Monday, November 30, 2009

Organizational/Musical/Technical Advice Requested

Alright y’all. I need some advice. I could research the inter-webs or perhaps even go to a store and talk to some knowledgeable sales person (assuming I could find one), but really, it is so much easier just to put it all out there for your feedback. Here is the conundrum.

800 plus CDs and a desire for more.

Owning that many isn’t the issue (c'mon, I'm old) nor is my desire to have more (I am also comfortable with denial). Storing them? Now, that is the problem.

Until yesterday they were in two college-aged CD racks, in piles in front of said racks (which were overflowing), in piles on top of random players around the house—in short, it was a mess. Neats, who seemed to think I am concerned about consistency, repeatedly reminded me that when the boys have toys they have not played with in months or even years, I argue they should be passed on and perhaps I might abide by the same rule? Uh-huh. So after much debate, we decided to get these cool CD towers to place on the back wall of our newly refinished family room (pictures soon after one or more detail is taken care of).

Now Neats wasn’t all that keen on having the CD’s exposed as, well, that aren’t all that aesthetic (to her), but she found a way to give it her touch as you can see. The real issue—yes, I am back to the issue—is that this is surely only a temporary fix—eventually those cubbies are going to get filled up, the random knick-knacks will get the boot until we are out of room and then what? More towers? A whole different solution? When will it stop?

So all of this has me thinking about technology—I know, you have been thinking this for a few sentences now. Should I finally make the move to all digital music? Will I notice the subtle degradation of quality by only listening to compressed files? What about the loss of opening the package, checking out the liner notes, etc.? And more to the point, if I do go this route, what is the right piece or pieces of equipment?

What I would like is one nice piece of technology that plays CD’s, but also let’s me rip them into iTunes (or wherever), sync various iPods (or whatever), connects to the Internet, has more memory than God, and is nicely compatible with the new Bose system. OK, I hear someone saying, um, that’s a computer. Well, yeah, but I don’t really need a whole computer for that, just parts of one--and I don't want a computer in the component mix.

I know there are a variety of options out there—Apple TV, smart DVD players, etc.—or I could just buy a mega-external hard drive just for music, sync the iPods, and then play those through the Bose (and play the CD’s, if necessary, in the DVD player), but somehow I am feeling like there might be other/better options out there. Or I could just stick with 1990's old school and keep buying CD's and filling up that wall.

So anyone who knows, has theories, or has developed their own system for managing the music, please do tell.

1 comment:

  1. I was getting ready to comment here and realized that I don't have a system, I have a series of kluges--two different iTunes, an external hard drive with lots of files on it, and a connecter to hook my iPod up to our lovely stereo. And that is not what you're looking for. If you do figure out a system, I hope that you will post about it, because I would for sure be interested.

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