music through my cars in build audio. .

Basically, my phone has 32gb storage as standard, I put a 64gb sd card in it, so I have almost 100gb storage in total, just so I can fit everything on there.

I bought this Bluetooth adapter and my car has three power outlets, one of them is sort of tucked away, so I just have the adapter plugged in all the time (make sure your cars adapters turn off with the ignition, not all of them do).

You pick a frequency on the adapter, then tune into it with your cars radio and It picks it up. It's excellent sound quality, but not all of them are- I got one before that was a bit shitty, but this one was about £30 and it's a bit better- you can get them for about a fiver I think. It's also important to pick a radio frequency that's not near other radio channels.

The good thing about it is anyone that gets in my car can play music/ calls through their phone too if they switch their Bluetooth on.
Ænima is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-01-2015, 23:58
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
No. It's so I can play music through my cars in build audio. .

Basically, my phone has 32gb storage as standard, I put a 64gb sd card in it, so I have almost 100gb storage in total, just so I can fit everything on there.

I bought this Bluetooth adapter and my car has three power outlets, one of them is sort of tucked away, so I just have the adapter plugged in all the time (make sure your cars adapters turn off with the ignition, not all of them do).

You pick a frequency on the adapter, then tune into it with your cars radio and It picks it up. It's excellent sound quality, but not all of them are- I got one before that was a bit shitty, but this one was about £30 and it's a bit better- you can get them for about a fiver I think. It's also important to pick a radio frequency that's not near other radio channels.

The good thing about it is anyone that gets in my car can play music/ calls through their phone too if they switch their Bluetooth on.
Cool beans!
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:02
swingaleg
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 76,851
via Youtube

I haven't got any music playing devices tho' I suppose I could play CDs on my laptop

Doesn't seem much point when everything is on YouTube

Quality doesn't bother me........I just like a nice tune.
swingaleg is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:08
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
via Youtube

I haven't got any music playing devices tho' I suppose I could play CDs on my laptop

Doesn't seem much point when everything is on YouTube

Quality doesn't bother me........I just like a nice tune.
I was trying to find Bob Dylan's "Feel My Love" off Time Out Of Mind on YouTube yesterday to share on a forum. Could I find the original? Nowhere. Just pages and pages of wannabees' cover versions. Some artists/labels are super-fussy.
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:27
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
I was going to link to zunior.com which is where I bought my most recent music from IIRC. A couple of Chad VanGaalen albums. I have a serious thing for Canadians it seems. But their website is coming up a blank. I hope Zunior hasn't gone under. I really liked that it sold FLAC, and seemed to have a close working relationship with artists.
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:39
bookcover
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Silence is Golden...But I See
Posts: 5,923
I listen to my gramophone sat down and use my ears. Is there any other way?

bookcover is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:43
bookcover
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Silence is Golden...But I See
Posts: 5,923
I was trying to find Bob Dylan's "Feel My Love" off Time Out Of Mind on YouTube yesterday to share on a forum. Could I find the original? Nowhere. Just pages and pages of wannabees' cover versions. Some artists/labels are super-fussy.
This any good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXbyrlBCI8

bookcover is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 00:47
Maryinside
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 6
Through my phone when I'm outside or through PC when I'm at home. There is no a third variant.
Maryinside is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 01:28
Doghouse Riley
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,885

How long have you got?

CD,
Vinyl,
Cassette,
Car radio/CD player
Laptop (via the uprated speakers in a vintage jukebox wall box).
Memory stick in a TV.
Two vintage jukeboxes which play vinyl 45rpm records.
Via two more jukebox wall boxes/adapter/iPod to hi-fi system.

Do two musical instruments count?

If so, electric piano and tenor saxophone, (but not at the same time)
No hang on, I make backing tracks on the piano so I can play along with them on the saxophone.
Doghouse Riley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 02:07
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
Nope! He's hardly singing the melody. I wanted the studio version so that I could demonstrate that occasionally Dylan was as good a singer as a songwriter.
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 02:08
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
I listen to my gramophone sat down and use my ears. Is there any other way?

There is, but no better way, Bookie
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 02:10
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
Through my phone when I'm outside or through PC when I'm at home. There is no a third variant.
Welcome to DS. And seeing as you're Maryinside, I imagine the latter is where you listen to most of your music
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 04:34
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
So how do I listen to recordings? In truth, I don't really know any more. I was a committed CD listener until I my first iPod quite late in the game in 2004. The 1GB shuffle proved too small, the 80GB classic did a few year's solid duty, and now the 160GB shuffle is only half full. My digital music library is now divided into two. MP3 tracks (at 192 kbps) are the ones in which have taken a casual or academic interest only. Two or three years ago I started ripping CDs to Apple Lossless format. I went back and re-ripped all my CDs to the new format. I now rip all new music acquisitions to ALAC. I will never go back to MP3. My music collection has now ballooned many, many times larger than the largest available portable device.

My ideal would be to take all my music files with me everywhere, and be able to listen to them at their full quality on a portable device. That won't be possible for I don't know how many years. The advent of streaming services and the ditching of hard drives in portable devices in favour of pricier flash memory has perhaps even further stalled the introduction of truly high capacity portable devices.

So now I have a music library sitting on a desktop Mac, pretty much doing nothing, except for ripping the odd new CD and loading a fraction onto a 16GB iPhone and the 160GB iPod, in ALAC format. I never remember what's on the phone. I have an iPad which is larger than the phone (32GB) but it is full of software tutorial videos. On my MacBook Pro Retina laptop I have given up running iTunes. Even with the music files on an external hard drive, the size of the library clogs up the laptop's tiny solid state drive. Anyway, why have a nice, sleek laptop all hooked up to bricks?

Will I change everything and switch to streaming? I'm not sure. I like the idea of bringing up my kids on my music library, and actually leaving it to them as a digital document much like I inherited my grandparents' vinyl collection. Also, I make tons of videos in which I use musical soundtracks. So there's a couple of reasons why having the file is better for me than streaming the file. There's also the audio quality issue, and the data usage issue.
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 04:56
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
How long have you got?
All day.

CD,
Vinyl,
Cassette,
Car radio/CD player
Laptop (via the uprated speakers in a vintage jukebox wall box).
Memory stick in a TV.
Two vintage jukeboxes which play vinyl 45rpm records.
Via two more jukebox wall boxes/adapter/iPod to hi-fi system.
That's the full range! Out of the digital sources I'm interested if you have a system so that you remember what album is on what device. It seems to me that physical libraries (CDs, vinyl, cassettes) are more easily memorable. I can name you all the Sting albums I own on CD, but I don't have a clue right now what music files are loaded on my iPhone.

Do two musical instruments count?
Of course! I'm a musician, too. Nice to meet you
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 05:15
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
Qobuz sounds interesting to me, even though I don't live somewhere it is launched yet.
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 05:26
Nowhere Dan
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1,188
Just firing up this radio programme now:

The days of compressed music, of trying to jam as many lower resolution tracks as you can on a hard drive or MP3 player, could be numbered. Gilad Tiefenbrun of LINN Products on the past and the future of high definition music.
From This Way Up on Radio New Zealand, 08 Nov 2014
Nowhere Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 09:37
Inkblot
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: West London
Posts: 24,325
Preferably on vinyl through a decentish amp and stand mounted speakers. If not vinyl, CDs though the same system, or iTunes files from an Apple TV into the hi-fi via a budget DAC (still sound good despite the lossy compression).

Also listen to the radio a lot, mostly online, via a wi-fi radio or Apple TV, and listen to music on my phone. Have a trial with Qobuz which sounds very good but, like all the streaming services I've tried, is just not user-friendly or comprehensive enough to be my main source.
Inkblot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 10:16
Doghouse Riley
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,885
All day.



That's the full range! Out of the digital sources I'm interested if you have a system so that you remember what album is on what device. It seems to me that physical libraries (CDs, vinyl, cassettes) are more easily memorable. I can name you all the Sting albums I own on CD, but I don't have a clue right now what music files are loaded on my iPhone.



Of course! I'm a musician, too. Nice to meet you
With a memory stick, I have them first filed by genre, i.e. Jazz, Jazz Vocal, Motown & Soul, C&W, Vintage Pop, Contemporary Pop. Then by individual artist.
That way it's not hard to find them using the TV as the main files appear on the TV screen and there's no effort in paging through them.
With the wall boxes I have the title cards on each of the three pages arranged as; :Jazz, Motown & Soul, Pop. I can select any number of tracks and the adapter will play them in that order.
Either way beats getting up and down changing CDs, as I never listen to one straight through.

Digressing,

Tricks of the mind.

Why is it on many CDs, you play you've sometimes no idea what is the next track until you hear the last few bars of the one playing?
Doghouse Riley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 10:23
stud u like
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
Vinyl
CD
Spotify
Youtube
Artists' websites
Itunes
Television
Amazon
stud u like is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 10:34
Doghouse Riley
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,885
With high speed broadband a lot of stuff on YouTube looks and sounds good on a TV with a decent sound bar.
Doghouse Riley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 10:51
catherine91
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Norwich
Posts: 2,220
CDs
Downloads and ripped CDs on my iPod Touch or on a memory stick plugged in to my hi-fi
Spotify on my iPod Touch
Internet radio on my iPod Touch
Ordinary radio
catherine91 is online now Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 25-01-2015, 10:52
glyn9799
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 7,303
Generally either cd player, iPod, mobile or Radio 1/Radio 2. I do listen to vinyl occasionally but to be honest it's such a faff getting it sorted and only get about 15-20 minutes out of it. I'd rather stick my iPod on random and stick it on the dock.
glyn9799 is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 15:53.