|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
70.166.116.8
In Reply to: RE: Soulless Music posted by Jotaro on October 12, 2024 at 05:01:41
I only maintain lossless file formats in my music library. Formed an opinion long ago that I had no reason to consider lossy formats so I didn't. Going the other way I've never really been in a position to consider high res formats either. That's going to change soon when I add a streamer to my hi-fi. I did have an SACD player once but had the hardest time finding SACDs that I thought worth spending my money on (like I really didn't want to buy SACD versions of music I already had on vinyl).
But to the topic on the subject line. Some music I enjoy is relatively soulless regardless of it being lossless or even hi-res. It's just soulless music. Off the top of my head would be Zappa, Primus and Butthole Surfers are extreme examples.
Follow Ups:
But at the same time, St Alphonso's pancake breakfast is just a part of the soulful set of ballads, about losing ones vision and perverted pancakes, all things people can relate to.
I can think of with some soul. Albeit dark, bluesy swamp, with some tortureous screaming and smoky biting lyrics. Killer track for moody nights. Atmospheric song just short of 10 minutes.Jonesy
Edited to add link
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Edits: 10/15/24
Don't forget the song "Anything" from the Cruising with Ruben & the Jets album. LOL! :-)
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever."
- Noam Chomsky
Thx for that Jonesy.
That's one of his I've given far too little attention. Now I got a reason to pull it off the shelf and listen again.
I have well over forty of his albums. A hero of mine.
Same here, only lossless files...flac and wav for me.
Over the years I stopped collecting CD's and opted to stream lossless instead. However here in Japan I'd have to maintain a US subscription as the choices are few and/or expensive. No Tidal and Qobuz and not yet launched as it is absorbing Onkyo music.
Most people here still purchase and collect CD's rather than use networked audio. I'd hate to think about collecting CD's again.
J.
I'll buy CDs of digital era music not available on vinyl or very costly on vinyl (especially from artists/music new to me). I rip them to a hard drive and use that as the source of digital music to my audio system. Sounds better to me than playing CDs even if playing through the same DAC. Also will make digital copies of my vinyl for the digital music library, that also includes a collection of downloads of lossless concert recordings. The vinyl rips sound good too but for the best sound from my system is usually from the TT. The physical media I collect is 80% vinyl and 20% CDs.
I have Qobuz for my PC but not my audio system. On my PC high resolution is very limited but I'll often prefer lossless downloads to the digitized copies of vinyl played back on the PC. Doesn't really mean much comparing digital recordings of vinyl with lossless downloads.
And then when I add a streamer to the audio system nothing will mean much until I become more confident in the quality of my DAC. All I know is it sounds good enough for the rips and is better than the DAC in my CDP. Who knows maybe I'll end up with 2 DACs - one for the rips and another for the lossless/hi-rez streaming.
How do the high-rez downloads compare to cd's or ripped cd's.I move too much to amass a collection of media.
J.
Edits: 10/13/24
> > How do the high-rez downloads compare to cd's or ripped cd's.This is all specific to my playback system.
Higher quality be it lossless or higher resolution free concert recordings can sound really excellent and IMO comparable to the best quality live recordings I have on vinyl. These free digital downloads are mostly raw and unprocessed and the best of them are in my opinion similar to my favorite analog era live recordings that I have on vinyl.
I use dbPoweramp CD ripper to rip CDs and convert them to FLAC. Playing back those rips from a hard drive sounds better than playing the CDs even if the CDP is used as a transport and feed into the same DAC as the CD rips. I think I could find another CDP that gives better results in this comparison but I'm just going to deal with it this way. When the streamer gets into play I'll be looking for a new DAC for that - whether or not I'll use it for the rips is something to decide later.
Edits: 10/14/24
for you to buy a DAC and retire the CDP. I took that step a dozen years ago and never looked back. Also use dbPoweramp for rips and batch transcoding.
Playing back those rips from a hard drive sounds better...
Agree. My SSD based music server delivers essentially memory playback. When I queue an album or playlist, it reads the entire content in under five seconds (that's how long it takes to create a completely new copy!) and caches into 6 GB of buffer memory on the NAS.
Another advantage for me is that the library content is shared across several systems using the same UI on pad, phone or watch. No more burning CD-Rs for the garage system. Still have a spindle of them left! :)
The CDP is already sitting idle haven't used it in many months maybe years.
I'm not using the internet for playing music files. Do want to try an external SSD drive though. The HDD to RPi is USB and the RPi is connected to the DAC via USB.
I use Qobuz regularly through the same music server. Combine tracks from that and local storage for playlists. Beautiful thing when you have access to literally millions of tracks and have immediate access to new stuff.
Been using foobar and Moode for the music library and haven't set up many playlists after more than 10 years of having a digital music library. I am really into random play though.
I'll be perfectly content keeping the RPi for the the music library and a streamer for high quality digital streaming. Most of the streamers I'm considering come with their own DAC and support attaching a disk of music files. Depends on the quality of the app that comes with the streamer and the included or outboard DAC chosen to work best with streaming whether or not I'm going to use the streamer with the music library. That'll be a bridge to cross when I get a streamer home. Point being what's best for the streaming might not be what's best for the music library.
I'll be perfectly content keeping the RPi for the the music library and a streamer for high quality digital streaming. Most of the streamers I'm considering...
The RPi is a streamer.
I use an older 3B in the garage for streaming Qobuz and local content from the media server via WiFi. It employs the internal DAC on a Fosi integrated. The old iPhone streams Sirius/XM and Bandcamp.
And like any computer it can be configured to provide many different services. I am using mine as a hard drive music player.I'm not using mine as a streamer and don't care to attempt to use it as one because it's not supported by the streaming source I want to use. According to Qobuz, and to reviews I read on using it as a server, it will not deliver high resolution to an RPi/Moode. In addition the interface provided leaves much to be desired.
Edits: 10/17/24 10/17/24
According to Qobuz, and to reviews I read on using it as a server, it will not deliver high resolution to an RPi/Moode.
Don't limit yourself with Moode!
Abe Collins gets 192/24 with his using Roon. Cut-Throat and I get 192/24 using LMS/pCP with ours.
Many OS choices available that extract maximum resolution.
What I really like about both my RPis (have another) and the Sonore ultraRendu is that both work seamlessly together with server and Qobuz. Mix and match local and network streamed content at 192/24. Looks the same from the player UI on pad, phone or watch!
It's mostly a matter of time. For $500 I can get a product that'll plug in and connect to Tidal or Qobuz and deliver either an analog or digital output.I can select the audio system (the networked RPi) and play the music library on my PC from foobar. Unfortunately I am unable to select the audio system from my PC or cell phone and play music selected from the Qobuz app. If I could do this I wouldn't need or want a music server in the audio system. I don't need foobar (it's my PC player though) and it's kind of kludgy (when used as an app to select the RPi) as I can just run the Moode browser app from the PC or my iPhone to play it from the RPi connected to my DAC.
Roon seems like more of a commitment I want to make but if I ever do it's compatible with the music servers I am considering. As to moving off Moode I've just concluded spending money on a device ready to go allows me to do stuff I kind of enjoy instead of working to get it all working. I can come back and do it later if I get motivated. The $500 Cambridge player I looking at rated a 768/32 PCM and DSD 512 and claims the 192/32 and DSD 64 at it's digital outs if I want to consider another DAC.
Edits: 10/17/24 10/17/24 10/17/24
"Agree. My SSD based music server delivers essentially memory playback. When I queue an album or playlist, it reads the entire content in under five seconds (that's how long it takes to create a completely new copy!) and caches into 6 GB of buffer memory on the NAS"How is 6GB of buffer memory for music on the NAS beneficial to playback over a network onto a network streamer that has no where near that amount of memory ?
Edits: 10/15/24 10/15/24
The NAS isn't actually PLAYING music but you say that loading 6GB of music into its RAM is beneficial. I'm just trying to understand how that would be beneficial when the music data is sent over the network from the NAS to a network streamer that does the playing ?
Edits: 10/16/24
and I'm out of here. Have a good day!
Figured you couldn't explain it. Nothing in your linked post answers the question on why buffering 6GB of music on the NAS is beneficial for PLAYBACK over the network on a network streamer.
First of all the NAS is not a "memory PLAYER". It is not a PLAYER at all. The streamer is doing the PLAYING.
And if you go back to "drain and fill" math from elementary school, the NAS will not "drain" any faster than what can be "filled" and PLAYED on the streamer. Hence, no advantage to buffering 6GB of music on the NAS for PLAYBACK on the streamer.
But thanks anyway.
The RPi can *drain* an entire CD.
What is your problem?
No problem. Just chuckling at your inability (or refusal) to understand basic tech."The RPi can *drain* an entire CD."
So, that still doesn't explain any benefit to buffering 6GB of music in RAM on the NAS.
I'm outta here now.
Edits: 10/16/24
Yeah, correcting yet another case where you just make up $hit about my systems.
Edits: 10/16/24
"How do the high-rez downloads compare to cd's or ripped cd's. "As good or slightly better, in my opinion.
I ripped several hundred CDs to AIFF (like WAV) or ALAC (like FLAC) and they sound just as good as playing the CD. In fact I have all of these rips on my Mac Mini and Synology NAS and use those as my music servers. The biggest factor is the quality of the original recording.
I also downloaded several 'hi-res' albums from HD Tracks, a popular music download business. I have a few in 24/192 but mostly 24/96. To my ears these sound about the same as my own CD rips but some downloads -might- sound ever so slightly better. If the download sounds significantly better it was because that download album was a remaster. The old CD version may not have been as good but if you can find the remaster it will pretty much be on par with the download.
If the CD sounds fantastic I didn't hear a huge difference with a 24/192 or 24/96 album download. And the difference between 24/192 and 24/96 wasn't even worth straining over to TRY and hear a difference so most of my 'hi-res' downloads are 24/96.
Since high quality streaming services including Tidal and Qobuz came on the scene a few years ago I stopped downloading from HD Tracks. The value just wasn't there. I can't see paying $10 - $25 per album download when I can pay $10 to $25 per month to access all the high quality streaming music I can possibly ever want. One of the arguments against streaming was, "what if the service goes out of business"? That may have been a concern years ago but today we have multiple high quality lossless streaming services to choose from including mainstream guys like Apple and Amazon. Spotify was supposed to bring us hi-res music but that's been all talk for a couple years now. Not sure where they stand today.
My digital path over the decades :
- Buy albums on CD
- Organize hundreds of them in CD shelves
- Rip albums from CD to the computer
- Store all of those CDs in several plastic bins
- Download hi-res albums to the music server
- Sell off bins full of CDs and clear the clutter
- Play music from the music servers and.....
- Stream baby, stream !I am almost certain that HD Tracks was on life support when they announced earlier this year, "HDtracks is launching a hi-res streaming service with Lenbrook". This was in July 2024. Not sure of any progress but they're pretty late to the game.
P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work but that's another story.
Edits: 10/14/24
Yep I'm bypassing paying for high resolution downloads completely and going directly to streaming. For now I'm still interested in collecting the physical media formats. One of the advantages of being slow is to be able to read about the experiences of others. Thank you for your inputs.
" P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work but that's another story."
Same story here. I bought a Parasound Zphono USB phono preamp specifically for that purpose, and used it twice. Ever since it's taken up residence in the garage.
I find myself questioning the value of a lot of high-rez stuff, though. I can access a lot of it via Qobuz, but I often find that I prefer what I've ripped myself to my NAS drive.
I've played around with 'hi-res' downloads and streaming but in general unless there was something wrong with the CD I wasn't hearing huge differences - or differences that were worth fretting over.
I stream mostly Qobuz and my ripped CDs but I can't say that I prefer one over the other. I'll have to turn in my golden ear audiophile badge ;-)
I suppose that it's just a personal nit to pick, but Qobuz seems to store all of their music as individual cuts. When you play an "album", what you're really getting is just the cuts that are on that particular album played in proper sequence. In my experience, this sometimes results in very abrupt transitions between tracks that can be pretty annoying at times. This doesn't happen with what I've ripped myself.
Then again, I might just be a cranky old f@rt.
> > " P.S. I also digitized a couple dozen LP's and decided it's not worth the
> > effort. It is extremely tedious - but fun until it isn't! Too much work
> > but that's another story."
Yes but the vinyl ritual and record cleaning machines are more of a buzz kill to me. I don't think there's anything in my lifetime, other than better equipment, that's brought me more musical enjoyment than a GUI. I play my vinyl to record it and then not again until I'm in the mood for serious listening (LOL) - playing back in random mode or even listening to albums digitally is more than adequate for me to get off when listening to music on my hifi.
I used to require the occasional vinyl ritual to satisfy that itch. Take out the turntable, hook up the phono, clean a record, clean the stylus, play some music. Put it all away for another month then repeat. Well, that month has stretched to several months. I might set it up again but the last time I did that it held my interest for only a couple LPs before I was back to the digital GUI.
I have the same issue. I actually have a pretty decent vinyl rig, but it's been months since I used it. The convenience of the digital side is pretty seductive.
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: