A 30something year old dinosaur I may well be....

...But what exactly do I need to 'go digital' for in terms of my music..?

As I see it, listening to your favourite music is about either your favourite radio stations, or putting on a CD of your choice...or possibly watching & listening to ur favourite music through a DVD on your television (Beovision of course). 

I have a Beosystem 7000 together with a pair of PentaLabs and additional Redlines, and with a few decent remote controls dotted about my main listening room. I listen to only 2 or 3 radio stations regularly, and I have my favourite music artists on a CD collection totalling maybe 150 CD's, only 20-30 of which I listen to with any regularity...

I do not want to walk around (either indoors or outdoors) with earplugs in, Also I dont want to utilize my computer for listening to music at all...thats what I have a Bang & Olufsen Hi-Fi set up for...

What exactly is the use of MP3 players, ipods, blah blah blah to someone like me?

Can someone please tell me why I need to begin listening to music on 'digital equipment'. It may well be capable of storing thousands of tracks or albums on a tiny microchip but, guesswhat, I dont want to listen to everything under the sun - I have all I want already in my 100 strong CD collection....so what am I missing exactly?

For example, take the Beolink system around your house - I dont have any products 'linked up' in my house, but I can see the definate point to doing that if thats what you want. I am sure a house fully linked up with B+O would be very cool indeed. But with this latest generation of 'digital' music sources, I just dont see the point of it.

Can anyone convince me that I'm really missing out big-time..?

A cd is a digital file. Your cd-player is "digital equipment"

A DVD is a digital file. Your DVD-player is "digital equipment"

Personally, I moved to ripping my cd's and so forth about fifteen years ago. My audio files for work were digital and therefore on cards and hdds already, so it wasn't a big step.

I dislike cd-covers and the like and consider them dust collectors. They also tend to break.

The cds themselves, well, I sure don't miss using them. I rip them, and that's usually that. They're never retrieved again from storage.

I like being able to find whatever music I want to hear, fast and easy by typing in the search field.

I like being able to sort the music by whatever tag I want (artist, album, mood, year, genre, whatever).

I like being able to make playlists.

I like being able to browse from the couch or chair.

I like being able to easily bring whatever and however much I want with me, giving me a choice depending on what mood I'm in five hours later or three days later.

I like being able to not be careful of scratches constantly

I like being able to email a file if necessary (no, it's not illegally sharing).

Btw., none of my music or audio is in lossy formats such as MP3, MP2, or MP4/AAC. Everything is either lossless (FLAC, mostly) or BWF-files (wav).

You do not need to do anything, if you are happy with what you are doing! :)

Once you rip all your CD's into digital format on a hardrive like a beomedia / beosound 5, you will understand the appeal. It is all instant, versatile and movable. It's all at your fingertips, and MOTS on the BS5 is very very good.

Cd's are absolutely lovely and the nostalgia of using old media is great fun, but it is impractical in comparison once you become used to having all your music there in an instant. Your music collection can grow and grow and grow! :)
(just be sure to rip the music properly at a good bit rate.)

This all being said, i still have a hankering for a BeoSound 9000, but i couldn't go back from using my mac as the hub of music.

Sounds to me like you don't want to change a thing, but you have nothing to lose trying it.

I don't think you are the prime candidate for an iPod or portable music player.

Owning an iPod or an MP3 player does not obligate you to wear headphones or earbuds to use it with. I do use earbuds very much but I also have an iPod dock sitting right on top of my BeoMaster 4500 which I probably use even more.

I use my iPod for reasons of portability and storage. Being a 19 year old college student, its perfect. The biggest "pro" would be having all of you're music with you all of the time.

An iPod also really advantages those who are constantly adding music to their collection especially piece by piece, one song at a time. I buy a new song I heard on Radio 1, flip on the lap top, buy it on iTunes and its playing in a matter of minutes. You seem content with a fixed library so no worries there.

With an iPod or such like, you can take your music to a friend's house, or use it to entertain yourself during your commute.

Give it a go!

Agree totally with the sentiment behind Bentleyman's post.

I've posted here on the forum before about my distaste for the way in which music seems to be moving from a physical storage medium that is owned by an individual, to an electronic storage medium where the 'product' does not physically exist in any commonly understood sense of the word. I read recently a post by Soundproof where he summed up the difference between an analogue LP and digital CD very well, and I do take the point that there is a fundamental difference in the way the music is stored on these media, but for me the pleasure in listening to a whole album is that you can take the product from its sleve or case and read the album notes whilst the first track is playing.

I did once rip all my albums into iTunes, but to be honest I'd much rather put a CD or an LP on and listen to that. When I pick up a book I don't read random chapters, and I feel the same about music to be honest. I have an iPhone but haven't bothered to transfer any fiels from iTunes to it. My Beosound 2 gets used sparingly. I'd just much rather sit comfortably and listen to a piece of work in its entirety as the artist intended, than bugger about creating playlists or thinking 'which one of the 1000s of songs I own would I like to listen to next?'!!!

j0hnbarker:

I did once rip all my albums into iTunes, but to be honest I'd much rather put a CD or an LP on and listen to that. When I pick up a book I don't read random chapters, and I feel the same about music to be honest.

You can listen to whole albums even if it's ripped to your harddisk. Gapless even for those operas and classical pieces.

But, I often listen to two or three numbers from, say, Nick Cave, from a single album, then skip to another album and listen to two or three songs from him and so on. At other times, I choose to listen to whole albums, but let's face it, unless it's made to be "a whole", seldomly is a it worth listening to a whole album from one end to another (some of Trent Reznor's products are more of an exception proving the rule, and operas and classical music is in a category of themselves. It's like a movie in my book).

Speaking of books, I have just bought myself a Sony Daily Edition. It's an excellent way to easily have many, many books with you without all the weight, and without all the dust or the numerous yellow Post-Its with notes sprouting like it was organic yellow growth determined to escape from the stronghold of the binding.

j0hnbarker:

I have an iPhone but haven't bothered to transfer any fiels from iTunes to it. My Beosound 2 gets used sparingly. I'd just much rather sit comfortably and listen to a piece of work in its entirety as the artist intended, than bugger about creating playlists or thinking 'which one of the 1000s of songs I own would I like to listen to next?'!!!

You don't have to. You can select albums, just like picking a cd or vinyl from the shelves.

I have a relatively extensive (maybe 400) CD collection and have ripped quite a lot of it into Digital Format and I also use Spotify On my iPod touch plugged into an iPod dock) where I don't have to rip otr buy the music at all, I just pay £10 a month.

Firstly there is no compulsion to go digital if you don't want to. At home I listen to my CD's extensively ( and occasionally LP's) but I find having a digital copy of my music useful for several reasons.

Due to a change in personal circumstances I divide my time between the family house and a flat. The music in digital format can travel with me so my music is where I am, while each CD is in one location or the other.

There is no either/or here. I can and do listen to the CD versions as I do like having the physical product and the are ultimately better quality, having the music digitally is an alternative not a replacement.

With Spotify I can listen before I buy and access music that simply cannot be bought any more except by playing collectors prices. (this particularly applies to Vintage Jazz and Blues). If I really like something I will buy it on CD if it's available.

I do listern to music on the move. Many new cars have the facility to plug your iPod in and listening to music at my desk when I need to zone out distractions, or on the train to work  is part of the working day .

For me, it is becoming a little bit like the move from vinyl to CD. While I recognised  at an intellectual level that vinyl sounded better (especially when compared to some of the very early CDs/Players) and was more enticingly packaged I reached a point when I wasn't listening to vinyl much and the turntable ended up in the loft, and I can see that day coming for my CD's just not for a while.

Simon

Electrified:

j0hnbarker:

I did once rip all my albums into iTunes, but to be honest I'd much rather put a CD or an LP on and listen to that. When I pick up a book I don't read random chapters, and I feel the same about music to be honest.

You can listen to whole albums even if it's ripped to your harddisk. Gapless even for those operas and classical pieces. 

j0hnbarker:

I have an iPhone but haven't bothered to transfer any fiels from iTunes to it. My Beosound 2 gets used sparingly. I'd just much rather sit comfortably and listen to a piece of work in its entirety as the artist intended, than bugger about creating playlists or thinking 'which one of the 1000s of songs I own would I like to listen to next?'!!!

You don't have to. You can select albums, just like picking a cd or vinyl from the shelves.

I know all this. I'm not a Luddite who shuns the modern world and lives in a yurt with a solar panel and some fennel tea for company. I just choose to take pleasure in handling physical media such as LPs, books, etc., and I find storing music on a hard-drive soulless and devoid of any pleasure whatsoever. I can use my mobile phone if I want to tell the time, but I'd much rather have my Breitling on my wrist to do it for me. The iPhone is more accurate and doesn't need adjusting every other day...you either get it or you don't.

j0hnbarker:

I know all this. I'm not a Luddite who shuns the modern world and lives in a yurt with a solar panel and some fennel tea for company. I just choose to take pleasure in handling physical media such as LPs, books, etc., and I find storing music on a hard-drive soulless and devoid of any pleasure whatsoever. I can use my mobile phone if I want to tell the time, but I'd much rather have my Breitling on my wrist to do it for me. The iPhone is more accurate and doesn't need adjusting every other day...you either get it or you don't.

I get it. I have a pretty good watch too, as well as a pocket watch, and I use a fountain pen when taking notes (I'm a journalist).

So I do get that one want some "feeling" with an actual product, but trying to pretend there's rationality behind it makes me want to adress it. Claiming that people listento cd's because the quality is better is nonsensical as you can rip a bit-perfect copy. The same goes for "listeneing to albums from one end to another" and so on, because that's possible too.

If people prefer to listen to vinyl because they like the rituals associated with it, that's fine with me, I will just disagree when that sort of people claim that the audio quality is better, that there are more dynamic range with vinyl and other such nonsensical claims.

Electrified:

If people prefer to listen to vinyl because they like the rituals associated with it, that's fine with me, I will just disagree when that sort of people claim that the audio quality is better, that there are more dynamic range with vinyl and other such nonsensical claims. 

I didn't make any claims that the quality is better, or that there was any rationality behind my personal preferences. You have conflated audiophile arguments together with what I was saying, so in that sense I don't really understand the point you're making.

j0hnbarker:

I just choose to take pleasure in handling physical media such as LPs, books, etc., and I find storing music on a hard-drive soulless and devoid of any pleasure whatsoever.

I totally agree

Electrified:

Claiming that people listento cd's because the quality is better is nonsensical as you can rip a bit-perfect copy. The same goes for "listeneing to albums from one end to another" and so on, because that's possible too.

If people prefer to listen to vinyl because they like the rituals associated with it, that's fine with me, I will just disagree when that sort of people claim that the audio quality is better, that there are more dynamic range with vinyl and other such nonsensical claims.

 

CD's are better quality for me because I don't have the space to store bit-perfect copies of everything on each of my devices and likewise Spotify files are compressed so there is a modest but clearly noticeable difference with a  CD.

"Listening to one end of an album to another" is an interesting point. While it is possible to to that with Digital music it is all too easy to fail to give the music a chance and find youself flicking from one thing to another. When listening to vinyl (and to some extent Cd's) listening to the whole thing is much more part of the process and an album can become more than a collection of tracks.

The vinyl better/worse than CD's debate has been done to death but on my equipment I find vinyl 'warmer sounding' than CD's.

When all is said and done people prefer what they prefer and are entitled to have their reasons (practical or emotional) wihout having them dismissed as nonsensical. This isn't an audiophile forum because, as Peter said on here a few weeks ago, it's not just about what your equipment does, it's about how it makes you feel.

Simon

Odd88:

j0hnbarker:

I just choose to take pleasure in handling physical media such as LPs, books, etc., and I find storing music on a hard-drive soulless and devoid of any pleasure whatsoever.

 

I totally agree

Me too :)

In the long-run, manufacturers/ technologies dictate how we listen to music. You can only resist for so long!

I hate electronic book readers and will always prefer to handle and read a book by turning those paper pages. However, at some point in the future the printing of books (and newspapers) will simply become uneconomic in comparison with the electronic equivalents, and they will become an expensive rarity.

Enjoy handling and playing those CDs and vinyl LPs while you can!

Graham

Convenience 

I would like to see you carry your system around to listen to it

<>Playlists - you can create perfect music compilations for any occasion ahead of the event, especially good for dinner parties. I suppose you could burn your mp3's onto a CD.

dilznik:

I ride public transportation an hour to and from work every day. If I didn't have music on my iPhone and earbuds in my ears I'd be forced to listen to the inane ramblings of complete idiots the whole way.

If you used a Sony Walkman and a C90 cassette though you'd surely understand where the OP was coming from, wouldn't you?

I have a full digital beoport/mac mini system with a huge amount of music on it.

All music is ripped in full losless from my own cd's. Having the original disks provides me automatically with a backup.
Besides all the advantages of this ( a full cd quality library of music at my fingertips), we still keep around 100 cd's at arms reach.
Usually the newest/most played ones, mostly to listen to the full album.

I also have a turntable to play vinyl.... nothing beats the manual browsing through the vinyl collection, picking one and carefully put the vinyl on the turntable etc... with a warm sound as a reward. Something for intimate occasions. 

cooldude:

I also have a turntable to play vinyl.... nothing beats the manual browsing through the vinyl collection, picking one and carefully put the vinyl on the turntable etc... with a warm sound as a reward. Something for intimate occasions. 

 

I prefer CD's for intimate occasions - it prevents having to stop what you're doing to change the disc over!

Puncher:

I prefer CD's for intimate occasions - it prevents having to stop what you're doing to change the disc over!

I find 45s are more than adequate playing time....

Puncher:

I prefer CD's for intimate occasions...

I prefer headphones...

Puncher:

I prefer CD's for intimate occasions - it prevents having to stop what you're doing to change the disc over!

 .....unlike me, my turntable does have a repeat function for extended play...

For what it's worth, the way Bentleyman feels about "digital" is how I feel about 3D television.

j0hnbarker:

Puncher:

I prefer CD's for intimate occasions - it prevents having to stop what you're doing to change the disc over!

 

I find 45s are more than adequate playing time....

 

I find the 30 second sample on itunes more than enough these days..