MansionNET Forum

How do you consume music? Local files, streaming services, CDs, vinyls, cassettes? Which music players do you use?

I personally have stopped using Spotify since September last year, and now use local files. I've ripped the CDs that I already owned, and I've bought a couple more. Also I've started buying music on bandcamp.com since then and have now recently also bought music on qobuz.com. Those are the only two places that I know of that you can buy DRM free digital music. Please share if you know any more places!

As for music players I use Rhythmbox (https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.Rhythmbox3) on my Linux desktop and Auxio (https://f-droid.org/packages/org.oxycblt.auxio/) on my Android phone.

In addition I also have my music available on my selfhosted jellyfin instance, since I already had it running and it also supports music.

99% of the time I use local mp3/flac files, but when I'm feeling fancy, I spin up the vinyl player.

The equipment I have is nothing fancy, I haven't even set them up yet lol (in my defense, I've only lived in the current address for a bit over a year). Probably should do it during the weekend and play a couple of records... The vinyl player is a Denon, dont remember the model, amp is some new-ish Sony, don't remember the model of that either... Speakers are a set of Sony SS-G5. Good enough to the girls I go out with.

On the computer side, I use the Qmmp player, because it has a winamp skin. Though I'm probably going to try the fooyin, since it promises to be close to what Foobar2000 is.

As for CD's, I don't really play them at all. I like having them on the shelf, but they usually just get ripped to the HDD and played from there. I'm not too fuzzy about quality, 192kbps mp3 is the absolute minimum, so if I can't find a better quality version, that'll do. I do prefer 320kbps mp3 and wont say no to FLAC, but my hearing is so shit anyways that filling up the harddrive with FLAC seems like a waste to me.

What I did is created my own MP3 library, mostly full of FLAC files and have spun up a Navidrome (https://www.navidrome.org/) on the server to have the access to it from the outside world too. I now have around 50 000+ songs, and growing as I go. What helps downloading the music is using Soulseek, and the whole library organisation is done using Lidarr, from the arr stack. Lidarr itself is not ideal, but works ok once you get used to its kinks.

At home, from the analog perspective, I have a Pro Ject record player, a solid started collection of vinyl records and it's all piped in via an Onkyo amp and Yamaha standing speakers.

This is the photo of the setup in the living room:

Most streaming services nowadays suck,so i prefer to download my music...a little less convenient,but at least i dont gotta connect to wifi just to listen to some music:)

I mostly use Idagio, a streaming service dedicated exclusively to classical music, but I do have several thousands of pieces downloaded in lossless formats on my PC.

I had the good fortune to get a free Roon licence for life, most of my music is played through that to various sonos and wiim amps, streamed outside the house using Roon ARC, when it works.

Most of my music is flac, ripped direct from CD's which i still try and buy a few a month.

Wrote my own little python thingy to use the soundcloud api and internet radios

lipstick wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2026 9:52 pm

Wrote my own little python thingy to use the soundcloud api and internet radios
Bildschirmfoto vom 2026-06-16 23-52-08.png

Awesome job on that one, it looks really cool!

lipstick wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2026 9:52 pm

Wrote my own little python thingy to use the soundcloud api and internet radios
Bildschirmfoto vom 2026-06-16 23-52-08.png

Looking good. And cool that you something like that with the soundcloud api!

Avatar wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2026 1:22 pm

What I did is created my own MP3 library, mostly full of FLAC files and have spun up a Navidrome (https://www.navidrome.org/) on the server to have the access to it from the outside world too. I now have around 50 000+ songs, and growing as I go. What helps downloading the music is using Soulseek, and the whole library organisation is done using Lidarr, from the arr stack. Lidarr itself is not ideal, but works ok once you get used to its kinks.

At home, from the analog perspective, I have a Pro Ject record player, a solid started collection of vinyl records and it's all piped in via an Onkyo amp and Yamaha standing speakers.

This is the photo of the setup in the living room:
4032-3024-max.jpg

I also mostly have flac files now. I even got the few songs I had bought on itunes back in the day out in CD quality by burning them to a CD and then ripping them off the CD again xD

I have thought to try out navidrome but so far I'm fine with just using the jellyfin that I already have for having the music accessible through the internet. I don't remember having heard of Soulseek though. Maybe I should check that out.

That's a pretty cool setup you've got there for listening. I can't claim to know half of the stuff you mention in there, but it sounds cool. I have an amp and cd player with yamaha speakers set to in my living room that I'm borrowing from my mother's husband, since he's not using it currently. I also use my CDs in my car. I have even burned some of my digital albums to CDs for that listening purpose.

Navidrome looks awesome.

Like most people these days, I listen to music across a variety of sources. I have a fairly decent vinyl collection for when the mood strikes — especially with a whisky or two in hand.

Day to day, I stream YouTube Music on a paid family subscription (mainly for the kids), and I also have a ton of FLAC files waiting for the day I finally commit to setting up a self-hosted system. When the kids leave home, that's probably when I'll make the switch and drop the YTM sub — which keeps creeping up in price anyway, so screw that.

I also listen to a lot of free streaming radio — MansionNet is one of them, and I've been a long-time SomaFM listener too (Lush, Groove Salad, Folk Forward are favourites).

Where I can, I try to support artists directly with a vinyl purchase. Paid streaming is more of a bad habit I'm planning to kick.