How do you listen to your music these days? And more format pesto.

[Sonneteer]

As is clear from the blogs, fora and media the number of ways to listen to music have been on an exponential growth curve for the better part of a decade. In the past ways would come then go away only to be taken over completely by something new. Now it seems when a new format comes along it is simply added to the mix. Some formats become small, niche players but rarely do they truly die.

The advent of small children means at home most of our listening is streamed via internet radio or from music stored on a server. My hat is tipped to high end a little still as I am using a Morpheus and a very nice pair of Concert 11s. My 3 year old daughter's play room and my former music recording room has a Byron and a Campion. Wind the bobbin up is more oft played than Hail to a Thief these days. So most of my serious listening is done in the office/workshop as we test and develop.

From Vinyl to DSD, we'd really love to hear how you do it.

Is it worth Polling?

Haider

Sonneteer.co.uk

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[nick dartmoor]

A lot of FLAC/WAV from laptop played on VLC, via USB DAC (Centrance Dacport) and long cables under the rug to the system, a lot of CD, and a bit of vinyl.

 

[Sonneteer]

Thank you for sharing that Nick,

This seems to be the way a lot of people are going. Be interesting to hear from more in this respect.

Do you find the cable under the rug an inconvenience? Would you prefer a better solution?

Haider

sonneteer.co.uk

 

[nick dartmoor]

I do find the cable, and the USB DAC a bit inconvenient, yes. I like the practicality of being able to have the laptop on my lap, or a coffee table, or wherever, but the other bits are something I accept/endure, rather than enjoy. The DAC is very good quality, and very small, but just having excess cabling around generally is something I would rather avoid. Also the DAC has a micro USB socket, which is a weak link.

So yes, I probably would prefer a better solution, but I'm kind of reluctant to start investigating, mainly as I'm trying to reign in my spending, and also because despite the annoying elements, I'm very happy with the sound I am getting. I'm surprised more people don't seem to have picked up on the Centrance Dacport, with the current wave of micro DACs on the market.

 

[johnniebaby]

Vinyl and CD.

 

[rmsshipbroker]

Vinyl and CD.

Yep, same here.

Digital delivery systems (DDS), for want of a better phrase, are much more complex to build.

Routers, streamers, NAS, controllers.....WTF, I just want to plug the kit in then forget about it and play some music.

There is also the aspect that CDs and LPs are physical media.

Unlike a digital file on a hard drive which, lets face it, WILL screw up at some point.

Cheers

Steve

P.S. had the pleasure of hearing your CD player and Sedley phono stage at Purite North, nice kit. :^

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Mostly vinyl and CD. I have recently started streaming Spotify to my DAC though. Vinyl is certainly my preferred listening experience.

 

[Sonneteer]

Thank you Steve and John,

I understand regards the complexity of this new digital world of music. It really needs to find a simpler path and soon. I think we are at the stage where everything is making a lot of noise and no one quite knows what is the most convenient or accessible for of delivery. What is worse is that it could be forever changing at a pace that consumers simply can't or don't care to keep up.

However you're right. Simplicity is Key. Our efforts here(at Sonneteer) are dominated by that aspect of things. Difficult area to get right.

Not sure how they will sort the Physical media thing as you are far from alone on that.

Thanks for the kind comments about the kit. Glad you liked it.

Haider

sonneteer.co.uk

 

[Bazzer]

Vinyl and a bit of digital via CD or ipod but I never buy digital music only vinyl, I'll listen to something new on Deezer or Spotify and only buy it if its on vinyl.

 

[Tel]

Vinyl

CD

Spotify and Radio through Squeezebox and stand alone DAC

I have a 2TB hard drive and will be looking to organise some sort of digital storage and streaming.

Main source of listening still vinyl.

 

[pmac]

Vinyl for >99% of the time.

CD very, very rarely

No other sources

 

[meninblack]

If I have the music on vinyl I play the vinyl.

If I have CD but no vinyl (or I'm drunk!) I'll play the CD

If I only have files, I'll use my trusty old Squeezebox 3 through the DAC.

 

[dudywoxer]

I suppose what would be classed as real listening Vinyl and CD, in the office I have a old squeeze box with filo dac, and a SB3 on the main system, both fed from a windows home server. I can not see streaming replacing Vinyl, but when the CD player dies it probably will not be replaced, unless a CD player with digital in tickles my fancy.

 

[68rednose]

CD for 95% and internet radio through Sonos.

Have NAS etc, but too lazy to rip CD collection.

I like playing CD's.

Further Noxon streamers for bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms.

Wife and kids (aged 5+9) play their music mostly through tablets.

Tought kids to listen to music through on ear headphones just above background noise level.

(Pioneer DJ series are OK for that, quite sturdy design and bass lift helps playing at low volumes.)

 

[KND]

CDs are my number 1 format. The Mrs and I have a fairly decent collection of around 800+ discs between us whereas we have maybe only 100 LPs. I would prefer to listen on Vinyl but its down to not having the albums I like most on the format. Plus my CD player is much nicer than my TT.

As for MP3 etc. I only have what I have ripped from physical formats that we own. No downloads. I hate the idea of not having physical media.

I use MP3 in the car playing from a flah drive. Last night we went for a long night-drive as we sometimes do and listened to 4 albums through in the car.

 

[MJ.]

'Proper' listening is 80% Vinyl, 20% CD (for favourite Albums I don't have on Vinyl) as I love the whole ritual of Vinyl and the tactile physical media thing. Just makes it seem like you are taking the time to do it properly and the act of properly listening to the music is more special for that.

Home office / background listening is Spotify / Radio via SBT (now there is something the industry could do with, a cheap similar SQ replacement to SBT) through my PC. Decent enough and you can still bop along to the tunes but not as luxurious / spoil yourself as the Vinyl.

 

[myrman]

50% vinyl (maybe more) 25% streaming Spotify for new music and 25% ripped FLAC. Barely put a CD on these days. All boxed up and stored away. I never thought I would say this but I am quite happy to buy high res downloads these days if there is no CD option is available which is the case with an increasing number of newer bands.

 

[cobbler]

I listen mainly now to streamed music on the Transporter, a lot of this is bbc i-player internet radio - there's so much to catch up on. I listen to spotify a lot on my pc - headphone set up.

"Proper" listening is sacd followed by cd.

 

[brystonian]

Since about 2002 I've had the PC plugged straight into the hi-fi and since about 2006 the TV. By 2003-2004 CD's had just become a hard copy for back-up/taking round a mates/listening in the car.

I've never needed any kind of media streaming as everything is literally right next to each other. It's been interesting to watch the technology and methods develop over the years though. As well as on demand services.

Having done this since I was 22. The concept of CD/LP listening is pretty alien to me. All my music just sits on a hard disk, browsed in windows explorer and played in Foobar stripped back to it's absolute simplest form. So I don't even use embedded info/art or any sort of fancy player that sorts and categorises your stuff.