What do you listen to music on?

[Godless Dave]

Originally Posted by lisarea

My Superscope quadrophonic receiver that I bought in the 70s

If it still works keep this component. That old stuff lasts much longer than the cheap microelectronic circuit board crap they make these days, and it does the same damn thing - receives and amplifies an audio signal. The only advantage of a newer receiver is the ability to process digital 5.1 sound, which is (so far) really only useful for movies.

[D. Scarlatti]

Originally Posted by Crumb

I have ... a phonograph.

[Godless Dave]

I have Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" on both vinyl and CD, and they seem to have different versions of at least one of the songs.

[D. Scarlatti]

I'd check that out, but I think that's one of the records the ex-wife ended up with.

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by D. Scarlatti

Well I don't have any records anymore.

Originally Posted by Warren

You suck. If I had satellite radio I could get Air America.

Or if you lived in Portland you could listen to it free on 620 AM.

[JoeP]

Yes to spending the money on amps and speakers.

I'm interested that few of you use or have got or whatever portable mp3 players. I listen to mine in the car (I don't have an 80-CD CD changer ), and I carry on listening after turning off the engine and walking to the office/shop/whatever. I listen at my desk (considerably better sound quality than playing off the computer, plus I'm short of hard drive space on my laptop, plus etc). And so on. These things are the best thing since ... portable CD players ... no, since portable transistor radios.

But maybe I'm just gadget-obsessed.

[livius drusus]

You just started this thread so you could use in context, didn't you?

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by JoeP

I'm interested that few of you use or have got or whatever portable mp3 players.

I got the Little Muffin an Archos Jukebox MP3 player, like, a thousand years ago or so, and I'm waiting for him to get tired of it and give it to me.

He hasn't yet, though, so maybe you should just buy me an MP3 player while you're at it, to save on shipping costs and all.

[JoeP]

No. Yes. Maybe. Can we move on to the content now?

[TomJoe]

I keep debating on whether or not I want an iPod, but at $199 for the 2GB iPod-nano (which I think is overpriced), I keep refraining. I can use my old RCA Lyra, plug in a 1GB card filled with songs and keep another 1GB card filled with additional music and save myself about $70. But then again, I just finished up graduate school and I'm still in cheap bastard mode.

Now ... if someone were to buy me an iPod nano, I'd use it.

[ms_ann_thrope]

20GB iPod, with Koss "The Plug" headphones. I wear it around my neck in a little fuzzy, beaded, and tasseled holder I made for it:

[pescifish]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

The only advantage of a newer receiver is the ability to process digital 5.1 sound, which is (so far) really only useful for movies.

I know that not that many artists are producing them, but the music DVDs I've heard take advantage of 5.1. Metallica did some in-studio work to produce their Black DVD and I hear separation in the rear speakers ('course it could be my imagination, but...)

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ms_ann_thrope

20GB iPod, with Koss "The Plug" headphones. I wear it around my neck in a little fuzzy, beaded, and tasseled holder I made for it

Now we're talking. Technology and convenience!

[livius drusus]

Not to mention fashion.

[JoeP]

I was pointedly not talking about the fashion as I don't aspire to it (though I'm sure it looks great on Ms Ann).

[TomJoe]

Just bought myself a Sony Network Walkman, NW-HD1 (20GB). Currently having to transfer all my MP3 music over into ATRAC3plus format (the software does it automatically while transferring ... though it takes a bit longer) but it's a nifty little device. After I get a bit used to it, I'll be shipping it off to Texas (once hurricane season lets up I imagine) for a firmware upgrade so it can natively play MP3s. For $20, they do the firmware upgrade and give you a $25 gift certificate to spend at their Sony Music store. Not a bad deal.

[Fencesitter]

JoeP,

Sorry for the slight derail, but I have a question for you and any other Creative Zen owner or any other owner of a Windows-based MP3 player.

If you stop the player in the middle of a song and turn it back on, does it go back to the same place in the song? Is there a time limit to this pause feature?

I've been downloading audio books from my library, and some of the books download as one big wma file (8-12 hrs. worth playing time) which is generally around 240-250 megs. Windows Media Player starts the file at the beginning of the file every time the computer is shut down. Arrrgh! Unacceptable.

I'm considering getting a Dell handheld with the problem that I would have to use a secure data card of 1 gig and switch out as those got full or getting a Creative Zen 20 gig which is only $10 more than a 5 gig at Amazon. I also don't know how to get around the limitations of the Windows Media Player problem on the Dell either.

So, what do all of you technology experts say about this?

Thanks.

Fence

[Corona688]

This PocketPC was made for music, I'm sure of it; it's got better speakers than a whole iMac. The new HP's don't hold a candle to it, tinny and fragile.

Currently got 448MB total storage on CF card, SD card, and in RAM. Since it's more computer than player, I've found some programs to let me play C64 .sid files and mod-tracker-like .xm/mod/it/s3m files as well as MP3. As usual, Windows Media Player sucks, so I use PocketMusic instead.

[Corona688]

Originally Posted by Fencesitter

I've been downloading audio books from my library, and some of the books download as one big wma file (8-12 hrs. worth playing time) which is generally around 240-250 megs. Windows Media Player starts the file at the beginning of the file every time the computer is shut down. Arrrgh! Unacceptable.

Some sort of PocketPC and PocketMusic would be a good combination, methinks. When you pause the audio and turn it off, it doesn't reboot, it suspends -- hence remembers everything. You'd want to convert them to MP3, though. There's a Pocket Windows Media Player, but it sucks WORSE than the non-pocket version, and frankly, WMA is just a pain in the ass everywhere.

[Fencesitter]

Originally Posted by Corona688

Some sort of PocketPC and PocketMusic would be a good combination, methinks. When you pause the audio and turn it off, it doesn't reboot, it suspends -- hence remembers everything. You'd want to convert them to MP3, though. There's a Pocket Windows Media Player, but it sucks WORSE than the non-pocket version, and frankly, WMA is just a pain in the ass everywhere.

Thanks, Corona688, but I don't think that's going to work. If I could convert the wma to a MP3, I'd be able to play the file on my realone player on my Palm. My audible.com files work just fine on my Palm and play very well with the AudibleManager software.

But since these library files have DRM around the wma files so that the files expire after 3 weeks, I don't want to (and don't know if I could) convert them. That would be like stealing library books, and I don't want to even attempt it.

Fence

[Corona688]

Originally Posted by Fencesitter

Thanks, Corona688, but I don't think that's going to work. If I could convert the wma to a MP3, I'd be able to play the file on my realone player on my Palm. My audible.com files work just fine on my Palm and play very well with the AudibleManager software.

But since these library files have DRM around the wma files so that the files expire after 3 weeks, I don't want to (and don't know if I could) convert them. That would be like stealing library books, and I don't want to even attempt it.

Fence

Hm. I'm not sure that strange DRM-ed WMA files like that will work in anything but Windows Media Player. You might be, pardon my french, fucked. I've personally needed to illegally circumvent software and media I was legally allowed to use far too many times to feel guilty anymore. DRM inconveniences paying customers, breeds resentment and pirates.

As for "stealing library books", the situation's very different from a library book. They haven't lent it to you. They've given you a copy that autodestructs.

It *MIGHT* work on vanilla PocketPC Windows Media Player. Or might not.

[JoeP]

Fence, all my music is MP3, and my interviews and other audio recordings are WAV or MP3. I can't speak about the limits of WMA (with or without DRM) on my box.

Listening on the player itself, if you pause during a track and it idle-shuts-down (after a configurable 5 minutes), which is really a "suspend", when you power on again, the position in the track is remembered. However, if you fully shut down, or it does a full shutdown itself (which it will do while in suspend after something like 12 hours) then you find yourself at the beginning of the track.

But, for situations just like yours, it can store up to 10 bookmarks. (The help gives a specific example of saving a point in an interview.) There's no time limit on them. So that would meet your need completely - unless you have more than 10 audio books on the go at once?

I haven't checked if the PC component of the software ... OK now I have, and it doesn't seem to have 'bookmarks'.

[ChuckF]

At home I generally use my laptop attached to my Bose laptop speakers. I love those things! As soon as my moderately priced headphones die, I'm going to get some of those noise-cancelling ones from Bose. I use the little iPod earbuds when listening to my iPod.

Now for the fun part. I needed some tiny speakers for my room here, since I don't need great sound and just want to listen to music while I read or work or whatever. I bought the cheapest speakers in Auchaun (like Wal Mart, basically) for around US$7. The Sangha SP-111s! w00t!

[ManM]

Fence,
If you have a palm, you might want to check out http://www.pocket-tunes.com/. BTW, I listen to music on my Treo 650, using Pocket Tunes.

[JoeP]

ManM, I'm in the dark ages with an 8MB monochrome Palm III. What capacity does your Treo 650 have?