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With public domain ebooks in text based formats, if desired, it’s easy for a distributor or for the end user to change the display fonts (and font attributes) t

by AnonC 6y ago

With public domain ebooks in text based formats, if desired, it’s easy for a distributor or for the end user to change the display fonts (and font attributes) to make it easier or more pleasant to read. For audiobooks, these factors — the voice of the narrator, the intonations and expressions, accent and more — matter to have a good listening experience. Even commercially published audiobooks are dissed on the basis of having a poor narrator. An audiobook player doesn’t have a lot to provide on these factors (with the current technology) compared to ebooks. With the above context, how is a dump of audiobooks like this useful to the masses without reviews from people who have listened to the works? The lack of reviews here is not a problem as much as the lack of a reviewing or commenting interface would be, IMO. How do the current listeners (on HN) of works here decide what to download or not? Or is it just a matter of “download, listen and see if it’s good enough or move on”?

nsomaru 6y ago
The LibriVox app on iOS has reviews. Otherwise, uh, it’s free. Take a listen, if it works, keep it. If not, drop it. Conundrum solved.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
  It has non-zero opportunity cost. The search for LibriVox seems to have no indication of the user rated quality of the recording and lists entries with no completed books. I love audiobooks, but honestly don't see an easy way to interface with this site
  - chooseaname 6y ago
    > It has non-zero opportunity cost. Then just don't use it at all. Go buy a sub to Audible.
    - X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
      Fuck audible. I get most of my audiobooks from the public library
COGlory 6y ago
There are reviews in the Android app, which is what I usually listen to. Narration is a personal preference, but I've found many of the narrations are pretty good. Even compared to paid ones. I work in a laboratory where I can go hours without the ability to even touch my phone to turn something on or off, or change volumes. So far, I've only been terminally annoyed to the point I turned it off, despite wearing acid contaminated gloves. For me, that's a pretty good track record.
reallydontask 6y ago
> Or is it just a matter of “download, listen and see if it’s good enough or move on”? Pretty much. It can be pretty annoying when a book has multiple narrators as the quality can vary significantly, so you might get deep into a book before you start getting consistently bad narrators. I can't remember the book now, but it put me off using LibriVox forever. Now I try the local library app or the app from the local library where I used to live and if that fails there is always audible.
- JadeNB 6y ago
  > It can be pretty annoying when a book has multiple narrators as the quality can vary significantly, so you might get deep into a book before you start getting consistently bad narrators. I think one of the most annoying experiences I had was when they changed narrators in the third book of the Takeshi Kovacs series. It wasn't even that the third narrator was bad, especially, just that he sounded wrong—but I was far too invested to set it aside at that point.
dancek 6y ago
That's true, but I don't think it's a huge problem. Listening to an audiobook typically takes at least five hours. Usually you can tell whether you're happy with the narration within a couple of minutes. While you say "a dump of audiobooks", it is certainly not that for the readers who put in a considerable amount of work for each and every title. And it is certainly not that for the listeners who can listen to books not otherwise available. I don't think reading or listening to books at random (or based on average community score) makes sense. If you pick books based on trustworthy recommendations, most problems go away. Then just see where that book is available; if it is on Librivox and it's good enough, great. If not, get a commercial edition or a hard copy. I've only listened to a single audiobook from Librivox. It was a book that has no commercial counterpart. The quality was mediocre but I was really happy to be able to listen to that specific book. On the other hand, I had to stop listening to another commercially produced book (that I also wanted to listen to) because I couldn't stand the narrator, so I do see your point of view.
danielbarla 6y ago
> How do the current listeners (on HN) of works here decide what to download or not? Or is it just a matter of “download, listen and see if it’s good enough or move on”? Pretty much download, listen, move on. But after a few, you might start recognising the reader, and have confidence in them. (It's been a while for me since I made heavy use of Librivox, so I've forgotten the ones I preferred.)
blindluke 6y ago
All valid points, and I did spend quite a bit of time finding the narrators I like. If you want a place to start, I can recommend the recordings by Mark Nelson - https://librivox.org/reader/251 https://librivox.org/reader/251 He recorded a lot of pulp classics - "The Cosmic Computer", "First Lensman", "Hour of the Dragon", "Princess of Mars", "Space Viking". Professional quality recording, great voice, charming books.
- JadeNB 6y ago
  I knew I was listening to a lot of audiobooks when I started having strong opinions about favoured and disfavoured narrators. NYT recently profiled Eduoardo Ballerini as a kind of "voice of God", but, for me, that's John Man. What Don LaFontaine is to movie trailers, John Man is for audiobooks, at least to me.
andrepd 6y ago
Why are commercial audiobooks automatically higher quality while LibreVox is "a dump" of audiobooks? For what's worth I listened to about half a dozen audiobooks off LibreVox and the quality has ranged from good to superb.

by AnonC 6y ago

nsomaru 6y ago

The LibriVox app on iOS has reviews. Otherwise, uh, it’s free. Take a listen, if it works, keep it. If not, drop it. Conundrum solved.

X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
It has non-zero opportunity cost. The search for LibriVox seems to have no indication of the user rated quality of the recording and lists entries with no completed books. I love audiobooks, but honestly don't see an easy way to interface with this site
- chooseaname 6y ago
  > It has non-zero opportunity cost. Then just don't use it at all. Go buy a sub to Audible.
  - X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
    Fuck audible. I get most of my audiobooks from the public library

COGlory 6y ago

There are reviews in the Android app, which is what I usually listen to. Narration is a personal preference, but I've found many of the narrations are pretty good. Even compared to paid ones. I work in a laboratory where I can go hours without the ability to even touch my phone to turn something on or off, or change volumes. So far, I've only been terminally annoyed to the point I turned it off, despite wearing acid contaminated gloves. For me, that's a pretty good track record.

reallydontask 6y ago

> Or is it just a matter of “download, listen and see if it’s good enough or move on”? Pretty much. It can be pretty annoying when a book has multiple narrators as the quality can vary significantly, so you might get deep into a book before you start getting consistently bad narrators. I can't remember the book now, but it put me off using LibriVox forever. Now I try the local library app or the app from the local library where I used to live and if that fails there is always audible.

JadeNB 6y ago
> It can be pretty annoying when a book has multiple narrators as the quality can vary significantly, so you might get deep into a book before you start getting consistently bad narrators. I think one of the most annoying experiences I had was when they changed narrators in the third book of the Takeshi Kovacs series. It wasn't even that the third narrator was bad, especially, just that he sounded wrong—but I was far too invested to set it aside at that point.

dancek 6y ago

That's true, but I don't think it's a huge problem. Listening to an audiobook typically takes at least five hours. Usually you can tell whether you're happy with the narration within a couple of minutes. While you say "a dump of audiobooks", it is certainly not that for the readers who put in a considerable amount of work for each and every title. And it is certainly not that for the listeners who can listen to books not otherwise available. I don't think reading or listening to books at random (or based on average community score) makes sense. If you pick books based on trustworthy recommendations, most problems go away. Then just see where that book is available; if it is on Librivox and it's good enough, great. If not, get a commercial edition or a hard copy. I've only listened to a single audiobook from Librivox. It was a book that has no commercial counterpart. The quality was mediocre but I was really happy to be able to listen to that specific book. On the other hand, I had to stop listening to another commercially produced book (that I also wanted to listen to) because I couldn't stand the narrator, so I do see your point of view.

danielbarla 6y ago

> How do the current listeners (on HN) of works here decide what to download or not? Or is it just a matter of “download, listen and see if it’s good enough or move on”? Pretty much download, listen, move on. But after a few, you might start recognising the reader, and have confidence in them. (It's been a while for me since I made heavy use of Librivox, so I've forgotten the ones I preferred.)

blindluke 6y ago

All valid points, and I did spend quite a bit of time finding the narrators I like. If you want a place to start, I can recommend the recordings by Mark Nelson - https://librivox.org/reader/251 https://librivox.org/reader/251 He recorded a lot of pulp classics - "The Cosmic Computer", "First Lensman", "Hour of the Dragon", "Princess of Mars", "Space Viking". Professional quality recording, great voice, charming books.

JadeNB 6y ago
I knew I was listening to a lot of audiobooks when I started having strong opinions about favoured and disfavoured narrators. NYT recently profiled Eduoardo Ballerini as a kind of "voice of God", but, for me, that's John Man. What Don LaFontaine is to movie trailers, John Man is for audiobooks, at least to me.

andrepd 6y ago

Why are commercial audiobooks automatically higher quality while LibreVox is "a dump" of audiobooks? For what's worth I listened to about half a dozen audiobooks off LibreVox and the quality has ranged from good to superb.