[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by Baldman

Everything I've got that is analog is in my "hoarding room" and has something wrong with it that would probably need a part which you probably couldn't get...

A few months ago I got hooked on youtube videos showing repairs of all the old audio equipment I used to have and either gave away or tossed because I figured repairs were too difficult and it was just "old crap" anyway. It is amazing what is out there now, as vintage (and restoration of vintage) is "in."
One that really bugged me was a JVC auto reverse tape deck that I tossed about 10 years ago. I figured the belt was bad, but I could see no way of getting to it easily. Sure enough the guy on youtube showed a trick where you remove 2 screws (out of dozens) that allow the transport mechanism to open like a clamshell with easy access to the belt. DOH! I should've guessed there was some trick to replace the belt and just held onto it. Lesson learned.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Don't most car CD players let you skip over a track you might not want to hear right then?

They absolutely do. I was more just referring to the discussion about how some albums are meant to be listened to as the tracks were laid out, in order, all the way through versus some albums where you can listen to just one song go wherever you want from there.

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

I see what you're getting at . . . and that the further you take that approach the closer you get to having just as many SD cards to search through as CDs.


On setting up playlists . . . can't be bothered. The only kind of 'playlist' I need goes something like "which CD do I want to listen to?".

Yes, you could absolutely rip your CD's to SD cards in a 1:1 fashion and I would personally see that as very limiting because carrying all of those cards around would be a PITA and it would make for an even bigger pain when it comes to figuring out which one contains which disc.

To your point of "which CD do I want to listen to", that's the beauty of ripping common content onto a card. You drastically reduce the number of cards, but you can have the entire CD (album) at your fingertips and the head unit will let you get to that album and play it in order, in its entirety. No shuffle, no moving out to other albums, etc. When you want a new CD, you can browse to it and play it, or switch the card out to a different one if that album is on a different card.

The process would work a lot like carrying/playing discs except that you would change media much less frequently and the total space everything would take up would be less.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by ctrlz

A few months ago I got hooked on youtube videos showing repairs of all the old audio equipment I used to have and either gave away or tossed because I figured repairs were too difficult and it was just "old crap" anyway. It is amazing what is out there now, as vintage (and restoration of vintage) is "in."
One that really bugged me was a JVC auto reverse tape deck that I tossed about 10 years ago. I figured the belt was bad, but I could see no way of getting to it easily. Sure enough the guy on youtube showed a trick where you remove 2 screws (out of dozens) that allow the transport mechanism to open like a clamshell with easy access to the belt. DOH! I should've guessed there was some trick to replace the belt and just held onto it. Lesson learned.

If you have some time look up your nearest antique/vintage audio shop if there is one within a reasonable driving distance of where you live. We have one about 15 miles from me. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm in there, because he always has new stuff so it's never the same stuff when you go in.

Vintage turn tables, vacuum tube amps, McIntosh, Rotel, NAD, Fisher audio before they were built in Japan...... beautiful stuff that sounds better than anything you can buy new in any of the big box stores.

A shame more people don't appreciate or understand good sound quality. And I'm not talking about being an audiophile - audiophiles tend to invest in music that frankly sucks just to show off their $50,000 system. I prefer a system that shows off awesome music. Like if you really want to hear how Paul McCartney revolutionized the bass guitar put on Paperback Writer and Rain on remastered CD on my Adcom/Audio Source/Pinnacle system. If you want to hear how expensive a B&W Nautilus speaker is put on some weird African music. Huge difference there.

[UnknownJinX]

Originally Posted by Petrol Head

If you have some time look up your nearest antique/vintage audio shop if there is one within a reasonable driving distance of where you live. We have one about 15 miles from me. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm in there, because he always has new stuff so it's never the same stuff when you go in.

Vintage turn tables, vacuum tube amps, McIntosh, Rotel, NAD, Fisher audio before they were built in Japan...... beautiful stuff that sounds better than anything you can buy new in any of the big box stores.

A shame more people don't appreciate or understand good sound quality. And I'm not talking about being an audiophile - audiophiles tend to invest in music that frankly sucks just to show off their $50,000 system. I prefer a system that shows off awesome music. Like if you really want to hear how Paul McCartney revolutionized the bass guitar put on Paperback Writer and Rain on remastered CD on my Adcom/Audio Source/Pinnacle system. If you want to hear how expensive a B&W Nautilus speaker is put on some weird African music. Huge difference there.

Any hobby group will have the same sentiment... As a car person you can lament on why more people don't appreciate driving.

Personally I am not ashamed to admit that I am never much of a music person to begin with, and MP3 and Bose do the job in a car where road noise and engine noise will be around. If we are talking about a nice, dedicated home system then obviously that's a different story, but I can't think of a time I really just listen to music for the sake of listening to music, I most do it while I am running, driving, working, etc. Again, you can say the same about cars - most people just use one to commute, not to hoon around for fun.

Oh and anything more than a basic circuit with a few resistors and capacitors will make my head spin faster than a top. That's why I chose mechanical engineering, not eletrical engineering.

[rvnmaniac]

Originally Posted by nancygrl

Or, during the upcoming cold dark days of winter, you could put your CD's onto a memory stick and have all of them in a small handy dandy package. I'm old, don't like carrying around CD's in my vehicles anymore, too much hassle, lol

I can't imagine how much time it would take to put over 200 CDs on a stick..

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by rvnmaniac

I can't imagine how much time it would take to put over 200 CDs on a stick..

It completely depends on how you're set up to do it. I have a purpose-built computer that I drop a disc into the tray and close it. It ejects when it's done and I load another. 100% of what happens behind the scenes is automated and that includes album art, metadata, naming of files, sorting, and [ultimately] copying to a single file structure on my server in my basement. From there, I can pick it up any way that I wish and copy it to USB drives, SD Cards, etc.

I spent probably about 20 hours of time building and customizing the machine that does all of the ripping. But now it takes 10 seconds to load any disc and walk away. When I notice the tray is out, I swap the discs.

[Walkure]

Originally Posted by Petrol Head

A word on playlists: I don't do them and actually have a thing against them. I listen to albums in their entirety as the artist intended. Few of my albums are "hits"..... If I want to hear Norwegian Wood I put the entire Rubber Soul album on. And any time anyone plays Money on the classic rock station it just doesn't work without the rest of Dark Side of the Moon.

I completely understand why Garth Brooks will never put his albums on iTunes - because they want people to be able to buy the songs individually and he intended his albums to be listened to in their entirety. As they should be.

People have zero attention spans today.

I've been watching this thread. For the most part I say let the OP do what he wants. But the quoted part here stuck with me.
Aside from a relatively small number of "concept" albums, the idea that the artist meant you to listen to the entire album, in a particular order, is just not true.
Most albums (back when LP's were the medium) were assembled based on a variety of factors. The band has 15 songs ready, only 12 fit on the album. If they put 1-6 on one side and 7-12 on the other, then side A is 20 minutes, and side B is 30 minutes, so they shuffle songs around to even up the sides. Aside from wanting a strong "opening" song on side A, the order was usually irrelevant.
To your Garth example: When was the last time Garth Brooks played an album, in order, in its entirety, at a concert? Never? He doesn't care that you listen to his albums in their entirety. My guess is that Garth knows that like every other artist, some of his material is weak. He wants you to spend $10 on the whole album instead of cherry picking the 6 good songs and paying $6 instead. Or, he just has beef with the iTunes artist payment structure.

As to ripping cd's for the car, I still recommend doing it. It's simply not as big of a task as you believe. Keep your cd's for your expensive home system. Consider I am driving a 650hp V8 convertible with the top down, an aftermarket exhaust, and my ears have been subjected to heavy metal non-stop since 1983. The difference between original CD quality and ripped quality is impossible to notice.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Walkure

I've been watching this thread. For the most part I say let the OP do what he wants. But the quoted part here stuck with me.
Aside from a relatively small number of "concept" albums, the idea that the artist meant you to listen to the entire album, in a particular order, is just not true.
Most albums (back when LP's were the medium) were assembled based on a variety of factors. The band has 15 songs ready, only 12 fit on the album. If they put 1-6 on one side and 7-12 on the other, then side A is 20 minutes, and side B is 30 minutes, so they shuffle songs around to even up the sides. Aside from wanting a strong "opening" song on side A, the order was usually irrelevant.
To your Garth example: When was the last time Garth Brooks played an album, in order, in its entirety, at a concert? Never? He doesn't care that you listen to his albums in their entirety. My guess is that Garth knows that like every other artist, some of his material is weak. He wants you to spend $10 on the whole album instead of cherry picking the 6 good songs and paying $6 instead. Or, he just has beef with the iTunes artist payment structure.

As to ripping cd's for the car, I still recommend doing it. It's simply not as big of a task as you believe. Keep your cd's for your expensive home system. Consider I am driving a 650hp V8 convertible with the top down, an aftermarket exhaust, and my ears have been subjected to heavy metal non-stop since 1983. The difference between original CD quality and ripped quality is impossible to notice.

There are actually a fair number of albums that were intended to be listened to in a particular order. Soundtracks are one particular 'type' of album that is generally intended to be listened to in order as the songs are ordered according to when they appear in the film / musical / play / etc.

There are also plenty of albums from artists like Boston that want you to hear the songs in a specific order and have them laid out on the album that way - Third Stage and Walk On are very 'choppy' if you listen to the songs out of order.

Live / Concert albums are another type of recording that is intended to be listened to in order.

"Concept" albums is actually a very general type of terms that actually incorporates pretty much all of the above and is a much larger collective than what might originally be thought about. All it means is that there's a theme of some sort to the songs and that you should listen in order.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by Walkure

I've been watching this thread. For the most part I say let the OP do what he wants. But the quoted part here stuck with me.
Aside from a relatively small number of "concept" albums, the idea that the artist meant you to listen to the entire album, in a particular order, is just not true.
Most albums (back when LP's were the medium) were assembled based on a variety of factors. The band has 15 songs ready, only 12 fit on the album. If they put 1-6 on one side and 7-12 on the other, then side A is 20 minutes, and side B is 30 minutes, so they shuffle songs around to even up the sides. Aside from wanting a strong "opening" song on side A, the order was usually irrelevant.
To your Garth example: When was the last time Garth Brooks played an album, in order, in its entirety, at a concert? Never? He doesn't care that you listen to his albums in their entirety. My guess is that Garth knows that like every other artist, some of his material is weak. He wants you to spend $10 on the whole album instead of cherry picking the 6 good songs and paying $6 instead. Or, he just has beef with the iTunes artist payment structure.

As to ripping cd's for the car, I still recommend doing it. It's simply not as big of a task as you believe. Keep your cd's for your expensive home system. Consider I am driving a 650hp V8 convertible with the top down, an aftermarket exhaust, and my ears have been subjected to heavy metal non-stop since 1983. The difference between original CD quality and ripped quality is impossible to notice.

Originally Posted by ember1205

There are actually a fair number of albums that were intended to be listened to in a particular order. Soundtracks are one particular 'type' of album that is generally intended to be listened to in order as the songs are ordered according to when they appear in the film / musical / play / etc.

There are also plenty of albums from artists like Boston that want you to hear the songs in a specific order and have them laid out on the album that way - Third Stage and Walk On are very 'choppy' if you listen to the songs out of order.

Live / Concert albums are another type of recording that is intended to be listened to in order.

"Concept" albums is actually a very general type of terms that actually incorporates pretty much all of the above and is a much larger collective than what might originally be thought about. All it means is that there's a theme of some sort to the songs and that you should listen in order.

Well, maybe I over stated the artist intent a bit, but even before Sgt. Pepper I think albums were meant to be listened to in the order they were configured and in their entirety. Elvis Presley's first album on RCA starts off with an explosion on Blue Suede Shoes, goes into I'm Counting on You, and from then on on both sides it's full of Elvis classics. His covers of I Got A Woman, Tutti Frutti, Blue Moon are all Elvis staples that were on that very first RCA Album in 1956. Sure it wasn't Dark Side of the Moon but it was a collection of what are now legendary songs and they're all there on that first RCA album. When you hear Blue Suede Shoes you kinda want to hear what else Elvis did then.

The Beatles first album, Please Please Me (Introducing the Beatles here in the States) started off with one of the great count ins in rock history for I Saw Her Standing There and ends with Twist and Shout. I mean, it's a whole album full of great songs to get to the end.

Those are just two examples, now both considered among the greatest albums in rock history. No enthusiast's collection is complete without them.

[Walkure]

Well, maybe I over stated the artist intent a bit, but even before Sgt. Pepper I think albums were meant to be listened to in the order they were configured and in their entirety.

No. You listened to them in a certain way because the technology of listening to music 30+ years ago left you no choice. After enough listens your brain was programmed to expect the songs in a certain order. If I went back in time and rearranged the order of songs on almost any LP before it was released, today after hundreds or thousands of listens, you would think my order is correct.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Walkure

No. You listened to them in a certain way because the technology of listening to music 30+ years ago left you no choice. After enough listens your brain was programmed to expect the songs in a certain order. If I went back in time and rearranged the order of songs on almost any LP before it was released, today after hundreds or thousands of listens, you would think my order is correct.

Left "no choice"? That's a bit over-the-top. With any medium (except for 8 track as there is no concept of fast forward or rewind), I am able to listen to songs in any order I please. The difference with media today is that changing the order is -easier-.

One of the simplest ways to change the order of songs in days of albums and cassettes would be to create your own "mix tape" of sorts where you can put any song after any other song and then wear it out in the tape deck.

[17rsvert]

This thread brings me back to the stereo I installed in my new 1984 Camaro. Took out the stock system and installed a JVC cassette player with pre amp outputs feeding 2 Concord amps to 5 1/2" Phillips dash speakers and 6 X 9 Infinitys in the back. SO much better than the factory system.

A little while later I bought a Sony D5 portable CD player.

It was the first small CD player on the market, $280 if I remember correctly. I modified a small black plastic box and installed a power supply and aux jack in it to hook up the player and ran the wires from the box behind the dash. The box was velcroed in place under the dash overhang. I can't recall exactly how I got the audio signal from the CD player to the amps, but I remember controlling the volume on the player itself, not the head unit. When the hookup wires were removed from the box it looked OEM. When I wanted to listen to it, I put the player on top of a wool hat on the center console, and held it with my right hand.

In-dash CD players at the time were about 600 or 800 bucks, alot of money back then. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I was one of the first to listen to CDs in a car.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by ember1205

They absolutely do. I was more just referring to the discussion about how some albums are meant to be listened to as the tracks were laid out, in order, all the way through versus some albums where you can listen to just one song go wherever you want from there.

I was thinking about those albums where you may not want to listen to everything, in which case you just skip over what you don't. I have a few CDs like that.

Yes, you could absolutely rip your CD's to SD cards in a 1:1 fashion and I would personally see that as very limiting because carrying all of those cards around would be a PITA and it would make for an even bigger pain when it comes to figuring out which one contains which disc.

Kind of my point . . .

To your point of "which CD do I want to listen to", that's the beauty of ripping common content onto a card. You drastically reduce the number of cards, but you can have the entire CD (album) at your fingertips and the head unit will let you get to that album and play it in order, in its entirety. No shuffle, no moving out to other albums, etc. When you want a new CD, you can browse to it and play it, or switch the card out to a different one if that album is on a different card.

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of the drives I take have not been long enough to make it worth bringing a CD and deal with taking it out and putting it and its case somewhere out of sight when I get to where I'm going. Most of my commutes have been short - around 5 miles or less in terms of distance, generally under 20 minutes even on a Friday afternoon, just not worth the trouble.

A trip is a different story, where I pick a shoeboxful of CDs and more or less grab the next one at random, unless the car we're in has a changer that I just load six into before we head off.

It's really the rest of the time when I've listened to them. And just to force myself to listen to them all (it takes a while), I generally just grab the next one in alphabetical order (a habit I picked up years ago when exercising at home). Anyway, that had me listening to The Northern Pikes' "Snow In June" album while mowing the lawn just after you made the post I'm replying to. I probably haven't listened to that one in over three years, so it was like listening to something new all over again, and reminded me of why I bought it in the first place.


Norm

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of the drives I take have not been long enough to make it worth bringing a CD and deal with taking it out and putting it and its case somewhere out of sight when I get to where I'm going. Most of my commutes have been short - around 5 miles or less in terms of distance, generally under 20 minutes even on a Friday afternoon, just not worth the trouble.

A trip is a different story, where I pick a shoeboxful of CDs and more or less grab the next one at random, unless the car we're in has a changer that I just load six into before we head off.

In the case of taking longer drives / trips, much like you would be selecting certain CD's to load into a changer or to plan on listening to, you could very easily copy those albums to a SD Card or USB Drive. Folder structure would be Artist\Album\Tracks and browsing or playing an album start to finish requires little tinkering. You could also shuffle based on the few albums like you would in a changer.

Honestly, the hardest part about doing this is remembering to bring the cards or drives into the house! lol

Once your entire library is digital, it's really easy to wipe out a drive and copy on what you want for the trip. The tricky part is Playlists as those have to be built each time and can be tedious to do. As far as grabbing albums in their entirety, the prep would take five minutes or less. Once everything is selected, right-click and choose "Copy" then select the drive and right-click and select "Paste" then walk away. Go do whatever else you're doing to get ready and within about 15-20 minutes (depending on a few variables), everything is on your drive and ready to go.

For you, where you listen in alphabetical order, you can just copy everything to drives / SD cards and leave them in the car, bringing a drive in only when you need to add content to one of them because you bought something new.