What do you listen to music on?

[JoeP]

Idly, in the whatcha listening to thread, I mentioned my MP3 player: Creative Zen Micro, 5GB model. Apparently they have been awarded a patent for the interface which Apple copied with the iPod. Wouldn't be the first time...

Of course, there's also my old AKAI portable CD player and my very old Marantz deck - and my computer. The built-in laptop speakers are buzzy and not much good. I had a pair of Infinity speakers stolen and since then have rather been slumming it with speakers. The fact is the button headphones that came with the Zen are better quality than anything else I have, bar my fullsize headphones.

[Legs]

What do you listen to music on?

The couch

[JoeP]

That's cool. With your legs on the floor or stretched out?

[Legs]

Originally Posted by JoeP

That's cool. With your legs on the floor or stretched out?

Crossed

[Crumb]

I have an old stereo with dual cassette and a phonograph. I play the CDs on a portable CD player that I have plugged in the back. I put new stereo system on my birthday list.

[BracesForImpact]

5.1 surround sound with subwoofer on my 'puter baby, yeah!

Now if only I had more music...

[lisarea]

I have my homegrown stereo system that I brag about alla time, including now. It consists of:

My Superscope quadrophonic receiver that I bought in the 70s
A new Teac CD changer
One bigassed Technics speaker on the right channel
Two mediumassed Criterion speakers on the left channels (quadrophonic! ha!)

The speakers are probably 70s or 80s vintage, too.

I also have a Tivoli Model 2 radio that I listen to sometimes, and the computer.

[JoeP]

"I'd like to buy a gramophone please" [/python]

[JoeP]

Different speakers on the left and right, lisarea? Doesn't that kind of unbalance the sound?

[viscousmemories]

Bedside cd clock radio or home stereo system in the living room. I rarely listen to mp3's, despite always being at my computer.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Different speakers on the left and right, lisarea? Doesn't that kind of unbalance the sound?

The original reason for it was that, before I got the new CD changer, I was using a broken DVD player as my CD player, but it was, well, broken, so the primary left channel would fade in and out. So I switched the receiver to quad and hooked up both left channels so the secondary left would cover for the fading of the primary left channel.

Anyway, at this point, I keep it that way because the other Technics speaker got its woofer stoled, which is even more unbalanced sounding. But the remaining intact one is fair close in quality to the two other speakers combined. It's not that unbalanced, really. Not so's I'd notice too much, anyway.

If it REALLY, REALLY bothers you, though, I will let you buy me new speakers.

[JoeP]

I'm just concerned for you. Being unbalanced and all that.

[ceptimus]

I trolled a hi-fi forum once. There was this guy who insisted that vinyl LPs sounded better than CDs. Maybe they do, sometimes, but he was such an arse about it that he needed a good trolling.

So I posted how any analogue disc player that runs at a constant speed would inevitably have lower fidelity as the stylus approaches the centre (the diameter is less, so it passes through less groove per unit time). The only true hi-fi was to be had from my old cylinder player, which gives a constant groove speed. I compared the sound quality of shellac and wax cylinders, and advised what was the correct weight to have resting on the needle to give the best tone. The only problems with cylinder players is that you haven't been able to buy any new music for them for about the last 100 years, and the cylinders need a lot more storage space than disks.

[TomJoe]

Alpine MP3 player in my car. After ripping my CD's at work onto my computer, I burn them into compilation MP3 CD's which I then play in my car.

At work I've ripped my favorite CD's into MP3s (see above) and play them using iTunes. I have a pair of Koss headphones (UR-19) which I use to listen to my music, because the fellow the next office over is a bit "sensitive" when it comes to music volume.

At home, I have an Onkyo receiver and a Sony 5 disc CD changer. It's time to upgrade that system, but I love my KLH speakers (and at ~400/speaker) they sound awesome and I envision I'll be holding onto them.

I'm debating acquiring a new MP3 player, but I have an old MP3 player which will accept a 1GB memory card, so I'm debating going that route rather than buying a new player ... cause then I can also use the card for my digital camera.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by JoeP

I'm just concerned for you. Being unbalanced and all that.

And now I'm concerned for you, being concerned for me like that.

I think the obvious solution to all of our concerns is that you buy me some new speakers.

[Ymir's blood]

Mostly I listen to the CD player in my pickup, my CD walkman and the computer (MP3s and Internet radio.) There is also a CD player built in to my alarm clock, which gets occasional use, though not as an alarm. My home stereo gets used occasionally, but most of my favorite discs get ripped to MP3 format.

[Veritas]

Music is the work of the devil. And his best mate, Cliff Richard.

[Dingfod]

I only listen to music in the car, and only if I tire of NPR.

[pescifish]

Mostly the CD players in my vehicles. I used to listen to music while on my computer at home, but then I dropped at least 20 IQ points and can no longer concentrate well enough on what I'm trying to read on the screen unless I'm ...uhm... concentrating on it.

Now that I've moved at work from a bullpen sort of office arrangement to an actual walled office with a door, I sometimes play music CDs there. But only if I'm not working computer stuff at the time. I can read paper stuff much better than screen stuff, so it's not so much a distraction if I'm doing desk stuff.

At home, I have 5.1 surround sound systems in both living room and bedroom, but, aside from an occasional run at the Metallica Black music DVD, I don't usually have music playing at home at all. On account of having gotten stoopid and needing to focus on shit that I'm trying to do better.

[SharonDee]

Satellite radio. I listen to it in my car's stereo, my home stereo, and the boombox I keep at the office.

[Petra]

All my crappy stereos are now broke - the result of living too long in the sulphurous Rotorua region. So now my computer is my primary listening device. (Car stereo broke, too).

I listen through Altec Lansing MX5021's and a GA-8IPE1000 Pro 2 motherboard onboard soundcard.

It ain't bad.


ETA: Other than that it's through a couple of small Logitech speakers connected to the CD/DVD player and the telly in the lounge.


(My computer is in my bedroom.)

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by SharonDee

Satellite radio. I listen to it in my car's stereo, my home stereo, and the boombox I keep at the office.

You suck. If I had satellite radio I could get Air America.

[Petra]

Originally Posted by lisarea

The original reason for it was that, before I got the new CD changer, I was using a broken DVD player as my CD player, but it was, well, broken, so the primary left channel would fade in and out. So I switched the receiver to quad and hooked up both left channels so the secondary left would cover for the fading of the primary left channel.

Anyway, at this point, I keep it that way because the other Technics speaker got its woofer stoled, which is even more unbalanced sounding. But the remaining intact one is fair close in quality to the two other speakers combined. It's not that unbalanced, really. Not so's I'd notice too much, anyway.

I got my new speakers while I was working, because my Warfdale actives that I bought for 10 quid secondhand in London in the early 90's as walkman speakers for my room finally died. Well, not quite died, but the wiring (thank you, Rotorua) was deteriorating beyond what the cheap sellotape and bluetack and chewing gum fix-it's could handle. I love those speakers, and I still have them. One day when I get clued up I'll take them apart and fix them.

[Godless Dave]

At home, my Mac is connected to my stereo through a higher-end soundcard that has RCA and digital audio out (I went with digital). I play all my music on iTunes 'cuz it came with the Mac and it mostly does what I want. I wish you could add third-party visualizations to it like you can with Sonique. I also wish the controls didn't disappear in visualization mode (again like Sonique).

My portable mp3 player is an Archos Gmini. I wanted one where the music files weren't hidden when hooked up to a computer. It also plays videos, but only in one particular format and the converter to that format doesn't always work. And it displays jpeg images. It has an RCA video out so you can hook it up to your TV to watch videos or display jpeg pictures.

I got one of those FM transmitter things to listen to it on my car stereo but the reception sucked, so I got a cassette adapter instead. I'm about sick of that, so I plan to remove the Subaru 5-disc changer/cassette player and replace it with a Pioneer single CD player with an 1/8" audio in I happen to have lying around. I rarely listen to CDs in the car and never at home; it's all computerized now, baby.

I still have a Radio Shack turntable for those few albums I only have on vinyl.

[D. Scarlatti]

Rega Planar 3 turntable with a Formula 4 tonearm, an Audiolab 800A power amp, and a pair of B&W 500 Series speakers. I've had those things for more than 15 years, and the only problem I ever had was the belt on the turntable broke once. The manufacturer wanted 12 bucks for a replacement "belt," but I got an identical O-ring at an industrial supply store for 59 cents. The power amp is only 60 watts but I'd have the cops at my door if I turned it up to about one-third volume.

There is nothing to that turntable, and they haven't changed the design in 30 years. It has a glass platter, which you have to lift off and move the belt to another sprocket on the drive wheel to switch from 33-1/3 to 45 rpm.

I have a Denon cassette deck but I don't think I even have it plugged in at the moment. I've had a few CD players, all relatively expensive and all pieces of shit, including the Toshiba DVD player I got for Christmas several years ago that recently died. On account of its copyright hardware, it would only play commercial CDs; it wouldn't even play copies.

A few months ago I bought some no-name DVD player at Sears for 25 dollars. It plays anything, including CD-RWs with just a bunch of .mp3 files on them. I'll probably go buy another one in case this one craps out. Your power amp and your speakers are where it's at. Paying more than 100 bucks for a CD player is a rip-off.

It's true that a lot of vinyl sounds better than CDs, particularly older albums that the record companies digitized with little attention to quality control or fidelity. I could give many examples.

While there's no questioning their convenience, CDs are the biggest scam the record companies ever foisted on the public, second only to "pre-recorded cassettes," the biggest rip-off ever. I have zero sympathy for the big record companies. They scam the artists and they scam the consumers. Lars Ulrich is an idiot.