Is Computer Audio bad news for appreciating Classical Music?

[kumakuma]

Everything I've downloaded has been 16/44 FLAC which I assume is from a CD. I've never seen anything specially identified as a vinyl rip. Murfie does have a rip service for vinyl -- i.e. you can send them your vinyl and they will rip it for you but I'm not sure about the details of that. If you send them a message I'm sure you will get a reply within one business day.

 

I'm surprised that they offer this service as vinyl rips are a lot more tricky than CD ripping. I wonder what the resolution of the vinyl rips is.

 

Another service they offer is that they will rip and store CDs you purchase from Amazon, etc. This is great for folks like myself who live outside the U.S. and don't want to pay international shipping/duty or wait weeks for our CDs to arrive. You just order and have the seller send the CD directly to Murfie. Once it arrives at Murfie, you can have them rip it.

[Daudio]

You can store the disc at Murfie, or order shipping. "

 

If you chose to have them ship you the physical disc, they charge you a flat shipping fee for each one, regardless of how many you might buy and have shipped at one time. They are then charging about the same as Amazon Associates for similar discs.

[Jay-dub]

Classical music on a computer player is a big improvement over the old days of a CD collection. I don't use a remote app — I tried it; it seemed unreliable with my wi-fi; I don't need it; end of story — and mostly listen to longer works or complete albums. In the days of disc spinning, I'd listen to a small fraction of my collection, biased towards the SACD's. The rest would be too much trouble to listen to, either due to sound quality issues, awkward packaging, or tracks that I didn't like. Now I can fix sound quality issues as I rip, the packaging is a one-time hassle, and I can easily mark certain tracks as not worth another listen. Another big benefit is how CA makes the big box sets approachable. For instance, I've got a 9-CD box of Schubert songs and a 33-CD box of Haydn symphonies. How am I supposed to come to term with those? Especially considering my attention span for Schubert songs is usually about five songs at a sitting. Easy: choose one CD out of the box, rip it, and wait until each song has a play count of three before ripping another disc.

[ecwl]

I think there's a general consensus that CA is good news for appreciating Classical Music. In addition to the comments made, I wanted to add the following:

- When I first started, I did stop listening to whole albums or symphonies and jumped around a lot, listening to excerpts or movements but not whole works. I still do when I'm doing demoing or testing new gear. Otherwise, I just went back to my old habits of really enjoying and appreciating Classical Music by listening to one work after another in its entirety. So I think the attention-deficit thing comes as part of the territory with CA at the beginning but it passes over time.

- In addition to being able to compare different performances easily, if I'm studying/learning more about a particular piece of work, I can hone in on the specific movement or even specific portion of the movement with relative ease with CA.

- The latest game changer for me is Tidal. Living in Canada, I had Rdio for a long time but the recommended albums of the month on Gramophone magazine are frequently not available in Rdio. But now that Canada has Tidal, I find that most of the albums are available in Tidal so I can sample them and then decide whether I want them in my collection. Beats going to the local library which usually doesn't have most of the works anyway. That said, I don't think Tidal is a replacement for my CD collection, just an alternative expansion since Tidal doesn't have everything. For a classical musicophile, $20/month is worth it.

[loop7]

70% of my listening is orchestral music. After migrating to exclusively computer based audio, I do notice myself listening to movements instead of entire symphonies, concertos and ballets. However, I'm getting more disciplined. However, I do think streaming services and their unfortunate emphasis on playlists and curation may wreak havoc on classical listening.

[semente]

I find that using the computer as transport exclusively and not using (tablet/phone) remote software for the music player helps.

 

But I still prefer browsing through my CDs that with iTunes, which in my experience an opiniion is the best music browser available for mac.

 

So my answer to Is Computer Audio bad news for appreciating Classical Music?

Perhaps...I makes life more difficult and doesn't sound better with Redbook that my CD player.

And 95% of the music that I am interested in has not been issued in High Res.

 

R

[Paul R]

I find that using the computer as transport exclusively and not using (tablet/phone) remote software for the music player helps.

 

But I still prefer browsing through my CDs that with iTunes, which in my experience an opiniion is the best music browser available for mac.

 

So my answer to Is Computer Audio bad news for appreciating Classical Music?

Perhaps...I makes life more difficult and doesn't sound better with Redbook that my CD player.

And 95% of the music that I am interested in has not been issued in High Res.

 

R

 

You don't use the iTunes REMOTE.app from Apple? Same or similar interface right on your iPad.

[semente]

You don't use the iTunes REMOTE.app from Apple? Same or similar interface right on your iPad.

 

The problem is that using a remote makes "zapping" easier than having to stand up everytime you wan't to change music.

 

I know nothing about iTunes for iOS because my phone has Android (I use Retune).

Does the iTunes for iOS also have a column browser?

 

R

[Teresa]

I don't surf…

 

I personally don't have this jukebox behavior and generally play entire albums.

 

Me either, I listen to one album at a time all the way through no matter what kind of music it is. I am just now getting back into classical music, however I mostly listen to classic rock, jazz and blues.

 

When I select an album from my computer I then turn off the computer screen, the lights and set in my sweet spot and enjoy the album. That is unless I'm on the internet in which case I need the computer screen to see. In any case the way I listen to physical formats (SACDs, etc.) is the same way I listen to computer music files.

 

I don’t surf or zap with anything, even my TV watching is planned a week in advance using the online TV Guide.

 

My Blu-ray/SACD player has a remote control but I don't use it, I insert a disc and when it's done I remove it. And of course my tube preamp doesn't come with a remote. So I almost never use a remote control for anything.

 

I have no cell phone and no iPad and I could never see myself wanting either. I prefer my corded landline phone and my Mac Mini computer. Those few times I go on a trip I take my Gateway laptop.

 

Concerning music files, what is bad for classical is when the playback device (which is not a PC) doesn't support gapless playback.

 

For some time, I used to play files with an Oppo 93 Blu-ray player, which does not support gapless playback. When I bought this album with the Rachmaninov Paganini Variations, I had to stitch together the 26 downloaded tracks from the variations (using foobar2000), to make the composition playable on the Oppo without a one second interruption between every variation.

 

eClassical - Rachmaninov - Symphony No.3The labels should think about not strictly replicating the track structure from the disc release when it comes to downloads. Nobody is just buying one variation from this composition.

 

I agree if one track flows into another such as these variations it should be on one track instead of many. This is not just a problem for classical music but for certain rock as well, on many rock albums especially those by the Moody Blues and Alan Parson's Project one song flows into the next, and if there are any gaps it ruins the effect and sounds off-putting. Gapless playback for me is a must, I currently use the Teac HR Audio player with Normal checked instead of Expand to Ram, as Normal is gapless.

 

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So to finally answer the question, for people who like to surf perhaps it has hurt classical for them. For those who prefer to listen to whole albums, they perhaps will be more open to classical. One doesn't know until one tries.

[rodrigaj]

A subset to this question is "Do you listen to classical music?"

 

By that I mean, sit down, do nothing else, and actively listen to the music. It takes a certain effort to appreciate classical music and many of us don't have the time or inclination. We are so tied up with our "systems" that we miss the forest for the trees.

[ecwl]

Sure. Last night, being sick and recovering from a cold, I listened to Schoenberg Pelleas und Melisande that I own. And then I listened to Langgaard String Quartet No. 5, String Quartet Movement BVN408 off Tidal. And this morning, while walking across the street to the coffee shop, I listened to parts of Messiaen La Fauvette Passerinette.

[Skeptic]

Classical music or otherwise, I find that I may spend five minutes hopping around various albums before deciding what it is that I want to listen to, because sometimes I think I am in the mood for X and it turns out to be Y or Z.

And computer audio makes that better than it ever was before. If I don't know what I want to listen to at all, I can just hit the "random album" button I created in JRiver.

 

I still listen to full albums, and often end up listening to large portions of an artist's discography in one go now.

I listen to a lot more classical music now than I ever did. Computer audio is not the problem here.

 

The problem is that using a remote makes "zapping" easier than having to stand up everytime you wan't to change music.

If the only reason you're listening to an album is because you would have to get up to change it to something else, well that doesn't sound like someone that is really enjoying the music they are listening to.

[Old Listener]

Classical music or otherwise, I find that I may spend five minutes hopping around various albums before deciding what it is that I want to listen to, because sometimes I think I am in the mood for X and it turns out to be Y or Z.

And computer audio makes that better than it ever was before.

 

My pattern is similar.

 

I still listen to full albums, and often end up listening to large portions of an artist's discography in one go now.

I listen to a lot more classical music now than I ever did. Computer audio is not the problem here.

 

Me too.

 

I knew that I wanted to use computer audio for my mostly classical collection years before disk capacities made it reasonable. No disappointments for me, just a great leap forward.