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Poll

What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Music bought on physical media, grabbed and copied to my device
Online streaming services, paid subscription - Spotify, Youtube Music, Deezer, iTunes, etc
Online streaming services, without suscription
Online streaming services in offline mode (pre-loading to cache) - poor or too expensive internet connection
Tracks/albums (files) bought in online stores
Music downloaded from torrent trackers or other sites for free (pirate copies)
Own media server
Online radio
FM radio
I use portable CD-player!
I don't listen music on portable device
Your option in comments
Topic: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device? (Read 16238 times) previous topic - next topic
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What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Hi everyone.
Recently I posted this poll in my Audiophile's Software Telegram channel which somehow covered the russian-speaking audience. And now I'm wondering what the results will be for HA community :)
Feel free to post details of the way you play music on portable devices. Note that it does not matter in this poll if you convert the tracks before loading to device.

Thanks for your votes!
🇺🇦 Glory to Ukraine!

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #1 –
SFR, Thank You for the poll!   :D

For me it's online streaming services, paid subscription - Spotify and Tidal (mostly the last one)

I've quit a long time ago to encode music for my devices. It's over.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: IgorC on
I've quit a long time ago to encode music for my devices. It's over.

Sad but true. Looks like nowadays we need lossy audio only for streaming the music online and for calls (Skype, Zoom, etc).

Quote from: IgorC on
Spotify and Tidal (mostly the last one)
Does Tidal give some benefits other than overkilling audio stream quality?
🇺🇦 Glory to Ukraine!

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Steve Forte Rio on
Does Tidal give some benefits other than overkilling audio stream quality?
Spotify uses Vorbis 320k which is excellent.  But most of time I use Tidal (FLAC) for peace of mind and for safety, just in case.
 

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #4 –
I still have lots of original CDs and tapes but I use torrents now.
I use torrents because they (music industry) forced me to!
When I buy music - I want music. I don't want some brickwalled shit.
Everything that is on sale today is brickwalled shit.
Here's a quick comparison of "2Pac - Brenda's Got A Baby".
First picture is the original release, second picture is the new release.
Look at that dynamic range of the new version.
Ohhh that's right. It doesn't have any dynamic range.
gold plated toslink fan

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Markuza97 on
I still have lots of original CDs and tapes but I use torrents now.
I use torrents because they (music industry) forced me to!
When I buy music - I want music. I don't want some brickwalled shit.
Everything that is on sale today is brickwalled shit.
Here's a quick comparison of "2Pac - Brenda's Got A Baby".
First picture is the original release, second picture is the new release.
Look at that dynamic range of the new version.
Ohhh that's right. It doesn't have any dynamic range.


I’m very sensitive to poor dynamic range and hate most modern mastering techniques. It doesn’t bother me too much as I can’t stand the majority of modern music either.

Most of my CDs are originals from the 80s and early 90s which I’ve slowly put together over the years. Nowadays it’s much harder of course but I do get the odd great CD from the likes of EBay and Discogs for cheap. If I had to resort to torrents I’d lose any pleasure that I’m still able to glean from new music discoveries these days.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #6 –
I would have needed two choices. Bought CDs that I ripped and Music bought from Itunes/Amazon

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #7 –
Old school: I'm playing local files, mainly music I ripped from CD or coming from internet (store…).

I spent a full year with an access to a streaming service (Primephonic, an excellent service dedicated to classical music only with curated metadata). But experience was not that good for my usage. No or poor cellular network when listening in a car, or walking in the woods or the countryside. Software is also a disappointment, mostly because browsing/organizing favorite albums/tracks is not intuitive. On the other side the service is very nice for discovering music, and it's almost Christmas every day as I can access to all new releases.  But I don't have so much free time to discover so many stuff.

I'm currently trying Tidal (free months subscription), and it's even worse for my usage (classical mixed with other genres). So I rarely start the application.

Few months ago I started to fill again my tablet and my phone: it offers a smooth and pleasing experience. The local library is much smaller, but also more friendly. It's more than enough for me. And I must say that listening to what I encode myself, or seeing the album art I sometimes cleaned or improved, gives me an additional pleasure :)
Wavpack Hybrid: one encoder for all scenarios
WavPack -c4.5hx6 (44100Hz & 48000Hz) ≈ 390 kbps + correction file
WavPack -c4hx6 (96000Hz) ≈ 800 kbps + correction file
WavPack -h (SACD & DSD) ≈ 2400 kbps at 2.8224 MHz

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #8 –
Me too. Ripped my 1990s/2000s CD collection to FLAC a few years ago and now created a low-bitrate xHE-AAC version of that collection for casual listening. I rarely buy music of the Internet nowadays, also prefer buying used CDs off eBay, like Maneniko, for the same reason as Markuza97 (modern productions/remasters often have very little dynamic range).

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #9 –
I'm surprised that online services isn't the most popular option  ???

Online service is very time efficient when it comes to try some new albums or explore a new artists, songs, compilations, lists.
Instead of looking for some news about my favorite genres I just put some compilations, TOP most popular Rock/Metal etc. 
It saves a lof of time.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: guruboolez on
Old school: I'm playing local files, mainly music I ripped from CD or coming from internet (store…).

Me too, currently deciding what to encode the new collection to as everything is ripped as FLAC but for my phone I've just stuck with MP3. I've tried Spotify etc but just can't get on with them. My other half insists on using youtube....not even youtube music while in the car and that app still won't play in the background unless you pay.

Re streaming formats, I'm similar with video, I buy and rip everything but still have Netflix etc. Basically if my broadband goes down I don't particularly care, or if Netflix is having an off day I still have all my ripped stuff to watch or listen to.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: IgorC on
I'm surprised that online services isn't the most popular option  ???
It's probably a highly popular option outside HA.org. This community was originally born around local music: encoders, CD ripping, playback (foobar2000). It also seems that the activity narrowed a lot over the years, so I guess that many people left HA.org when they gave up with managing audio files (which is time and space consuming, and as you say not efficient at all). Diehards users are still here, and the remaining persons here are for sure not representative of the general population :)

If I was 20 years old today, I would probably buy a streaming subscription (much less expensive than CDs I bought at the same age) and no CD. I would maybe buy some vinyls albums (but no turntable) or collector CD box to satisfy some basic fetichist impulses. I'm quite sure that downloading legal or illegal MP3/FLAC/HiRes albums would never cross my mind.
Wavpack Hybrid: one encoder for all scenarios
WavPack -c4.5hx6 (44100Hz & 48000Hz) ≈ 390 kbps + correction file
WavPack -c4hx6 (96000Hz) ≈ 800 kbps + correction file
WavPack -h (SACD & DSD) ≈ 2400 kbps at 2.8224 MHz

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: guruboolez on
It's probably a highly popular option outside HA.org.
For my community (according to ~150 votes in Telegram and VK.com) it's about 1/3 who uses online streaming services subscription. And yes, I believe outside the "audiophiles"/enthusiasts communities it's even higher.
🇺🇦 Glory to Ukraine!

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #13 –
Agreed. Staying with (or sourcing from) physical media is an enthusiast's approach, I'd say, which, among HA members, is likely much more common. Outside of HA, I don't know anyone else doing what I do, manually ripping CDs or listening to vinyl (except for one musician). They all listen to Spotify etc.

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #14 –
Maybe something has changed, but I disliked Spotify just because of it's UI. I have unlimited data plan so streaming music on phone would make sense, but I much rather listen to my offline collection with Poweramp.

That and the fact that streaming sites often have newest and "greatest" remasters that often do not sound as good as earlier releases (previously mentioned dynamic range problem).

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #15 –
I'm never out and about any more, I've been out maybe twice since last February. And all the times when I did go out, I needed to be fully aware of my surroundings at all times, so I never listen to music on portable devices anyway.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #16 –
Quote from: kode54 on
I needed to be fully aware of my surroundings at all times, so I never listen to music on portable devices anyway.

I always use only 1 earbud for the same reason.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #17 –
Mostly I use just YouTube Music but I still have my CD collection and I continue to buy CDs. For example Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica isn't available on (most) streaming services. Also YouTube Music is missing a lot of Aimee Mann's discography. But you can upload music to YouTube Music.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #18 –
I prefer buying the music I like. Mostly CDs but any lossless stores are fine too. I want to be in control of the media so I can edit the tracks if need be, use ReplayGain and DSPs. IMO streaming services offer poor experience. Too many times tracks disappear from the library or tags contain typos or entirely incorrect information. I use streaming services only on the computer for sampling new music.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #19 –
Ripping the CDs I buy to lossless is still my main thing, but I'm getting lazy so since most vinyl purchases now come with free lossy downloads I often settle for that, sometimes I buy it a second time in FLAC format on Bandcamp.
WavPack 5.7.0 -b384hx6cmv / qaac64 2.83 -V 100

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #20 –
I have over 200 tracks that I listen to regularly that have edits and optimizations done to them. I have also done declipping on most everything I have. Streaming will never be an option for me, unless I am granted the rights to create my own streaming service with all the changes I've made.
Processed audio in java and python.

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #21 –
Quote from: For Serious on
I have over 200 tracks that I listen to regularly that have edits and optimizations done to them. I have also done declipping on most everything I have. Streaming will never be an option for me, unless I am granted the rights to create my own streaming service with all the changes I've made.

You should check out Funkwhale-- https://homelabos.com/docs/software/funkwhale/

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #22 –
Quote from: guruboolez on
Old school: I'm playing local files, mainly music I ripped from CD or coming from internet (store…).

Same here. But I must admit that maintaining music arhive (also movies) is really time consuming.
Streaming services are "fire and forget" usually.
But I like my own audio collection. When you are paying for streaming service, you are using something that is not yours. If you decide to quit the service, nothing remains. Local audio archive is always available and it's yours. :)

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #23 –
I download from YouTube Music & losslessly extract audio from it!

Re: What is the primary source you listen music from on your portable device?

Reply #24 –
deemix for windows and aids for android.And listen from youtube