About 20 years ago, Art Scott visited us and he picked out a new stereo system for me. It consisted of a Rotel CD player, a Rotel amplifier, B&W standalone speakers, and a Onkyo tuner. I had no problems until about nine months ago when the Rotel CD player started to skip. I took it to The Speaker Shop, our local audiophile stereo store where I originally bought my system, and the owner asked, “Do you want to fix it or buy a new one?”
I said, “Let’s get it fixed.” A week later I got the call to pick up my Rotel CD player. It worked fine until last week when it started skipping again. Time for Plan B. I returned to The Speaker Shop and bought a new Rotel 11 CD player. Patrick installed it and now wonderful music fills our house again with no skips. I listen to music every day. How about you?
After installing the new Rotel 11, Patrick chose The Corrs’s Talk on Corners: Special Edition for the first CD to play. Great Choice!!!
Tracklist
| 1 | What Can I Do (Tin Tin Out Remix) | 4:12 | |
| 2 | So Young (K-Klass Remix) | 4:12 | |
| 3 | Only When I Sleep | 4:23 | |
| 4 | When He’s Not Around | 4:26 | |
| 5 | Dreams (Tee’s Radio) | 3:53 | |
| 6 | I Never Loved You Anyway | 4:26 | |
| 7 | Don’t Say You Love Me | 4:39 | |
| 8 | Love Gives, Love Takes | 3:43 | |
| 9 | Runaway (Tin Tin Out Remix) | 4:45 | |
| 10 | Hopelessly Addicted | 4:03 | |
| 11 | Paddy McCarthy | 4:59 | |
| 12 | Intimacy | 3:57 | |
| 13 | Queen Of Hollywood | 5:02 | |
| 14 | No Good For Me | 4:00 | |
| 15 | Little Wing | 5:07 |
I have a 4k blu ray player and I listen thru that. It’s hooked up with my tv thru a soundbar and sounds fine. Since I live in an apartment I don’t need an elaborate system.
Steve, many of my friends have a similar arrangement like yours. Easy peasy!
I don’t listen to music near as much as I should and never heard of the Corrs! My main source of music was the car radio, but ever since the oldies stations decided to eliminate the fifties and much of the sixties I gave up on them!
Bob, The Corrs are a wonderful Irish group. Check them out on Youtube.
I’ve had one or two CDs over the years that skipped but the problem was in the CDs, not the player. My CD player is relatively old but it works well and sounds fine. I also have one in my car that I rarely use because I also have Sirius/XM. When I get a new car, which will likely be fairly soon, I know it won’t come with a CD player, and that’s OK with me.
To be honest, I don’t listen to music nearly as much as I used to. For most of my life I had both all the old music I liked and new music that was coming out. Now there’s very little new stuff coming out that I care about. I had to Google The Corrs to see who they were. Give me The Cars.
Here’s an interesting tidbit I picked up in the June Harper’s Index: in 1990, the percentage of # 1 pop songs attributed to one songwriter was 40. In 2020, it was zero. I don’t see that as either a positive or negative thing, but it’s interesting.
Michael, today’s music is more of a group collaboration. I’d say I listen to older music 80% of the time and contemporary music 20% of the time (mostly when I’m driving around running errands).
Also, so much new music (especially EDM—which I listen to a lot) is driven by producer/writers who sample multiple older songs in putting together a new one: all of the original writers have to be credited, along with the writer(s) of the new creation. I’m not opposed to this “pop will eat itself” approach to music production as long as the original artists/writers are appropriately credited and compensated. For example, Beyoncé has a song that samples ELO’s “Evil Woman” and does it quite well. On the other hand, I hated that stupid song by Kid Rock because every time it started I was eagerly anticipating Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” only for that idiot to start singing!
Deb, I take a dim view of “sampling” which to me is just ripping off classic artists’s music.
; perhaps the visual dimensions of the Corrs (despite their puritanism, which I know about without really needing nor wanting to, but I can remember that when I can rarely remember anyone’s name immediately) are persuasive, even though Paulina Porizkova is a secondary recommendation there, despite the apparently horrible attitude and behavior of Rick Ocasek toward her (which I know about instead of being able to recall certain words, though this is not a one-to-one correspondence) and it’s not as if I read PEOPLE magazine nor US nor even US’s stablemate ROLLING STONE (or are they anymore?).
Alice has been dusting off the long-dormant Sonos equipment and feeding Spotify and other feeds through them. I have nearly all my (and my parents’) vinyl, but don’t have a turntable system set up (keep waiting, so far in vain, for the laser systems to be made remotely affordable so the vinyl isn’t inherently degraded with every play any longer, a technology that’s in its teens but remains exclusively Ridiculously overpriced. Will pop in the odd cd from time to time, though mostly listen to streaming music, though the computer speakers are Not Great.
Todd, my children listen to music mostly from streaming services–Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc.–on their iPads and laptop computers.
Ha. This computer (an Acer, so of course) is not great in many ways.
The cut-off part of the comment above is:
I will take the Corrs over the Cars:
Todd, I like both The Corrs and The Cars, but I’d have to give the edge to The Corrs.
11! Where do they all go? It doesn’t look that big. We have a BOSE system 2, with 4 CDs. Jackie wanted one for years, and instead of getting it in the outlet on the way to Florida (where we would have had to carry it there and back), she actually look the Long Island RR out to the outlet in Suffolk County, then I picked her up at the Atlantic Avenue station. It’s good. We do listen to a lot of music. Latest purchases include MAMMA MIA! (the Broadway soundtrack), Lloyd Price’s THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (2 CDs, bought after his recent death), Ray Charles’s THE GENIUS collection (10 CDs, with 17 original albums, including Volume 1 and 2 of Modern Sounds in Western Music), plus two newer CDs of Jackie’s current favorite, The Mavericks (PLAY THE HITS and BRAND NEW DAY). That adds to the two double CD collections and two other CDs of theirs that we have.
In the car, I usually bring an oldies collection to listen to.
Jeff, I love all the new old music you and Jackie have invested in! Sadly, I suspect your next car will not have a CD player in it. When I bought my Nissan Rogue, the salesman told me it was the last model that would have a CD player in it. All the car makers are dropping CD players like they did tape players.
I still buy a lot of cd’s, although most are older ones my collection is missing. In recent months I’ve bought a box set of the first 5 Little Feat albums, a best of Marshall Crenshaw, a later Ramones album I didn’t have and the newest Nick Cave.
In my car I listen to Sirius-usually Little Steven’s Underground Garage, Deep Tracks, and First Wave.
Mamma Mia? I would rather poke hot needles into my ears. Almost as bad as Celine Dion or Paul Anka records.
Steve, I’m still surprised at the number of quality CDs I can find for a pittance at thrift stores. People are dumping their CD collections and album collections each week!
We just have a basic CD player—probably from Walmart for less than $30 a few years ago. We have hundreds of CDs, but now we all have Spotify accounts and set up our own playlists and listen to music through earbuds or Bluetooth headphones, we rarely use the CD player. We do have a Bluetooth speaker and sometimes listen to music through it, but mostly we’re all in our own musical worlds. I do listen to music every day, but usually through headphones. When I’m reading, I prefer something without words (especially late-1950s/early-1960s jazz). When I’m cooking or doing housework, I choose something from my EDM or 80s New Wave playlists.
And I do have Sirius/XM in my car. I have 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, Beatles, and First Wave (“Classic Alternative”) on the first band; three EDM channels, the disco channel, and two classic R&B channels on the second level; and various jazz stations on the third.
Deb, I listen to WATERCOLORS on Sirius/XM (the smooth jazz station) and SOUL TOWN frequently when I’m driving around.
Deb, like you I prefer instrumental music when I’m reading. When I’m vacuuming I dial up a Disco CD to the max!
20 years of service from any piece of equipment is extraordinary. Most seem programmed to self-destruct in five to 10 years. And usually there’s no other option than to replace it. Either it costs as much or more to fix than replace, or the technology has become outdated and it isn’t even fixable any more.
A coworker was complaining the other day that she couldn’t find anyone to fix her tv—and I realized that tv/radio/camera repair is another of those skills/vocations that has completely disappeared. It’s been well over 40 years since I took a tv to a repair shop. We recently purchased a new Roku tv for our bedroom—and we ended up taking our old set (which was ancient—close to 20 years old) to Best Buy—which will dispose of your old tv (supposedly in an environmentally-friendly way) for $25. It was worth it because the trash service won’t take them and I didn’t want to dump a broken tv onto the Goodwill. I told my coworker to just bite the bucket and get a new tv.
Bite the bullet! Stupid autocorrect! (Although “bite the bucket” has a nice Norm Crosby-esque sound to it!(
Deb, I battle with AUTOCORRECT each day! It changes my words “automatically” so if I don’t carefully reread my posts, a lot of weird word substitutions result.
Deb, I just recycled a dozen of Patrick’s old hard drives at Best Buy. And, our old Netgear router.
Fred, you’re right about “planned obsolesce” being part of contemporary manufacturing. Diane’s Maytag washer lasted over 40 years. I’m sure our new washer won’t make it that long.
Hardly ever any more, though I have tons of CDs, classical, jazz and (older) rock.
Rick, I just enjoy the whole music CD experience. I like the jewelry box the CD comes in, I like the liner notes. I like the sound (which in many ways is superior to the streaming sound online).
Now if they would only print the liner notes big enough so that you don’t need a magnifying glass to read them.
Steve, you are so right about the microscopic print of liner notes! And, I confess, I do use a magnifying glass to read them!
Sound depends on the receiver and speakers, natch. Our “devices” have lousy sound. But my good system is downstairs, as are the CDs, and the stairs are beginning to be a real pain.
Rick, we have stereo systems on the First Floor, the Second Floor, and the basement. No matter which level of our house I’m on, I can listen to wonderful CD music! Art Scott has a fabulous stereo system in his Living Room and a smaller (though great sounding) system in his Office.
We gave away our CD changer (Yamaha) and the amplifier and the big boxes last year. Now we have left just a standard Sony system, not bad but nothing special.
That changer can take 5 CDs – is this no longer en vogue?
Since we don’t have SIRIUS or something similar it’s my pleasure to pick the next CD from the pile of more than 100 -sometimes my wife does it too – when she’s in the mood.
Got a nice surprise yesterday. Bought a “new” car – actually a used one, the same little Opel Meriva. Everything works similarly – but the sound system is much better!
So tomorrow which is a holiday in Europe I’ll select the first 10 or 20 CDs to play in the car.
Wolf, Diane and I usually take a dozen or so CDs in our vehicle when we travel to Ohio (to visit Diane’s sister) or to Boston (to visit our daughter). Congratulations on your “new” Opel!
I have a larger Sony system with a radio, CD player and turntable in my basement room where my presently not-functioning Rockola jukebox is. In the bedroom next door is a smaller Sony system with a radio and CD. Must have 100 CDs that I have picked up at sales and haven’t played. Seems like I always go to ones I know and like rather than try new stuff. I have Sirius in my car where the stations I usually listen to switch among NPR, Willy’s Roadhouse,Margaritavile and Sirius Sinatra. I also listen to our local nostlagia station in my car, but like someone mentioned about their station, the music of the Forties and Fifties seems to be disappearing. The nostalgia station also broadcasts the games of our independent league baseball team, the Winnipeg Goldeyes and an AM station broadcasts the pro football and hockey games. You probably saw that our Jets just knocked off the Edmonton Oilers in four straight games. The locals have jumped heavily back on the bandwagon.
Kent, congratulations to the Oilers. Some “experts” had picked the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup this year. Oops! Meanwhile, the doleful Buffalo Sabres have missed the NHL Playoffs for 10 straight years.
Music is a constant in my life. In fact I wrote in my Panda Planner in the ‘I’m grateful for” section and listed “music” in the first slot as I was driving to work streaming Pandora listening to wonderful instrumental music that fit so perfectly with the cloudy skies and cool breeze coming in the windows as I drove.
I love making playlists on YouTube and Spotify and Pandora and bought a record player over Christmas to be able to return to my childhood nostalgia of buying and having LP’s.
I have been making an effort more to have times of silence as I think they are important, and I know my wife prefers to come home and not hear music blaring, but much of my day remains filled with music, even if it is just background while I work or am reading.
Carl, you and I share similar listening routines. I always have music on in my vehicle when I’m driving around. I listen to music when I’m working on the books in the basement. When my wife is out shopping or visiting her friends, I really crank up my main system and play some Heavy Metal!