how do you listen to music?

The Dr · Post by **The Dr** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:02 pm

i tend to find i only really listen to music either on my mp3 player on the way somewhere or just going for a walk or in bed going to sleep or at an actual concert. i find it hard to just sit and listen to a new cd these days. i tend to need the bubble to focus on new music. reading the 'what are you listening to thread' it seems the likes of angelsighs set aside evenings for music so i was wondering how people consume all of this wonderful music that seems to flow from every pore

heisenberg · Post by **heisenberg** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:57 pm

Generally CDs. Sometimes if I get a mellow night free from work and life ill pull out the vinyl and crack open a drink and marvel at how much warmer and magical vinyl is.

Use the iPod for walking, travelling or 5am listening before work.

Never listen to music through the phone.

Kurious Oranj · Post by **Kurious Oranj** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:03 pm

computer

ipod when exercising

and car with ipod connectivity (much better than lugging around cds)

i have to say i almost never just sit and listen to music and do nothing else.. maybe i need some drugs or something

mc · Post by mc » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:26 pm

Living room: spare laptop with all my music ripped to mp3, played through my amp and speakers; vinyl on occasion

Kitchen: through my phone's crappy internal speaker, or very loud on the living room stereo if the missus isn't in

Bedroom: laptop speakers (I have an identical copy of my iTunes library on my main laptop)

Car: CDs from the rotating wallet of 48 that lives in the glove compartment

Out & about: on my phone, through a pair of Goldring noise-cancelling NS1000 headphones

Post by **BzaInSpace** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:41 pm

As often as possible.

James T · Post by **James T** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:48 pm

Always when on the move with by iPhone. On LP at home pretty much daily whenever I get a chance it's on.

mc · Post by mc » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:10 pm

Ah, good point: my listening habits as well as the equipment I listen on

At home, music will be on virtually all of the time; my missus and I rarely watch telly or films, so there's always something playing in the background when we're reading, surfing the net or whatever. In this environment I listen to albums in full pretty much exclusively; for bands with significant non-album single & B-side collections (Spiritualized, The Verve, Pulp, Ultrasound in particular) I construct album-long playlists from the songs. If my partner isn't in the heavy side of my ambient/drone collection comes out to play, and some black metal too. This is also when I get to listen to Zappa, Dylan, VU/Reed, Joanna Newsom, The Doors, Laurie Anderson and anything else she vetoes because of their "awful voice"

On my phone on headphones, I'll quite often listen to things on shuffle or pick out particularly cheerful tracks to listen to - I like upbeat music when I'm on the bus, walking around etc.

In the car I listen to full albums or home-made CD single compilations and "best-ofs" again, but from a reduced subset of my overall music collection. This is where my hard rock, metal, techno, dub and dance music gets most of its plays - anything loud and driving-friendly, basically. Pure Phase lives in the car, incidentally, and Brain Donor's "Love, Peace and Fuck" is an incredible driving album

redcloud · Post by **redcloud** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:28 pm

1. At home - always on my stereo via LP or CD. Sometimes (rarely) I may pull out an old cassette and play it. Unless I am playing digital radio I never play music on my computer.

2. On the go (eg. going for a walk/hike or in car or public transit) - I use my ipod. I drive an old bug ('72) and it doesn't have a stereo...I'm a bit naughty as I will listen to my ipod. But, never too loud and when I am at lights I notice I am definitely not the only person to do so (even those with much newer cars than me seem to use earbuds). If my car had a stereo I would definitely use it over an ipod. To be fair, I can barely hear the music over the engine, anyway. Maybe I'm going deaf....

semisynthetic · Post by **semisynthetic** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:05 am

If I have music on "in the background", I really don't call that "Listening to Music".

The FIRST thing I do is turn on my system and allow the components to warm up and equilibrate.

Meanwhile, I turn OFF anything that might be disturbing; all the phones and anything else that might buzz, beep or ring.

Then, when the room is quiet, and the system ready, I enjoy whatever I am listening to at a level that best reproduces that recording; except maybe "Wellington's Victory", (the cannons can be hard on light bulbs)!

I prefer vinyl or waxes, but certain pieces, Eno's "Another Day on Earth", is Fantastic on CD; and of course there are those CD's which are not available on vinyl (like the more recent radio Promos and "Live" Radio Shows).

Like redcloud, I don't "listen" to music on a computer; although it may be useful for certain purposes; Utube is interesting, but NOT for "listening". With refreshment in hand, I sink into the pillow, and vibrate the walls and the air and disappear into the Magic of sound.

ro · Post by ro » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:54 am

mc wrote: Brain Donor's "Love, Peace and Fuck" is an incredible driving album

heh heh oh ah hah!!!
indeed.

for records, i have my portable beige-and-black Vagabound Stereo Automatic made by the T Eaton Co, probably the year i was born. i have had it for 24 years and currently it is my only proper stereo which is a crying, laughing shame, because it sounds like two tin cans and a string.
cd player is broken.
i do use the ipod.

mojo filters · Post by **mojo filters** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:17 am

Unfortunately my current transitory living situation means my primary listening apparatus (Arcam > Marantz > PMC) is once again in storage.

The highest-fi I currently can access is the headphones out from my phone or iPod into an ancient Cambridge Audio power amp into an old pair of Bose 301s (liberated from pub install that was being replaced) with new bass drivers but horribly-coloured garish grills, or tiny JBL Control 1s, depending on the space I can clear.

In fact most of my recent listening is via some cheap Sony earbuds (barely a step up from the white ones that came with my iPod) with either my phone or iPod as source. I'm on my second iPod (old 30gb model) and am worried if I use it too much it'll end up with the non-solid state hard drive breaking (as happened with my previous 20gb version) and I lose most of the rare stuff I acquired via download, from a laptop that long since shit the bed, thus I have no backup of all that valuable mostly live material I treasure.

However as most of my current listening is done on the move, it's not so bad. Although being able to see much of my sizable CD collection all tightly packed into each and every nook and cranny of my bedroom is a constant source of understandable frustration.

Interestingly though I find being forced to use my iPod or phone means I'm often listening to some new (to me) material. When previously I was able to access my 4-5000ish CD collection, I think I tended to play it safe and mostly listen to the familiar - I'd estimate 95% of the time I would stick to the 5% of discs I was most familiar with, such as the same Beatles, Floyd, Smiths, Paul Simon and Dylan. Hence there has been an upside to my current forced, non-ideal circumstances, in that I'm listening to a reletively more adventurous selection ... which I see as a good thing!

shalloboi · Post by **shalloboi** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:49 am

most of my music listening is done through my ipod while i'm commuting. my commute to work can be as long as an hour-and-a-half. i use noise canceling headphones.

at home it's usually vinyl- the stereo is in the front room and i'll bring a laptop in there and play records for a few hours if i have a lot of photos or videos to edit.

i've been doing a lot of screen printing lately in the kitchen. i have a wireless speaker called "soundfreaq" or something like that that my sister got for me. i plug my ipod into it so i can have music playing while i'm printing- it's a lot nicer than most ipod-dock devices i've heard- the sound is nice and full (the low end is crystal clear) and it doesn't get distorted. my wife plays her ipod nano on it because it can pick up a wireless signal via bluetooth.

at night i usually listen to my ipod on headphones while on the laptop in the office.

Hofstadter · Post by **Hofstadter** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:46 am

this:

BzaInSpace wrote:As often as possible.

listening while driving makes up a major portion of time spent w/ music, just since you spend so much time in the car. the car I had this past year was pretty nice since my father got a lot of nice features in it as it will become his car as I go to college and the lease on his old car expires - it has a 'fender dynaudio' system in it which is actually pretty awesome. i actually will frequently go driving on the freeways and stuff for no reason just to listen to music because it sounds so good, I can turn it up way louder than I could at home, and it just feels fucking good to sit inside the sound. it's probably the nicest system I have access to now that I think about. I will also frequently just get wherever I need to go way early so that I can sit in the car and listen to an album. it has iPod connectivity which is awesome for just loading a ton of albums onto and just leaving in the car for a while, sometimes even converting stuff from flac for home listening to alac which can be stored on an iPod.

Home Listening
Pretty much all the time, at least passively, either through a pair of speakers that I have rigged up so that I can easily switch between my turntable or computer. Most of the time it's records, although whenever investigating new stuff, I'll usually be using the computer more frequently for periods of a few days at a time.

My favorite thing to do while more actively listening to music (usually a record or two a night) is to lay on my sleeping mat, position the speakers on either side of my head (they are not too big), turn this astral projector (projects tons of green laser points that slowly rotate as well as this nebulous, swirling blue cloud) that I have on, and just drift off. Thee Best. Redcloud, you should get that for your son, I bet he'd love it...

I have to use my headphones a lot because my parents got bothered by my music (or I don't want them hearing lines like "well it's 1986, and all I wanna do is" you know the rest) - I have a pair of Sennheiser HD-25-1-iis that are pretty great cans.

When I want to listen to cassettes I just throw 'em through an old sony cd-cassette corder (which makes making mixtapes really easy, sort of cheating almost).

semisynthetic wrote: Utube

Laz69 · Post by **Laz69** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:52 am

I typically have music on all the time in one shape or form. When at home, i usually listen via while using my PC if the kids are watching TV. Occaisonally, if i have the house to myself, my hi-fi will be fired up and i get to annoy the neighbours. Cambridge Audio amp and CD player feeding floor standing Mission speakers. I used to also have two Gale gold monitors feeding off the amp too, but cannot for the life of me rememeber whatever happened to them.

Most commonly for me its either via my little MP3 player or the car. My car has no other cnnection other than a USB socket. Perfect for my 16Gb USB stick which is full of the most commonly listened to stuff. I have a lot of tracks on that which i add to as things come into my head and the car just shuffles through them randomly. My MP3 player is a little Sansa 4Gb i bought about 5 years ago along with a pair on Sennheiser headphones i picked up at the time. Used mostly when i'm at the gym or without the car. Served me well over the years but both are very much on their last legs. Have access to an iPod Touch but hate using iTunes so much that i refuse to use it. Will be in the market for a new portable player soon i think - any non-Apple products anyone can recommend?

I'm lucky at work in that i can sit with headphones and my music on all day long so i get to listen to a lot during the day. Makes compiling playlists difficult, but i cope! My work PC has a decent set of speakers, but i'm still limited to using my Sennheiser headphones.

sunray · Post by **sunray** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:48 pm

semisynthetic wrote:If I have music on "in the background", I really don't call that "Listening to Music".

Me neither. How can anyone concentrate on the tunes if they're busy doing something else? Especially for new releases.

I listen to music on the stereo in the bedroom. CD, vinyl, plus mp3 when I connect the laptop to the stereo and play through it.

I don't listen to music on the move, never have. I like to be aware of my surroundings. Plus I really don't want to be one of those cunts who BLAST their ipods or whatever when they're out and about.

Only have a radio in my car but that's fine. I've found that if I hear a song I like I start to speed and I lose concentration a little so i'm probably better off listening to talk radio.

My listening regime hasn't changed since my teens, the problem with this is that I have a backlog of music that, in all honesty, I will never get through

spunder · Post by **spunder** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:27 pm

sunray wrote:I don't listen to music on the move, never have. I like to be aware of my surroundings. Plus I really don't want to be one of those cunts who BLAST their ipods or whatever when they're out and about.

oh dear, that'll be me then....music soundtracking my hours walk to and from work is one of lifes great pleasures...especially those early mornings, my journey can take on meaning and atmosphere..

angelsighs · Post by **angelsighs** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:37 pm

I am another person that considers 'background music' an oxymoron. music is important enough to be given healthy attention- especially with new albums, I think it's only fair to give them a listen in full, and at a decent volume.
that said, unless I am in a specific mood, it can be difficult to just listen to an album. I find 'low level' activities are best- reading a magazine, or a 'coffee table' book that has lots of images, or surfing the net. if I try and read a proper book I find my attention drifting away from the music.

most of my listening is on CD- a fairly mediocre stereo in my bedroom but it does the trick. I do listen to albums in full and also what I usually do is have a pile by the stereo that is this weeks 'listening pile', usually my newest purchases along with other things I earmark for a listen (e.g. things I have read about on here, remembered to give another chance etc)

music for driving is another category altogether. playlists come into play more here, and there is a certain type of music that is good for driving (good drumming, up tempo etc). as Hofdstader said it's also a good opportunity to have music at a generous volume. the quality isn't as good as at home obviously, but it's great to be in a sound cocoon of your own creation

also ipod listening, mainly when on long walks, train journeys are good for this too. I find ear buds can get irritating after a while (not so great quality and annoying having something in your ears for that long)

I can't see a day when I do all my listening on spotify or a laptop or whatever. the only thing I use my laptop for is previewing albums on youtube etc. good as a research tool to inform buying decisions, but that's all.

I also like spunder's line about 'meaning and atmosphere'.. listening to music in different environments is great and imbues both the music and the environment with different qualities.

mojo filters · Post by **mojo filters** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:50 pm

spunder wrote:
sunray wrote:I don't listen to music on the move, never have. I like to be aware of my surroundings. Plus I really don't want to be one of those cunts who BLAST their ipods or whatever when they're out and about.
oh dear, that'll be me then....music soundtracking my hours walk to and from work is one of lifes great pleasures...especially those early mornings, my journey can take on meaning and atmosphere..

I guess I would be one as well ... that is if I could! Both my iPod and my phone just don't go loud enough for me. My phone is the worst culprit in terms of an annoyingly quiet maximum output, but I have a greater range of material (in volume terms) on my iPod.

Commercial CDs ripped (both compressed to mp3, aac etc, and stuff left uncompressed imported as wav files) tends to be the loudest, and I'm 95% happy with that at max volume. At the other end of the spectrum is an example such as the recording of Spiritualized's magnificent 2011 Royal Albert Hall gig - a fantastic quality boot recording (especially as it's in compressed mp3 format) HOWEVER it is very quiet even when turned up to full volume.

I know my very average earbuds can go considerably louder without distorting, having tested them through a couple of mixing desks that I knew could drive headphones very hard if needed. Unfortunately my ancient Windows XP laptops are not powerful enough to run a DAW such as Reaper, Cubase, Audacity etc so I couldn't do BZA-style remastering to normalize volume levels, increasing where required, before I loaded such quiet files on to the iPod. Hence even the loudest tracks at maximum volume produce very little spill - certainly not enough to be audible over ambient background noise

I guess the one upside is that my ears will be thankful in 30 years time, if I don't find some way to raise my headphones volume in the meanwhile

spunder · Post by **spunder** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:24 am

mojo filters wrote:. Hence even the loudest tracks at maximum volume produce very little spill - certainly not enough to be audible over ambient background noise

I guess the one upside is that my ears will be thankful in 30 years time, if I don't find some way to raise my headphones volume in the meanwhile

do you use itunes? have you tried sliding the standard volume setting up on individual tracks or whole albums? this usually works for me...or you can increase vol. on whole library although this tends to distort albums / tracks that have a higher vol. when imported....am i making sense????

http://ask.metafilter.com/54229/How-can ... lay-louder

Laz69 · Post by **Laz69** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:24 pm

I had a similar issue with my Sansa MP3 player after a firmware update was downloaded and applied. Seems a few years ago the EU decided that we shouldn't be hurting our ears with overly-loud portable music devices and enforced all companies to limit the volume output of their devices. Bureaucratic bastards!!!! I found no way to reverse the firmware update to the device BUT managed to get round it but resetting the device to its factory default settings. When then switched on, i was asked to select my location to which i selected USA instead of EU... voila! LOUD MUSIC WAS BACK!!!!

You might be suffering from a similar problem with your device.

mojo filters · Post by **mojo filters** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:23 pm

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I don't use anything like iTunes right now as my iPod is full, plus the computers that had most of the content are now gone.

I had been using Yamipod to get the last free gb filled up. However that program bizarrely ended up screwing up the display of my playlists which I used instead of album titles to organise music, curiously cutting off this list at the letter S - now I have a nightmare finding many of my live Spz, Spectrum, SM3 and so forth live or other non-official material, since the album titles are all over the place from an alphabetical point of view, plus file folders whose titles began numerically are all mixed up!

The ideal scenario would be if I could connect my iPod to a PC and unload the content to a hard drive, where I could then use iTunes and other software to sort out volume issues and reinstall all the playlists in such a way that everything was easy to find. Unfortunately I don't believe this is possible - if anyone knows different your advice would be of tremendous value!!!

ro · Post by ro » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:07 am

Laz69 wrote: i selected USA instead of EU... voila! LOUD MUSIC WAS BACK!!!!

woo! at least we're doing one thing right over here...

olan · Post by **olan** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:00 am

I rarely watch TV so the stereo is rarely off at my place. We ripped all our CDs to a Vortexbox a couple of years ago, so that feeds a streamer in the main stereo system, a second system in the kitchen, and a little system in my eldest daughter's bedroom. We no longer own a CD player, but buy loads of CDs as they are so cheap nowadays. MP3 is the work of Satan, we use FLAC (except in my ancient iPod which is 160GB and is totally full). All the CDs are packed away in the cellar.

Most serious listening is done on a record player though, and anything I am really interested in is bought on vinyl where possible. I was very ill for several years and so invested a silly amount of money in my stereo knowing that I would be relying on it to keep me sane/help me recover. Giving up smoking and driving also freed up loads of money that we plough into music.

I don't do playlists as I like to listen to albums as they were intended. The iPad/streamer interface is brilliant, and Internet radio is an absolute godsend. Having said old this, I'm an iconoclastic old fart who insists that vinyl is the way to properly listen to music....

spunder · Post by **spunder** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:19 am

mojo filters wrote:Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I don't use anything like iTunes right now as my iPod is full, plus the computers that had most of the content are now gone.

I had been using Yamipod to get the last free gb filled up. However that program bizarrely ended up screwing up the display of my playlists which I used instead of album titles to organise music, curiously cutting off this list at the letter S - now I have a nightmare finding many of my live Spz, Spectrum, SM3 and so forth live or other non-official material, since the album titles are all over the place from an alphabetical point of view, plus file folders whose titles began numerically are all mixed up!

The ideal scenario would be if I could connect my iPod to a PC and unload the content to a hard drive, where I could then use iTunes and other software to sort out volume issues and reinstall all the playlists in such a way that everything was easy to find. Unfortunately I don't believe this is possible - if anyone knows different your advice would be of tremendous value!!!

mojo filters!! this is nervous breakdown territory!!. i only have an 16GB ipod which forces me to regularly rotate my music selection. you can transfer music from ipod back to a computer, i had to do it years ago, i D/L'd a programme to do it although i cannot remember which. hopefully this link will help, failing that just google 'ipod to computer software' or something similar.

http://www.wikihow.com/Copy-Music-from- ... r-Computer

jack white · Post by **jack white** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:36 am

music rescue is one: http://download.cnet.com/Music-Rescue/3 ... 57368.html

it used to be called something else, something cooler but that was like a decade ago(!)

cantona · Post by **cantona** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:17 pm

Ripped all our CDs to a Vortexbox that feeds a Naim SuperUniti is the main stereo system and only system.When I travel I use my Iphone 5 to hear music.

Post by **MODLAB** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:37 pm

Linn system for analogue.
B&W A7 for digital.
iPhone for the road.

Post by **runcible** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 6:31 pm

I get so little time to actually sit down and listen these days. I used to do that - set an evening aside to play music. These days it tends to be either in the car or when I'm cooking and eating. That works OK but I did used to like spending a few hours with a bunch of sounds and little else...

redcloud · Post by **redcloud** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:50 pm

We were forced to update to the new Itunes recently because my son got a 4th gen iTouch for his b'day. Not only do I not like the look of it but has anybody else noticed that it skips...a lot?!

mc · Post by mc » Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:35 pm

I refuse to update to the new iTunes, as I've heard dreadful things about everything from the new interface to performance. I'm very fond of iTunes (might be a controversial opinion!) - I think it's a very clever and intuitive piece of software, so I refuse to accept a downgrade and will stick to version 10.5.1, thank you very much Apple!

redcloud · Post by **redcloud** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:32 pm

Yea man, it is bullshit. If I downgrade to 10.5.1 do I need to remove the new version that is now installed?

Post by **MODLAB** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 3:26 pm

redcloud wrote:Yea man, it is bullshit. If I downgrade to 10.5.1 do I need to remove the new version that is now installed?

Do CMD + ALT + S and you will have the old side bar back.
Do Command + / for the status bar.

B,

M

PS: I really like the new iTunes actually, works like a dream when you learn the little shortcuts etc.

redcloud · Post by **redcloud** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:20 pm

MODLAB wrote:
PS: I really like the new iTunes actually, works like a dream when you learn the little shortcuts etc.

Have you noticed it skipping?

Post by **MODLAB** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:35 pm

redcloud wrote:
MODLAB wrote:
PS: I really like the new iTunes actually, works like a dream when you learn the little shortcuts etc.
Have you noticed it skipping?

Nope. Hmmmm. Windows or OSX?

mojo filters · Post by **mojo filters** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:06 pm

Thanks to Spunder and Jack White for the tips. When I can access a decent PC I will try the iTunes method linked to - my one concern is that I stopped using iTunes (changing to Yamipod) because once I lost the entire contents of my iPod when I connected it to a different PC than usual.

A single accidental button press to a prompt that came up in iTunes wiped the existing content and added the small amount of music on that version of iTunes - how do I ensure I don't do this again?

The Dr · Post by **The Dr** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:32 am

can anyone recomend a good (bat life, display etc) but cheap mp3 player? i'm on my third sandisk in 6 months. on the train lat night it decided to turn off and won't turn back on. arg!

Post by **MODLAB** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:44 am

The Dr wrote:can anyone recomend a good (bat life, display etc) but cheap mp3 player? i'm on my third sandisk in 6 months. on the train lat night it decided to turn off and won't turn back on. arg!

You can get a 16gb iPod nano for £85. You get a 1 year guarantee.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FD481 ... generation

Sony makes one too, that might be around the same price, if I remember correctly.

Just think how much you spent on 3 sandisk players.

B,

M

jadams501 · Post by **jadams501** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:57 pm

I ordinarily avoid apple as much as possible, but am pretty happy with my 160gb ipod classic. It's the biggest player available for those of us too persnickety to embrace the cloud. Recently I had a catastrophic computer virus that deleted over a year of data but fortunately I keep my music on an external and I had my library file backed up.

The only reason I had a backup, actually, is that I had inadvertantly updated to Itunes 11 and had gone through the process of reverting back to 10.7 . I don't think Itunes 11 is bad software, per se, but it's designed for people primarily using the cloud and without complex collections/playlists. For almost anyone on this board, though, it's probably inappropriate. But I am happy using 10.7 for the vast majority of my music needs.

The Dr · Post by **The Dr** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:30 am

MODLAB wrote:
The Dr wrote:can anyone recomend a good (bat life, display etc) but cheap mp3 player? i'm on my third sandisk in 6 months. on the train lat night it decided to turn off and won't turn back on. arg!

You can get a 16gb iPod nano for £85. You get a 1 year guarantee.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FD481 ... generation

Sony makes one too, that might be around the same price, if I remember correctly.

Just think how much you spent on 3 sandisk players.

B,

M

yes, i've been thinking that too. that is a very good price but i don't really want an apple- i'm sure they are very good but i don't agree with their exclusive nature (itunes only etc). sony have an 8gb for 65. any thoughts?

Laz69 · Post by **Laz69** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:36 am

The Dr wrote:can anyone recomend a good (bat life, display etc) but cheap mp3 player? i'm on my third sandisk in 6 months. on the train lat night it decided to turn off and won't turn back on. arg!

Which Sandisk player do you have if you don't mind me asking? Mines has been reliable as hell for almost 5 years now and only recently started playing up (more to do with me going to the gym with it!). I'm thinking about picking up another (this one HERE) to replace it but would like to know if this is the one you've had trouble with.

The Dr · Post by **The Dr** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 10:51 am

Laz69 wrote:
The Dr wrote:can anyone recomend a good (bat life, display etc) but cheap mp3 player? i'm on my third sandisk in 6 months. on the train lat night it decided to turn off and won't turn back on. arg!
Which Sandisk player do you have if you don't mind me asking? Mines has been reliable as hell for almost 5 years now and only recently started playing up (more to do with me going to the gym with it!). I'm thinking about picking up another (this one HERE) to replace it but would like to know if this is the one you've had trouble with.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Sansa-P ... sk+8gb+mp3

the 8gb version. the first one i had lasted a couple of years but reading amazon (and other) reviews (recentish ones) when the headphone socket started working for only one ear it seems the latest batches have been problematic for the last couple of years. i don't know 'if they don't make them as they used to' but maybe as the listing price has gone from aprox 120 to 35 they are now being made 'less well'? when it works it is great but you want them to last for at least two years now (gone are the 25 year hi-fi components etc that my father had)

maybe the 4gb will be ok if you are only paying 18 but i have been rather put off by the brand now, despite its undoubtable quality

Laz69 · Post by **Laz69** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:43 pm

Thanks for the info. It does seems there are a few issues with headphone sockets that make me nervous. Mines works just now, so will wait until its completely given up the ghost before i make any decisions. Shame too as my little device has actually been one of the best i've owned. Another example of cost cutting compromising build quality methinks!

the dreamer · Post by **the dreamer** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:22 pm

CD's for albums, vinyl for 7 inch singles, radio (BBC 6 Music) and online sources for checking out new music and live vids....

The Dr · Post by **The Dr** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:51 pm

Laz69 wrote:Thanks for the info. It does seems there are a few issues with headphone sockets that make me nervous. Mines works just now, so will wait until its completely given up the ghost before i make any decisions. Shame too as my little device has actually been one of the best i've owned. Another example of cost cutting compromising build quality methinks!

what did you decide in the end?

Hofstadter · Post by **Hofstadter** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:23 pm

foobar is very good for managing flac (and everything else) if people are looking for piece of software to itunes.