The Article
PRESERVING MUSIC DATA (YOUTUBE)
12th March 2023
Do you own music as data? How do you store it? Hard disk? CD? DVD? Something else? How do you protect it? How do you stop it from dying?
Paul Rigby is your data chairman.
To view the feature, click:
Hi Paul
I wasn’t sure where the best place to contact you was so hope you don’t mind me doing so via a comments page.
I have just come across you on YouTube and thoroughly enjoyed watching your review of the Astell & Kern Kann Alpha DAP. I have just subscribed to your blog so am looking forward to reading more audiophile reviews from you.
I hope you don’t mind me asking but I am just starting to dip my toe into the world of DAPs and have been considering the A&K Kann Max and other DAPS from FIIO, Hiby etc. that are in a similar price bracket. My question is, given that most DAPS are Android based with some DAPS still running Android 10 or even older, what is the shelf-life of these devices? Will the versions of Android they run go out of support? Given that that the A&K Kann Max for instance is fairly expensive, will these DAPs still be useable in a few years time? If I was to spend that kind of money I would like to use it for a good few years. Many thanks, Bruce
Hi Bruce – you found me 🙂 I see any comment on this site, incidentally. No matter how old the review, etc. So yes, you did the right thing. And thanks for the sub!
In OS terms? I wouldn’t worry too much about the OS because DAP facilities are relatively narrow but its the hardware that is in a continual state of progression. That is, I think OS concerns are less of an issue than they might be for a phone or computer, for example. Like a modern PC, you can update the OS and the hard disk and increase RAM capacity till the cows come home but if you really want to maximise the performance of a modern computer, you will eventually have to buy a new one (i.e. new motherboard, new power supply to support it, fast RAM, etc).
Of more importance for a DAP (to me) is the state of the battery (if you use the DAP in a mobile environment), does it still support the music formats you use, does it support the headphones you need (e.g. balanced in its varied guises), is the memory support still relevant (i.e. the type of memory cards supported) and other directly practical concerns. Most DAP OS will (should) give you what need from the off.
Bit slow seeing this. Most of my music is on CD and, all of those are ripped as FLAC to the PC. Those files, together with downloads, are stored on the main system drive, a secondary drive in the PC and, an external back-up HDD.