Maintaining a Digital Music Collection

My phone managed to purchase a pair of adidas sneakers in a kids' size 4.5 off ebay while in my pocket this evening. fuck this.

Good thing you’re not in charge of a nuclear arsenal

My classic was able to be revived but after a couple of days it was clear it has a bad hd :(

really not sure how I feel about these spacehogging 24 bit FLAC downloads from Bandcamp, the Xmas Sonic Boom single clocks in at 4:51 and is 121.5 MB. This seems completely excessive. I guess I can always re-encode with xACT?

downsample with dbpoweramp

downsample to lossy if you believe bandcamp will last (and i've no reason to believe it won't)

thank you!

but seriously... why do this? is this just another example of file size creep in the nu-hard-drive era where we see stupid shit like 5 MB jpegs? I don't like where this is all heading.

"The Stooges Fun House 2030 60th Anniversary reissue in 6-Petabyte high definition like you've never heard it before!"

"Smell the download."

i hear you cluckin' but honestly it's nice to have the option of ultra-high resolution if that's your thing. it isn't mine, but i appreciate that it's the starting option rather than, like, a realaudio stream or something

that is a totally fair point. I was just really taken aback by 121.5 MB for 4:51. and yeah I have like 2 TB left on the external so fuck it.

and my Vox program plays the 24 bit files, which I admit is nice

related: when exactly did VLC turn into garbage? it used to play gapless, but not any more.

tbf bandcamp could discriminate between 16- and 24-bit flac (insofar as i understand these terms -- i mean is lossless lossless or is it not?)

I think "lossless" means "can be decoded to 44.1/16 bit redbook audio" these days, the term hasn't really caught up with the explosion of 24/96 files

(i.e. that's another very good point sir)

ty for being gentle when i pretty clearly know less than you do!

you make a really good point! "lossless" doesn't mean what it used to now that even higher resolutions are commonly available.

i forget that often, tbh

Lossless refers to file compression, not sample rate or bit depth. It just means the file format employs an algorithm (or doesn't use one, like the WAV format) to reduce file size that doesn't discard any audio information. 16 and 24-bit FLACs are equally lossless, but a 24-bit FLAC contains more audio information.

Higher sampling rates and bit depths make sense for recording audio, but I'm skeptical of the value it has to the listener of the end product considering the increased file size. 44.1kHz/16-bit is fine, and if you're over thirty and have attended a couple dozen rock shows your ears can't discern frequencies over around 18kHz anymore anyway so you're not missing out on anything.

Since the redbook standard 44.1/16 bit has a frequency response of up to 22.05 kHz, no one can hear the difference. While the higher sample rates cover frequencies only audible to dogs, cats and bats, who, when asked, would probably prefer 16 bit so it wouldn't bother them with the high frequencies.

Additionally, the transducers on both ends of the audio chain are too limited to properly take advantage of 128 kHz, or even 96 kHz. Paul Lehrman, a composer, educator, and consulting editor for Mix magazine, pointed out that the frequency responses of most mics and digital musical instruments roll off at around 20 kHz. Thus, anything recorded above 20 kHz at a 96 kHz sampling rate "is probably junk."

Has anyone asked Neil Young what he thinks?

Spent time during lockdown adding more stuff to the pi Jukebox and actually using it (normally if I'm at home the TV is on but I've been home a lot lately). I have masters on one disk (mainly flac) and everything gets transcoded (to ogg) for the jukebox disk. Nice that it's all searchable and pretty much instant access but the killer feature is the random playlist generator that digs onto forgotten corners.

Neil Young in actually a scarecrow full of bats shocker

An interviewer asked him if he was a bat using a mic that pitches your voice up to 96kHz and Neil said "of course I'm not"

thank you f. hazel for that very clear breakdown of what I got partly wrong!

xp
I assume the interviewer then played a clip of Neil very clearly and repeatedly admitting “I’m a black bat” in classic gotcha journalism style

I presume this is not a unique opinion but I still find it hilarious that of all people, shaggy lo-fi loud guitar guy Neil Young is the one advocating investing in super high resolution material neither he nor his fellow boomers can possibly hear anymore.

Well said. See also Lou Reed’s obsession with binaural heads, Perspex guitars etc.
#onethread

cheers sleeve! I had a look and it turns out once you hit age 40 or have spent any significant amount of time on construction sites, motorcycles, or at rock concerts you can't hear much above 15kHz, never mind 18kHz or 20kHz.

all that high-end frequency is like a giant mansion with dozens of rooms you can't possibly enjoy, because most of them are locked and you've lost the keys.

Your dogs will love it.

Neil thrives on positioning himself as a righteous stalwart against abstract things that can’t fight back, like corporate sponsorship and lossy audio

Agreed, Hi-Res is pointless and a waste of disc/cloud space. The whole confusion over the idea that Redbook standard digital audio isn't good enough is based on people not understanding that rascally graph representing sample rates. Because it's jagged, some assume there is an audible difference. There is not. Proven by science! Here's a good science-based channel that gives a succinct explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRvSWPZQYk

Here's my 2020 rundown for audio gear:
https://fastnbulbous.com/budget-audiophilia-2020/

Sorry, meant for it to start at 4:56: youtu.be/lzRvSWPZQYk?t=296

wow, fantastic rundown FnB.

do the Elacs really cost that much, though? i got a pair of Debut B6.2s this year (a slight step up from the B5.2s) for £300 from Richer Sounds in London - https://www.richersounds.com/elac-debut-b6-2-black.html

the 5.2s look like they're running about £250.

fnb otm

cracking stuff f-n-b.

however one point re Sonos Port :

"I’m not completely happy with the price, but at least the 30% upgrade credit took some sting out. Product of the year in the streaming category is the Sonos Port. It’s performed flawlessly since I’ve set it up, and was pleased to find on the new S2 network supports Bandcamp, and automatically connected to my app giving me access to all my music on it. I have access to all the files via Roon, but it’s fun to browse my recent purchases.
"

i am on the S1 version of the app, and it totally supports all my Bandcamp purchases.
not to drag this into the same chaos as the Sonos thread, i have a Connect, and so far see no reason to upgrade as most of my listening is via my NAS archive, which is a shame as i was ready to throw them my money.

lol. otm except that Sonos malarkey :)

You should be set for local files for as long as you care to use it. "Bandcamp support" would only relate to streaming. Bandcamp downloads are the same as ripping music yourself.

currently i can still stream my bandcamp purchases via Sonos i.e. not playing the digital files in the archive.
there have been no plans to withdraw this option in S1 (yet!) as far as i know.

i just realised that somewhere along the line i must have ticked (or had ticked for me) the box in iTunes that says 'keep my iTunes folder organized' because i have about 13GB of redundant music stored in hierarchical folders inside a legacy 'iTunes Music' folder. most of which, but somehow not all, has resulted in dupes in Apple Music.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

good video / post fnb

I don't remember seeing the Bandcamp option in the S1 app, oh well. I obviously play my Bandcamp downloads with all my other FLAC files via Roon, like I said, "I have access to all the files via Roon, but it’s fun to browse my recent purchases." My main issue with the Connect was performance -- both would completely disappear from the network for days at a time, even though my wifi signal is good, and other devices work fine. That also happened with my Raspberry Pi gear. So it's nice to have something that just works. Another option I looked at was Bluesound Node, but it's even more expensive.

It figures you Brits not only get better deals on many of the UK/European based speaker brands, but also ELAC. Argh. A couple years ago I really wanted a pair of Mission QX-5 -- I even had a pair ready to be shipped, until the dealer said they learned they weren't allowed to sell to North America. The only US dealer with access wanted to charge twice what I would have paid the UK site (Audio.affair.co.uk).

bah i can't remember which thread doglatin was complaining about apple music in

but doglatin you might consider Plexamp? it works with the Plex media server, doesn't organise your music, has a mobile app that works with the media server to let you stream your library from anywhere - pretty neat

Yeah Plexamp is great. Does require the Plex Pass subscription though - I got the lifetime pass years ago, well worth the money.

i bought a refurbished ipod classic (128gb flash mod) and gave up smartphone this week. no more will my android tell me to turn down my music, or interrupt me. i am the one who presses pause now, fuckers.

i'm having a lot of fun sourcing bad bitrate 00s pop from slsk, some ripped from early web radio "AOL MUSIC FIRST LISTEN!" and having not a lot of fun transcoding my entire FLAC library to ALAC. it's truly astonishing how itunes for windows has been laggy for an entire decade.

anyone else still using an ipod? curious about other DAP choices...

check if your classic is one of the models that can be rockboxed, it will save you the trouble of converting your flacs to apple's trash format

Sound quality on my ‘pod is twice as good for some reason than my phone. And yeah dedicated devices rule.

I can't be doing with carrying around a phone AND an mp3 player... a large-capacity iPhone is a good compromise (tho iTunes is indeed a trash program... MediaMonkey is a nice substitute)

cal, yeah, i can't believe how loud this thing is. my android couldn't drive my high impedance headphones. i installed rockbox but the battery life is practically cut in half with it. a shame. running musicbee for playback and tagging on windows. so efficient.

It’s just easier to get ‘solitary’ with music without distractions with the pod. Like a tape or cd kind of experience