Naxos Music Library

Started by gmstudio, November 06, 2007, 04:03:22 PM

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gmstudio

Anyone here subscribe to the Naxos streaming service?  $20/year to listen to the whole catalog "on demand" seems like quite a bargain. Anyone here sign up for it? Regrets? Issues? Recommendations?   How's the sound quality? Reliability? (Lots of dropouts?) I'm mostly interested in the Marco Polo, BIS, dacapo stuff...

Thanks

gmstudio

Quote from: MahlerTitan on November 06, 2007, 04:17:44 PM
Be sure to sign up for Naxosmusiclibrary.com It has so much more recordings. But, the catch is that you have to pay 25 dollars a month or 225 dollars a year.

Wow...you had me right up to the end there. :)  I wasn't even aware of the Music Library, only the $20/year on the "regular" website...but that looks great!  Just way out of my budget.  :(

Brian

Quote from: gmstudio on November 06, 2007, 04:29:08 PM
Wow...you had me right up to the end there. :)  I wasn't even aware of the Music Library, only the $20/year on the "regular" website...but that looks great!  Just way out of my budget.  :(
Check to see if your school/library/organization of some kind belongs to the NML. Otherwise, go for the naxos.com subscription! I've been a member for maybe three years, and have discovered an extraordinary amount of music that way. The sound quality is below CD standards, but really is not bad or even irritating, except in a couple early-90s piano recordings where the piano has little "clicking" sounds. For free you can sample each track to get an idea for the sound.

Marco Polo, BIS, and Da Capo are there in their entirety; only Marco Polo has electronic booklet notes (I think). The Naxos CDs all do. My favorite thing to do for a long time was to ask friends to "pick a letter" and then find a new composer to discover under that letter; once I went two weeks listening only to composers whose last names start with S. In other words, there's a LOT of stuff on there. It's the best classical website there is (except for NML, obviously). Go for it!

Bonehelm

128kbps is nowhere near "CD quality" as they claim. CD quality is 1411kbps.

Renfield

Quote from: Bonehelm on November 06, 2007, 05:20:40 PM
128kbps is nowhere near "CD quality" as they claim. CD quality is 1411kbps uncompressed.

Corrected something, for the sake of pedantry. :-X

mahlertitan


longears

Quote from: Renfield on November 06, 2007, 06:00:55 PM
Corrected something, for the sake of pedantry. :-X
Not pedantry.  Lossless compression would be around 700kbps.  128kbps is nowhere near CD quality--the sound is horrible and in a sane world they wouldn't be allowed to make such blatant lies.

Brian

Quote from: longears on November 06, 2007, 06:34:01 PMthe sound is horrible
That's a pretty subjective use of horrible. I find 20 to be mostly acceptable (naxos.com) and 64 (NML) to be quite satisfactory. We just have different standards.  :)

Renfield

Quote from: longears on November 06, 2007, 06:34:01 PM
Not pedantry.  Lossless compression would be around 700kbps.  128kbps is nowhere near CD quality--the sound is horrible and in a sane world they wouldn't be allowed to make such blatant lies.

Of course. But taken literally, CDs are indeed encoded at 1411kbps: the "uncompressed" note was to allow for the existence of CD-quality lossless archives, which is in line with what is the case. ;)

Otherwise, I concur: 128kbps for classical music is mostly horrible, while even 312kbps does not compare to real CD quality, in my opinion. :)

max

If you can get 128kbs for $20/yr, it would at least be a cheap way of trying before buying. I went with a number of Naxos recordings - also others of course - but here exists an opportunity to limit errors.

Mark

I subscribe. Have done for three years. Just the basic, low bitrate service. Very useful. I check things out in full there, then download from eMusic if I like what I hear. If I subsequent love the download, I buy the CD. It's very cost-effective. :)

Renfield

QuoteWhile it's true I don't know everything about classical music, this doesn't mean I know nothing.
And while a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, I reckon I'm fairly safe with what little knowledge I have.

Mark, my sincere apologies if this comment offends you in any way, as it's likely more a product of my presently being ill and not having slept properly than anything else...

But, even though I don't especially care for some/most of his views, I think it was Friedrich Nietzsche who described as "philistines of culture" those characterised by a deliberate choice to, in the context of culture, always make sure to know "just enough", but no more.

Of course, I'm not saying you're a "philistine of culture"; but I would be dishonest if I said your new signature did not make that quote flash accross my mind as I read it. So perhaps you might consider rephrasing it a bit, for the sake of the impression it could make on someone. :-\


Again, I'm sorry if I've in any way offended you (or anyone) with this comment, and in fact doubly sorry for being so off-topic.


In fact, in an effort to make amends, I'll add that this subscription service sounds interesting, and very promising for the sake of swiftly scouting out new repertory! Perhaps I might find myself making use of it, once my collection (and listening) has passed a certain threshold. :D

Brian

Quote from: Renfield on November 06, 2007, 09:20:17 PM
In fact, in an effort to make amends, I'll add that this subscription service sounds interesting, and very promising for the sake of swiftly scouting out new repertory! Perhaps I might find myself making use of it, once my collection (and listening) has passed a certain threshold. :D
Good idea. I'll say, though, that I made use of it starting (at age what, 15?) before I had a collection. It helped me find the music for my collection. I discovered for the first time the music of Grofe, Gottschalk, Gorecki, Guridi, Grieg (lots of terrific Grieg recordings), Granados, Goldmark, Glazunov, and Glass using Naxos. Before that I thought the only composers whose names started with G were Glinka (who, I thought, had only written that one overture...) and Gershwin. It is so much fun to explore on Naxos...now, of course, I am more well-versed in the classical catalog as a result, but I still know little of Garbizu, Grechaninov, and Ginastera, of which there is lots to discover.

And that's just the letter G.  ;D

Don

I subscribe also, and the sound isn't bad.  Naxos clearly states that it's FM quality - nothing more.  Given the huge volume of music available, I think that the $20 is a paltry cost.

Grazioso

I don't subscribe, because for free you can hear 25% of each track, which is usually enough for me to know if I want to buy the disc.
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mark

Quote from: Renfield on November 06, 2007, 09:20:17 PM
Mark, my sincere apologies if this comment offends you in any way, as it's likely more a product of my presently being ill and not having slept properly than anything else...

But, even though I don't especially care for some/most of his views, I think it was Friedrich Nietzsche who described as "philistines of culture" those characterised by a deliberate choice to, in the context of culture, always make sure to know "just enough", but no more.

;D

Oh, Renfield - you did give me a good laugh. :D

My signature is nothing more than a throw-away line or two that basically says: 'I have my opinions, and they're precisely that - MY opinions'. I base them on what knowledge I have (and what I gain from having my views challenged by others), and when I need more knowledge, I go looking for it. ;)

Earthlight

I subscribed for a few months, and dropped it simply because I haven't had much listening time this year. I'll happily subscribe again if that changes. At $25 a month, it's a steal.

I can't remember ever having a dropout. It takes a few seconds to buffer, that's all. There are pauses and a little click between tracks, which can be distracting -- especially if the tracks divide two continuous movements. For the sheer volume of stuff they've got there, I can easily live with that.

gmstudio

I think for the moment I'm going to stick with the free version, see how often I dip in, and then decide to pay.

If only they were DOWNLOADABLE files!  ;D

Don

Quote from: Grazioso on November 07, 2007, 03:16:17 AM
I don't subscribe, because for free you can hear 25% of each track, which is usually enough for me to know if I want to buy the disc.

25% doesn't cut it for me, especially since the annual cost to hear 100% is essentially nothing.

locrian

I'll head over there to listen to some samples occasionally, but that's about it so far. Maybe I should subscribe.