Do you sometimes find yourself getting a little bored in an extended listening session when you confine yourself to listening to your owned catalogue? I do.
Boredom can be exacerbated if, like me, you tend to revisit a shortlist of favourites. It is so disappointing when a much loved album becomes a bit meh just because you have listened to it too frequently.
What I do now is mix a listening session with much loved albums and unknown albums from either known or unknown artists. I constantly scan the Music Room, Qobuz and other sources for albums I am unfamiliar with and then save them as favourites in Qobuz.
Now when I sit down I listen to a healthy mix of familiar and unfamiliar music. I find this much more rewarding and I never become bored.
I agree Nigel. My collection is big enough that I have albums that I don’t really know. In fact last night I was sampling some tracks I didnt know. Variety is the spice of life!
Yes, I guess it depends on the size of your collection and the breadth of your sampling across your collection.
For some, like me, no matter the size of your collection, you tend to be drawn to a narrow list of old favourites, which is when ‘overfamiliarity’ can set in.
I now love to spice up my listening with a surf on the Qobuz wave. I have just listened to the new Rumer album and am now listening to M.C. McEntire, an artist entirely new to me. Both terrific albums! Next I might listen to something more familiar streamed locally…or try something new to me again on Qobuz.
Qobuz now is not just for sampling music, it is a separate source in its own right. With so many Hi Res versions on Qobuz, it is comparable in SQ to my ripped library.
I do something similar. I choose my music a lot of the time. However, at times, I just let TIDAL/Roon manage things and pick similar things, or not, depending upon the mood. I hear some really nice music that I would never have known about, and for certain, never bought the cd or download. In fact, the TIDAL has supplanted my purchases of Hi Rez things, and I have not bought one in a year or more. I know there is a risk that it will disappear, but I am willing to live with the risk. If I loose a download in a dd failure, there is a chance that the download may not be available either.
I choose a few genres in Logitech Media Server random tracks mix and let it run through my 20,000 + track curated repertoire. Surprising how many tracks I can’t immediately identify. I don’t subscribe to Roon but I believe it can do the same but can also be configured to fetch similar tracks from Tidal, Qobuz, etc along with tracks on your hard drive. But in any case my random mix always seems better than whatever Tidal digs up and Qobuz isn’t yet available where I live.
I’ve not yet taken the plunge for a full streamer (need to save up a bit having just bought a 282) but do listen to radio paradise on my hdx quite a lot. Found a lot of new artists from listening to that
I have been using Roon Radio (with Qobuz) and have generally found that it works very well. I’m not listening to artists that I’ve never heard of and am delighted. Excellent way to avoid getting too stale.
I find all of this a little over thought. The concept of play lists flies directly in the face of the idea that streaming etc. opens up a wider world of music and the existence of a thread like this casts a question mark over the equally mooted idea that you’re more likely to access the hidden corners of your collection.
I don’t have listening sessions either. I find an album I want to listen to and then stop. An extended listening session is a recipe for fatigue.
Not sure where you got the idea of playlists from, I certainly don’t create them or listen to them. In fact I almost always listen to albums in their entirety, unless I am hating something. I dislike jumping from track to track on different albums. I guess I am old school like that.
I am talking about listening to different albums, a mixture of known and unknown.
I find listening to my ‘go too’ favourite albums somehow aids the relaxation process…work can be stressful at times…
Then once suitably relaxed… I do like listening to unknown music…
I often hear stuff on the radio whilst travelling or background music from tv shows…Shazam who it is and then find the album…
Just recently found a group I had never heard of called…‘I am Kloot’ and the album ‘sky at night’ absolutely brilliant album…
To me this is where the addition of forum members posts in the music thread are really rewarding…i too keep playing a narrow band of albums, but the music thread keeps me listening to albums i would not normally know…Amos Lee from your good self, or the latest release list from Qobuz…never a Paul Weller fan, his latest is a must spin in our house.
I have been listening for hours to unknown music I have previously saved in Qobuz, with no fatigue or urge to listen to something familiar. Very rewarding.
It makes me wonder what i would do without Qobuz having tried Tidal a few times and not been convinced…the usual delivery of well known cd’s from music magpie is long gone, and now just the odd high res download for those must have albums. Times they are a changing as someone said.
Oh the Qobuz not placing a certificate versus the Naim app back in June was a bit of an eye opener, bank holiday in France as well, but @Stevesky sorted it asap. But you do need a back up music solution.
I listen to albums posted by other members in various threads as well as from the new released album area on Qobuz. Lots of joy in discovering a new artist (to me) and then exploring more of their catalogue.
Interesting topic I find that I am listening to more Forum reccomendations since the introduction of Qobuz.
I am listening to a wider variety of music but actually not buying anywhere near the amount that I used to.
The quality of Qobuz is superb and fortunately my internet is very robust I think its been down for a couple of hours maximum in the last six or seven years jut listening to Oleta Adams as recommended on here a couple of days ago.
