Friday OT #1 - When the Record Player Get to Skipping

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Angie

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My husband and I took a belated 15th anniversary trip, and our little hut thing on the resort had Sonos. It was amazing and honestly life changing, so he got me a couple of speakers for Mother's Day. They're amazing - I can wake up my children by playing whatever I want, I can play white noise at bedtime, etc.

It got me thinking - is this the musical device that has changed my life the most? If not, what was? What music-related devices have changed your day-to-day life the most?

I think iPods changed my day-to-day the most short-term. I had CDs at work, in the car, all over the place, and nothing was ever exactly where I wanted it (or I had to carry one of those dorky CD books). It was so easy to have my iPod on me, and to get external speakers for it. Obviously streaming has made having digital music even easier with it being on my phone, but that pivot had already sort of been made when I had my different various iPods, if that makes sense.

How about you?
 

TexCyted

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I do not have the Sonos, but I wish I did. Several friends have them and they are pretty great. For me it is the good bluetooth speaker. The JBL flips and others like it. Great sound wherever you want to take it.
 
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WooBadger18

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I wish I could get our Google Home to NOT listen to my 6-year-old yelling "OKAY GOOGLE PLAY 'BRAIN GO' BY IRON TOM" for the 400th time in a day, however.
So is your house a constant chorus of that followed by “I swear to God, Google, if you play that song one more time...”?

I’d probably say my iPhone because I think that was the first device that let me download songs directly to it rather than first needing to use a computer. I had an iPod before that, but it was like having mixed cd which just held a lot of songs.
 
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Angie

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I do not have the Sonos, but I wish I did. Several friends have them and they are pretty great. For me it is the good bluetooth speaker. The JBL flips and others like it. Great sound wherever you want to take it.

It's fantastic - it's a lot like a JBL flip, but less portable and with bigger sound. They DO have "Roam" ones that are more portable, similar to the JBL, but with a bigger sound. I like that I can throw pretty much any streaming service I want in there, and it can accommodate it.

So is your house a constant chorus of that followed by “I swear to God, Google, if you play that song one more time...”?

I’d probably say my iPhone because I think that was the first device that let me download songs directly to it rather than first needing to use a computer. I had an iPod before that, but it was like having mixed cd which just held a lot of songs.

YES, yes it is. I don't want to threaten Google or Siri (you know, for when the robots take over, I want it to remember that I always said "please" and such). But it's not a threat if you just go unplug the GD thing, right?

I totally get that on the iPhone! I had an Android as my first smartphone (after a Blackberry, anyway), but all of my music was in iTunes at the time because of my iPods. I switched to an iPhone, and have never switched back - even though almost everything I play these days is streaming. It's just great to have it right there by you at all times.

I do totally agree with the comments about Bluetooth headphones and earbuds!
 

madguy30

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Ipod/Mp3 player with buds for running has been the game changer for running forever. I refuse to use a phone for it.

I can't believe I once ran like 5 miles with a Discman.

Also bought a car last fall finally that has a USB audio port that I use an old Ipod Nano for.
 
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drlove

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My husband and I took a belated 15th anniversary trip, and our little hut thing on the resort had Sonos. It was amazing and honestly life changing, so he got me a couple of speakers for Mother's Day. They're amazing - I can wake up my children by playing whatever I want, I can play white noise at bedtime, etc.

It got me thinking - is this the musical device that has changed my life the most? If not, what was? What music-related devices have changed your day-to-day life the most?

I think iPods changed my day-to-day the most short-term. I had CDs at work, in the car, all over the place, and nothing was ever exactly where I wanted it (or I had to carry one of those dorky CD books). It was so easy to have my iPod on me, and to get external speakers for it. Obviously streaming has made having digital music even easier with it being on my phone, but that pivot had already sort of been made when I had my different various iPods, if that makes sense.

How about you?

the IPod was huge for me, but when I lost mine, I personally have struggled to take the next step forward with streaming. My library had a lot of recordings that you can't find on most streaming services.

there might be a way to do these things, but I'm getting old, wear white NB sneakers to BBQ in and enjoy dinner before the big rush.
 
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Buster28

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I still listen to CDs and vinyl. Probably don't have any music-related technology newer than ten years old (have an iPod nano or shuffle or something that I use when I fly). I'd lose bluetooth earbuds almost instantly. I literally signed up for Spotify just last week so I can listen to what I want to hear in my vehicle on long road trips (like one coming up next month), but haven't had a chance to use it yet. But I guess I would say the only current thing for music would be XM radio. Commerical radio sucks. I don't tend to stick on one station for very long. But it's nice to have more variety to listen to than a handful of over-the-air stations.
 
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urb1

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I wish I could get our Google Home to NOT listen to my 6-year-old yelling "OKAY GOOGLE PLAY 'BRAIN GO' BY IRON TOM" for the 400th time in a day, however.

I love the Alexa device, but still have to hear, "Alexa, fart". (To be honest, some of the fart sounds are still funny!)
 
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Cyclonepride

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Up until the last year, I would have said the iPod (now I mostly stream music on YouTube). Funny related thing- my wife has around 3500 CDs and I've tried to talk her into getting one, but she's really resistant to the idea. It would take her about a few months to get them all downloaded though (she won't even consider going without full albums).
 
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Angie

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the IPod was huge for me, but when I lost mine, I personally have struggled to take the next step forward with streaming. My library had a lot of recordings that you can't find on most streaming services.

there might be a way to do these things, but I'm getting old, wear white NB sneakers to BBQ in and enjoy dinner before the big rush.

I also have some really specific recordings - I do miss those, and keep my iPods around for those!
 

cyhiphopp

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I still listen to CDs and vinyl. Probably don't have any music-related technology newer than ten years old (have an iPod nano or shuffle or something that I use when I fly). I'd lose bluetooth earbuds almost instantly. I literally signed up for Spotify just last week so I can listen to what I want to hear in my vehicle on long road trips (like one coming up next month), but haven't had a chance to use it yet. But I guess I would say the only current thing for music would be XM radio. Commerical radio sucks. I don't tend to stick on one station for very long. But it's nice to have more variety to listen to than a handful of over-the-air stations.

For bluetooth headphones, if you are afraid of losing the individual "air pod" style ones, they have ones that are connected. I like them because they are harder to lose and I can go from having them in just one ear to both ears easily. And I can just hang them around my neck when not using them at all.

For example, these are the relatively cheap ones I have mostly for work:
94c8e5b7-8eeb-4a6a-acff-e8fbe97d257a.5a071c195c2766d9351745ccf6faaf39.jpeg



My wife has knockoff AirPods that are pretty cool, but I feel like they are going to fall out half the time. The ones above have the over the ear hooks to keep them in even if I'm running or mowing the lawn.
 

cyhiphopp

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As some of my replies earlier have illustrated, Bluetooth headphones were a game changer for me. I was always annoyed by having wired ear buds. Yanking them out of my player or out of my ears.

Ipods were game changer as well, but I always had a problem with filling them up way too quickly. And I'm cheap so I never bought the newest model with more storage.

So, smart phones with streaming services are that much more awesome. It took me a while to find a streaming service I liked, but I settled on Napster (which used to be Rhapsody, not sure why they changed the name).
The app lets me play whatever song I want whenever I want. It has almost every song/album I've ever looked for as well.
I think you can do that with Spotify, but I never liked the interface as much there. Though I think the playlists on Spotify are better, even though I like making my own playlists or listening to full albums. Spotify is more common and supported on more devices, but I likes what I likes.

Combine my smart phone with a good streaming service and some bluetooth headphones and I'm golden.
 
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TXCyclones

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I do not have the Sonos, but I wish I did. Several friends have them and they are pretty great. For me it is the good bluetooth speaker. The JBL flips and others like it. Great sound wherever you want to take it.

I've got a whole house set up with Sonos, including a hub connected to my turntable. The issue is that Sonos is essentially sunsetting the first generation (even though they're only on Gen 2). I've got a combination of Gen1 and Gen2 intermixed across a dozen speakers. It sucks that they're doing this. I'm still enjoying my system but working around the "bugs" now kinda sucks.

I will say that the Gen2 Play1's I got at Costco sound really good. And I have them linked to my Alexa which is pretty cool.
 
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nautical12

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For bluetooth headphones, if you are afraid of losing the individual "air pod" style ones, they have ones that are connected. I like them because they are harder to lose and I can go from having them in just one ear to both ears easily. And I can just hang them around my neck when not using them at all.

For example, these are the relatively cheap ones I have mostly for work:
94c8e5b7-8eeb-4a6a-acff-e8fbe97d257a.5a071c195c2766d9351745ccf6faaf39.jpeg



My wife has knockoff AirPods that are pretty cool, but I feel like they are going to fall out half the time. The ones above have the over the ear hooks to keep them in even if I'm running or mowing the lawn.

These are the type I have also and I love them. I could never get the earbud type ones to stay in my ear so the bluetooth plus the around the ear were a life changer
 

Entropy

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mp3 files and the number you could load onto a CD was a big deal when I was in undergrad. I have some burn CDs with 15+ albums on them.

When I got my first flashdrive mp3 player, that was amazing. It was my go to in grad school and it's how I spent many a long night in Moly Bio growing bacteria or running kinetics experiments.

When I got my first iPod, I loaded it full of a lot of the music I had downloaded through college. It lasted until I got my first iPhone which itself was amazing. Spotify is awesome for my varied musical tastes, and has saved me from buying a huge number of CDs.

I still own vinyl and actively buy it. I have an Audio Technica AT-LP120 with an upgraded cartridge that I use for my collection and I enjoy the experience of playing records.
 
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