Will the rise of streaming put more tasty disc spinners onto the s/h mkt in 2011?

[Rack Kit]

Yep. Same with a stack of 10 or 20. Just keep feeding 'em in.

Very occasionally iTunes finds 2 matches at Gracenote and sits there asking me to choose one, so that can hold things up.

I also like to add the sort tags so that, say, Robert Plant appears under P, not R, but I'd bet most people don't bother. It's easy enough to find stuff anyway in iTunes.

BTW any reason you're not using Lossless? 6 MB/min instead of 10 can add up to a lot.

Just a piece of mind thing i guess. I do a AAC 256kbps conversion from the AIFFs for the iPhone but it messes up Lossless playback from the music library, so i've created a smart playlist and use the iPhone remote app to choose from there.

Though i'm still trying to find a better workaround other than unchecking all the AAC files in the music library as someone else suggested.

 

[Nik]

Just a piece of mind thing i guess. I do a AAC 256kbps conversion from the AIFFs for the iPhone but it messes up Lossless playback from the music library, so i've created a smart playlist and use the iPhone remote app to choose from there.

Though i'm still trying to find a better workaround other than unchecking all the AAC files in the music library as someone else suggested.

AFAIK Lossless can be played on anything that can play AIFF. If you wanted to use some other player, you'd have to convert to something else anyway and Lossless would be as good a source as AIFF.

I use an iPhone and decided that I couldn't get all my music on it no matter the format so I might as well go Lossless and come up with a better way of choosing what to sync, which I did with smart playlists.

There's an option to convert to 128k AAC in-flight when you sync. Have you tried it?

 

[Rack Kit]

AFAIK Lossless can be played on anything that can play AIFF. If you wanted to use some other player, you'd have to convert to something else anyway and Lossless would be as good a source as AIFF.

I use an iPhone and decided that I couldn't get all my music on it no matter the format so I might as well go Lossless and come up with a better way of choosing what to sync, which I did with smart playlists.

There's an option to convert to 128k AAC in-flight when you sync. Have you tried it?

I can't fit all my music on either so, it's smart playlists too and pick and choose.

Not tried the 128k AAC option - i think there's just too much compression at that rate. 192 and above is fine though but i just went for 256k for the hell of it!

Really impressed with how it sounds using a pair of Etymotic ER-4Ps.

 

[Nik]

I can't fit all my music on either so, it's smart playlists too and pick and choose.

Not tried the 128k AAC option - i think there's just too much compression at that rate. 192 and above is fine though but i just went for 256k for the hell of it!

Really impressed with how it sounds using a pair of Etymotic ER-4Ps.

Yes, I assumed you chose 256 for that reason but wondered if you'd actually tried 128. It might not be up to critical listening, but what about when you're out and about?

 

[Rack Kit]

Yes, I assumed you chose 256 for that reason but wondered if you'd actually tried 128. It might not be up to critical listening, but what about when you're out and about?

I'll give it a go again sometime and see how they compare. I guess the next update on the iPhone will see it using the bigger 64GB Flash Drive from the Touch. Now that, i wouldn't have minded. ;-)

 

[dave]

This was a touch playing through a dock which can access the digital output?

Nik,

If I understand your question correctly, both my and the CD 555 user's Touch use the built-in DAC with their analogue outputs into our preamps' analogue line inputs. We also use the standard Touch power supply as supplied by Logitech.

regards,

dave

 

[dave]

Loading (ripping) CDs you do only once. It's no harder than playing a CD and takes less time, and you can play something else at the same time anyway.

You add your music files to your current backup system. If you need to, you buy a larger backup drive, but these are amazingly cheap now. Or you use a NAS with RAID1, which gives you protection against physical failure of one drive.

You can tweak software if you think it's worthwhile, but how often would you do this anyway?

It's not a matter of difficulty but a reason for "unplugging" from my keyboard. Music listening has always been my "downtime" and separate from any other activity in my life for the most part.

Again, there's no right or wrong -it's simply my choice. When I want maximum relaxation (spinning tunes), I don't want a PC involved in a way, shape or form. I just want to kick back and dive into the music with no more processing occuring between my ears than it takes to hit a button on my hifi's remote;-)

regards,

dave

 

[prowla]

I use the 320 variable bitrate for my MP3s. I've never compared file size though.

 

[Nik]

I'll give it a go again sometime and see how they compare. I guess the next update on the iPhone will see it using the bigger 64GB Flash Drive from the Touch. Now that, i wouldn't have minded. ;-)

It's a shame that iTunes only offers the one bit-rate for this, but the nice thing is that the conversion from your normal format is in-flight when you sync, so you will no longer have tracks in 2 versions so deal with. Apparently it's pretty slow, so your first sync using this option takes ages, but subsequent syncs are OK because the volume's much lower.

I expected 64 GB in the iPhone 4 but when this didn't happen it gave me another reason to keep my 3GS with 32 GB.

 

[Nik]

Nik,

If I understand your question correctly, both my and the CD 555 user's Touch use the built-in DAC with their analogue outputs into our preamps' analogue line inputs. We also use the standard Touch power supply as supplied by Logitech.

regards,

dave

I see the problem. When I see the word "touch" with no other identification, I assume it is an iPod touch until told otherwise. So this is a Logitech Squeezebox Touch?

 

[Nik]

I use the 320 variable bitrate for my MP3s. I've never compared file size though.

I don't know what this is replying to but as a rule of thumb, 128k uses about 1 MB/min, Lossless uses 6, and AIFF/WAV uses 10. 320k would use about 2.5.

 

[vicdiaz]

Instant it may not be, but Amazon.co.uk has had free shipping for quite a while now.

I buy most, if not all of my CDs in Amazon. In the US, as long as your Amazon order exceeds $24.99 USD, shipping is free to the US and its territories.

 

[Nik]

I buy most, if not all of my CDs in Amazon. In the US, as long as your Amazon order exceeds $24.99 USD, shipping is free to the US and its territories.

There used to be a minimum order of (IIRC) £15 for free delivery in the UK, then it was reduced to (IIRC) £5, then zero. Things a take a day longer to arrive but this only matters if it's a present and you've left it too late. Even if you pay for next day delivery, the price is still less than shop prices.

Most just-released CDs I buy are £9, and quite a few older ones are only £5. Unless they're in a promotion or sale, CDs in shops tend to be £12-15 and you don't get the same choice anyway.

 

[stu pitt]

Yep. Same with a stack of 10 or 20. Just keep feeding 'em in.

I also like to add the sort tags so that, say, Robert Plant appears under P, not R, but I'd bet most people don't bother. It's easy enough to find stuff anyway in iTunes.

How do you do this? It's been bothering me for quite some time now. Didn't think it could be changed.

 

[Nik]

How do you do this? It's been bothering me for quite some time now. Didn't think it could be changed.

You know you can access the metadata (tags) using Get Info (ctrl-i or command-i or right-click > Get info?

When I first used iTunes I'd edit Info > Artist to say
Plant, Robert.

I later realised that this is what the Sorting options are for (or maybe they weren't always there). Select Sorting > Sort Artist and enter
Plant, Robert.

This leaves the artist name as Robert Plant but changes the sort order.

You'll find that band names beginning with "The" already have Sort Artist entries with "The" omitted (or one of them in the case of The The!).

 

[Brian]

my primary intereset was- would some bloody good cdp's turn up on the s/h market this year as a result and would I be thinking about getting my greedy mitts on one

So, getting back to the question from decy but adding a bit to it...

What will qualify as a "bloody good cdp" that may turn up on the used market that will better a streaming solution? (Note that I said earlier my streaming solution without doubt betters a CDX/CDPS I used to own).

 

[Greg]

A few well respected CDps have been mentioned. I'm still trying to understand what streaming combo is likely to better them. I'm yet to see a clear recommendation that I can experiment with. I take claims of streaming being "better" with a pinch of salt until I know more detail.

 

[Brian]

A few well respected CDps have been mentioned. I'm still trying to understand what streaming combo is likely to better them. I'm yet to see a clear recommendation that I can experiment with. I take claims of streaming being "better" with a pinch of salt until I know more detail.

A number of streaming solutions have been mentioned.

I take claims of cdp's being better than streaming and of streaming being a pain in the arse with a pinch of salt until I hear one better than what I'm using or have any difficulty streaming my music.

Dell laptop running XP or Toshiba laptop running Ubuntu > wireless > Echolife router > wireless > SQ3 > Lavry DA10 > passive pre > valve PP > diy speakers. I've heard a Benchmark and I think it probably has the edge on the Lavry, so I can improve on this quite easily and at low cost but not with a cdp.

 

[Greg]

That's useful, thanks. So did you have your Naim CDp at the same time to compare/contrast?

The thing I'm struggling to engage with is any suggestion that streaming / computer connected audio is feeding 0s and 1s "better" than a good CD transport.

On that basis, is your streaming setup "better" because you prefer the Lavry DAC to the Naim CDp's DAC?

 

[wyjsar]

An equally interesting question is how can streaming / computer connected audio feeding 0s and 1s be "worse" than a good CD transport?