how do you listen to your music?

[rjarsenault1101]

I'm just curious as to what you listen to. I listen to records, and mp3's. but I like the records a lot more than mp3. they just have a much better quality.

[slane]

Of course they do! MP3 is a lossey format.
When you say record, do you mean vinyl or CDs?

In answer to your question ... I have collection of FLAC (a lossless format designed for compressing CD data) that I've either purchased from places like The Classical Shop or produced by ripping a CD and converting to FLAC using Exact Audio Copy. There are other lossless formats, but FLAC is preferred by the CD companies that have the sense to sell lossless compressed files (i.e. DG, all the labels on the classical shop, hyperion, melba etc. Although the classical shop also sells lossless WMA I believe.)

These I play through a cheap media player into an old but very good DAC and then the analog output from the DAC goes to our amplifier. IF we didn't have the DAC, I'd just put the digital output from the media player into the amp.

If I want to listen to CD I have a DVD player with the digital output (optical) connected to the DAC (which luckily has both coax and optical inputs). Its sounds wonderful. Especially now we've put acoustic panels behind the listening positions.

[Bob]

iPod with mp3s ripped on the highest setting, 320kbps I think.  

Or computer speakers.

Or computer through cheap earbuds.

Or a stereo.

Or a cheapy boombox.

Or live concerts.

Or myself live during practicing.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

When I'm walking around, I use my iPod.

When I'm at home, I put my iPad on speaker.

[slane]

I just noticed theclassicalshop as a few 5.1 channel flac downloads
https://www.theclassicalshop.net/SearchResults.aspx?inpage=2&zoom_query=&zoom_per_page=24&cboFormat=surround&cboCategory=any&cboCriteria=any

which in theory you could convert to dvd format https://audioplex.sourceforge.net/ and listen over the "home theatre" in surround sound.

I'm tempted to try, but at 20pounds a disc ... its an expensive experiment.

[j_menz]

Mostly in my car, over the sound system. It's when I have the most free time to do it.

Otherwise, I listen to it in my head mostly.

EDIT: Almost forgot. I listen to rather too much of it over the phone when I'm on hold, or in shops etc where some person with execrable taste has taken upon themselves to enhance my "shopping experience".

[zezhyrule]

on mah little ipod nano thing most of the time. also youtube.

[slobone]

I don't listen to music very much. I'm not sure why exactly, except that I have so many other things to do, when I have time for music I'd rather play the piano. Once in a while if I want to check something in a piece, I'll look for a selection of YouTube performances. But I can't handle trying to listen to music while I'm doing something else, so I don't even own an iPod.

[p2u_]

I'm just curious as to what you listen to. I listen to records, and mp3's. but I like the records a lot more than mp3. they just have a much better quality.

I don't actually like digital reproduction (so-called "High quality") of sound because it's merely a representation of sound waves (yes, yes: it's fake), while old vinyl records (so-called "Low quality") give us the sound waves exactly as they are.

Paul

[j_menz]

vinyl records ... give us the sound waves exactly as they are.

Until you play them, then they give a(n increasingly) degraded version of what they were {skritch} of what they were {skritch} of what they were......

[p2u_]

Until you play them, then they give a(n increasingly) degraded version of what they were {skritch} of what they were {skritch} of what they were......

Yeah, the truth is not nice to listen to sometimes unless you have one of those pre-historical Soviet type record players that virtually plough through anything...

Paul

[patrickd]

Typically through Youtube while I study.

[outin]

I have my I pod nano on all the time when I am on the move (I walk a lot and also use public transport). Not the perfect solution, but with higher quality earphones it's ok. The old portable CD was better in sound but it's just too big.

At home if I listen from a computer I usually use a USB external soundboard with either small rather nice speakers or the wireless connection to my stereo system. That is not ideal either, but the amount of music I have could not fit anywhere else but the computers  

If I listen to my older CDs I use the good old CD player (which was bought around 1990 and still works fine) with stereo system and that of course is the best experience regarding sound quality. But I am ok with the computer files. My ear has adjusted, my days of looking for high end sound are over (and could not afford it either).

[lostinidlewonder]

I don't actually go out and listen to recordings as much as I used to, I find it a lot more enjoyable to produce it myself.

Most of my artificial listening time is radio.

I listen to myself and students play a real piano.

I like to listen to music inside my own minds eye.

I also listen through the internet, from mp3s and youtube videos to live video (eg:Skype). There used to be a place on yahoo voice chat where people would play piano live too or you could listen to people practice.

I go to concerts and listen to the music live.

[ted]

I am surprisingly fussy about that. Listening for me is an intense, exclusive activity. I like to sit in my listening chair, positioned just right, and listen to my hi-fi, completely concentrated on the music. I would rather not listen at all than listen with half my brain. Of course that could just be because my brain is more limited than other people's in its capacity to process information. I wouldn't be surprised. 

[outin]

I cannot go to concerts anymore 

I simply cannot bare the smells (parfumes/after shaves) and the noises (coughing) while listening to music. I would love it if it was just me and the pianist 

I guess that would be one of the things money could buy...I might even allow some nice people in if they promise to behave

So the best experiences on live piano playing I get when I sneak in with my teacher while she is playing before my lesson. Unfortunately that only happens on the rare occasion the student before me is absent...

[slane]

Oh Outin! I'm with you! I went to a sublime performance of Mozart's Clarinet concerto and the woman in front of me kept farting! About every 3 minutes she'd let one off!

Not to mention the rattling of fantale wrappers etc. and then ... the very worst! There's this convention that's sprung up in this country where people cough between movements ... just in case! Whether they need to cough or not!

And I wonder (depends what you call rich really) whether you could employ a good student to give a wonderful salon performance for really not too much money. Particularly if a few people pitched in.  You'd need to have a good piano. And if you think about it... that's a very responsible way to spend your money ... on the pianist I mean ... carbon neutral(ish) supporting the local community, patronising the arts. I may have been watching to much Upstairs Downstairs. And reading too much Edith Wharton.

[perfect_pitch]

I listen to the music in my head... it's okay when the voices don't interrupt.   

Ahhh - the joys of having perfect pitch, and a practically autistic memory.   

[iansinclair]

outin is so right about live conerts.  And if it isn't the smells, it's the fidgets.  Or conversation.  Or...

At home, though... I do have a fairly extensive collection of vinyl LPs; those are played on a Bang & Olufsen Beogram turntable.  The collection of 78s is played on a Bogen Lenco (Pickering cartridge), modified for either horizontal or vertical tracking.  Then there are CDs, on a Denon, cassette tapes also on a Denon, and reel to reel tapes, on an Ampex.  They all feed into a Dynaco preamp, thence into an AudioMaster power amplifier, thence through a Dynaco five channel synthesizer (not always used), and finally into four Tower (Cambridge Soundworks) full range (16 hz to 20,000 hz) speakers.  Not one piece of all that equipment is currently on the market, and I haven't the slightest idea what is going to happen when something breaks down...  the whole thing is set up in the same space as my main piano.

Sometimes I'll listen to things as background, but more often I just have a very nice comfortable chair, suitable for an old man, and sit in it and enjoy

[Bob]

Wax cylinders.  On the Edison, or Eddie for short because Edison is too long to pronounce.  Hand cranked.  Back before electricity spoiled everything.  That's where it's really at. Back when music had character... If it didn't fit into into two or four minutes, they *made* it fit.   ... By golly.