Music Banter - What kind of sound system rig do you have?

The most recent development for my home sound system is that I no longer used a cd player or turntable and use my computer as a server to play most of my music collection. You can hook up your computer to your home stereo system with a $35 adapter that interfaces between your computer and your home stereo receiver.

My computer speaker system is two ancient Altec surround-sound speakers with a medium sized sub woofer. It was one of the first high end audiophile speaker systems developed for home computers. The price of $200 I paid for the Altec speaker system was unheard of for computer speakers ten years ago, but today the setup rivals many of the computer speaker systems that sell for $300-$500 in 2009.

My home stereo system is two medium size B&W speakers and a Rotel receiver.. which are first rate British products that I purchased at an audiophile shop as discontinued products. The sound is fantastic and I've heard a lot worse on much more expensive equipment.

Total cost

Atec Speakers and Subwoofer- Purchased in 1997 for $200
Rotel Receiver- Purchased in 2000 for $150
B&W Speakers- Purchased in 2000 for $250
Adapter Cord- Purchased in 2006 for $35
TOTAL COST (not including computer)- $635

As you can see, I'm not a big believer in integrated sound systems and you can save a lot of money by purchasing each component on sale whenever you can afford an upgrade. I'm not a big fan of bass distortion and don't need to fill an arena with my sound system, so this modest system meets all of my playback, mixing, and dubbing needs. I do an Internet music show and I have to say that my current home system rig produces about the best quality streaming music I've heard on the Internet.

I've archived all of my cds in waterproof storage files in my basement. I'll probably never let go of my music collection, even though I've gotten some pretty lucrative offers for some of my rarer vinyl and cd titles. I still hang on to my old compact discs and vinyl records as a reassurance that I have a tangible product and not just a bunch of intangible bytes of sound on a computer. Most music collectors share a similar fetish for a ritual musical object to hold in their hand, gaze at and worship.

I have 500 gigabytes of storage on my computer and have ripped 25,000 songs to my computer. Even with the 25,000 songs I still have 300 gigabytes of storage capacity left on my computer. What's nice about abundant computer storage is I don't have to worry about purchasing more shelving for my enormous music collection... storage space is one of the perennial problems for music and I'm glad I don't have to worry about that issue anymore.

If you're serious about consolidating your all or a good portion of your music collection the best thing you can do is upgrade your storage capacity to 500 gigabytes. I tried for years to consolidate my music on a 250 gig drive and there simply wasn't enough room for other programs unless I wanted to do "just music" on the computer.

A 500 gig internal hard drive sells for as little as $75 and if you can install it yourself you'll save yourself an additional 75 bucks for installation. Warning: Don't attempt to install a hard drive for the first time alone... find someone who knows what they're doing to walk you through the process. It's not difficult but there are a few mistakes that many tech-challenged people make when they install hard drives and it makes the process agonizing.

It's not a good idea to use a flash drive or external hard drive to store music files on. I tried it once and iTunes crashed my system because users are not allow to move iTunes music to other computers or drives under the iTunes terms of service.

I'm one of many former iTunes customers who are plantiffs in a class action suit against Apple for installing malicious iTunes software on my computer without my consent. I could probably write a book on Apple's Gestapo tactics and their evil collaboration with RIAA to snoop on the music buyers of the world.
For the record, I've never downloaded a song from a pirate file sharing website in my life but I do believe if you purchase a song or album, you can do what you damn well please with it. Just be careful because iTunes and RIAA believe that they can ransack your music files and crash your computer even when you're complying with establish free use laws governing copyrighted material.

Sorry about my editorial digression but anyone who does music on their home computer should be forwarned about the malicious software used by music retailers and music publishing houses.

Amazon is about the only MP3 service that sells completely DRM free MP3s. DRM is the the Digital Rights Management program that allows music services to spy on your use of the music they sell to you. Shop Amazon if you want to have privacy and control over the use of music that you purchase.

There is no other business in the world that thinks it has the legal right to tell a consumer how he can or can not use a product after he's purchased the product, as is the case with RIAA. What would you think if General Motors had spies that followed you around to keep an eye on your use or misuse of the Chevy you purchased on a show room floor and paid for free and clear in cash?