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Post by boscobear on May 10, 2014 10:43:58 GMT -5
What I have been use to for the last 60 years is changing, to say the least. As a very young child I had a record player, with thick vinyl recordings, like "She'll be coming around the mountain", "The yellow rose of Texas", "Here comes Santa Claus". The music goes round, and round, and comes out here, and the music came from the side of the tone arm head. 1953 was a good year for music. The future I am seeing, the one Apple also has their sights on, Streaming Music. Sure they are buying a name brand that has made it OK to buy $300. head phones. Remarkable piece of marketing by Jimmy Iovine. Who will probably be special adviser to Tim Cook, if acquisition happens. $3.2 Billion is not cheap, but it's a good price. Apple will have iBeats, iBeats speakers in every piece of equipment sold. I believe the big choice for the acquisition is building Apple's foothold into streaming music. So is this it? Will streaming music be my future. Live concerts streamed into my living room theater, video, audio pay to view. Cheaper transmissions at a later date? New releases by all the big name artist, all streamed , no more CDs? Nothing to hold in my hand? All in the cloud from now on? Sure some CDs will struggle into Amazon, or Walmart. The days of record shops has died, along with the Malt shop. The juke Box at your table is an iPod sized gizmo . I liked watching the arm come an pick out the record, and place it on the spinning platter. Cool Stuff, sure we can retro this as a fake record, and play the music from a SS Hard drive . So I defiantly need the best DAC I can get from Emotiva. I want to begin my life in music streaming, so I'll buy Apple TV next week too. Or should I wait for ibeats streamer? Really tired of waiting. I have a the first Apple express, still works as good as it did the day I bought it, but Apple says no good, we changed iTunes just so it will not work on the new iTunes, so yourself buy another one. Where is our world headed with recorded music? That is what I need to understand. How about this www.ifpi.org/downloads/Digital-Music-Report-2014.pdf |
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Post by badsarge on May 10, 2014 11:08:38 GMT -5
I echo your sentiments Boscobear. Been around long enough to remember 45's, 8track, 33 1/3, cassettes, minimal reel-to-reel. CD's were purported to last indefinitely when the salesman made his initial pitch. My first CD purchases still play many years after circa: 1984? pressings. The record companies enjoyed bloated profits for years. I, like many others bought DSOTM on several platforms. Now we entertain Hi-rez. I do not begrudge the performers/artists their due. I do not begrudge the labels their profits for producing, marketing and distribution. I enjoy the format wars as technology advances. I look forward to the simplification of delivery as we move into the next phase of the audiophile hobby. My concern with the "Cloud ownership" concept I guess is the BS infallibility mindset. I pay for a plastic disk or chit. I own the plastic. It is tangible. If I lose it or it melts, I repurchase. If the infernal 1's and 0's stored and backed up to the Nth degree are decimated by some virus, can my purchase be guaranteed? Maybe. We will see if it lasts as long as my Dad's Roy Orbison album or my first CD. We'll see.
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Post by audiobill on May 10, 2014 11:14:21 GMT -5
I use two gen 1 Airport express units every day.
BTW , they stream 16/44, more accurate than the Apple TV's 48.
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Post by audiobill on May 10, 2014 11:15:41 GMT -5
I personally find all the plastic that, after all is holding the same bits a nuisance.
And streaming removes one more physical step in the process.
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Post by garbulky on May 10, 2014 11:26:37 GMT -5
Well....I wouldn't run out and buy beats if that's what you're thinking. I still don't even use itunes or any streaming source other than youtube and I'm pretty happy . Most of us with quality systems tend to live in a niche that the mass market doesn't always cater to and something good comes out of it - like hi res downloads etc. I wouldn't worry too much about the way the system evolves. I'm just waiting for it to stabilize. Right now it's in a form of flux imo.
However I do pay attention to evolving video formats as I feel that's where the most benefit has been. The others stuff has just changes in mediums and accessibility.
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hemster
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Post by hemster on May 10, 2014 11:27:11 GMT -5
I am an old chimp and loved my vinyl records, reel-to-reel tapes, 8-tracks and cassettes, all of them are now gone by the way of the dodo. I am left with a modest collection of CDs which too will follow the wake.
I realize it's inevitable that cloud streaming will be the de facto method before too long (how long will we be able to buy physical media?). It is therefore begrudgingly that I'll follow along when the time comes. The questions of integrity, availability, safety and reliability of cloud storage still haunt me. Certainly I enjoy the portability of my digital music (I travel a lot for work) and convenience of cloud streaming is undeniable (although internet access is required and still subpar in many countries). The notion of a virus mixed in with the music and streamed down to your home network is scary and not totally fictitious.
Let's see that the future has in store for us. My time horizon is getting shorter day by day. As long as I can buy physical media I will continue to do so.
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Post by cd on May 10, 2014 11:49:52 GMT -5
The convenience of streaming is appealing to many. However it requires a constantly available internet connection. And this implies an ever-increasing monthly fee of some sort. No thanks. I am decidedly old-school and the thought of ceding my music collection to some faceless corporation is not appealing at all. I prefer to have dominion over my music collection and this implies a physical format of some type.
I will never surrender control of my music collection to a third party, it is far too valuable to me. And with portable data storage densities increasing exponentially every year (I saw a 64 GB USB stick the other day that cost only $20!!), I can see no benefit to not having my collection on some sort of physical device that I control...
CD
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hemster
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Post by hemster on May 10, 2014 11:56:58 GMT -5
The convenience of streaming is appealing to many. However it requires a constantly available internet connection. And this implies an ever-increasing monthly fee of some sort. No thanks. I am decidedly old-school and the thought of ceding my music collection to some faceless corporation is not appealing at all. I prefer to have dominion over my music collection and this implies a physical format of some type. I will never surrender control of my music collection to a third party, it is far too valuable to me. And with portable data storage densities increasing exponentially every year (I saw a 64 GB USB stick the other day that cost only $20!!), I can see no benefit to not having my collection on some sort of physical device that I control... CD I too used to think so and still buy CDs/SACDs. Increasingly I've conceded to owning digital content as HD downloads. Agreed that storage costs are dropping daily. A 2TB USB drive is around $100 and that can holds a lot of music. |
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Post by Priapulus on May 10, 2014 12:03:20 GMT -5
> So is this it? Will streaming music be my future?
I have a large collection of LPs, CDs and digital music files: but I no longer use any of them. I prefer to select one of the hundreds of free radio stations offered on my AppleTV, ported out to my XDR-2. I get the music I want, when I want. Why buy and store media when you can rent the music on demand? Especially when the rent is free?
Sincerely
/b
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Post by novisnick on May 10, 2014 12:08:01 GMT -5
> So is this it? Will streaming music be my future? I have a large collection of LPs, CDs and digital music files: but I no longer use any of them. I prefer to select one of the hundreds of free radio stations offered on my AppleTV, ported out to my XDR-2. I get the music I want, when I want. Why buy and store media when you can rent the music on demand? Especially when the rent is free? Sincerely /b Free,,,,,,,shhhhh,,,,,,the trap is set,,,,,,,,shhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,,,, and then we flip the switch,,,,,,,he,,,,,,he,,,,,he,,,,,,, |
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Post by Priapulus on May 10, 2014 12:12:48 GMT -5
> So is this it? Will streaming music be my future? I have a large collection of LPs, CDs and digital music files: but I no longer use any of them. I prefer to select one of the hundreds of free radio stations offered on my AppleTV, ported out to my XDR-2. I get the music I want, when I want. Why buy and store media when you can rent the music on demand? Especially when the rent is free? Sincerely /b Free,,,,,,,shhhhh,,,,,,the trap is set,,,,,,,,shhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,,,, and then we flip the switch,,,,,,,he,,,,,,he,,,,,he,,,,,,,
It's nothing new. There was a similar technology called RADIO that was also free; well, we did have to endure advertising. I wonder how these internet radios finance themselves? Perhaps they are building up a clientele, before adding advertising? Some do an NPR style fundraising.
Sincerely /b
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Post by boscobear on May 10, 2014 12:21:03 GMT -5
I was for years using the iTunes radio. I was listening to the sports talk stations. I really liked being able to listen to the Philly & NY sports talk stations that I lost many years ago, when I moved to the Red Neck Riviera. I did try to listen to some of the music stations, but the audio quality was a bit ugly, so I stuck with the talk shows. About two years ago I dropped all my CDs onto iTunes, used the loss less, and the audio was ok for the convince to have the CD collection automatically in categories, easy to find. Now I'm back to playing the actual CDs, and vinyls. This Emotiva amp is unforgiving for the lesser quality. I also enjoy picking the music, and setting down the tone arm.
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Post by novisnick on May 10, 2014 12:27:37 GMT -5
Free,,,,,,,shhhhh,,,,,,the trap is set,,,,,,,,shhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,,,, and then we flip the switch,,,,,,,he,,,,,,he,,,,,he,,,,,,,
It's nothing new. There was a similar technology called RADIO that was also free; well, we did have to endure advertising. I wonder how these internet radios finance themselves? Perhaps they are building up a clientele, before adding advertising? Some do an NPR style fundraising.
Sincerely /b
Public radio sounding all that good and all : ( airways and quality that is. |
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Post by audiobill on May 10, 2014 12:49:53 GMT -5
Funny, between audio streaming and Netflix movies (streaming and disk), I honestly can't remember the last time I watched or heard a commercial of any sort, let alone endured the "jocks" with their banal patter......
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hemster
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Post by hemster on May 10, 2014 12:59:43 GMT -5
> So is this it? Will streaming music be my future? I have a large collection of LPs, CDs and digital music files: but I no longer use any of them. I prefer to select one of the hundreds of free radio stations offered on my AppleTV, ported out to my XDR-2. I get the music I want, when I want. Why buy and store media when you can rent the music on demand? Especially when the rent is free? Sincerely /b I also use a few internet radio stations and stream using my Squeezebox at home. When traveling I use XMPlayer to stream the same stations or use upchucky.org/ for background music. Free radio stations play music per their agenda. Certainly the quality is all over the map. I can find some good ones however. Often this means not having the convenience of choosing the track I want and no guarantee it'll still be there tomorrow. Still, connecting my portable USB drive and actually selecting the music I want to listen to is absolutely essential and no less convenient. I have created many playlists which I can select from depending on my mood and desire. It's truly amazing that for only around $100 one can carry so much music around on a USB drive. The form factor of electronics will continue to shrink per Moore's law and eventually we'll be able to carry our entire collections on something the size of a postage stamp. Portability will not be an issue but "owning" my music is important to me. That leaves the reproduction side of things. Much improvement has already occurred in this area with some excellent headphones now available on the market. Making these smaller while improving sonic fidelity is the challenge and I hope to see some vendors take this on. |
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Post by audiobill on May 10, 2014 13:11:17 GMT -5
IMO, the Dac is now equal in importance to your analog electronics and speakers.
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Post by siggie on May 10, 2014 13:30:17 GMT -5
I'm going back to the future. I just got a lot of 10 Neil Young CDs on ebay for $15 shipped. I put them in my iTunes library in lossless format, so I've got them wherever I go, and can play the discs on my system.
I really enjoy XM Radio--Steven Van Zant (?sp) runs my two favorite stations, Outlaw Country and Underground Garage. The sound is not great, but I live DJs that know and love the music do a great job. It is a great way to discover music.
siggie
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Post by drtrey3 on May 11, 2014 19:49:09 GMT -5
> I get the music I want, when I want. Why buy and store media when you can rent the music on demand? Sincerely /b There is an undeniable asset in streaming what you want when you want it. But what if what you want to listen to is not being streamed? I often like to listen to the dBs, Aorta, the Minute Men, and lately, a lot of Colin Blunstone. I had to special order his One Year cd, can you find those on your streaming service? If so, wonderful! But even if it is streamed, how does it sound? Streaming is low res and I just do not like the sound of low res. It sounds flat to me, and generally not engaging or compelling. So while I will stream if I am doing chores, I like the best sounding music that I can get when I sit down to listen. Give it a try, you may as well. Trey |
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Post by audiobill on May 12, 2014 4:40:08 GMT -5
As reported elsewhere, Qobuz is 16/44, not "lo res", and sounds wonderful.
17 million tunes - enough for me!
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Post by geebo on May 12, 2014 7:03:52 GMT -5
The convenience of streaming is appealing to many. However it requires a constantly available internet connection. And this implies an ever-increasing monthly fee of some sort. No thanks. I am decidedly old-school and the thought of ceding my music collection to some faceless corporation is not appealing at all. I prefer to have dominion over my music collection and this implies a physical format of some type. I will never surrender control of my music collection to a third party, it is far too valuable to me. And with portable data storage densities increasing exponentially every year (I saw a 64 GB USB stick the other day that cost only $20!!), I can see no benefit to not having my collection on some sort of physical device that I control... CD I too used to think so and still buy CDs/SACDs. Increasingly I've conceded to owning digital content as HD downloads. Agreed that storage costs are dropping daily. A 2TB USB drive is around $100 and that can holds a lot of music. I, too, still buy CDs and also purchase downloaded music. It all goes on a 4 TB hard drive and the physical CDs never get played. |
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