Author: Ross Andrews

Thursday Reblog

How did Bernie Madoff do it? How did he steal twenty billion dollars from people who should have known better? It doesn’t matter if you went to university or not–you can still be played as a chump. To pull off a significant deception, you generally need two things: A deceiver and a crowd of people open…

via Chump (Don’t get played) — Seth Godin’s Blog on marketing, tribes and respect

This applies as much to politics as it does to high end audio.

Don’t fall for gimmicks – don’t be a chump.

Google enhancements

One of my favourite things to do is to combine 2 x Google services to enhance my music listening experiences. I like to work my way through this book: 1001 albums to hear before you die. I have the book open to read in my browser in Google Play Books. As I read I listen to the albums on Google Play Music. A Google double whammy.

If you read about a piece of music while you listen to it, the experience is more enjoyable than just listening. Our brains respond to trusted recommendations and descriptive writing in interesting ways – the music seems to open up as you read about it. It is really fun identifying all the features of an album with headphones on, at the same time as it is described in words in front of you.

Google may not have the highest bitrate in its streaming service, but its flexibility and complementary nature of its other offerings mean that it has become a staple in my listening habits.

Music collections

I have extensive collections of music in three main locations.

  1. Physical media, which is mainly composed of vinyl and cd collections. These collections still afford the most emersive experience  in that I can read the cover art, and the liner notes while listening to the music. 
  2. Digital media, which is essentially an iTunes collection which has built up over the years on my hard drives. This takes a bit of effort to keep organized. There is always the bitrate and compression to think about. I find the “mastered for iTunes” series to be more than adequate sound quality though. I am growing less and less bothered by the bitrate, given that my playback equipment is at best midrange hifi which means most of the time I can’t hear any difference.
  3. Streaming collections, which I have collated and organized on Google music. This is essentially my iTunes music uploaded and complemented with a lot of albums from the cloud subscription service offered by Google. It is the most convenient and widely used collection that I have. I play it in the car, on the computer, in bed and most places in between.

What comes next? Alexa by Amazon? Something similar from Google?

I think most audiophiles enjoy having options in collecting and accessing music. And hardware options for the playback of music. As streaming quality improves, the options only will widen. 

Convenience vs. Quality

I just received in the mail 2 x new stylus needles for my old LP player. The old stylus broke, so I had to order them online from the UK and then wait for a couple of weeks for delivery. When they finally arrived, i found the mechanism on my LP player broken and in need of service. Still no high quality vinyl sounds for my discerning chimp ears.

All the while, I have been streaming Google Play Music through my phone and computer and Ipad to get music whenever and wherever i want it.

The convenient solutions will spread like wildfire and then iteratively be improved until they are both convenient and of a high quality.

Meanwhile vinyl is the same as it ever was. Fantastic when it works, but a lot more involved and higher maintenance than the digital age.

Convenience vs. Quality – Convenience is kicking ass at the moment in my household.