[Peter J]

I've watched my fair share of technological water pass under the audio bridge. Having lived through things like 8 track tapes (bought many), cassettes (also bought many), vinyl (I still have every LP I ever bought), I've become a cautious and plodding adopter of new formats. I still remember buying my first CD player and having the store owner welcome me to the twentieth century, even remember the first disc I bought.

I passively watched MP3 players shoot up in popularity and services like Napster wreaking havoc. Reading about the decline of audio quality and ambivalence of the buying public, I found myself clinging to my CD collection while dismissing it all as not worth persuing. I've had several phones with unused MP3 players, (ok, I ripped one disc just to see how it worked!). I just generally avoided what appeared to be a lossy and unsatisfactory musical experience.

I read much here and other places, somewhat torn between my jaded view of digital storage and playback and what appeared to be a better way that addressed my sound quality concerns.  As my knowledge of a better ways of doing things (software and hardware) grew, I decided to get on the train...late...as usual.

Which brings me to the point of this diatribe. I've started ripping all my discs onto external drives with dbpoweramp and using JRiver to view and playback. Soon I'll build a server like CAPs, invest in a good D/A converter, and control it with a tablet. I've been dreaming about this for two or three years and now that's it's starting to materialize I have to say:

This is so cool!

Having this kind of access to my music collection is nearly intoxicating to me, I'm completely jazzed. I know what you're thinking, so let me save you the trouble, "welcome to the 21st century, Peter"

Better late than never...

[Bob2]

Thought I was reading MY biography!
You are right, This is so cool!

Bob2

[MaxCast]

Enjoy it while you can.  In a year you will be scrolling through a thousand albums and won't be able to find a thing to ware (hear).   

I swear, sometimes I scroll through and get to the z's and have to start over again.  I can go to the CD rack or start flipping through LP's and pick a few no problem.  Maybe it's just me.   

[glynnw]

I love the accessibility - I listen to things I forgot I had.  And with JRiver I easily get info on artists thru wikipedia that I would never get if listening to vinyl or disc.  And images - Does Iggy Pop ever wear a shirt?  I have set one of the internet lyrics searchers to be just a couple of clicks away and am learning words to songs I have listened to for years.

It's a whole new ball game.  And when I think it is too expensive I look up prices on vinyl and all its related accessories and chuckle. 

[mcgsxr]

For me, the PC based music server is satisfying because I can build playlists that otherwise would take a lot of fumbling with discs and hardware, rather than some time spent initially, and then one click.

[Early B.]

I'm going to be watching this thread carefully. I've been thinking seriously about going digital. I suppose I could begin by ripping all of my CDs to external drives.   

[glynnw]

Assuming you are going the PC route, I highly recommend getting dBpoweramp to rip your CDs.  It makes it so easy, looks up artwork and metadata automatically.  Before you get too involved, play with it and figure out the naming convention you want to use for each track.  A good player like JRiver will use it's own system automatically, but I found out after ripping about 100 discs that I wanted the filename in the PC file in a more easily understood order, since sometimes I needed to find a single track in the windows file.  I started with track number deep into the file name and realized I wanted the track number at the start.  Again, dBpoweramp lets you control this easily.

[Peter J]

I'm going to be watching this thread carefully. I've been thinking seriously about going digital. I suppose I could begin by ripping all of my CDs to external drives.

Early, I hadn't thought about this as an ongoing thread. Perhaps it would be of value to others on similar paths to read about how it unfolds for me.  I could loosely document if you'd like.

 

[grsimmon]

I'm also a  Middle Aged latecomer, I guess I have gone through somewhat the same.   But computers, hard drives, etc. are not for me.  I'm not against them,  but cognitively the interface just doesn't "click" with my brain.  In other words,   I actually prefer flipping through cd's and picking a few out.   Keep it simple I suppose.  But the sound quality of some cd's, I felt like it could be improved.   

This has led me to explore hi-res music and a whole new (to me) genre of music, being classical music (and there are thousands of classical SACD's out there to choose from).  Similarly....better late than never, in this case it's hi-res music.  But it's turning out good so far.  I'm learning about Audyssey room correction, surround sound, etc., stuff I never would have imagined for myself even 3 years ago.   

[Peter J]

Enjoy it while you can.  In a year you will be scrolling through a thousand albums and won't be able to find a thing to ware (hear).   

I swear, sometimes I scroll through and get to the z's and have to start over again.  I can go to the CD rack or start flipping through LP's and pick a few no problem.  Maybe it's just me.   

I've got  a ways to go before I hit 1000, I imagine I have 200-250 discs, maybe more. And then there's the LPs, but I won't do 'em all. I'll keep all the media, but I sure like the idea of not allocating storage space in the room where I'll have the audio gear. Time will tell, I suppose

[geowak]

Just a side note.. and not intended to influence anyone in a negative way.

I had a Thorens TD 320 turntable some 30 years ago and some albums too. In the 80's, CD's and CD players were developed by Sony and Phillips. So I got into digital and never looked back until...

Just early this year, I was at Hi-End audio dealer at Shakers Heights Ohio and he demonstrated a high end SS amp by Musical Fidelity fed by both a complete DCS system. http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/ and (by comparison) a Well Tempered Labs turntable. http://www.welltemperedlab.net/welltemperedlab/

The DCS (digital) system is in the three figures range and the WTL (analog) system can be had for under 20K.

One system played a Frank Sinatra album and the other a Frank Sinatra CD. Both through Devore Fidelity speakers.

The analog system sounded better.... and much more musical.

[totoro]

I've got  a ways to go before I hit 1000, I imagine I have 200-250 discs, maybe more. And then there's the LPs, but I won't do 'em all. I'll keep all the media, but I sure like the idea of not allocating storage space in the room where I'll have the audio gear. Time will tell, I suppose

I ended up dumping the jewel cases, putting the cds in book binders, and storing them away from the listening area. You might want to play with this:

http://www.amplifindmusicservices.com/what/downloads.php

it's a lot of fun to put together playlists of "similar" tunes as found by this thing's algorithms: I ended up listening to things in my collection I hadn't listened to in years when I first started playing with it.

[totoro]

Just a side note.. and not intended to influence anyone in a negative way.

I had a Thorens TD 320 turntable some 30 years ago and some albums too. In the 80's, CD's and CD players were developed by Sony and Phillips. So I got into digital and never looked back until...

Just early this year, I was at Hi-End audio dealer at Shakers Heights Ohio and he demonstrated a high end SS amp by Musical Fidelity fed by both a complete DCS system. http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/ and (by comparison) a Well Tempered Labs turntable. http://www.welltemperedlab.net/welltemperedlab/

The DCS (digital) system is in the three figures range and the WTL (analog) system can be had for under 20K.

One system played a Frank Sinatra album and the other a Frank Sinatra CD. Both through Devore Fidelity speakers.

The analog system sounded better.... and much more musical.

That may be true for you, and at that moment. But for every story like that there are plenty of people who felt liberated from surface noise, and who welcome the added dynamic range of cds (not all cds use this, of course, but that's a fault of the way they were mastered, not the medium itself), and who loved the ease of browsing, ability to create playlists, etc (EDIT: when switching to hard drives).

I had an experience somewhat recently at Goodwin's High End listening to some Dave Holland through a super fancy setup (Boulder amps, big Rockport speakers, etc) in their big room. After listening to the music for a while, Al Moulton said, "ok, now for a treat", and put the same record on a really fancy turntable (something that cost on the order of a fairly nice car). My friends and I all looked at each other uncomfortably as the surface noise hit first, and then the music sounded almost the same except with a slight hiss and a little less bass. I was just there to pick up some speakers that they had repaired for me, and didn't want to say anything negative (he was so proud of the thing), but it was really awkward. A lot of forced smiles and head nodding.

This was all with super fancy equipment, a fantastic room, and set up by experts. If it was my old systemdek/rega/sumiko blue point setup, it would have been a lot worse. I for one will never go back (EDIT: I'll never go back to vinyl, I will probably buy more things from Goodwin's at some point unless I start to develop money issues ).

[JerryLove]

There is a modern phenomena though....

audiophiles are buying records.

So while the records dynamic range, Freq Response, SN ratio, convenience, and durability are inferior to CD; the mastering choices made by the producer of the (modern) record are (often) better... they know it won't be played through an iPod.

[totoro]

There is a modern phenomena though....

audiophiles are buying records.

So while the records dynamic range, Freq Response, SN ratio, convenience, and durability are inferior to CD; the mastering choices made by the producer of the (modern) record are (often) better... they know it won't be played through an iPod.

Sure, I'll grant you that about the mastering. But most classical music (which is what I mostly listen to) is decently mastered, as is most of the jazz that I listen to. And only a small proportion of even the people who are self-professed audiophiles are listening to/buying records. Some of this is simply nostalgia, some is audio preference, and people are clearly free to like whatever they want. But I just don't get the appeal myself.

I had actually expected to like the setup at Goodwin's, and was surprised at how unimpressive I found it (EDIT: relative to the sound we had been hearing just previously--- it was still a lot better than what I get out of my system in my dinky little condo living room: but it was hard to get past the surface noise and weaker (relatively)  sounding bass. Perhaps the problem is that Al raised our expectations so high-- the system was already pretty damn impressive, so I guess we were all expecting magic). Different strokes I guess.

[charmerci]

Thing that I love about having all my discs on my HD is to hit shuffle and have all that music on my own personal "radio station." Then when a groovy song comes on, then it's one click of the button and I can listen to the whole album.

[jimdgoulding]

Bah humbug!  Give me romance.  Just kidding.  Ya'll carry on.

[*Scotty*]

I have several recordings on both vinyl and CD and in almost every case the lowest bass foundation is missing in action on the vinyl copy. For a variety of technical reasons vinyl will frequently not have the same bass extension that a CD can have. The major reason is a that full bass extension to 20Hz with zero compression takes up a lot of space on the record and that means less time available per side to fit the recording into. The YES album FLY FROM HERE is a good example of this, both the vinyl and CD have very similar imaging and tonal qualities, but low bass foundation is missing from the vinyl version.
 This being said, I do have vinyl recordings which have the bass extension intact, Dead Can Dance spiritchaser is a good example. It runs to four sides on vinyl and it appears to have full bass extension. I have not purchased the 2008 remastered CD version yet, it is on my Christmas list, as are the rest of DCD remastered recordings.
Scotty

[JerryLove]

20Hz at any real volume on a record will cause the needle to jump out of the groove.

[*Scotty*]

Jerry you have made an unsubstantiated statement.  Conversely the Virgil Fox recording,The Fox Touch on the Crystal Clear label
has frequencies down to 16Hz at substantial volume.
 The RIAA pre-equalization curve makes it possible to record frequencies at or below 20hz. Another recording with high volume low bass content is the 'legendary' Telarc recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, while tracking problems may be be encountered with this recording, it is usually due the cartridge design or inadequate setup or tracking force.
Scotty