# How do you consume your music these days?



## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

Like the thread title says. Are you listening to CD's still? Vinyl? Digital files, or another format? A mixture of many? How do you aquire new music? Are you downloading it, or still buying a physical piece of media and if you are, is it online, or from a music store? Major chain retailer or from a smaller indie type store?

I'm still a CD listener mainly but I broke down and bought myself an Ipod a few weeks ago and I've finally started archiving my entire music collection on to an external 1TB HD. What a pleasure that is let me tell you!:waiting: I've probably got close to 1000 cd's:sad:. I can see the Ipod eventually being used much more than my CD's as the convenience level is so much higher. I don't think that I will stop buying cd's to get the tracks though. I only buy album's from groups that I enjoy thoroughly and not for one or 2 tracks that are a hit in the major media, which I don't even listen to. Those kind of tracks I would download. I mix it up between major retailers and indie type store's, but mostly stick to the indie store's like EarXtacy as I know the employee's and have been supporting them for years. Plus a lot of the stuff I listen to is not going to be found at Sam Goody.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I still buy all my music on CD and that will not change any time soon and I never download music. I rip everything to MP3 but at a variable bitrate so most of my files are well over 250kbs.
It would be nice to have a smaller device like a SD card to buy with the original music on it rather than a CD as I have well over 400 CDs (stopped counting) and that starts to take up alot of space. But it seems that even downloadable files are compressed way to much for my liking.


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

I hear you. That's why I don't download files either. I'm keep all of my files as either WAV or ALS (Apple lossless) for maximum retention of the sound quality. I'm going to be keeping them that way on my Ipod too, which is why I bought the 120gb Classic.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I have the 80gb classic and I still have half the drive space free even with all 6000+ MP3 files. Its great:T


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

I'm about half way through ripping all of my cd's and I'm at 7000+ songs. I don't like MP3's normally because of the way it makes the music sound dirty and it is especially noticeable on cymbals. It makes them sound digitized. The highest quality MP3's like 320 aren't bad, but I just can't listen to the low quality ones. 

What quality are you using for yours Tony? I'm probably still going to go with the full on wav files on my Ipod, but I'm estimating that I'll only be able to fit about 2,500 songs on there.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Have you tried using a Variable bit rate when ripping mp3's makes a huge difference. I will check my Itunes on my pc tonight to see what I have it set at for %vbr and let you know. I used to use 60% vbr using Musicmatch jukebox but that program no longer works for some reason.


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

I purchase my CD's from a music store and rip them to WMA lossless. I wouldn't even consider any lossy format. I want the original resolution, but I want to be able to tag it, so that leaves out WAV. WMA lossless, Apple lossless and FLAC are all good.

I store all my music files on a separate second internal drive on my laptop and play it through an external soundcard through an optical connection to my processor DAC.

I'll continue to buy the CD until they start selling lossless formats on-line.

brucek


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

Sounds like we are on the same page Bruce. I'm using Apple Lossless and wav for all of mine. I just don't want to degrade the audio at all if it's possible.


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## rcarlton (Apr 29, 2006)

I still mainly listen to LPs. Have a few CDs and SACDs.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

This is a very interesting thread to me. I have to admit that I never thought I would say this, but I have come to spend most of my time listening to MP3 files that I have downloaded to USB drives that I plug into the car radio, or download to a 2 gig Samsung player. Convenience and portability have resulted in more listening than ever, and more attention to the music than the quality of the media and equipment.


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

Yeah, I'm similar to brucek. I still buy CDs, usually from Amazon, frequently used. I rip them all to a server as FLAC files. I stream them to my HTPC that's attached to my main system. I also listen to a lot of Pandora, epecially when I want some jazz in the background. I find that using the HTPC as the main device for audio has really allowed us to listen to a greater variety of music, and it allows us to keep music on almost all the time, which I think helps keep us happier, and I think it will help my kids grow up with a love for music.


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## mleuba (Feb 17, 2008)

I got a Squeezebox for Christmas and that has been a big deal for me. I had ripped about 1/2 my CD's (did not use lossless unfortunately, as I did it a couple of years ago and was not aware of the tradeoffs. Since, I have joined the B&W Society of Sound (www.bowers-wilkins.com). They offer lossless audio online, but a limited selection of artists that are recording at Peter Gabriel's studio I believe. The audio quailty is phenomenal. However, the best surprise for me with the Squeezebox has been Internet radio. Some of the higher bitrate sites are streaming high quality, commercial free music that is really good musically and audio-wise...I'm hooked on internet radio!


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## Zen Traveler (Mar 22, 2009)

I have 3 Home Theaters that I listen to mostly SACDs and DVD-As throughout the day, but I do most of my critical listening at night in my Library. :nerd:

I also enjoy concert DVDs and when I first started watching them, my CD collection stopped growing. The last CDs I bought were Sarah McLachlin and Dido because I enjoyed their DVD concerts so much, but I don't play any of my past favorites on CD or vinyl...The last time I considered myself a 2 channel guy we were still calling it "stereo". :yes:


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Most of my music listening is,... Radio. :unbelievable: Mostly OTA and some Sirius on Dish. Then the occasional CD popped into my computer system while on the net, and finally, still listen to vinyl.


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

Heh. I'm still going through the 10,000 plus songs on my Itunes so that I can finally get them loaded on my ipod. :dizzy: It only took me about 2 months to get everything on my HDD. :no: I hope I never have to do this again...


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

During the workday, I listen to a small 5.1 system in my office with time evenly divided among CD, SACD, FM and web-radio. (Too few DVD-As to register statistically.)

Evenings, weekdays: Main 5.1 system divided evenly between SACD and FM.

Weekends: Another 5.1 system with time evenly divided between SACD and cable radio (and lots of BluRay).

Kal


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

I have a SqueezeBox Duet and a subscription to Rhapsody. I use an older Mac for a music server and have ripped my CDs to it in the FLAC format. Both these sources are used mainly for background music. When I want to really listen to music, I pull out a disk and put it in a player. If I hear an album I really like on Rhapsody, I'll jump on Amazon and order the disk. I'm not someone that enjoys having something stuck in my ears all the time. I derive just as much pleasure from total silence as I do from a well recorded disk.


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## Bruce (Sep 14, 2006)

Still on the buy CD route as well, because I can't stand the sound of any lossy formats, and i'm just starting to get my media server act together to be able to stream content to multiple rooms.

Main listening area is still stereo thru a Proceed AVP2 processor, just can't get away from the sweet sound that makes thru my Dynaudio speakers.

Looking to rip all my CDs to a MythTV server in a lossless format, any suggestions on format ? WMA, FLAC, other ? Hope to get some of my vinyl collection ripped also.


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

Any of the lossless formats are good. Some may be better for you depending on your situation and use. 

I just started using Pandora. It's really nifty. Check it out if you haven't yet.


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## spin (May 2, 2006)

I still buy CDs at every chance I get, then rip them to FLAC into my PC, which is hooked up to my sound system. The CDs still get spins though, especially on weekends.

I'm also about to start a secondary backup scheme for all of my CDs. This would involve creating images of the discs, which would be saved on a separate hard disk.


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