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That journey *had* led me to listening primarily on my phone when travelling, and from mp3s through onboard audio on my PC when not travelling.
It was the journey of least resistance really - 128Gb card in my phone meant that I could carry a load of music and retire the iPod, so only carrying one device. Win, obviously!
Then, for a reason that I forget, I ended up taking my iPod on a journey, and - even on a train, though through over-ear headphones - I heard a noticeable quality difference. Dug out my old headphone amp via the iPod's docking port, and quality up again. Went back to source CD, and quality up again (OK, so at least some of that is going to be the playback kit). Stuck a USB DAC onto the PC and quality up - and using headphones from the DAC the quality is really quite impressive.
So, my sweetspots are now;
- sitting room = CD via some reasonable kit
- office = mp3s from PC via USB DAC into headphones
- mobile = iPod
I've got my NAS hooked up to the hifi amp, so I can play mp3s/FLACs through the main system, but I typically don't bother.
I've moved over to a Naim streamer, playing (mainly) CDs ripped to FLAC on a NAS drive. It'll do all the Spotify/Tidally things as well - but even using Tidal Lossless - they don't sound as good.
I had a pile of old Naim separates which I've basically swapped to afford this. Early signs are very good - spent hours listening to music today - which is is a good sign....
My biggest gripe is one album I paid for and downloaded from iTunes: The Jam - The Gift Super Deluxe edition. It's the official release on iTunes and is in the standard iTunes format of 256kbps .m4a and it sounds awful. It's gargly and noticeably lower quality encoding that the CD rip I have, yet it's meant to be remastered! And they left off Weller's spoken intro to the album. Very poor.
However, the Setting Sons super deluxe I also purchased from iTunes sounds better than the CD rip.
There have been significant advances in the mastering, encoding, decoding and playback so (ignoring brickwall mastering) modern CDs on modern systems do sound better than the very early equivalents, but there's surprisingly little advantage in higher bit depths or sample rates at the consumption end. At production, why not.
Even then I've fooled pro audio people in shootouts - it's surprisingly easy. One was blathering on and on about MP3 having "no air", but he was relying on the readout on the player to tell whether the source had been compressed or not. I changed some MP3 files to FLAC format and he insisted they sounded better than the same MP3 files...
Actually, that gives me an idea - I'll have to do a seminar next year, I might do a series of rigged shootouts and use the audience as guinea pigs.
At the production stage while it's all in the digital domain then it is better to use higher resolution.
I know you've seen this before, but for anyone who hasn't this is worth reading - https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html (It's a bit long and technical - and not actually about Neil Young .)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I have come a long way in music listening and an extremely long and expensive journey buying hi-fi equipment. For me the low point was in the mid 1980s when I had a Linn LP12, Linn Asak cartridge, Naim Audio amplification and Linn SARA speakers. The magazines of the day stated that that system was the best that could be assembled. But for me it left me cold and in fact it was unused for most of the time. My high point in vinyl replay was when I had a Linn LP12 with Rega arm and Supex MC cartridge, an A&R integrated amp and Celestion speakers. That system sounded wonderful until the Supex died and a replacement did not sound anywhere as good. So that is how I ended up at my low point.
Fast forward to today and I listen to all music from digital sources. Every CD I buy gets ripped to FLAC and is stored on an external HD on my computer. IMHO the most important component in a digital replay system is the DAC. These have come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. System control is easy using an iPad or smartphone. We have three systems in our house and, for music on the move, I use my little Zen player and Sennheiser headphones. The Zen plays FLAC so it is simple to copy files to it from my computer.
Sound quality wise, I expect the replay of a Telecaster solo to sound like a Telecaster. A Hammond organ to sound like a Hammond organ. And so on. Good music, well recorded can be an exhilarating experience. Sadly most music falls short of that ideal but it is still listenable and enjoyable.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Yes a badly encoded file will show up it's weakness but any information that is still present will still sound good. Play a better encoded file and it will sound even better.
I have all my music stored on a plex server which I stream to either my Apple TV which is connected to a good AV-amp, the the two front channels go into a proper Hi-Fi amp and the AV power stage is sub par.
In the kitchen I have a Chromecast audio connected to some small monitors, but If I want it to sound better, during a long cooking session I connect the phone directly as the phone has a better DAC than the Chromecast
Decent sound in your home/apartment need not cost a fortune. Just get decent speakers for one of those old amps listed above.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
My next step is to get a 2TB HD to put all my CDs on in FLAC or Apple Lossless format. But to do that I'm gonna have to get a Apple external CD drive first...
Also worth considering how you back up your tunes. Cloud storage generally costs money, but is safe from all the sort of things that might happen to something in your house. A single HDD can fail so consider a second, or a HDD that has redundancy built in- my 2TB NAS has two 2TB drives, both containing all the same information- if one fails it can be replaced while all my stuff is safe on the other. No good if someone nicks it, or if my house burns down of course...
Lastly, think about what happens to your physical media once it's all ripped. The law currently (AFAIK) doesn't allow you to own electronic files of stuff you don't own in physical format unless you can show that you got them legitimately (downloaded from iTunes etc.) so while you might be tempted to rip all your CDs then send them off to Music Magpie or somewhere, that's technically illegal. Plus, if it turns out that your rips have errors you can't re-rip from the disc if you don't have it any more.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
I would certainly never get rid of the CDs anyway, exactly because it would prevent re-ripping - if much better encoding software comes along, or huge capacity iPods that can store the whole lot at full resolution or something.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33566933/ripping-music-and-films-illegal-again-after-high-court-overturns-new-law
Half the stuff on YouTube is also illegal, yes. They rely on copyright owners requesting it being taken down - because they are only a platform, YouTube are not responsible until they do. (I think that's correct.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
My ~18000 track collection of FLAC rips (used to be two fully occupied 5' x 3' - ish racks of CDs) fits in to just over 0.5TB, which is roughly 500GB. You can currently get a 256GB MicroSD card for slightly north of a ton, and another hundred will get you a nice player like the FiiO X1ii that'll cope with the card and play back the music in style, which means I could carry half that collection around in my pocket today.
512GB MicroSD cards are still pretty pricey, but those prices come down pretty quickly over time. A year or two I reckon, and you might have to break out those CDs.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
People who talk up the "better" sound quality of vinyl always say "oh but on a proper high quality record player...." ah let me stop you there. I grew up in the 70's and 80's, when vinyl was commonplace as primary format, and most of us had cheap/ entry level record players. They sounded rubbish by today's standards. Sorry if that offends your hipster worldview. My iPod sounds better than my music sounded to me when I was growing up. That's not an opinion, it's a fact of my experience using the gear available to me.
Lovely!
My God man! In the 1970s, a Trio, Pioneer, Thorens, Ariston, Rega record deck cost relatively little, yet they sounded very good when used with a decent budget hi-fi system. A lot of people did not understand how to get the best from the kit they had. Most believed that they would not hear any difference anyway, so they did not bother finding out for themselves. Much the same as today actually.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The law in the UK is that you have violated copyright by ripping a CD... AT ALL!
They intended to change it to match much of the world where ripping a CD you own is perfectly legal, but while in the process of agreeing it with the industry the government refused to put a small levy on the sale of media (HDDs etc) that would go towards the music industry to mitigate an (arguable) loss, so the industry would not agree to the law change.
What they did go on record to say is that they would never pursue anyone for ripping CDs they have bought. So rip away, they basically said they don't care. Sell to music magpie afterwards if you like, the idea that in some way you get rid of the CD you have lost rights is a myth in the UK, technically, all ripping is "illegal" - the law is an ass.
The practical moral issue can only go so far, however, it is a matter of personal choice. I know a lot of people who have literally never paid for music. They downloaded from Limewire, then from Pirate Bay, now they use Youtube. Ironically, given Google's program to compensate creators and allow them to take down illegal uploads (they have a choice) eventually they fell into "legality".
The fundamental thing is we should all be paying for music, whether acquiring it through streaming, on CD, download or Vinyl. Some greedy sods at the labels would argue if you borrow and album off a mate and listen to it you are violating the terms of purchase, it can go too far in either direction.