[Domc76]

Hello there,
I have just recently decided that I think I would like to buy the sennheiser hd 598's and realized that I have a problem which is that I get all of my music from youtube. I was just curious as to what would be the best way to get good sound quality out of my music for free. I will not be buying an amp.

 

[Baxide]

Quote:

 I was just curious as to what would be the best way to get good sound quality out of my music for free.

i wouldn't call free music sound science.

 

[Domc76]

Sorry, where should I have posted this question?

 

[mikeaj]

Probably the music section?
 
Anyway, try renting CDs from a public library. As for everything else, via the Internet. Everything streamed is going to be compressed; some should be around YouTube quality, but some might be a bit better. Look at free Internet radio stations, free-level subscriptions to streaming services like Pandora, free content on places like SoundCloud, etc.
 
Actually, I'm not even sure if I'm answering the right question, seeing as "get good sound quality out of my music" usually implies audio equipment or software that shapes the balance or some effect of the sound of music you already have (see: "my music"). Now, this is the interpretation that might make more sense for the sound science subforum. But the sentence before implies that you're looking for an alternative source of music itself other than YouTube. I don't even know.

 

[Domc76]

Basically I am getting sennheiser 598's and I want to get the best quality sound out of them without an amp. and i'm sure that downloading songs from youtube would not be the best way of doing that. where do you get your music from? and what are my options that will still have decent sound quality when listened to through the 598's?

 

[KamijoIsMyHero]

Buy CDs and rip them, or buy downloads of flacs. It would help to know what equipment you have for it though.

 

[Domc76]

I have a laptop.

 

[dizzyorange]

It's hard to understand what you are asking.  If you are asking how to pirate music, you won't find that kind of information here, although it really isn't hard to figure out. If you are asking where to get music for free legally, there's an above post with some good suggestions.  If you are asking how to make the 598's sound good without an amp/DAC, the answer is that they will sound pretty good right out of your laptop audio-out: they aren't hard cans to drive.  IMO they are somewhat bright headphones so the rolled-off treble of compressed music from youtube might not be such a negative.  If you are coming from ibuds or crappy headphones, the 598s will probably seem "bright" and "thin" at first (at least they did to me).

 

[Domc76]

Alright, thank you for the advice, and I was basically asking what was the BEST source for free music to go along with these headphones bringing them the best quality. I'm sure that's understandable considering everybody who gets nice headphones wants to get the best out of them. And like I said earlier, I am afraid that YouTube downloaded music will not live up to the standards of the headphones. But if your saying the combination of the two will equal out the quality, then all is good!

 

[moriez]

I've looked up a few threads worthwhile looking through:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/558074/where-to-download-lossless-music
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/594167/blind-test-128kbps-mp3-vs-lossless
http://www.head-fi.org/t/646131/do-you-hear-the-difference-take-the-128kbps-320kbps-test
http://www.head-fi.org/t/570621/flac-vs-320-mp3
 
 
Also Bandcamp comes to mind. Some artists let you ''name your price'' for 320/FLAC downloads. Zero dollars is an accepted amount ^^

 

[Horsty]

Hey,
maybe you could also sign up at last.fm and get yourself the free mp3 downloads there.
You can also listen to certain radios there in the browser, but I'd suggest you just ripped your CDs as FLAC
 
The effort is worth taking

 

[Domc76]

Hey,
maybe you could also sign up at last.fm and get yourself the free mp3 downloads there.
You can also listen to certain radios there in the browser, but I'd suggest you just ripped your CDs as FLAC

The effort is worth taking

So if I don't have cd's that would be your best suggestion?

 

[TMRaven]

What mikeaj suggested.  Checkout CDs from your local library and rip them.  

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

So if I don't have cd's that would be your best suggestion?

 
Buy 'em, either in CDs or lossless downloads, then you compress that to 320kbps MP3 for most portable devices; the lossless is for your main archive and also when you upgrade your home system, you already have that copy. Think of it this way: you're going to buy audio equipment and not spend money on quality music copies? That would be like me buying a nice camera, then going on a tour group for free and none of them are photo hobbyists, so what happens is we go to one location for 30mins then leave - I can't wait around for proper lighting (ie sun angle, or for nice long exposure, at night) or better street scenes with people (locals) doing more interesting things, and instead I only get a few hurried shots of the area in bad light or photos of tourists holding up iPads to take photos and selfies. Or like buying a nice rifle, but never go hunting, no Zombie apocalypse or Commie uprising, and all you do is shoot cans off a bench.
 
Where are you anyway? Over here it's kind of tough to get quality music from outside the country thanks to corrupt customs officials but we found ways around that. Also local indie labels, thanks to tech advancements, no longer partner with big labels for production and distribution. Heck the older EP's I have look like some high school kid's music class project by today's standards.

 

[Domc76]

Thank you  for your suggestions, but I simply do not have the extra money to buy all of my music considering I am a high school student and don't have time for a job.  I am from Illinois.  And I also know that there are ways of getting good quality music for free but I just don't know how it's done. I figured since you are all so knowledgeable about the subject of music quality, you could shed some light on me in getting quality music for free. 
 
By the way, I am also a photographer so I thought that was a very interesting analogy