[Question Of The Day] What is your favorite music tech?
30 Day song challenge got a bit abstract today, so tossing out a 2nd question… what’s your favorite music tech?
From a pair headphones or maybe you make music or you have a record player that you live and die by, maybe it’s an old iPod that still cruising along… What’s that one piece of music tech you just Mmm Mmm LOVE!
I absolutely love my Aftershokz (now branded Shokz) bone conduction headphones. Are they the best sound quality ever? No. Do they lack depth in the bass? Yes. But I listen to a lot of podcasts and the talking voice is right in the sweet spot. But what is fantastic is I never have to take them off (unless I’m at work) because there is no actual obstruction to hearing. I love going for a walk in the woods with some low level post rock playing adding a layer of beauty. It’s Iike having my own private soundtrack.
First thought: MP3s. I still own about 400 records and about 300 CDs, but when digital music became a thing, and I could sample everything online, my music collection just exploded. Thanks, clever compression software engineers.
After that, Navidrome, my current home music server software, which let’s me play all those files from any computer at home or my phone wherever I am.
I will probably swear by CDs until the day I die. Small, physical, hard-wearing, and with excellent sound quality: they are perfect. I’m also fond of the Ogg Opus file format.
In terms of actual devices, though, I don’t really know anything.
CDs work! Good stuff. I had a huge collection that got stolen once. Turned out to be the best thing to happen to me as it forced me to start over and keep my music discovery going.
My Sony headphones for sure. I have the WH-1000XM4. I’m sure there’s something better out there but I’m not enough of an audiophile to know, lol. As bluetooth headphones go, they’re pretty solid.
I LOVED my XM3s! They were literally my lifeline for the past 3 years or however long I had them. I passed them on to my youngest when she needed a pair and I got a pair of Bose (good quality, but better mics so I could use them in meetings). But XM3s and XM4s are GOAT for music. XM5s they changed the driver to be smaller or something and they sound (imo) like crap.
Damn well I’m glad I got the XM4 then. They were so highly recommended everywhere I read about them online, and I think they mostly live up to the hype.
For me, as much as I love my myriad of headphones and used to love my record player and my iPod Classic - I think it’s now my iPad Pro. I’ve made 10 albums on that thing (new one out this Thurs), which not only was a dream come true, but has allowed me to build an even deeper connection with my daughter (a real full-blown professional musician) as we build songs, share, talk music & music theory together.
P.S. I tried to listen to Such Wonder and I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong but it wouldn’t let me listen on Spotify or Qobuz. On Spotify it’s grayed out, on Qobuz I got an error msg. It could just be my phone but I thought I’d say something in case it’s a larger issue.
JBL Flip (I have Flip5), it’s a great design well made. The bass never fartingly resonates no matter what surface you place it on, battery lasts like 25 hours and it’s IPX rated, I regularly wash mine. You can also pair two of them for double the volume and stereo sound, but I only have one and haven’t tried it.
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