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With all the money we've invested in amps and signal processing equipment in the name of better sound, the idea of throwing it all away for a sound card is loathsome.
Here's a question we last asked about a year ago: With the proliferation of high-resolution sound cards and other computer audio peripherals over the last couple of years, have you begun using your computer to play music?
Except from sampling new music on available the net for possible investment in a new CD or even LP, I can really see no point in playing music on the computer. Off course in the future world of total home entertainment, networking and automation integration the answer will be different, but then I will still not be using my computer in the sense of a PC, but some sort of network terminal. However i can't actually forsee how my record player is going to connect with such a system.
I can listen to CDs at work when I'm not on the phone or in meetings. The sound quality is very disappointing because the CD-ROM drive produces less than 1/3 of the music that I can hear on my stereo at home. I listen to www.airos.org and www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/ for the excellent and enlightening programming, but the sound quality isn't much better than the piped-in broadcast in the men's washroom at a local sports arena. So what's a sound card? If it cuts into my budget for stereo equipment or new recordings, then I really can't be bothered.
Yes, but even though I have an output to my stereo, it is hard to find a well recorded MP3 to sit and listen too....thus, that is only when the poor neighbors, who can only afford a boom boom car, piss me off...then it is off with the gloves and on with the hard core...they hate it and my stereo is REALLY LOUD.....
For background listening only. I use Apple's Soundsticks speakers connected to laptop's USB jack running on Windows 2000. No soundcard is needed. It sounds *half* as good as it costs. For the Windows ME desktop, it's Monsoon's MM-1000 multimedia speakers. I have to use an external equalizer to *un-flatten* the dull sound.
I appreciate the access to new music the Internet gives, but I have no plans to invest in the additional hardware and faster service needed to make it worthwhile. I would rather just spend the money on recordings favorably reviewed by people I trust.
I have use my computer to listen to music, watch movies, and create content. Yes, I do have a hi-fi and a home theater, but the computer is just so convient. I run a Marantz reciever with a PSB Alpha Surround Package. It sounds great. Long live MP3!
I sample music on-line to help me decide whether I want to make a specific purchase. Listening to music is an activity best performed with a higher level of equipment in more suitable surroundings . Just how much of your life do you want to spend in front of the computer?