I have always used CDs for playing music, or listen to radio (FM, DAB, and web). Plus the occasional vinyl on my BG1203.

Thinking about upgrading my equipment (or more specifically, adding to it.) What is really the best way to download/ record music these days? I don't want to incur any costs through subscriptions etc as I would still rather pay for something physical, like a CD, rather than pay for a file that could be wiped off my computer or become corrupted.

So just what is the best music sourcing/computer/ B&O combination these days for storing and playing high quality music with minimum ongoing costs? (Ideally a method that could play-back through a range of equipment including vintage B&O.)

Graham

OK, don't know if I'm telling you the obvious here, but...

I find iTunes to be the best solution for me...

I have most of my CD's ripped into my iTunes music collection, easy access, and always with me. 

iTunes is great for downloading music legally from iTunes store. I don't buy much from the iTunes store, but records that are hard to find physically, I tend to download. Also it's great for that "ONE" track you just have to have, and the rest of the album is trash, great to be able to get it for 69c-1,29e.

There's no subscription fee to iTunes. 

I have an airport express wlan station from Apple. Don't know if you are familiar with it, but it's a clever little device with an optical and miniplug output. You "stream" your music from iTunes to this device via wlan. I have my airport express connected to the a.aux input on my BS9000. This way I get to enjoy my iTunes purchases on my Beo. It works great! And the audio quality is really good.

You don't need a mac to fully enjoy iTunes.

The airport express is priced under 100 euro.

One more thing about the airport express.

I have a different wlan station connected to my modem, so the airport express don't have to be physically connected to any LAN cable. This way you can easily put the AE station where ever you like. 

Yes it's got to be iTunes or indeed Amazon  -  the sound quality is excellent on these downloads! Often, if I havn't been able to find it on iTunes, I have been able to find it on Amazon!

Not sure if this is okay to say these days, but I find the torrent services (e.g. Pirate Bay etc.) are much better for downloads.

Problem with iTunes, or rather the problems are that

1) You cannot share your music on any other device (e.g. if you buy a song for your iPod it works on your iPod. It doesn't work on your friend's iPod).

2) Especially if you are looking for rare tunes, iTunes don't have them in stock (sometimes because the copyright period has passed)

But I guess it all comes down to what you're looking for and how you use the music. I travel alot so I like to have it both on my BM1 and on my SD-cards for my mp3-player. And no, I don't use iPod!

Thanks for the advice above everyone.

I often listen to N radio via a Roku/Pinnacle unit linked to my vintage B&O equipment.  Is there any simple way to record web broadcast material?

Graham

I can record anything playing through my Mac using CD Spin Doctor which comes with Toast. You can choose to burn a CD or store it as AAC or MP3 etc. Use it for radio, LPs etc - very useful!

vikinger:

I often listen to N radio via a Roku/Pinnacle unit linked to my vintage B&O equipment.  Is there any simple way to record web broadcast material?

With your vintage B&O tape recorder connected to the same receiver, of course

Seriously, the problem is that most content providers will do everything they can to prevent recording, for obvious reasons - there's nothing they can do about you recording the decoded line level audio signal, but if you want anything more "direct", it gets difficult. There are more or less legit programs/addons that allow you to record, but they are usually dependent on the specific service, like the Youtube downloaders.

tournedos :

With your vintage B&O tape recorder connected to the same receiver, of course

Peter :

I can record anything playing through my Mac using CD Spin Doctor which comes with Toast. You can choose to burn a CD or store it as AAC or MP3 etc. Use it for radio, LPs etc - very useful!

Thanks Mika, maybe not such a daft idea!

Peter, you've reminded me that I've got `Toast' somewhere on my iMac. Time to experiment!

Graham

Off course you can record the decoded signal with any audio editor, but you will always be depending of the inferior quality of the soundcard of your PC or notebook.

With Replay AV, you can capture the stream and if you wish, convert to a format you are fine with. But I believe it is the only software, that allows you to capture a stream. This means you will have the best quality and an other nice thing is you can schedule your recordings and capture multiple shows at the same time.