The personal computer equipped with Internet access is the best music machine ever made. Never in the history of music have you been able to store so much music, have access to so much music so quickly, been able to set up play lists with the touch of a button so easily. The only problem with having your music stored on your computer is having access to the music through your home stereo.
When I was growing up I had a man cave (or was it a boy cave?) in my parent's basement, equipped with a computer connected to a high out-put stereo and two speakers that were each about three feet tall. Ever since moving out of my parent's basement, however, I have not had such a convenient setup. I've never again had a computer in the same room as my stereo, which is now in my living room. That seems just a bit awkward. I haven't figured out a good way to stream the music wireless. The PS3 does a decent job but you have to have the TV on, which I really don't like. Truthfully I haven't tried a lot of other devices, but I worry about difficulty browsing my library (which has 40,000+ songs) using a device other than a computer and mouse. This is something I am going to have to look into more seriously once we move into a house.
However, in the meantime I mostly listen to music at my computer or in my car. Otherwise, I save the living room for TV. However, I enjoy listening to music in the bedroom and bathroom in the mornings when I get ready for my day. This presents a similar dilemma as I do not have a computer in my bedroom either. To solve this problem, I decided to get an iPod sound dock. I never thought I would buy such a device, but it seemed like an easy way to get my computerized music to a stereo. Plus, the iPod has a great interface for going through music. I did a little bit of research, saw a review on Attack of the Show, and decided to go with a Bose Sound Dock. Of course it was a bit costly, but the sound it produces is really quite impressive. It can easily fill a large room with sound, and most of the reviews I read said Bose made the best-sounding docks on the market. My only complaint thus far is that it doesn't have bluetooth built-in. But otherwise it is a great sounding little stereo that easily allows me to listen to my computer music someplace other than my computer.
While we're on the subject of music, Sarah and I went to Cincinnati last week to see Radiohead at Riverbend Music Center. We had lawn seats (which was artificial turf, how odd). The concert was decent, though it wasn't as good as when we saw them in St. Louis earlier this year. Overall, I don't think Riverbend is as good as Klipsch (formerly Verizon Wireless Music Center) here in Indy. It didn't sound as good and it needed to be twice as loud. We enjoyed the show regardless. Below is a picture from our lawn seat.
Wow! You have a library with over 40,000 songs in it? Do you actually listen to all of them? auntie 502
ReplyDeleteYes, which is somewhere between 2,000-4,000 albums. I like music quite a lot, and in my high school and college years I was real aggressive about acquiring music. Not so much anymore. It's pretty amazing to think the entire collection fits in the palm of my hand.
ReplyDeleteI do not listen to all of them. I load my music into my computer music player as I want to listen to them (as opposed to loading all of the songs at once) and right now I have ~2,500 songs loaded. So I'd say I listen to somewhere between 2,000-5,000 songs on a routine basis (at least once per year). The rest of it mostly just sits there. But you never know when you might want to hear a little Spandau Ballet, so I think it's worth keeping around.