Favorite music archiving format?

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by darksidZz, Apr 20, 2012.

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  1. darksidZz Valued Senior Member

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    What is it, explain why. Do you prefer CD's or stuff bought digitally online?
     
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  3. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    I don't find the need myself for I just use Youtube to listen to just about anything I enjoy today. True, not everything is there but its enough for me to be contented with.
     
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  5. darksidZz Valued Senior Member

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    Would you consider using something like Rhapsody which lets you listen to unlimited songs for a monthly fee? They'd be better quality than YouTube etc.
     
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  7. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    I find that the quality of Youtube is quite good today as compaired with a year ago. They now have a much improved format and videos than ever before.
     
  8. darksidZz Valued Senior Member

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    Understood

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  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Bought? Funny.

    I store all my music digitally. I do have a CD and tape collection, but I haven't looked at them for years.
     
  10. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    I buy CDs on Amazon when I want something. I rip them to .wav files on my computer, burn a copy for my truck (it only has a CD player), then put them away. When I have a CD, I can rip it to .wav files for no loss at all, or if I have any reason to, I can rip it to whatever quality MP3 I desire. I don't have, or particularly want, a portable music player such as an Ipod. I don't want to listen to music when hiking or cycling.
     
  11. firdroirich A friend of The Friends Registered Senior Member

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    Spotify is enough for me nowadays. I really like FLAC for ripping vinyl or CD to store on a media server, but on the go, then spotify will do.
     
  12. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    music on CDs are digitally encoded, tapes and vinyl use an analog format.
     
  13. Believe Happy medium Valued Senior Member

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    Digitally, no more paying $15.99 for an album with one good song on it. I can just buy the song for $1.99

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  14. Xotica Everyday I’m Shufflin Registered Senior Member

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    I have a rather large collection. LPs, 45s, 8 tracks, cassette tapes, and CDs. I also have thousands of songs d/l to my iPod and a 2 TB hard-drive music library. You can't beat digital for transfer capability and portability. Artistically speaking however, I prefer the vinyl/tube format. The sound is much warmer and more full-bodied.
     
  15. Believe Happy medium Valued Senior Member

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    Get a nice sound card for your computer and that will cease to be an issue. I have an Asus Xonar STX card with a pair of beyerdynamic DT 880's (neutral sound) and the sound is amazing. Also, lossless digital formats are definetely the way the go. I've listened to pink floyds money on a pair of martin logan purity speakers with only an Ipod plugged into them and won't believe the extra stuff you can hear! (the persons fingers coming off the guitar strings for instance)
     
  16. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Surely "lossless" digital formats are only lossless with regard the original digital format it is supposedly taken from - digital recordings always have an element of loss with respect to a recording that was originally analogue.

    Obviously if you're listening to a vinyl / analogue recording taken from a digital source then there should be little difference.

    But the standard 192 kb/s mp3, and even the iTunes+ of 256 kb/s, I find to be noticeably different from a true analogue source.

    And obviously the quality of the system you're playing it through makes a difference - the cheaper the system the lower the quality of source you can get away with.

    I don't d/l music, though... I still like the physicality of a CD, and prefer the CD over vinyl for purchasing, purely due to durability, although if money was no object I'd go for vinyl.

    And while it is true you can just d/l the tracks you like rather than have to buy an entire album, many of my favourite tracks are ones I "find" on albums that I would never have otherwise heard.

    My ultimate set up, however, would be vinyl and tubes.
    When buying my last setup, some few years ago admittedly, the shop treated me to compare my system to their top-spec system... which was vinyl and tubes. They first played an album on my system... CD and fairly standard amp... and then the same album on their system. And I was almost in tears.

    But for portable music I tend to use 192 kbps mp3 - it has adequate quality for the size of file and the quality of system I'm listening through (generally headphones). Works out around 100Mb per album
     
  17. Believe Happy medium Valued Senior Member

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    I'm not sure where this vinyl > digital thing comes from. Every vinyl I've heard sounded noisy with static, crackling, and popping. How is that better then a nice clean digital recording??
     
  18. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Sure, vinyl is far more susceptible to wear and tear and degradation than CDs/digital recordings for sure, which is why I buy CDs.

    But if you've only ever seen clapped-out Ferraris then I'm sure you'd think Ferraris to be worse cars than a brand new Prius.

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  19. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    The DT 880's are a nice set of closed cans and all, but unless you require closed cans for some reason (listening in a noisy environment, need to avoid disturbing others) you should consider picking up some open headphones (Sennheiser HD600 is the standard here). The level of transparency and detail - not to mention the superior comfort for long usage - is impressive.
     
  20. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    Theoretically you are correct, but there's no reason that said element of loss can't be far below the level of noise in the analog source, or even below the level that human hearing can detect.

    And then let's note that almost all modern music is mixed and mastered in the digital domain in the first place, so there's no "original analogue" recording to speak of. This goes double for electronic music that is digital from start to finish.

    Got any blind tests which substantiate that assertion?

    Yeah, downloaded music is killing the album and, with it, the "deep cut."

    But then, 95% of artists never produced any good deep cuts in the first place.

    You should switch to AAC. 192kbps AAC is close enough to transparent quality that you'll never need any better.
     
  21. Believe Happy medium Valued Senior Member

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    They are semi-open actually. Also, comfort would debatable, I have used these all day long listening to music and doing homework (16 hours) and they were perfectly comfortable, I'm wearing them on a 6 hour stretch right now. The design is rather comfy.
     
  22. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    Ah, you're right - I had mixed them up with the 770's.

    I'm told that the 880 is actually an open headphone that is mis-marketted as "semi-open." Compare it to a classic semi-open headphone like the DT 835 or various AKG models, for example. Guess it comes down to exactly how you define "semi-open." Personally I no longer have any interest in semi-open designs - if I need closed I'll get closed (again, Sennheiser, although the DT770 is decent as well), otherwise I want fully open. A few months on the HD600s made a believer out of me.

    Yeah, the 880 is pretty good, but I still prefer the Sennheiser HD600 - it's lighter and has a larger, more ergonomic ear cup. I also dislike the light grey Beyerdynamic ear cup covers, since they end up looking all dirty and gross after a year of use or so. Not that they're actually any dirtier than a headphone with black covers would be, but it just looks bad. Similar story with the cheapo liner they put inside the earcups - that always seems to end up all torn and nasty after a year or two.

    I've also had a lot of issues with Beyerdynamic headphones kind of falling apart over the years - seems like they put all of their engineering into the transducers/cups and then scrimp on the rest to save money and weight. I had a pair of 770s where pieces were falling off right out of the box, simply because they weren't glued on properly. Sennheiser seems to put more thought into these other aspects - I especially like that the cables on their sets can be easily removed and replaced (at least, with newer models).
     
  23. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    I've never been able to shake my suspicion that those who prefer vinyl actually prefer the way the music has been mixed by the engineers so that it will work with vinyl.

    Why Vinyl Sounds Better Than CD, Or Not (NPR's Talk of the Nation).

     
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