Some Thoughts on Music

It has been a very long road to come to these conclusion, and I have tested so many different solutions, but I think that I now have settled on this, and having peace.

I listen mostly on my own music, and when my Qobuz Sublime subscription ends in November I will not re-subscribe but instead use my own music, or maybe test something else that works in Music Assistant. You get great discounts on Qobuz, but sometimes when you buy music it is defective or not complete, and in these instances when you try to contact Qobuz, they do not answer. I have sent three mail, and they have not answered any. Therefore, I am finished with Qobuz.

Backend for my music is Navidrome, it is really quick in scanning through your library, and is steady getting better. I have tried Jellyfin and Emby, before that Plex, and Lyrion and LMS. I have about 2TB of flac music, and it takes a lot of time to index for Jellyfin; Emby is faster, and Lyrion even faster. For a while I thought that Lyrion would be my backend server because it is really great, but it did something with my tags, and I could not solve it. So, Navidrome it is.

I have Sonos speakers in every room, and they worked really well in Lyrion, that was the cause that I tried Lyrion; Jellyfin and Emby can also both play music on Sonos. When I was using Lyrion I found out that Squeezelite was a great protocol for playing music on different endpoints, but I ended up after countless tries with different OS’s for my Raspberry Pi 5 with a Wiim Pro to which today Music Assistant sends music via its wiim protocol (up to 192kHz/24-bit) connected to my Luxsin X8 Dac via a Coaxial cable, connected to my Arya Stealth, which sadly seems to have a channel imbalance (sometimes it is clear, and sometimes it is less clear, I guess it depends on the mastering of the music). I have ordered a pair of headphones, Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro MK II which I hope will work well with the music I listen to, and not having this imbalance.

I have been disappointed in Fiio. The K15 could not be connected my Wi-Fi without downgrading its security which was out of the question (SR 11 had not this problem). But the SR11 bought when trying out Roon has never been updated to be really useful without Roon, i.e., its DLNA implemention is not good at all. And they all seem forsaken by Fiio. There will be no more Fiio products.

I have been scobbling my music both to last.fm and listenbrainz, but wanted something that could be self-hosted, and after that I found Koito and Multi-Scrobbler I am perfectly content. Navidrome and Music Assistant scrobble to Multi-Scrobbler which sends it to Koito with a nice web interface with all stats one could need.

My music is either bought flac-files or CDs, and tagged via Mp3tag, sometimes using Foobar2000 because it exposes all tags, and sometimes you have to remove tags, which it is great at (it is a great player that works perfectly in Wine). And my ripper is Dbpoweramp which also works perfectly in Wine on Linux, but I am also evaluating Cyanrip. I am very fond of free software.

Music Software used:
Navidrome, great software as backend for my music. It is good to have one master source.
Music Assistant, it can easily take Roon's place (I evaluated Roon for three months and loved it, but it was very expensive and it was not an offline solution).
Cyanrip, for ripping CD.
Dbpoweramp, for ripping CD.
Mp3tag, for tagging music, this is most valuable to me. 
Foobar2000, mostly used to delete tags.
Audacity which is perfect to use if you would like to make a music album out of a great DVD or Blu-ray. For example is the Blu-ray release of Così fan tutte from Glyndebourne 2006 my favorite, and I have made it into an album via MakeMKV (to rip your legally bought DVDs and Blu-rays), and Audacity. It takes time, but you do it once.
Handbrake, to encode your legally bought Blu-rays.
Emby, to watch your encoded operas or classical concertos (or Jellyfin).

Music Hardware used:
Wiim Pro (streamer) connected to Luxsin X8 Dac. I have never been more happy with a Dac than with Luxsin X8. I recommend it with my whole heart.
Wiim Mini (streamer) connected to Fiio K15 Dac.
Hifiman Arya Stealth / Sennheiser HD 660S2 / Beyerdynamic 1990 Pro MK II (great headphones)
Sonos / Audio Pro (Sonos hardware is great, the rest of is is more questionable)
iPhone (Narjo for Navidrome / Xonora for Music Assistant)
Pixel8 with GrapheneOS (Symfonium for Navidrome / Ensemble for Music Assistant)

I use a Navidrome client on my phone when I play music on it, while using Music Assistant to play on Sonos/Audio Pro and my Wiim clients. You can use Music Assistant for everything, but it lacks real clients for now, and even if the web interface works perfectly, it lacks in functions as in timers and so on. And not all web browsers are good at playing hi-res flac files.

Listening to:
Mostly Baroque music, and according to Koito which have imported my last.fm music the stats looks like this:

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. George Frideric Handel
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

But the albums I have listened most to is Domenico Scarlatti's "Tolomeo E Alessandro Ovvero La Corona Disprezzata" (Alan Curtis; Ann Hallenberg, Roberta Invernizzi, Rafaella Milanesi, Klara Ek, Theodora Baka, Mary-Ellen Nesi; the cast is exceptional). "Don Giovanni" (Metropolitan Opera 2023 with Peter Mattei and Federica Lombardi, both great artists), and regarding Bach, I have most of the cd-boxes, but seems to prefer according to Koito, Helmuth Rilling's "Die kompletten Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach."

I listen to: Bach's cantatas and his orchestral music, and regarding his violin music I very much prefer Isabelle Faust, she is such a great musician; Handel's oratorios and operas, and one to lift up in this regard is the conductor Alan Curtis, his recordings are superb; Mozart's da Ponte operas, my favorite is Così fan tutte from Glyndebourne 2006 (Miah Persson and Topi Lehtipuu are great, also in the Salzburg Così from 2009); it is the same with Le nozze di Figaro, I prefer a Blu-ray release, from the Royal Opera House 2006 (Miah Persson is such a lovely soprano, and Gerald Finley is great as the Count), or the 1976 DVD release with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the Count, Mirella Freni as Susanna, and Hermann Prey as the best ever Figaro. I have already mentioned Domenico Scarlatti's Tolomeo e Alessandro, and sadly, no more operas of him survived, but his father's works are as good. I do not really listen to more modern composers than Beethoven except a few works here and there, opera excepted.

It took a while, but I have started to listen to Verdi's operas of which La Traviata is great (always loved it, same there, I really like the movie from both 1968 with Anna Moffo and Franco Bonisolli, and 1981 with Plácido Domingo, Cornell McNeil and Teresa Stratas), Otello and Rigoletto are also great operas. But it was via Puccini's La Bohème and Jussi Björling I came into contact med opera in the first place. And to hear Jussi Björling sing, "Non piangere, Liù" ('Do not cry, Liù' from Turandot) is something special. His voice had an incredible beauty. Still, I listen mostly to Baroque operas (Handel, Vivaldi, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Cimarosa, and more), and Mozart's da Ponte operas which gives me great joy and comfort, I speak of course of a temporal joy and comfort.

I need also to state this. Even if I love Handel's operas so are its stories mostly meaningless, while Mozart's da Ponte operas has both great music and story. I need no libretto with these operas or La Traviata, I know them by heart. But Handel was a master in creating music for the human voice. Listen at YouTube to "Amor e gelosia: Operatic Duets" with Joyce DiDonato and Patrizia Ciofi. I very much prefer listening to duets than to arias, and Handel was phenomenal in this regard. Therefore, I think, Così is so beautiful to me, no Mozart opera has greater vocal beauty.

Another thing that Mozart's da Ponte operas shows are what theologians have called "the doctrine of concupiscence." I will maybe write something about it later on. But they very much describes both man and woman lusting after what is forbidden, even if it is only in man's mind, it is still sinful (and concupiscence is not only about sex, it is about all forbidden desires). Once again it was pastor Peter Masters in London who preached about it and made me aware of it, and you should listen at it, "Our Lifelong Battle".

I have completely lost interest in TV and movies, I much rather sit in my armchair listening to some great opera, oratorio, or classical instrumental music. My background is in extreme metal, Napalm Death, Death, Bolt Thrower, Brutal Truth and many bands like these. But I have come to the conclusion as Peter Masters in London says: Should we listen to music that has its ground in rebellion against everything I believe in? I still listen to a few bands, especially when I need to concentrate, strangely do I concentrate the best having Napalm Death's "Enemy of the Music Business" in my ears.