Music - How do you listen to yours?

Scubadevils

What do people listen mostly to these days in terms of the format (i.e. digital, CD, vinyl etc) and by what means of playback??? - MP3 player/with dock, HIFI separates, HIFI system (all-in-one), ghetto blaster (is that term still used? ), through the computer etc...

I have worked in various shapes and forms in consumer electronics for several years and I have never seen such a shortage of HIFI systems for sale in electrical stores as now. There are all sorts of docking solutions popping up but the days of good separates being widely available seem to be slipping away sadly.

There was a time where a long wall of music systems were there for the picking, now they are given a tiny space with very little in the way of choices. Clearly the market has driven it this way and the massive movement to digital playback has knocked a huge dent in the old reliable music systems.

So, what do people here use to play music on?

Karl Hungus

How do I listen to music? With my ears.

Hootanany

Ditto:D

Scubadevils

Karl Hungus wrote: »

How do I listen to music? With my ears.

Do you stick a cd straight into your ear or direct via USB?

LeBash

I mostly use my car cd player. At home, I have a Hi-Fi, but i rarely use it.

I rip all my cds as wav's and have a nice set of monitors to play them off. MP3 is a bit rough and normally for people that want quantity over quaility.

ntlbell

Mostly on the "PC" ripped to FLAC dedicated DAC/AMP/HeadPhones

If listening with visitors it tends to be Technics seperates with CD's

Or streaming FLAC via HTPC amp'd via technics

Scubadevils

Yeah I'm mostly on the computer too, ripped to Apple Lossless for Mac playback and FLAC then for on the move - Cowon S9 with Sennheiser ie6, a nice combo I must say, great sound.

Other than that I have Marantz separates in two rooms and I bought a TEAC system for the kitchen a while back which probably gets most use - it is connected to the network so can stream everything to it, although I do still mainly plays CDs on it as I can't be arsed with looking through folders on a little screen.

ntlbell

Felixdhc wrote: »

Yeah I'm mostly on the computer too, ripped to Apple Lossless for Mac playback and FLAC then for on the move - Cowon S9 with Sennheiser ie6, a nice combo I must say, great sound.

Other than that I have Marantz separates in two rooms and I bought a TEAC system for the kitchen a while back which probably gets most use - it is connected to the network so can stream everything to it, although I do still mainly plays CDs on it as I can't be arsed with looking through folders on a little screen.

That TEAC system looks pretty cool, never seen that before, a tad pricey tho.

Scubadevils

ntlbell wrote: »

That TEAC system looks pretty cool, never seen that before, a tad pricey tho.

Yeah and that's just for the system, it doesn't come with speakers! I bought a set of Q Acoustics 1020i with it and they sound great.

Although, knowing people in there helped in terms of the price!

nlgbbbblth

Commuting - CDs on a discman

Home - LPs / 45s and CDs on separates with speakers.

lordgoat

CD's in car - generally mixes i'v burned
LP's at home
Spotify and itunes through tv speakers

Rigsby

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Commuting - CDs on a discman

Home - LPs / 45s and CDs on separates with speakers.

+1.

Good to know I'm not the only dinosaur !

wax

Do most of my listening in the car (from original cd's)
If the girlfriend's gone out I'm kept happy with a bottle of JD and my favourite chair in my music room with my vinyl

Taz86

Nice thread.

There's so much variety out there now. I will often listen to an album on CD at home through my 1996 Sony CD/tape/radio player (we'll never leave each other:)). I do often pop the iPod onto the docking station for convenience listening when I'm working at home. The CD is reserved for attentive listening when I get the pleasure of it. So sadly it is mostly on my docking station that I listen to music. It's not my preferred method though so I do make sure to purchase CDs and get a good listen to them when possible.

I also always listen to my iPod when in the car and often listen through earphones when out and about (not when walking though). I don't particularly like walking with my music like that. would use it if I was sitting inside somewhere or waiting for a bus or something).

It's the CD hands down for good sound for me (I was too young to have grown up with vinyl). I do listen to my cassettes still too and while the sound can be quite poor I find that in some ways part of the pleasure. I like it's hissing and fading in and out

Sabre0001

CD quite a bit - burned or bought (some bought some iTunes and then burned so I have freedom)

YouTube / iTunes for others

And then the good ol' Creative Zen

Whatever way I listen to it, one thing remains the same - it's nice and loud

redarmyblues

ntlbell wrote: »

Mostly on the "PC" ripped to FLAC dedicated DAC/AMP/HeadPhones

If listening with visitors it tends to be Technics seperates with CD's

Or streaming FLAC via HTPC amp'd via technics

Which dac are you using? And would you recommend it?

ntlbell

redarmyblues wrote: »

Which dac are you using? And would you recommend it?

Pico USB.

You can find them on ebay sometimes second hand.

for it's size it's very impressive, very detailed and warm, but if your listening to lossy formats or poor recordings it's pretty unforgiven.

HalloweenJack

Mostly my ipod. I buy cds and listen to them every noe and again and I also listen to stuff on Youtube a lot.

Xavi6

When I'm on the go it's my 80 gig iPod.

In the car I play my iPod through the radio.

At home I have a stereo with an iPod doc.

Basically without my iPod I'd be fecked.

Placid_Casual

Far too many acronyms that I don't understand floating around this thread!
Anyway, at home I either listen to MP3s through the laptop hooked up to speakers, or else CDs, depending on what room I happen to be in. On the move, its my MP3 player.

Kold

I download, listen as I do other things on computer but usually it's the iPod and headphones that starts on the bus to college in the morning that I give a proper listen.

Depending on who else is in the studio, I'll either put it on the speakers or just continue to listen to my headphones as I work.

Only if I really enjoy the music do I make moves to buy the CD. I'm a student. I can't afford to buy the amount of music that I'm accustomed to.

stovelid

I have a fair bit of vinyl and CD at home, but use the iPod and laptop a lot more. I've just become accustomed to the ease of finding and playing tracks without having to go to the bother of dealing with physical media.

In work, I generally listen to music online: Grooveshark, youtube etc.

phantom_lord

sennheiser hd-25 headphones for with the pc.
bose sounddock in my bedroom
set of genelecs powered by a logitech squeezebox duet for the living area, which is just sublime!

phantom_lord

phantom_lord wrote: »

set of genelecs powered by a logitech squeezebox duet for the living area, which is just sublime!

there's one thing i'm just curious about with these. just about volume vs loudness perception. with these speakers i find myself listening to music at a much higher volume without it "feeling loud". what's the reason for that? is it just that the frequencies are far better balanced?

AMPSound

Depends what left in the warehouse when I go to put on music!

One day it could be a little 250W EV monitor, and the next day it could be a 5,000 Watt PA!! :P

The Pontiac

I'm a pure music snob. Only British separates for me - Arcam cd player, arcam amp and Monitor Audio Speakers. The difference between lossless and MP3 is just huge. It's all about convenience today; having thousands of songs at your disposal and being able to choose a track instantly, but I usually prefer to listen to an album in its entirety anyway (the way it was intended).

Music had taken a huge step backwards in how it's listened to nowadays. I've got thousands of songs on my laptop but couldn't be arsed with them anymore (unless they're in wav format for burning), and probably should just delete them.

There's actually only one shop in Cork where you can buy an integrated amplifier and cd player. The market is just gone now. The so called music shops are selling all these ipod docking, USB ported systems with their horrible bright, airy sound and feeble wattage. A modest separate system from the 70's would wipe the floor with one these things.

I'm even considering moving over to vinyl now.