How do we listen???
 

With the new album out, and reviews coming in, I'm curious about how we all listen to music. Not just SR music, but listening overall.

What's your favorite way of listening to music? Do you have a particular player? Do you prefer speakers over headphones, or vice versa? Is there a specific room you like, or arrangement of furniture, or even how you like to settle yourself for listening? (Lying down, sitting down, etc.)

For myself, with a long commute to work (45-60 minutes each way), the car is where I have the most opportunity to listen. So it's CDs in the car, which has a nice bass that rattles the mirrors. But my preferred way is to stick the CDs in the BD-player at home and listen through the stereo Bose speakers hooked up to the TV.

I only choose headphones if it's late at night or if I don't want to bother anybody. But I think it's a subpar method. I think music is meant to play in an open space where the sound can travel.

Same song over and over on computer using speakers.

Big stereo when time is right
Smaller stereo most of the time (by smaller I mean decent bookshelves)
Headphones if significant other is asleep. I have multiple sets, but HD-558s do it best.
Vinyl, CD, computer.

As I'm writing this, I listening to Ima, losslessly ripped from my Toutaikai Heisei Nijuu Go Nen Kamiyama Chou Taikai blu-ray, playing on my PC in foobar2000 with Rate Adjustment of -4.85% (to make it a little slower and lower-pitched) and with ReplayGain, being outputted from an external soundcard to a pair of studio monitors I've owned since 2005 (Mackie HR824 - one of the few models you can get away with using for recreational listening), and each speaker is roughly a meter away from my face while the brightness on my 32" screen (also a meter away) is dimmed to the minimum and I'm leaning back in a semi-premium office chair with some extra cushioning. Sometimes I turn the screen off for a song or two, but I'm generally too much of an internet addict these days to do that for whole albums.

I was more into headphone-listening when my Sony MDR-7509's still worked, and when I didn't have a place where I could use my HR824's without bothering other people. So after both of those circumstances changed, I've barely used headphones at home anymore. My replacement headphones (ATH-M50) aren't bad, but I don't exactly have religious experiences with them, either.

My speakers are definitely better for concerts than any headphones I've ever owned. But there are some songs like Stoicism, where you simply have to listen to the studio versions on headphones at least once in awhile.

@Glath (or anyone else): do you have a turntable at the current time? If so I'd love to know what your rig is.

Mine is currently Rega RP-6 running an Ortofon 2M Blue. Thats the best I can go with my current budget. Pretty satisfied for the price.

audiophiles will be appalled, on my computer with $5 in ear headphones I got from dealextreme. they're actually better than the brand name headphones I had before so...

I mostly plays ripped CDs (now ALAC format) in HDD.

my tiny SOHO apartment

room 1 : Dining / Living room
37" TV, CATV stb, 2ch amp, omni speker, subwoofer,
main PC & 21" display & HDDs

room 2 : Bed room / Home theater
100"screen, projector, AV amp, BD player, 7.1ch speakers, keyboard, mouse
several cables is connected to room 1 (2 usb, 2 HDMI, Ethenet, RCA/Coaxial, D-Sub)

room 3 : Work room
2ch vacuum tube amp, bamboo speaker, subwoofer,
business PC, replaced old business PC (now XP/Xubuntu dual boot though almost abandoned )

unposted draft for Hi Izuru Tokoro thread

I bought it from e-onkyo.

played it as follows:

1.foobar2000 - usb - dac(16bit)/DDC - analog - 2ch amp - omni speakers
2.usb memory - AV amp - 7.1ch speakers (DSPed)
3.foobar2000 as dlna server - LAN - AV amp as dlna client - 7.1ch
4.foobar2000 - usb - dac(16bit)/DDC - digital(coaxial) - AV amp - 7.1ch
5.foobar2000 as dlna server - LAN - (other PC)Windows Media Player as dlna client - usb - dac(16bit)/DDC - analog - 2ch vacuum tube amp - bamboo speakers

I decided to abandon 16bit usb dac

6.foobar2000 - Realtek (on board) - analog - 2ch amp - omni speakers
7.foobar2000 - Radeon graphic board - digital(HDMI) - AV amp - 7.1ch

I bought two external USB DAC last September,
because didn't want to hear analog output from Realtek,
but my choice was too mean.
(just needed 1 or 2 more Natsume Souseki Noguchi Hideyo to obtain 24/96 DAC ability)

currently I need to call control panel to switch 6 and 7

sounds? I feel nothing special.

-----

WASAPI output support component was installed to foobar2000 yesterday.
It was something should be done first.

This reminds me of the best music-listening experience I've ever had.

A friend of mine from Boston is a movie projectionist, and a perfectionist when it comes to picture and sound. One time he invited me to his house, which was small, cramped, but very well-organized, with CDs, albums, and books covering every space from floor to ceiling.

In the little study off the kitchen he had two speakers the size of refrigerators. He had spent years tracking them down----they were movie theater speakers. He sat me down between them, they were about six feet apart, and he put in the remastered soundtrack CD for King Kong. In two seconds, my mind was blown. Every note seemed to have grain in it, like you could almost grab them out of the air.

Nothing special on my end. :P All music ripped to FLAC and played via Foobar through the MSI Gaming 5's onboard audio (with a power boost thing via molex). That in turn is connected to a SONY H-Fi I bought in 2007 that has always sounded good to me so I never bothered changing it.

Night time when the kids and partner are asleep I'll just exclusively use my ATH M-50 headphones which I find to be more than adequate. :0

LP setup is a Debut Carbon and a pair of Wharfedales but that's had to be put in storage for the time being. I prefer doing things digitally and I didn't consider the setup good enough to attempt any rips. Before that I had a USB turntable but let's not speak about that. :P

I should probably look into improving the PC audio setup as it's my main go to, but the layout of the room is a bit odd and I'm not too sure how I'd position things? From where I'm sitting both L & R speakers are to the right of me!

All I have are a pair of over-15-year-old Compaq JBL Pro speakers and a pair of 5-year-old Koss PortaPro headphones for my ALACs and loose MP3s. Would love better equipment but see no point dropping money until I finish building a den with decent acoustics.

They put in work though.