Living in a digital world

[DavidW]

I guess I am a nostalgic physical format yearner.  I bought a kindle last fall and slowly but surely ended up back reading physical books.  The ebooks (too overpriced btw!) didn't feel real, and I never got over not being able to thumb through the pages or physically see where I am in the book, and look at the cover art whether mundan or awesome.  Even now that I have flacs of my cd collection, I find myself looking at my cds anyway, wanting to plug in a cd or dvd player into my hifi and play those instead just because they are tangible. What I consider rentals from amazon vod, amazon informs me I "own", yet I don't feel like I own them because I don't have a physical disc in my hands.  I have a feeling that our children or our children's' children will laugh at such fuddy duddy archaic sentiments.

So how are you getting along in the digital age?  Fully embracing it?  Exploring it with reservations like me?  Just ignoring it altogether?

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure this kind of thread has been created before, but I will just reiterate my point-of-view by saying that I'm a CD collector. I'll always be a CD collector. I still have full faith in this medium. They can continue to come out with whatever they want to, but I remain a person who physically likes to own a CD and hold the booklets and not go through some file and look at it on a screen. No, this isn't appealing to me. I like printed material. Of course, the music is the most important thing, but it is my belief that music should receive the deluxe treatment. You are, after all, holding a moment of time in your hand and seeing how fast CDs go out-of-print, this moment of time can last until the end of time if it's handled with care.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Though I'll turn 50 next month, I'm a complete ascetic with regard to the form in which I enjoy a book or music. Though I love the feel of a book, it is also so much information which simply has to be transferred to my brain. I can read a book on my computer screen and listen to 'disembodied' music on my mp3 player. It doesn't matter. I also write without printing anything out. Only in the very last stage I sometimes feel the need to see how the prose looks on the page. I am simply not very attached to the physical manifestation of an intellectual content.

[Scarpia]

I intent to continue buying music in the form of CDs, but the plan, already going into action, it to copy them to hard disc (FLAC) and listen them by streaming them to my a DAC (actually my new CD player, which has digital inputs).  I got a very efficient flat-bet scanner and scanning the booklets into a pdf file to accompany the flac file is a relatively small addition to the time required.

[DavidW]

Scarpia are you using something like a squeezebox for the streaming or is it built in to your cd player?

[SonicMan46]

Well, I may be one of the old timers here (just turned 65 y/o, will retire at the end of June, and will then be on Medicare & my retirement savings - what a change!) - I still enjoy the physical media, CDs, DVDs, books, etc. - however, I've done some MP3 downloading and stream movies via a Roku device using either Netflix or Amazon; the latter will likely be more of my future, esp. w/ the video.

But, the control of our entertainment media in the near future may not be up to us?  The companies/people that distribute this material, regardless of their nature, will likely determine what we have available in the future!  A good example for me is a magazine that I've been getting for a quarter of a century, i.e. PC Magazine - now only available as a digital download via the Zinio software - yes, I'm subscribed to this magazine and on my computer (and also a new iPad2), the reading is fine; I've also downloaded a few books to my iPad (like the color option if applicable) - the PRICE really needs to come down on these offerings, but the future may not be up to us?   

[Scarpia]

Scarpia are you using something like a squeezebox for the streaming or is it built in to your cd player?

At the moment I have a windows PC and all the FLAC files on an external drive.  I'm currently using foobar to an external USB DAC (M-audio) which sends line-level analog signal to my pre-amp.  Electrically the gadget is fine and sounds good, but the Windows 7 driver is a nightmare.  (Every time the computer boots it sets the thing to 24 bit mode, then tells me 24 bit mode is not supported.  Then I have to manually set it to 16 bit mode via the control panel before using it.)  However, I have a Marantz CD player with both USB and Optical input.  I could plug the computer directly into the USB input of the CD player, but I don't want to do that because I'm concerned an electrical connection to the CD player could introduce noise.  When I get around to it I will get a gadget to convert USB to optical and connect that to the CD player.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not prone to using Mp3 devices as I have around 12 iPods. I simply use these for convenience, so I won't have to hunt for a CD. I rip the CDs to iTunes using a 192 kbps when I transfer the CD, I run the iPod through an Cmoy headphone amplifier (one of those home looking ones in peppermint tins) and I use a pair of Sennheiser PX-100s. The EQ I use on my iPod is the treble booster setting, which sounds great through the headphone amp. I mostly listen by the computer and I use the headphones not to disturb anyone else.

This is what my headphone amp looks like:



And these are the Sennheisers I use:



And I own an assortment of iPods from the Classic to the Nanos:

[DavidW]

MI that's old school!  I think with Headroom's Total Bithead you can effectively line out your ipod by docking it through headroom's amp, and bingo clean sound, no noise floor.

I should take a picture and show you the headphone amp I used in grad school.  You actually had to unscrew two screws to take off the case to replace the 9 V battery.  It was very colored amp.  I've retired it since I got the total airhead.

[DavidW]

At the moment I have a windows PC and all the FLAC files on an external drive.  I'm currently using foobar to an external USB DAC (M-audio) which sends line-level analog signal to my pre-amp.  Electrically the gadget is fine and sounds good, but the Windows 7 driver is a nightmare.  (Every time the computer boots it sets the thing to 24 bit mode, then tells me 24 bit mode is not supported.  Then I have to manually set it to 16 bit mode via the control panel before using it.)  However, I have a Marantz CD player with both USB and Optical input.  I could plug the computer directly into the USB input of the CD player, but I don't want to do that because I'm concerned an electrical connection to the CD player could introduce noise.  When I get around to it I will get a gadget to convert USB to optical and connect that to the CD player.

That 24 bit issue is that really sneaky level of irritating... irritating enough to drive you up the wall, not irritating enough to warrant replacing the device.  Still that sounds like a cool setup, and I take it you're not bothered by the pc being in the room... you should post a pic of your setup sometime (unless you already have).

[Mirror Image]

MI that's old school!  I think with Headroom's Total Bithead you can effectively line out your ipod by docking it through headroom's amp, and bingo clean sound, no noise floor.

I should take a picture and show you the headphone amp I used in grad school.  You actually had to unscrew two screws to take off the case to replace the 9 V battery.  It was very colored amp.  I've retired it since I got the total airhead.

Yep, I'm definitely old-school when it comes to electronics I suppose.

I get no noise from my headphone amp at all, so noise has never been an issue, because there is none. Clean as a whistle. The next headphone amp will be one that runs off a power supply instead of 9V batteries.

[Scarpia]

That 24 bit issue is that really sneaky level of irritating... irritating enough to drive you up the wall, not irritating enough to warrant replacing the device.  Still that sounds like a cool setup, and I take it you're not bothered by the pc being in the room... you should post a pic of your setup sometime (unless you already have).

I'm using a lenovo laptop which is very quiet when it is not doing anything.  I originally thought of using a standard PC with a supposedly quiet case, but the whir of the fan was to loud to tolerate during classical listening.

[Coopmv]

I'm sure this kind of thread has been created before, but I will just reiterate my point-of-view by saying that I'm a CD collector. I'll always be a CD collector. I still have full faith in this medium. They can continue to come out with whatever they want to, but I remain a person who physically likes to own a CD and hold the booklets and not go through some file and look at it on a screen. No, this isn't appealing to me. I like printed material. Of course, the music is the most important thing, but it is my belief that music should receive the deluxe treatment. You are, after all, holding a moment of time in your hand and seeing how fast CDs go out-of-print, this moment of time can last until the end of time if it's handled with care.

Don't worry about not having a CDP in 20 years to play your CD collection.  It was more or less 20 years ago when the death of LP's was declared, yet turntables are still being made 20 years later ...

[Mirror Image]

Don't worry about not having a CDP in 20 years to play your CD collection.  It was more or less 20 years ago when the death of LP's was declared, yet turntables are still being made 20 years later ...

I try not to worry about things like this. There are too many audiophiles out there to let something like the death of LPs and CDs happen.

[Lethevich]

I am fine with digital only - the less physical clutter I have the better. I cannot deny the pleasant feeling of having something new in my hands, but I don't need music for that - it could be a book (something much harder to digitally distribute, ironically, despite their relatively minute filesizes).

Where I begin to encounter problems is when the digital item doesn't in some way replicate a physical product. For example, I am not interested in buying a single work at a time, as it would require a seperate organisational system from CD/LP programmes - so where there is no physical product, I still prefer a square CD cover-style image to represent it in my catalogue, and also an acceptable duration (which means if the work on offer is brief, it will require companion pieces as part of the bundle).

An observation: my use of the word "programme" kind of conjurs up images of live concerts to my mind - events which coincidentely are roughly CD-length. But if this became a standard and popular way to sell music (as with Universal's "concerts" series) then I feel that musical diversity would suffer. For example, single-composer concerts are very rare save for a few big names, and yet it's being able to focus on one composer through the recorded medium that offers me my most rewarding listening experiences.

[Sandra]

amazon informs me I "own", yet I don't feel like I own them because I don't have a physical disc in my hands. 

I think this is a challenge for you to overcome. There's no going back to yesterday's technology. You just have to take a deep breath and accept what's new.

[Scarpia]

I think this is a challenge for you to overcome. There's no going back to yesterday's technology. You just have to take a deep breath and accept what's new.

Yes, but there is more than one possible new thing. 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I like books. I like CDs. I like records. I will continue to invest in them. At some point I even want to go back in time, and put together something that can play the LPs stored in my parents' basement.

I may invest in an e-reader, but that would be to read topical material without lasting value, which I can get rid of once I'm done with. Any book with lasting value is one I want to have in physical form. I may also digitize my CD collection, just to have it as backup. But the main collection would remain physical. With CDs, there's also the technical aspect of digitizing (all those acronyms and programs I haven't figured out yet), which I find intimidating.

Well-made books, and well-produced audio recordings, have a personality and aesthetic presence of their own. They also have the great advantage of providing instant decoration for your living space, which also tells you something about the person living there.

I take comfort in the fact that, even if production of CDs and books stopped today, billions of items would remain available via a second-hand market.

[Florestan]

I like books. I like CDs. I like records. I will continue to invest in them. [...]

[...]Any book with lasting value is one I want to have in physical form. [...]

Well-made books, and well-produced audio recordings, have a personality and aesthetic presence of their own. They also have the great advantage of providing instant decoration for your living space, which also tells you something about the person living there.

I take comfort in the fact that, even if production of CDs and books stopped today, billions of items would remain available via a second-hand market.

My thoughts exactly.

Besides, walking into a bookstore / CD store and spending some time there browsing randomly what's available is one of the small pleasures of life I'm not willing to give up for the sake of "progress". 

[Conor71]

I do like having CD's as an archive/reference source but having moved house quite a lot during the last few years I think having many possessions is more of a burden that anything else so I'm all for going Digital in the future!.
At the moment I listen exclusively through my iPod and have my entire collection on iTunes so once I rip a new Disc into my collection I just store it in a Box out of the way.
I will probably keep buying CD's for a while longer though because at the moment its not really that much cheaper to buy a Digital copy as compared to buying a physical Disc