How do you listen to your music?

I run a Yamaha AV receiver, with a Wharfdale 5.1 speaker setup. Into the receiver, I plug my cheap but functional record deck.

I will one day have a quality valve amp to run a quality deck through. Currently, all digital media gets streamed to the receiver via Bluetooth from a laptop.

What deck do you have mind? @nick_s ?
 
All my musical listening now I use Foobar2000 on my laptop with my sony headphones, i use to be a vinyl listener, but quite a few years back now, i had to sell my collection to pay some bills,still regret it to this day, but needs must and all that, i did however give a friend of mine my collection of rare indie singles & albums,which he still has to this day, he has over 2000 singles & 1300 albums of all different assortments of music..you can't beat the sound from vinyl it's superb...but these days its not practical, i do miss my separates though, i loved my Nad amp.
 
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What deck do you have mind? @nick_s ?
Not sure yet, I've resisted looking until such a time as the purchase is near, so I don't disappoint myself when I don't actually buy it :D

I aspire to this also. In a dedicated music room. The kids just need to get a bit older first...
I run valve amps for guitar, they are quite robust, but I get where you're coming from. Kids can be so inquisitive, and glowing EL34's can be quite the draw :D
 
Over the past couple years it's 99% CD. Which is criminal really with the record deck I own. I own a top spec'd LINN LP12 but I never use it. I'm thinking of selling it and buying a cheaper deck. I have over a thousand records so I still need a deck. I'll be having a demo of a few decks soon, including the Well Tempered Versalex, Roksan Xerxes 20+ and Rega RP10.

I've contemplated moving to Streaming but it just doesn't appeal to me. I still like the physical side of owning/buying music.

I have found the vinyl revival quite amusing in some ways, I suppose the impractical nature of it in terms of things like not being able to play an LP in the car and having to turn the damn things over every few songs, having to maintain a turntable, replacing parts etc. I have jokingly mocked friends and called them dinosaurs for buying records, UNTIL I have actually heard LPs (both older, and more recent recordings) at 2 friends' houses in recent years; then the sound quality and the whole ritual of vinyl made a bit more sense. One of them had a dedicated music room with valve amp and he'd put that foam stuff, whatever its called, on the walls as a 'bass trap' as he called it, to stop anything rattling etc. House is detached so volume not an issue. I am consumed with jealousy at him having a room just for music listening. His wife wants a TV put up in the room but he absolutely refuses, so fair play to him. One thing I do like about vinyl is all the funky colours they can press limited editions in, marbled effects etc. They look awesome.

I have always bought CDs since moving from cassettes, I must have over 1000 albums as I have over 13,000 songs on my iPod. Even if I was to start up with vinyl, its a cost issue more than anything, most new LPs are £15-£20 so it could cost a couple of grand just to get a turntable and 100 of my favourite albums on LP. Main stereo is a Cambridge Audio Amp, CD deck & Gale floorstanding speakers. They are on a storage stand under the TV so there wouldn't actually be room for a turntable anyway and there's nowhere in the house to move it all to really. I have a Sony Micro Hi-Fi in the bedroom too so mostly play CDs at home. I do love my iPod Classic though, having your entire collection with you on the move is pretty amazing when you think about it. Got an iPod dock built into one car too, so that's mostly all I use in that, because the CD player hasn't worked for ages anyway. The iPod hard drive clicking noise drives me insane though, especially if its quieter music I'm playing.

Streaming does not appeal to me, I can't get over the issue of not actually owning the music and having nothing to hold & look at. Also I don't want a song to stop playing because of a Wi-Fi problem etc. I have a portable Sony iPod dock which sounds fantastic for the size and mostly gets left at work or taken on holiday etc. I have been sadly forced recently to box up my CDs and put most of them in the loft as we are trying to sell our house so de-cluttering the bedroom was a necessary evil of this. I miss having them around but can't deny the house looks tidier now. I'd like to think that when we move and have more space, I'll get them all back out and display them better. Also when we move I want to get a second downstairs hi-fi, probably a micro like the Denon D-M40/41. I've always enjoyed examining someone's record collection though, its a talking point and its very soulless to find someone just streams or plays MP3s etc with no actual product to look at.

So I will defend CDs as I've always liked buying and playing them. Though I like the advantages of making playlists. I loved buying singles from certain bands back in the day, so now I like making my own versions of albums by replacing weaker album tracks with superior b-sides. The recent trend for 'deluxe editions' has helped with this, especially with those bands who I didn't quite like enough to buy singles by at the time, but now realise there was a lot of great material I missed out on.
 
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By whatever means comes along at the time. In general though I have been an analogue freak since the early 70's and never stopped buying vinyl, so probably says where my preference lies

Oracle Delphi, Kuzma arm, Benz ACE
Micro Seiki MR711, MA202L, Supex 900

ARC Ls7 pre, ARC PH2 phono, Accoustic Reality mono-blocks (D-Class monsters)

Yamaha As 1000 and MF V1NL phono

B&W 802 and Celestion SL700 speakers

Rotel CD05 and a Denon DVD/Bluray/CD/whatever disc comes along CD players

Marantz Melody and Monitor Audio M1 speakers for the house office

Kind of take music seriously and especially vinyl. Used every day when home
 
I run valve amps for guitar, they are quite robust, but I get where you're coming from. Kids can be so inquisitive, and glowing EL34's can be quite the draw :D

Music and guitars have been my two main hobbies for much of my life, so the idea of a dedicated music room has always appealed.

Having two young kids (ages 4 and 1) leaves little time to indulge any hobbies, and the thought of their inquisitive/destructive little fingers rummaging through my vinyl collection, poking through speaker cones, dismantling turntables etc fills me with dread. The scamps.

So not yet. But one day.
 
Music and guitars have been my two main hobbies for much of my life, so the idea of a dedicated music room has always appealed.

Having two young kids (ages 4 and 1) leaves little time to indulge any hobbies, and the thought of their inquisitive/destructive little fingers rummaging through my vinyl collection, poking through speaker cones, dismantling turntables etc fills me with dread. The scamps.

So not yet. But one day.

I feel your pain. I have learnt from experience to check the large volume knob on my amp before pressing play. Having your head next to a speaker and the music coming on at maximum volume because you hadn't noticed your kid has fiddled with the dial is one of the most terrifying moments a father can experience. That and a youngster unwittingly leaping onto your bed at the precise place where the crown jewels are under the duvet. Don't even get me started on them being desperate to use the only toilet in the house whilst you're shaving. GRRRR! I keep the grilles on my floorstanders to avoid any prodding fingers but they look so much better with them off. Always had my acoustic & bass guitars in hard flight cases in the house. Not worth the risk leaving them out on stands!

At least at that age you can get them into bed at a decent time & have some evening left. My boys are 12 & 9 and the eldest gets later and later.
 
Vinyl never went away for me, CDs are great for backgound music, (not having to turn them over, etc), whilst doing other things.
The vinyl, "revival", amuses me somewhat as I like listening to hipsters expounding on the superiority of analogue, when they are listening to a vinyl album created from a digital master.
The quality of many original 60s vinyl albums in good condition, is far superior to 180g reissues.
The ritual of playing vinyl for me is akin to the Japanese Tea ritual, it is part of the enjoyment.
I also love Internet Radio, Blues and rock stations from all over the world at the touch of a button:)
PS, to audiophiles,...I have just discovered the cause of RFI that rendered the vinyl part of my system unlistenable for 3 months,....the newly installed Sky Q box,...beware!
 
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Compared to the 1970's an 1980's today's music offerings and ways to play the music are heaven, at least for consumers. For music producers it's probably a very different story.

It's hard to explain to kids nowadays that you had to stop cycling every 20 minutes to turn or change the cassette in your walkman ;) And I remember sitting next to the radio, recording song after song on my cassette recorder, hating it when the DJ talked through the intro [emoji14]

But of course, the good thing about vinyl was the album art. That's lost to the mainstream unfortunately.

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Pitralon forever - Real pens have a nib - If it doesn't tick, it's not a watch.
 
Compared to the 1970's an 1980's today's music offerings and ways to play the music are heaven, at least for consumers. For music producers it's probably a very different story.

It's hard to explain to kids nowadays that you had to stop cycling every 20 minutes to turn or change the cassette in your walkman ;) And I remember sitting next to the radio, recording song after song on my cassette recorder, hating it when the DJ talked through the intro [emoji14]

But of course, the good thing about vinyl was the album art. That's lost to the mainstream unfortunately.

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Pitralon forever - Real pens have a nib - If it doesn't tick, it's not a watch.
I can assure you, there's a lot more to vinyl than album art when listened to on decent retrieval systems.,..and while the amount of music and delivery systems have multiplied with the demands of the latest generation they are inversely proportional to the quality of reproduction.
 
I can assure you, there's a lot more to vinyl than album art when listened to on decent retrieval systems.,..and while the amount of music and delivery systems have multiplied with the demands of the latest generation they are inversely proportional to the quality of reproduction.
We probably had crappy equipment in the 80's, that's true.

--
Pitralon forever - Real pens have a nib - If it doesn't tick, it's not a watch.
 
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