I finally replaced my copy of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and picked up a couple of albums by Four Tet and Seefeel to go along with it. All in glorious FLAC.

Also, while I’m pimping Bleep, you should check out their podcast. It’s really good if you’re into that whole electronic kinda thing.

Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.

Jon Bon Jovi, via MSNBC reprinting the Sunday Times (paywalled)

A popular recent quote from a man who’s seen a thousand cities and rocked them all. I’m not a fan of Bon Jovi’s music, but I can’t really argue with what he’s saying in the above-linked article. There is a whole generation of people who think music is supposed to sound like it’s on YouTube.^[1]

The comparative high-quality of compressed music available in the iTunes Music Store and elsewhere is considered reference-quality for most people. As portable music goes, the quality of 320kbps, VBR-encoded AAC files or MP3s is pretty damned good. On a good pair of headphones or a high-end system though, the limitations start to become apparent.

When I first started listening to compressed music at the turn of the millenium, many people compressed around 96kbps. I tended to compress at higher levels and encoded my music in 160kbps rips from MusicMatch transferred to my Creative Audio Nomad Jukebox. A clunky, hard-drive-based music player with a horrible interface that I loved the hell out of at the time. People thought I was crazy for using such “high quality” mp3s.

As the years went on, I realized that the harsh encodings of 2000 sounded really bad on my improving audio gear. So I upped the bitrate and transcoded everything at 192kbps. This happened again later and I jumped to 256 and then 320. Now it’s happening again. I’m actually listening to physical media as my preferred media format. And re-ripping a large chunk of my library in “lossless” format. If it were available, I’d buy everything in SACD or some emergent blu-ray audio format, were such a thing to exist.

To FLAC or ALE?

Now that I’m considering doing the Lossless step, I’m faced with a somewhat difficult choice. FLAC or Apple Lossless Encoder? I think the “correct” choice would be FLAC, an open-source audio compression codec. Unfortunately, it doesn’t integrate very nicely into iTunes. There are plugins for it, but they’re hacky and Apple is bound to break them with every iTunes upgrade.

So, the great dilemma of the modern age: does convenience trump portability? In this case, for me, I think it does. There are tools to move from Apple Lossless (ALE) to FLAC (DoubleTwist for one) that should serve well enough if I ever do have to ditch the Apple platform at the cost of a few hours of scripting and re-encoding. The other “advantage” of ALE is that it’ll happily play on my iDevices if I ever want to take some with me. And iTunes makes it relatively easy to make lossy copies of ALE files for transport. If there’s another piece of music software out there that can do this with FLACs, I’d love to hear about it.

The Setup

I’ll be listening to music in the following places:

• My computer
• Home system (direct via SPDIF)
• My laptop with headphones (streamed via wifi)
• My living room (streamed via Airport Express)
• Anywhere else on my iPhone or iPad (via homesharing)

When I’m roaming, I’ll have my iPhone or iPad and headphones. In all of the above locations around my house, I want lossless audio served up from my main computer. On my iPhone and iPad, I want that converted down to some decent, high-quality compressed format like AAC 320VBR.

iTunes provides an option to convert music on portable players to AAC 128Kbps on sync. Unfortunately, this is woefully inadequate for me. This means storing two copies of music in my iTunes library: one uncompressed and one compressed. The best instructions on how to do this that I’ve found are on iLounge from 2004 (found an updated version from 2011 with no real new info). They recommend converting before sync and then deleting the copies again after you’re done. The old option on the iPod “classic” to “manually manage music” is no longer present on the iOS devices.

Another option is to keep multiple iTunes libraries. One for lossless streaming, the other for syncing to devices. This is not super groovy as it means shutting down iTunes and restarting it depending on what I’m doing. I also lose a lot of metadata by having separate libraries. Play counts and ratings in one library don’t automatically get linked up without some very clever (probably impossible) AppleScripting.

Speaking of AppleScript, I should probably mention Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes. He’s got a ton of useful automation for all kinds of iTunes tasks including a script for re-encoding lossless tracks onto an iPod capable of letting your manage your music collection. (probably means iPod classic)

Where to from here?

I’m in limbo. I’m currently ripping tracks to lossless in iTunes and removing said tracks from my iPod synced playlists. Every disc I rip gets removed from my iPhone and iPad. I’m likely not going to replace everything in my library. Some things I just don’t have. Others probably wouldn’t benefit hugely from a lossless conversion due to weak recording. I’m toying with the idea of using my laptop for device syncing, copying compressed versions to that machine and keeping my desktop server as the lossless library.

Help me! I’d love to hear your suggestions, no matter how outlandish. I am more than willing to throw iTunes to the kerb for a decent home streaming solution.

[1] – Sony killed the music industry in the 80s with The Walkman and tape decks so maybe it’s just the most-recent “death of the music industry”.

On the surface, this would seem to be the easiest of the different streaming types to achieve. In iOS 4.2, we have “Airplay” streaming to connect to an Airport Express or Apple TV. It works fairly well, but I get occasional glitches causing drop outs in the audio. Less than ideal. I’m not sure if this is because of network issues or because the devices themselves are too resource constrained to provide a continuous stream of bits.

Airplay is even worse if you want to try playing a video game to your home stereo. I was getting lag of around 2 seconds while playing Orbital. Stick with headphones or plugin directly to some speakers if you want big sound.

For streaming music, I usually use the Remote app on my iPhone or iPad to send music from my home machine to the Airport and it works much more reliably.

But what if I want to use my headphones? I could sync the music that I want through iTunes, but that’s slow and annoying. I’d still like to be able to browse my home machine and stream music directly to my device like I can in OS X. We keep hearing rumours that Apple’s working on building a cloud storage service for your music. With nearly 200GB of music on my network and limited upstream bandwidth, this would be impractical. I’m fine with keeping a limited selection of music on my devices when I’m out in the world, but having full access to my music when I’m on my home network from all of my devices would be awesome. Using a feature like “Back to my Mac” to be able to stream from my home collection when roaming would be great for bonus points.

Apple’s never really done much with their built-in streaming radio service in iTunes either, and I’m a little surprised it’s still included at all, given their push towards moving everyone into the iTunes Music Store. I still use it and have a few channels I still listen to regularly (hello GrooveSalad!). It’s surprising that I need to install a 3rd party app to do this, and to be honest, I’ve never found one that I actually like. I’ve tried Fstream and a couple others whose names escape me, they were so underwhelming. Dedicated channel apps like CBC are great for individual radio streams, but are of varied quality and fill up my home screen with multiple, redundant apps.

One feature I never looked for but now have access to is AirPrint. Apparently with a few select HP printers, I could print directly from my iPhone to a networked printer. Even if this feature worked with printers I actually own, it’s not something I could see myself ever using. I am so close to being a paperless being, I think I only ever print things when dealing with government agencies and insurance companies. For printing photos, I need a real computer with a calibrated monitor and gamut-proofing tools.

Having used iOS 4.2 for a couple of months, I’m happy to say that it’s a big improvement over the 3.2 OS that the iPad shipped with. Multitasking makes the iPad feel more like a real computer, though app switching is somewhat awkward. I love the brightness control in the little “iPod control area” in the multitasking … app bar? dock? I don’t know what to call that area — in the left-most area. I still have no idea if keeping many apps open eventually bogs down the operating system or not. I tend to scan through this area every so often and close down apps that I’m not using. On the iPhone, the differences are less noticeable, but an incremental improvement nonethless.

Which brings me to the Grados. The SR225s are the second pair of Grado headphones I’ve owned. I started out with a pair of SR125s which, until these, were my favorite ‘phones for around-the-house listening. Large, soft foam-covered earpieces and an over-the-head style band do not make these ideal “out-and-about” listening devices. They’re also an open design and bleed sound like no other headphones I’ve ever used, subjecting anyone in the same airspace to whatever it is you’re listening to you. Calling them headphones is almost a disservice, they’re more like a head-mounted speaker system.

Which isn’t far off the mark, really. If I could continue the head-mounted speaker analogy, you might find that you need a better amp to drive these without distortion compared to smaller, less demanding headphones. The iPods have long been known for possessing a decent headphone amplifier for a portable device. When driving the Grados, I find noticeable distortion at volume settings that are clear and detailed with my Shure in-ear phones. These ‘phones exacerbate the problems with the MacBook audio circuitry like no others. The noise is painful and may make you want to invest in a decent external audio interface, which, if you’re serious about sound, you’ll want to do anyway.

So far, I’m making these out to be more of a pain than they’re worth, so you might be wondering why I’d have bothered to upgrade the SR125s to the 225s. And why I’d consider myself a serious enthusiast for these headphones.

The reason is that with a decent headphone amplifier, these headphones don’t sound like any other I’ve ever listened to. They have Real Bass. It’s detailed and palpable and extends far below where you might expect a headphone to go. The other reason is they possess an airiness and spaciousness unlike any other headphones. All that moving air your neighbours are being subjected to while you listen to these is the same air the Grados are using to magically create a soundstage inside your head.

If you like listening to music and consider yourself to be a person who likes nice things, and you have a decent sound system, you might want to do yourself a favor and audition a pair of Grados. Honestly, with the type of music I listen to mostly (rock and electronic music predominantly with occasional forays into jazz and classical), I don’t notice a huge difference between the SR225s and the 125s. The bass is a little more detailed and present, I think, but otherwise, without going into fruity audiophile language, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference. The build quality on the SR225s is marginally better though and they have a slightly longer and thicker cable.

If you do want to use these with a portable device like an iPod, you should consider an external amplifier. Here are a few links to well-reviewed headphone amps:

• Total BitHead (review on Stereophile)
• Grado RA1
• Creek Audio OBH-21

Also, take a look at Grado Labs’ website. They’ve expanded their product-line in the past couple of years and have some in-ear headphones as well as a slew of truly high-end ‘phones that you probably can’t afford but will lust after because they’re beautiful.

One final relevant link I rediscovered when looking for a place to actually purchase (US only) the Grados online: goodcans.com’s review of Grado headphones. They mention that the Prestige series that the SR225s belong to have been updated and have a new ‘i’ designation. Apparently the bodies have been redesigned and are a bit deeper which can only mean that they sound even better.

• SR225i on amazon.com, B&H Photo Video ($200)

Then a funny thing happened. The n3wbs and I started playing Project Gotham Racing 4 again. This is a series that we’ve played since the first version on the original Xbox. I spent an unhealthy amount of time in a friend’s basement playing Project Gotham 1 in head-to-head racing. We got pretty good at it. We still miss San Francisco which was never included in any of the subsequent games and made for some pretty insane racing. PGR2 was probably the game we played the most as a group. Not Halo. Not Gears of War. Project Gotham 2. We have our own lexicon of terms for racing. Some of the less-colorful ones include, “crop-outing” and “toro”.

I recently made some changes to my room, moving my gear around for better viewing position. So when we started playing PGR4 after a year’s hiatus, I was shocked to discover some strange audio glitches coming out of my speakers. Engine noises had drop-outs. Music would skip. It was the strangest thing. I checked other sound sources at the speakers and listened hard for anomalies. I checked cabling to make sure I hadn’t screwed something up during the reorganization. I tweaked sound settings in the game. I put up with it.

Then I checked the Interwebs. Sure enough, a bit of googling turned up some hits about PGR4 Audio Problems. Weirdly, it’s a result of installing to the hard-drive. Why this should be makes absolutely no sense. It has to be playing the sounds from memory (assuming the engine noises aren’t discretely modeled audio simulations which would be very surprising and worthy of at least several papers) and it has to load them from a disk. It shouldn’t matter where they’re coming from. The only reason I can think of is that using the hard-drive is putting extra load on the processor or I/O buss and that’s causing the glitching. Still sounds rubbish, doesn’t it?

At any rate, I’d like to see MS release a patch for this, but since Bizarre Creations have pretty-much stopped caring about the PGR series (*snif*) that’s very unlikely. I’ll have to suffer and play it from the DVD.

For the past five years or so, the Shure E3 headphones (now called SCL3) had been my sound delivery weapon of choice for serious business. Developed for stage use, they quickly became popularized for portable audio for their excellent 30db attenuation of outside sound and crisp sound quality. Some criticized them for less than impressive bass performance, perhaps with good reason. But the super-detailed middle and high ranges more than made up for it for me. The phones were updated about a year after I bought mine, becoming the E3Cs and available for the first time in white to appeal to the white headset crowd. Later they were joined with the E4s to round out the line and give people an option between the E3s and the really pricey E5s. This is somewhat surprising considering these are considered professional equipment for performing musicians, but obviously, people were buying them in enough quantity for Shure to notice and shift their marketing to accomodate.

These types of ‘phones are not without their drawbacks though. Inserting them into your ears required a bit of fiddling to get them in right. The cables were also meant to be worn behind the head which often meant some fairly ridiculous contortions if you were trying to put them on in a confined space, like, say, an airplane seat or a small shower stall. (What? Don’t you listen to music in the shower?) Also, the small yellow foam sleeves (or “foamies” as I like to call them) could be uncomfortable for prolonged listening. The various silicone ear pieces never worked for me, in any of the available sizes. Walking around while wearing them can create a “booming” effect as your feet hit the ground, channeling the shockwaves up to your ears through bone conductivity. You can hear yourself breathing with them on. Talking to people (even though you can’t really hear them) is also really difficult and kind of disorienting.

Still, despite all these strange oddities, I really like them. A lot.

Enter the SE530s. I’ve been eyeing these as replacements to the “E” line of earphones since they were introduced. As a more consumer-friendly set of in-ear monitors, they lack some of the harshness of the E3s which could be, if possible, a little too detailed. The SE530s are also a three-driver design with a separate tweeter and two separate bass drivers. The difference really comes through on music with strong bass-lines and dynamic drums like the National’s album “Boxer”. The bass sounds smooth and doesn’t get overwhelmed by the surrounding drums in quieter tracks like “Start a War”. The mid and upper range detail is still there too, but it seems better blended than with the E3s. The SE530s produce a smooth, buttery sound that will envelop you in music.

Another great improvement is in the new foam sleeves. The new ones are a black foam that is apparently washable which should greatly extend their lifetime. I used to go through the yellow foamies at the rate of a pair every couple of weeks, more if I was using them heavily. I’ve had the same pair of foamies on the SE530s since I bought them and they’re still in great shape. Protip: You should wipe ‘em off periodically with a non-alcohol based anti-bacterial gel.

Other items included in the box are 3 foot and 9 inch extension cables, a full set of ear pieces in varying shapes and sizes, an airplane adapter and a 1/4″ conversion plug. The phones roll up into an included oval carrying case. Shure does not disappoint with build quality and accessories in the box and retailing for the price of a top-end iPod, you better believe the box they come in is real metal. The earphones’ cables are also really nice, with a supple feel.

Speaking of cables, I just acquired and tested-out the Shure MPA music phone adapter which comes with a “voice port” microphone for use with my iPhone. The first call was deemed a success. The little command button even works as a play/pause or answer call button.

So, would I recommend these for everybody? No, I probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have bought them myself if it weren’t for the ridiculous deal I found on eBay (seriously, if you’re looking for a pair, check it out). If you’re a discerning audiophile, or just someone who loves music and looking for a compact, portable listening experience that can block out a lot of external noise, then these might be right for you.

I have never used the white plastic earbuds that came with my iPods and usually throw them out. They are garbage. I don’t care if they “sound better than other earbuds” as some have said, they cost 10¢ to make and if you’re going to listen to those, you might as well admit to yourself that you have no taste and don’t deserve your shiny new iPod.

For the past 10 years or so I’ve been using a pair of Koss Portapro ‘phones. These headphones are a workhorse for listening. They look like crap but they sound great. A friend once asked me what was with the “ghetto ‘phones”. So I let him try them out. And he said, “Oh”. They really sound good, but don’t just take my word for it. There are a ton of reviews out there extolling their virtuous sound. The review on goodcans.com in particular is worth reading to give you an idea of just how good these are and how much people like them. I love them. But unfortunately, they’re not perfect for mobile listening. For one thing, they’re an open design so sound does leak out of them fairly prodigiously. That can be annoying to those nearby. They also allow background noise IN. Which makes them unsuitable for listening in loud environments. Like airports. And airplanes.

After ten years of frequent use, the foam pads on mine were shot, the plastic speaker sections of the phones peeking through and scraping against my ears. Fed up, I started researching replacement headphones and came to the conclusion that there were no replacements. Nothing could match the sound quality, portability and durability I’d come to apprecaite, despite the flaws of the open system. My experience with Sennheiser has never been good, and I have yet to listen to a pair of those that doesn’t sound muted and imprecise. All Sennheisers I’ve used (dating back to the late ’80s when I used to sell Sennheisers at an audio shop) have had efficiency problems and seem to require a ton of effort to get any sound out of them. So I went to a store in Ottawa that sold Koss (Bleeker Audio on Merivale) and asked them if they had any Portapros. The sales guy informed me that they were out of them so I then asked what I should have asked first: if they had any replacement foam pads for the ear-pieces. That’s when he told me about the lifetime warranty on the Koss headphones.

A lifetime warranty. If there is something wrong with your headphones, they will replace them. An idea so shocking and against what I have learned to expect from companies that it just kind of stopped me dead in my tracks.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to the foam pads, but if you look on Koss’ website, you can find replacement pads for them for 5 bucks. Which doesn’t work in Canada. So, I phoned their 1-800 number and talked to a nice lady in Milwaukee who shipped me a replacement set of earpads which arrived about a week later. It was a great customer service experience and it has made me appreciate these venerable phones even more. I *heart* them.

I made one fatal mistake with the replacement foams though. They Portapros have a pair of pads on the temples as well that fit just above your ears. When I got the replacements, I figured I’d replace those too, even though they appeared to be glued to the plastic. I ripped these off and a bunch of the backing from the originals remained stuck to the plastic, preventing the new temple foam pieces from sticking properly. Fortunately, the replacements came with two pairs of each type of foam so I have a backup set. I should be able to remove the gluey foamy stuff from the plastic with a bit of lighter fluid which hopefully won’t melt the plastic.

If it does, it might require another phone call to Milwaukee.

Like the marketing copy says, it has surprisingly big stereo sound in a fairly small package. It comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery making it a true portable. In case you don’t feel like listening to your iPod for some reason, it also has a built-in FM tuner and retractable antenna.

I tried the IM600 with my 5G iPod (video) and my iPod touch and it works great with both of those. I had an earlier iPod I plugged in that did not work. I was hoping to just leave the older 4G model docked all the time but it was not meant to be. The dock format changed from iPod generations 4G to 5G to accommodate video output and there is a composite video jack on the back of the Altec Lansing in case you wanted to plug it into a television which had a broken speaker or something. I can’t really figure out why I’d do that, but whatever! It’s there. Just in case. No S-Video output though, if we’re going to be picky.

Other connectors on the back of the unit are an auxiliary input jack in the form of a stereo mini plug and a subwoofer output jack for connecting to … a subwoofer! I couldn’t find a link on Altec Lansing’s site for their subwoofer, but they make the BB2001 which you can add to the IM600 to improve the low-end at the expense of portability. The compact design of the IM600 which folds up for travel make it a great portable speaker system you can move around the house or pack up and take with you on the road. The included remote works well and lets you play/pause and skip tunes on the iPod or tune to a radio station. It’ll also control your volume, so turn it up!

Note: The Altec Lansing IM600 is not waterproof, but it may float.