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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: How do you like your Music served?
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Alexander Smith
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 128
From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 11-03-2005 04:12 AM
While at work I like my music played with "old skool" Winamp, from my MP3 folder of 3396 files (15.3Gb). It's convenient for me to take my laptop to work with me most days, and I have a little sat/sub 2 channel amplified speaker set on the make-up bench.
All those MP3s have been ripped from legitimate CDs, because I also think the "legal download" thing is unsustainable. Yes, I agree that itunes has made digital music acessible, but I don't consider it to be "ownership" in the sense of having a CD with the cover art e.t.c.
FWIW the managers here don't seem to mind me listening to music while I work, they seem to be happy enough as long as they can reach me on the internal phone.
Coming back to MP3, most of my music is encoded at 192kbit/sec. I'm okay with the concept of compromise, because if I want that "extra little bit" I can go to the CD at home on the shelf.
I tend to alternate between listening to whole albums, or listening to playlists I've already created (and sometimes change around to keep it interesting). I like to use a cross-fading plugin within WinAMP because those little silent gaps between tracks are annoying. ;-)
Alex.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-04-2005 12:54 PM
SACD and DVD-A are pretty much stuck in the category of niche formats. You have to really want music from a particular act in that format to justify buying into it at this time.
There is a decent amount of jazz, classical music and classic rock titles on either format. But not much in the way of new, popular music releases.
Most record labels and their performers still record albums just for 2.0 LPCM release. It is very rare you'll find any new album from a popular act being released day and date on both standard CD and DVD-A or SACD.
The new DualDisc format was supposed to help cure some of this nonsense but day and date CD and DualDisc releases are also very rare. DualDiscs can store a standard music CD layer on one side and then DVD-A/V or SACD content on the flipside. So far, very few DualDisc releases have featured DVD-A or SACD content on a second DVD data layer. Nine Inch Nails "With Teeth" is the only disc I have boasting such a thing. To make matters worse, a lot of DualDisc releases just make a DVD version of the 2.0 stereo album on the flipside of the disc. The packaging is often misleading -mainly on the point of whether the DVD version of the album is in DD 5.1 and/or DVD-A 5.1.
The hardware situation also makes things a bit difficult, but the situation is getting better.
You could buy a new DVD player featuring DVD-A and SACD compatibility. But you have to be careful to get a player that can send the DVD-A and SACD content digitally. That will require the DVD player to have either a Firewire 1394 output or a HDMI output.
Likewise, for full digital passthrough of the audio stream, you'll need a receiver or surround controller that can handle the digital bitstream. Some newer receivers do feature Firewire and HDMI signal inputs. Some even feature USB connections as well. The downside is most have way too few of these things when they should have a shitload of HDMI inputs and outputs.
Most older DVD-A and SACD players will send the high res music signals in analog form out of 5.1 analog outputs. That method sucks. You lose a generation of audio quality from the extra digital to analog conversion in the player along with the analog to digital conversion likely to happen in the receiver. DVD players usually have medium to lower quality digital to analog converters, so that kills some of the audio quality right there. It's best to keep the signal in digital form as far through your home theater system as possible.
In the end, most popular music acts are only doing 5.1 material on DVD Video. It's either in the form of music videos or concert videos (or a very narcasistc documentary where they go on about themselves for an hour or so).
Frankly, I don't think I'm missing very much. The majority of music released today is this corporate processed derivate crap. To a large degree, they're still spitting out 1990 style music but forecasting quarterly reports that expect us to buy more of this "I've heard this crap before" garbage.
I was spending a lot of that music CD money on DVD movies. But lately Hollywood has been getting bit just as badly by that repackage and resell the same shit bug too.
It's no wonder why video game sales are such a growth industry.
quote: Paul Trimboli was the last to post
Can I run SACD/DVD-A in stereo mode and still play back the high quality recording?
That's going to depend on what your receiver can do with 5.1 analog input signals -or what a newer one can do with music coming in from a Firewire or HDMI input.
Don't expect much capability from the players themselves. Many don't even feature bass management for DVD-A and SACD (the industry figures if you're going to use either you'll probably have a $15,000 set of full range speakers).
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-06-2005 01:12 PM
Regarding MTV and VH1, my guess is Viacom thinks everyone has Cox Digital Cable where several different MTV and VH1 channels operate. I have a Dish Network dish. So when I want to watch music videos, which has unfortunately become a more exceedingly rare occaision, I'll turn on the FUSE channel. But even a lot of stuff they play there is boy band pop-flavored punk bullshit.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Satellite radio can be somewhat convenient, particularly if you're driving out in the middle of nowhere. The audio quality isn't great. But it's nice to know what performer is playing the song you're hearing via the data display. I freaking hate all those conventional stations that might play a new song that sounds great but then not say who sang it. You wind up having to call the damned station and ask (provided they have a live DJ on duty).
I have very little need for satellite radio -at least in my vehicle that is. High gas prices have me driving as little as humanly possible. Maybe if XM or Sirius can come up with a receiver that one can attach to a bicycle or just put in your pocket I might consider getting one. For now, I'll just stick with the Sirius radio channels on Dish Network.
Which MP3 player to buy? That's a tough question.
The Creative Labs Zen Mirco was a PC Magazine Editor's Choice winner in small hard disc based players. The 5GB unit was called the value leader in terms of price and features. Their review also gave the unit high marks on audio quality. It's currently the #2 ranked seller behind Apple's iPod Nano White.
PC Magazine review of Zen Micro
Of course there's larger capacity hard disc based players from companies like Creative Labs, iRiver and more.
I'm leaning toward getting a flash-based MP3 player that I can wear while jogging or bike riding. As it stands I haven't seen any players that combined the right set of features, memory capacity, audio quality and price that made me want to make a purchase. For now, such a player will wait down the list of priorities from other items I want to buy -such as a nice, high speed external 500GB hard disc for my notebook computer.
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