Portable music redux

Not everything lasts forever and unfortunately my clip on portable music player died last week after a few years of life.

This Sandisk Clip Zip  music player developed a couple of faults one being being unable to recharge the internal battery from a charger and the second being over 70% of the time it would not be recognized by my Windows Laptop so I could neither charge it from that nor add music to it. 😒

Bit of a problem, what?

I was looking at possible replacements as that manufacture has in many ways lost real interest in new players plus as no longer use exclusively Windows computers (Up with Linux!) something that doesn't reply on a Windows or Apple program to use it.

Recently the Chinese company Fiio discontinued its 2014 X1 player for the X1 Mark ii with blue tooth and a different round scrolling wheel which meant there were  number of the older players on the market both new and some used  and I was able to find one used in excellent condition  for little more than what I paid for the Clip Zip in late December 2012 which is quite a step up from that model.

Removed from its rubberized protective jacket, you can see a bigish 2.4 inch screen showing the menus you navigate using a scrolling wheel, an okay/confirm button in the centre and a back key on the top right. It may be a little old-fashioned in an age of touch screens but hey! it works and is easy to understand.

The bigger screen helps with album art often included in commercial downloads or those you might have added on anything you've copied from cd yourself without the size and format restrictions that were trying on the Clip Zip.

Talking of formats without getting super technical, it'll play Mp3's from the likes of Amazon, AAC files as loved by iTunes and also used by 7digital and lossless "full cd quality" ones in Flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and Alac (the same thing but by Apple) other stores supply.

It also includes the ability to play 24 bit so-called High Resolution audio files some stores and artists offer should you have any which as it happens I do as they can sound better than regular cds even.

The headphone output is noticeably better, able to go louder easily when the music requires it without sounding strained and will drive most headphones very well as is.

The real beauty of this is by selecting it on the menu, it can output a very high quality 'line level output' to connect to a stereo system as if it was a audio component so you could use this like cd player except for playing your music files you might of bought from iTunes from instead without having your computer on.

On the right side of the case is a Micro SD card slot because this play has no internal memory but uses these popular and ever cheaper memory cards which means you can make a series of cards up by music types for example and just swap them over.

In Fiio's players you insert the card writing side toward the back of the player rather than the front. Presently it can take upto 128gb cards although cards over 32gb need to be 'formatted' using the formatting tool in the player before first using them to put your music on by just dragging and dropping the folders to the card which I was doing this weekend.

Although it lacks a FM radio, something I do like for listening to shows like BBC Radio 4's "The World at One", this is a really good replacement for that no longer working Sandisk player.

There goes the neighborhood

Here we go a week on from the enforced rest edition and I'm slowly recovering from this rotten head cold and associated cough that is stuck down my tubes.

Talking of that old laptop, a few of you how much I like stuff along the Eagles, Don Henley, Glen Frey and Joe Walsh direction and how I'd filled in some of the missing albums over the last year I didn't get around to backing up.

Dig the tank picture!

The origins of my Joe Walsh collection were from various sites that had the downloads on although I did get the various 'audiophile' editions of his cds at cost, but many of his albums are hard to find in cd form.

I tracked a few down on iTunes in their better sounding Mastered for iTunes versions but until recently this one escaped me as it wasn't available at any reputable store such as  7Digital or Amazon either.

Released in 1981, shortly after he'd left the Eagles, it was his fifth solo album and the home of the 45 'A Life of illusion' recorded as early as 1973 but only completed for this album which only got as far as a top twenty placing.

It features former Eagles  band mates Timothy B Schmidt  and Don Felder playing and concludes with 'You Never Know' an angry swipe at the Eagles band management company.

This was recently re-released digitally by Rhino/Warners and I as able to get the download from iTunes after a bit of consenting to the new customer agreement which does sound quite a bit better than the mushy Mp3 version I had before.

Now playing "Who's Better, Who's Best" by the Who.

A survey of Classical Music for 2015

Another bright sunny day so why not get this post written so I can chill a bit later on as after that rotten migraine I need the rest.

Anyway as several of you know I have had a long liking for what is termed Classical music  stemming from actual childhood having had my own meagre record collection from around the age of 8 of my favourite pieces.

Over the years I've added recordings to them, changed formats  as the years have seen the availability of and advent of recordings new media has changed and I've written a bit in the past on the blog about them.

The music of Ravel was one of the first composers I encountered and recently this recording by the distinguished American conductor  Leonard Slatkin, whose career I've followed over the years. The playing by the French orchestra is superb and I can see this and  it's second volume that I also purchased gaining a few awards at the years end.

Bela Bartok's Concerto is a fine example of twentieth century classical music, indeed many have said it has some of the boldness associated with American composers that period so it's fitting this is performed by an an American orchestra and a remarkable female American conductor Marin Alsop who has conducted in many countries including the 2013 Last Night of the Proms in England.

How many of us just loved watching Disney's Fantasia and can remember that series with Mickey Mouse getting in trouble as the Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Well that was written by by France's Dukas and is featured in this excellent modern recording that has plenty of character.

 Finally and fittingly back to violin music and a violinist I first encountered way way back in 1992 in a program of French Sonatas for violin and piano.

One thing technically all these recordings I purchased have in common is that although they are available on regular cd, I bought these as better than cd quality 'High Definition'  24 bit downloads which can be played on a computer.

I play them using my Fiio x3 digital audio players line output through my hifi system as well as on headphones where the smoothness and lack of the low level artifacts that even the best cds have is noticeable.