CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Headphone, IEM, and Other Audio Related Discussion => Topic started by: Marvey on September 20, 2013, 03:23:27 PM
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There was some chatbox discussion way back on this, but I'm curious about how (and how often) we listen to music.
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I figure I will start first.
Most people probably don't know this (maybe Anax or LFF do since they know my personality), but I've always approached music listening as a very serious experience. I'm the kind of guy who gets a projector and turns off the lights for a more dedicated home theater experience because he gets pissed off with other family members messing with their phones, scrounging for snacks, going to the bathroom, requesting pause, etc.
I rarely listen to music casually because I find it distracting, either annoying me preventing me from concentrating with work, or sucking me in to the experience. I usually take about on hour every night right before I go to sleep to listen to music intently. For me, it's a nightly one hour concentrated concert experience, regardless of whether its headphones or speakers. Although sometimes I end up falling asleep on the couch drooling.
I know, I'm probably the oddball here.
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Casually, as I rock back and forth in the fetal position in the darkest corner of the room.
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I figure I will start first.
Most people probably don't know this (maybe Anax or LFF do since they know my personality), but I've always approached music listening as a very serious experience. I'm the kind of guy who gets a projector and turns off the lights for a more dedicated home theater experience because he gets pissed off with other family members messing with their phones, scrounging for snacks, going to the bathroom, requesting pause, etc.
I rarely listen to music casually because I find it distracting, either annoying me preventing me from concentrating with work, or sucking me in to the experience. I usually take about on hour every night right before I go to sleep to listen to music intently. For me, it's a nightly one hour concentrated concert experience, regardless of whether its headphones or speakers. Although sometimes I end up falling asleep on the couch drooling.
I know, I'm probably the oddball here.
Exactly this.
I'm very serious about headphone listening and 99% of the time (= at home) I just turn of the lights, the phone chargers and any (noisy or glowing) stuff in the room and get lost in the music, in bed, eyes closed.
That's the best way to be able to pick up the subtleties that make all gears sound different from one another (yeah, DACs too!).
Speaker listening is more casual, though, and mostly done at my desk with monitors (Focal XS / Airmotiv 4s). I like precision :)p8
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I'm one of those types that always has music on in the background. Riding in the car, doing house chores, taking a shower, browsing the internet, watching sports, etc. Unless I need to concentrate while at work, or studying, then I'll have something playing.
But I also carve out some "serious listening" time when I can, which will vary in how much I can do depending on life schedule obviously. Usually I do about an hour or two at night -- some nights I get home from work and get locked into serious listening time until I go to bed (6pm to midnight). Sometimes I don't get serious listening time for weeks and build up an insurmountable backlog of stuff to get through that stresses me the hell out.
Serious listening time is a ritual for me too. Dim the lights, brew some tea (or glass of whiskey), put the couch in recline.
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I'm one of those types that always has music on in the background. Riding in the car, doing house chores, taking a shower, browsing the internet, watching sports, etc. Unless I need to concentrate while at work, or studying, then I'll have something playing.
But I also carve out some "serious listening" time when I can, which will vary in how much I can do depending on life schedule obviously. Usually I do about an hour or two at night -- some nights I get home from work and get locked into serious listening time until I go to bed (6pm to midnight). Sometimes I don't get serious listening time for weeks and build up an insurmountable backlog of stuff to get through that stresses me the hell out.
This is pretty close to the way I listen. I have music going all day at work (by all day I mean the little time I'm not in meetings) as a background and I keep it playing at home with the family (a lot of times to keep the kid exposed to great music). I find I also focus better with certain types of music, especially when I'm writing documentation.
At least 3 times a week I spend a minimum of an hour at my desk after work to sit and listen. I generally plan out which recordings I want to listen to during a given week and let myself enjoy. I turn off the lights in my office, close the door, and lower the temperature a bit.
Lately I've been carving time before bed as well. My partner reads and I listen for an hour or so there, too.
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I usually take about on hour every night right before I go to sleep to listen to music intently. For me, it's a nightly one hour concentrated concert experience, regardless of whether its headphones or speakers.
I do the very same thing myself. I often have trouble falling asleep, but listening to music and some light stretching helps a lot for me.
Although I also have music going 24/7. Headphones when on the computer, IEMs when walking around campus, shitty car stereo when I drive. None of those are serious listening sessions, but they don't feel right without music.
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I listen to music both seriously and background as well. Kind of randomly.
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First and foremost, if I'm not reading or focusing on something else, I love to have music playing. Whether that be playing a board game with friends or cruising through a video game in which sound is not a priority. I also have music going in my car at all times, but absolutely no radio, satellite or otherwise.
Buuuuut, when an artist that I follow comes out with a new album, I take that seriously. I could just sit and stare at my computer screen just as long as I am fully immersed in the music. To some extent, I feel like I owe that to the artist.
On the other hand, due to my obsession with EDM, playing AudioSurf is a great way to do some critical listening while keeping your mind focused on the song and not allowing it to wander (at least as long as you aren't playing on an insane difficulty). This is not a great solution for a lot of other genres though because the game is totally dependent on fast paced tunes.
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Lots of casual listening...
We've got music playing in the house almost all the time, sometimes in several rooms.
I listen at work all day unless I'm in a meeting.
I've always got music playing in my shop when I'm building something.
I do however look forward to a more serious listening session in my man den. Which typically ends up being later at night. In a typical week I might only get three or four of these sessions in.
One thing I can't really do is fall asleep to music! If I am listening in bed the music will keep me up, because I get into listening to it. I can't disconnect. On the rare chance that I do fall asleep with music playing, I find that I am not rested in the morning.
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Needs to be a 4th option. You have two degrees of serious, but only one degree of casual.
I have music going all the time at work and most of the time at home, most of which is casual with other things going on, but there are random times I do listen seriously, but there's no ritual in my case. Sometimes I put on an album while web browsing, then it draws me in until the album is done, then I realize I was browsing a website an hour ago, and I wonder what happened.
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Don't lie, Maxvla. We all know you take copious notes about the center image of the recording while you listen :P
I do like to browse the web when I'm doing "serious listening" too, if that counts. With older records that I wasn't around for, I like reading through the historical context, and reviews about the recording.
And I'm like shipsupt -- I can't fall asleep to music either. Oftentimes when I put music on to fall asleep, it's 3am before I know it.
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I find that my concentration abilities are boosted immeasurably by the right kind of music. I do a lot of writing, and with some Ishq or Ulrich Schnauss or Deuter or William Orbit in the background, I can churn out thousands of words without breaking a sweat. I don't listen to any of it very closely, it just serves as sonic wallpaper and allows my brain to go into super focus mode.
I also used to listen to a wide variety of music very seriously, but recently I've found that I have less and less patience for typical brickwalled crap. I still listen to it in the car or while working out or similar situations where fidelity is not top priority but all of my serious listening now is either on my turntable or my VortexBox server playing a needle drop.
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I can't listen to music when I'm working or doing important things, so I do a lot of mobile listening as I commute and save serious listening at home to nights when I just want to do that and dick around on forums or something.
Can't sleep with music.
Can't play music while playing video games.
I hate having music just there when I'm trying to talk to people.
I hate most bars.
I'm no fun :/
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I hate most bars as well, because most of them are blasting shitty music through god awful $20 PA speakers at about 120dB. Shouting directly into the ear of the person next to me so they can actually hear anything I'm saying is not my idea of a "good time." British or Irish style pubs where the music is maybe 65dB are WAY better.
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I hate most bars as well, because most of them are blasting shitty music through god awful $20 PA speakers at about 120dB. Shouting directly into the ear of the person next to me so they can actually hear anything I'm saying is not my idea of a "good time." British or Irish style pubs where the music is maybe 65dB are WAY better.
this for me as well, but I don't enjoy being drunk though. I must be more boring then! :o
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I listen to music at random situations.
Sometimes just to kill time, sometimes as background music when driving and surfing net, and sometimes sitting down quietly doing nothing just to listen critically.
And interestingly, I notice that for the different situation I listen to music, there are difference in terms of perceived SQ.
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I listen to music during my commute and when I am doing mindless tasks at work. Sometimes I can play music in the background and other times, like Maxvla, I find myself wondering why I have been staring at my computer for half an hour.
I don't find I do much critical listening at home anymore. As much as I enjoy listening to music, I often find myself distracted when the songs don't sound like I think they should. My ears have been getting fatigued even during short listening sessions. For me the quality of the sound has a large impact on my listening. I hate that it happens, but I just can't listen for long periods of time with my current set up. I know I don't have a lot of experience with critical listening like many of you here, however the treble harshness/digitus that I am experiencing is really detracting from my ability to sit down and enjoy the music. Either that or my ears are shot. Unfortunately I am stuck waiting for my new amp. As it stands I am really only listening to music in the background instead of the main event.
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(Poll: Answer#3)
I'm pretty much music or media/YouTube 'on' almost every waking moment. It's to the point where if I do turn the stuff off either by accident or happenstance, it's borderline euphoric. I'm not sure if this is cool (as in 'fun') or something to be concerned about. Exceptions are if I'm going for a short walk or when I am traveling.
If I listen to music while working or writing, I listen to stuff that has no words and preferably something that I am unfamiliar with. Unfamiliar classical works great for this. I don't like stray or random little noises; so I use this background music as sort of white noise to mask anything like that. When riding my road bike I listen to podcasts because if I listen to music I have a tendency to match my pedaling cadence to the beat which is not really good from a cycling tweak's perspective. This changes when I'm on my mountain bike though. In fact some of my favorite memories of rides are bombing down single track with a Ferry Corsten playing in one ear- it's almost like having a soundtrack.
Finally, I have this weird thing where if I try to only listen in a relaxed state, I will fall asleep almost guaranteed. But if I decide to listen to some stuff while I am actually going to sleep (~2am…), more often than not I will stay up for at least another hour. But I think that has more to do with my fragmented and poor sleep schedule.
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I listen to music seriously now and then.
I also like to listen to music occasionally just to relax(chill) or shut out others or sounds around me.
Sometimes I have music playing softly in the background.
In the car the music is always on (don't drive much, my country is too small for that and gas prices too high :)p13 )
I like playing music but it isn't a must or way of life.
I don't listen out for 'flaws' in gear while listening to music and rather enjoy the music instead, don't need ultimate fidelity for that either.
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I listen to music in the car maybe only 5 times a year even though I drive every day. It's different when I'm driving the family. We'll often listen to some good classical or the kids' piano lessons. Yes, my kids request certain classical CD's and don't really care for the other stuff.
I am a serious listener. I have music categorized by whether or not the music takes my full attention, some attention, or hardly any attention. I'll listen to a lot of my music with deep intent. Some of the popular stuff I just play to fill time when I'm mowing the lawn. Some of my music helps me work better so I have a headphone rig at the office, too.
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This is a tough call for me...
I have spent HOURS carefully listening to 2 seconds of music over and over again fussing over some noise/error in the recording until I fix it. YUP! HOURS for a few seconds. (Frank Sinatra recording...)
Likewise, I can sometimes just zone out and next thing I know, it's 7am and my iPod is under my back and my IEM's are still in my ears after 5 hours of sleep.
I usually have music on all the time.
My preference though, is listening to music as a serious and almost religious experience, so much so that I need to be in the right mindset to listen to it. A little bit of scotch, low lights and nothing else but the music is simply awesome. :)
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A little bit of scotch, low lights and nothing else but the music is simply awesome. :)
Someone added scotch to the thread... Cee Tee should be here any minute now! :)p5
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i listen to music both casually and in dedicated sessions, but the kind of music I listen to differs.
When casually listening to music, I naturally tend to go for anything that is sort of uplifting and doesn't require a high consumption of brain power. Well-known example : ACDC. I usually call this "cleaning dishes music".
When intently listening to music, it's for everything that draws me in so much I can't multitask at all while listening to it, whether it's because I'm overwhelmed by emotion or too focused on analysing a track. Ex : Astor Piazzolla's Zero Hour. Trying to listen to the latter while cleaning dishes would result in me being utterly unproductive.
Not that I'm in any way looking down on "cleaning dishes music". I think that it takes just as much effort to do a good popular music song than to compose an avant-garde jazz track for example.
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Depends.
But I do find it exremely satisfying to listen very intently.
Not too sure why, but when I listen to vinyl, I do nothing but sit and listen uber intently.
Maybe it's the whole convenience thing, but I can listen to CDs either ultra intently or as background when I'm surfing or cleaning.
I normally listen to music (iPod or CD) when driving but I never feel like I'm actually listening intently.......too busy driving I guess. But I can still easily be drawn into the music.
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Seems I answered the poll a bit wrong, but anyways, I would say I'm 50/50 on listening to music while on the web, and listening to music seriously. My favorite time of the day, though, is usually about the last hour of the day when I turn everything off(except for computer) and lay in bed and get lost in music.
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As a more serious listener I sometimes prefer easy listening Pop, Disco and Jazz.
Thing is, when a song or track just hits you, you listen and everything else becomes less important. I sometimes write album reviews and while listening I read articles and make notes. Sometimes a song or track makes me stop doing anything else.
A track as simple as Clyde Stubblefield's break beat and James Brown's fascinating vocals on "Funky Drummer" awaken my inner B-Boy and fuck everything else. Right now Willie Hutch's "Brother's Gonna Work It Out" made me pause before finishing this sentence. Music...
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Its 2 and 4 for me but since i had to pick one, 2 wins. I don't like to limit myself to just serious listening because you can't discover new music that way. I tend to like serious listening with familiar music that I already really love.
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It all depends. I used to listen to music all the time in my '95 Civic, which I put a decent DIY stereo into. Anytime I drove anywhere, I'd crank up the music and enjoy myself. Now that I rarely drive (I literally live across the street from where I work and live too far on the north side of the Springs to get out often, plus third shift life...) and have a newer car without quite as fun as a sound system, that doesn't happen as much.
With my stereo setups at home, they're mainly used for computers, gaming, TV, etc. TBH, maybe a couple hours worth of music at most goes through them in a month or so.
I can't have music going on in the background when trying to get work done (household stuff doesn't count). I just get too distracted. Other forms of noise are OK, like a TV in the background, but I can't do music even at low volumes.
On my weekends, I usually spend about 1-2 hours a night/day just listening to music if I have nothing else to do or am browsing the toobs. If I have new gear in or am modding something, I spend more time doing listening tests than kicking back and enjoying the music.
I tend to have difficulties focusing on music with even a mild alcohol buzz (as much as I do like a bit of alcohol...or more sometimes), but I have another substance of choice that I enjoy combining with music (Colorado, if that tips you off). I tend to listen somewhere in between casually and with concentration, though it varies on what's playing, what I'm doing at the same time (if anything), etc. Obviously when I'm doing listening tests, it's more concentrated.
I would probably listen to music more if I didn't find so many headphones uncomfortable after an hour or so, that and finding something that doesn't fatigue my ears. Can't produce too much noise either since everyone else is asleep while I'm awake (this will probably be the case for another 1 to 2 years or so).
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I'm a bit in between the first two options.
When I'm sitting in front of my PC after a day of work I listen to music very seriously but I also web surf at the same time. My concentration would switch between the two and I'd do this for a few hours before going to sleep. I've built my PC to be completely audible so I don't need to hear stupid fans or spinning drives. Towards the end of my listening session, I would space from other activities and just get lost in the music.
But like anyone living in the suburbs for CA, I have to drive to and from work. The sound system in my old car isn't great but enjoy my music nonetheless.
I don't like listening to music while doing other things though and many times I can't as I'll focus more towards the music. I hate the idea of using music to kill time - as something in the background. This is also why I hate places just play music loudly in the background such as bars and clubs. Quit trying to pump bass out of a sound bar! It just sounds worse!
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I don't like listening to music while doing other things though and many times I can't as I'll focus more towards the music. I hate the idea of using music to kill time - as something in the background. This is also why I hate places just play music loudly in the background such as bars and clubs. Quit trying to pump bass out of a sound bar! It just sounds worse!
At bars and other similar places, I quickly get auditory overload and find it hard to focus and enjoy myself. I do not know how to explain it, but it's the main reason I don't enjoy most bars. I get a similar sensation if I find a headphone fatiguing and try to listen somewhat loudly (not dangerously so).
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I understand that very well.
In hospitality and catering jobs, especially busy ones there was always noise and occasionally sensory overload for ears, eyes and simply space. Venues that play music too loud, are no longer for me.
The worst experience was when the sound technicians boosted the sound through the speakers and sub-woofers so much it felt like small needles were pressing against my ear drums while my hearing and vocal range were drowned out. That night I was about to kick the manager's ass for not providing hearing protection...