Thread: Too Much Music

This posting is both a serious question and a whine.

I have been purchasing music for more than 50 years — first LPs and cassettes, then CDs, and now (rarely) more CDs and Blu-ray concerts. Overall, my music is probably a just little larger than the average music lover on Audioshark; I have perhaps 1,250 to 1,500 recordings in total. I am also a lifetime Roon subscriber. My primary audio system is quite good for playing back any type of media.

Like everyone else, I have my favorites in most genres that alway give me pleasure when I listen to them, and therein lies my dilemma. When I have a couple of hours to enjoy music, there are so many choices! More often than not I grab something I know because I am assured of a good session. As a consequence, there are hundreds of recordings I expect that I haven’t heard in years.

I can’t be alone with this issue. What do the rest of you do?

Originally Posted by AVphile

Like everyone else, I have my favorites in most genres that alway give me pleasure when I listen to them, and therein lies my dilemma. When I have a couple of hours to enjoy music, there are so many choices! More often than not I grab something I know because I am assured of a good session. As a consequence, there are hundreds of recordings I expect that I haven’t heard in years.

I can’t be alone with this issue. What do the rest of you do?

What surprises me with you post is that you say you use Roon.

As a one-month trial subscriber only, the one thing I found where Roon was better than BluOS that I'd been using, is its "Radio" feature.

With that, you play a few of your regular favourite tracks and after these have played Roon adds more music that its clever AI thinks you may also enjoy. Do you not take advantage of this feature? It will introduce to tons of new music that won't all be to your liking, but much will be and you can add any new albums or artists to your favourites list for future exploration.

Alternatively listen to Radio Paradise! Only 4 channels but if there's one that offers music you enjoy, there's tons of choice and any track you don't like can be skipped over. What's more, the sound quality, particularly the MQA versions if your system is MQA-enabled, is very high indeed. Happy listening

I know the feeling (playing the same 20 albums over and over), and the suggestion to try streaming new music is a very good one.

I subscribe to Qobuz and sometime I scroll the 'New Releases' section and randomly just listen. If I don't like it I just move quickly to the next.

Also I've been part of a small, every-Saturday Roon hi-fi group for a while now. We talk about what we're listening to and I find out about new-to-me music that way too.

I go through burn out. Part of my enjoyment of music is hearing something original. While my guitar gently weeps has like 547 covers, but the same ol' just turns into work. I know 75% of my upgraditis is to bring new life to old tunes because it takes time to find new interesting songs. Hear Here offered a great reminder and it's a really cool feature of roon. I play a song and roon starts looking for like music then asks me for a thumbs up or down. Like walking into a grocery store without a list. Even though I live in what I think is a quiet neighborhood ambient noise is 20 db higher in the day than it is in the evening meaning daytime listening sucks for easy listening shrinking my list further.

Originally Posted by puroagave

if you're in a musical rut, try streaming new (to you) music. If you are so pressed for time, you can speed through or skip over whatever doesn't titillate your senses. I dont get the comment "too much music" like too many movies to watch, too many restuarants to to try, books to read, concerts to attend or wine to drink? if only life were longer so I could try it all!

The trouble is, it's often difficult to identify new artists that you may like. AllMusic often offers "Similar Artists" as does Qobuz via BluOS, but the OP has the advantage of Roon, where their Radio feature takes out the finger-work needed to explore new artists by adding extra tracks it thinks you may like to the playlist of favourite tracks you've already loaded.

It sounds like the OP hasn't found or taken advantage of Roon's Radio feature.

I look forward to new music Friday's on Roon via Qobuz and Tidal. Qobuz usually adds a lot more classical and Jazz than Tidal. But, I usually can find some new saved music. I also will watch or read new audio equipment reviews that highlight recordings I have never heard or thought of. For some reason I never listen to Roon radio. Maybe that is something I should wade through.

Originally Posted by nicoff

Agree with Roon radio. It is a good way to listen to new music similar to the one you already like.
Another option (much better than Roon radio IMO) is Spotify. I subscribe to Qobuz and I am a lifetime subscriber to Roon. Yet I find myself listening to Spotify more and more because of their music selection.

Thanks for the Spotify suggestion. By chance I had already suspected that Spotify had some clever AI for adding to one's playlist, so I recently tried to add Spotify to my list of Music Sources available to my streamer app, BluOS. However, even after signing up to Spotify, I cannot seem to get it added to BluOS in the way I can easily add Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, etc. Any suggestions?

Sometimes you can sort of follow the branching streams of suggestions by starting with <Artist Name> Radio on a service that offers that, and when you hear something by another artist you really like, switch to <New Artist Name> Radio. Just another way to explore.

Another thing to do is use the music finder apps on your phones, when you’re out and about and hear something you like.

Or in a coffee shop, ask what station they’re playing (these places are almost always playing some eclectic station on Spotify).

I’ve found some cool things right here on “What are you playing tonight” thread, if you learn which of us has similar tastes.

I’ve found things I am in love with in many of the ways you guys already talked about. When a playlist ends, the streaming service takes over and sometimes I’m like, “oh wow, I like that, didn’t know it was on this album”, and it wasn’t, it was added. So down a new path I go. Gear reviews, streaming playlists from gear manufacturers, and so on.

Takes a bit of work and I feel the streaming AI has a long way to go - hit or miss for me is still around 90/10 against, probably - but it can be very rewarding.

I too browse under "genres" on new release Friday. When I find something I like enough I add it to my library.

What I listen to depends on my mood. Often I will go into my "Playlists" Play some tracks to see what strikes me. Once I find out my mood so to speak I will think of an album to listen to.

Other times I just don't have a direction. I then will go to my ripped albums which are alphabetized and just begin to browse. Sometimes I pick some favorite tracks or I find one of those albums you speak of I haven't heard in ages. I remember where I left off for the next time. Starting at "A" all the time creates another problem or don't resolve the issue, LOL.

It sounds like your time may be limited but I think taking the time to browse those unlistened to albums is the key. Remind yourself what is there and why you have them. Like you I've collected awhile and we've bought albums for one or two good tracks, we bought them for a reason though so enjoy them again.

Finding something I haven't heard in awhile is enjoyable. You may get in a bit less music but you could enjoy better quality time since it's something you haven't heard in awhile, fresh.

Originally Posted by jmusica

Sometimes you can sort of follow the branching streams of suggestions by starting with <Artist Name> Radio on a service that offers that, and when you hear something by another artist you really like, switch to <New Artist Name> Radio. Just another way to explore.

Another thing to do is use the music finder apps on your phones, when you’re out and about and hear something you like.

Or in a coffee shop, ask what station they’re playing (these places are almost always playing some eclectic station on Spotify).

I’ve found some cool things right here on “What are you playing tonight” thread, if you learn which of us has similar tastes.

I’ve found things I am in love with in many of the ways you guys already talked about. When a playlist ends, the streaming service takes over and sometimes I’m like, “oh wow, I like that, didn’t know it was on this album”, and it wasn’t, it was added. So down a new path I go. Gear reviews, streaming playlists from gear manufacturers, and so on.

Takes a bit of work and I feel the streaming AI has a long way to go - hit or miss for me is still around 90/10 against, probably - but it can be very rewarding.

I asked a large business one day about their up beat music, and why its played, Their cooperate answer was as it related to their music at different times "a retailer may decide to play fast tempo, louder music when it's close to closing time, to encourage customers to speed through the store; conversely, slow music could be played during off-peak times, to inspire shoppers to wander around and browse the merchandise for longer. " . They have their madness down to some type of behavioral science.

Another interesting thing we can consider doing right here on the Shark in a new thread, as a supplement to the What are you listening to tonight kinds of threads, is share our Tidal/Qobuz etc playlists.

For instance:

Mellow Jazz Qobuz playlist
All Piano Jazz playlist on Qobuz
Some Chill Music playlist on Qobuz

This one I use if I hear a snippet of something but don’t have time right then to fully check it out, I dump it in here to give it a listen when time allows: Listen Later playlist

With 2800 albums I’d be lost without Roon. They are almost entirely jazz, and with so many artists playing on each other’s recordings I need Roon’s capability to cross-reference. I will play something I enjoy, then perhaps do a deep dive into the recordings of one of the band members which can lead to some wild outcomes… starting with a playlist, or resorting my library by date or genre also turns up new paths. I have a lot of stuff from bandcamp which notifies me of new things and Tidal with Roon radio is useful too. I like to own the music so don’t do too much pure streaming.

But to your point, it’s incredibly impressive just how much new music comes out all the time and I find it impossible to keep up, as evidenced by the frequency with which I think “how could I have missed that!”

Originally Posted by billo

Per Bluesound, Spotify cannot be integrated with Bluos app. Spotify Connect (choosing your NAD as player in the Spotify app) is the way.

Thanks. I did have the Spotify app on my PC but I hadn't found a way to squirt at the streamer! I ditched the app because it just wouldn't leave me alone. It was always making a nuisance of itself each time I booted up or interrupting what I was doing. Maybe I should give it a second chance - if it behaves itself!

PS - The OP has gone very quiet - we've not heard from him since his first post. Let's hope he's fully engrossed in exploring new music in the many ways we've been suggesting.

This is what I like about my Auralic Altair G1 and the associated Lightning DS app. It's "radio" feature is every bit as good as the one on Roon. It's a great way to discover new artists/music for sure.

I had Roon for a few years but dropped it once I got the Auralic almost a year ago. Roon was a reoccurring expense and I kept having random hardware/software issues that neither I or Roon could resolve, so once I had the Auralic in my system, I saw no need to keep Roon. Lightning DS does a decent job on artist bios and album info, but it's not as "thorough" as Roon, but I can live with that.

But yes, do try the radio feature. I think you'll like and appreciate it.

Originally Posted by chops

This is what I like about my Auralic Altair G1 and the associated Lightning DS app. It's "radio" feature is every bit as good as the one on Roon. It's a great way to discover new artists/music for sure.

I had Roon for a few years but dropped it once I got the Auralic almost a year ago. Roon was a reoccurring expense and I kept having random hardware/software issues that neither I or Roon could resolve, so once I had the Auralic in my system, I saw no need to keep Roon. Lightning DS does a decent job on artist bios and album info, but it's not as "thorough" as Roon, but I can live with that.

But yes, do try the radio feature. I think you'll like and appreciate it.

I've been thinking of changing my streamer and Auralic Altair is in my shortlist, so I was interested to read your post, particularly regarding the control app's "radio" feature.

This is the only Roon feature that I thought was an advantage over my existing control app, BluOS, but like you I ditched Roon after a one month trial because I could live without that feature.

A couple of questions if I may. What platforms can Auralic's app be loaded onto? I tend to use my Windows app most, as the PC is on much of the time and always close to hand. I also occasionally use a horrid little Android phone but it's just too small a screen. My iPad is occasionally used, but my preference by far is the mouse-controlled Windows app.

I note that the G1.1 offers only digital inputs and this is an advantage for me as I don't use analogue and prefer not to have to pay for features I'll never use. The G2.1 includes unwanted analogue, but do you know if it is a better unit and likely to offer higher performance for its more-than-double price comparted with G1.1?

Can the Altair be controlled from its front panel screen or an IR remote? I often choose to use these features on my current streamer. Also when I have visitors, I like to see the artwork on a connected TV screen via HDMI. I don't believe this is possible with the Altair.

The Auralic isn't currently top of my shortlist because it seems to lack many features I currently have and value, but perhaps my lack of first-hand knowledge means I'm missing something. The "radio" feature is certainly a bonus. Are you intending to keep the Altair or move on in the foreseeable future - and to what? Thanks

My friend auditioned the 1.1 and then the 2, he went with the 2. I'm not sure if it's twice as good, if I heard both I don't remember the difference. As a side note he eventually added the Sirius. I think that may now be discontinued.

Roon on my Wolf Alpha 3SX server handles the 11,000 plus albums stored locally on a NAS. With an additional 4,000 LPs there is plenty of music to keep my ears busy. I use Roon Radio and Qobuz to find new and forgotten selections.

Originally Posted by Hear Here

I've been thinking of changing my streamer and Auralic Altair is in my shortlist, so I was interested to read your post, particularly regarding the control app's "radio" feature.

This is the only Roon feature that I thought was an advantage over my existing control app, BluOS, but like you I ditched Roon after a one month trial because I could live without that feature.

A couple of questions if I may. What platforms can Auralic's app be loaded onto? I tend to use my Windows app most, as the PC is on much of the time and always close to hand. I also occasionally use a horrid little Android phone but it's just too small a screen. My iPad is occasionally used, but my preference by far is the mouse-controlled Windows app.

I note that the G1.1 offers only digital inputs and this is an advantage for me as I don't use analogue and prefer not to have to pay for features I'll never use. The G2.1 includes unwanted analogue, but do you know if it is a better unit and likely to offer higher performance for its more-than-double price comparted with G1.1?

Can the Altair be controlled from its front panel screen or an IR remote? I often choose to use these features on my current streamer. Also when I have visitors, I like to see the artwork on a connected TV screen via HDMI. I don't believe this is possible with the Altair.

The Auralic isn't currently top of my shortlist because it seems to lack many features I currently have and value, but perhaps my lack of first-hand knowledge means I'm missing something. The "radio" feature is certainly a bonus. Are you intending to keep the Altair or move on in the foreseeable future - and to what? Thanks

The Lightning DS app can only be loaded onto iOS devices which I have installed in my iPad of course. That said, you can also do as I did and download and install Linn Kazoo app on my Windows laptop. It also controls the Altair just fine. The only thing is, it doesn't allow you to make changes to the settings and such. That you have to use the Lightning DS app. No big deal since the settings almost never get adjusted.

The G1.1 is the updated version of mine. I got my G1 barely used at a bargain, so didn't see the "need" to spend considerably more to get the new G1.1. The G2.1 includes a pair of analogue inputs as well as a pair of phono inputs. Neither I care about since I have a stand-alone preamp and phono-preamp. It also uses an analogue volume control vs the digital volume control in the G1.1. Again, doesn't matter since I have my Pass Labs XP20 preamp. And I believe the DAC is supposed to be somewhat better in the G2 vs the G1.1.

The G1, 1.1, 2.1 can be controlled via the front panel, an IR remote that I think you can order, OR it allows you to program other IR remotes to it. For instance, I use the "Skip Forward" feature a bit on my G1. Instead of having to turn on the iPad and open the app all the time, or via the Linn app on my laptop, I programmed that "Skip Forward" function to the "Power" button on my Pass Labs remote since the preamp doesn't even have a power switch. You can use any IR remote that you want.

Lastly, the Altair does not have any video output.

With my Altair G1, being able to control it with Lightning DS via my iPad, with Linn Kazoo on my laptop, and "skip" with my Pass remote, its features, sound quality and performance, I feel I'm missing nothing not using Roon anymore.

I am coming up on 1919 LPs. And still purchasing what catches my fancy. Many get played once or twice tops because 95% of my listening time is Roon/Tidal where I constantly
play stuff I've never heard before.