Best Way to Listen to Music

[Emphyrio]

The car is where I listen to most stuff these days. Unless I'm boozin of an evening but that doesn't go down too well. Similarly, I don't get to digest music the same way as before. What I've been doing is making "Best Ofs" and loading them on to MP3. It's fairly time consuming and I'm not discovering much in the way of new music bar the odd bit here and there. It is kinda forcing me to go through albums I haven't listened to in years, so there's that.

In a very opposite to the "iceberg" kinda way, I'm more or less happy with the collection I have either on CD or downloaded, and try keep up to date with those bands therein.

[Airneanach]

Can't say I really think about it that much. I'm never going to be able to read all the books in my local library in my lifetime, never mind all the books that have been written that I might theoretically want to read or would have recommended to me. It still hasn't stopped me from reading or feeling shitty about reading, though.

More music than ever is available to us in more formats than ever, and I'm hugely excited by this. For metal especially, I generally find Bandcamp and albums ripped to YouTube channels sufficient for discovering new material and background listening when I work/drink/exercise or what have you. If I like something enough, I'll ideally find a vinyl of it because sitting on the beanbag staring a hole through record sleeves when I listen to the vinyl is my personal favourite way of listening to an album consciously. I'll do that a few times a week, and I'm forever catching up on getting the classics on vinyl, too. I'm not an audiophile elitist for the format or anything like that, whatever floats your boat, but personally I nearly always prefer the sound and feel of the medium so that's how I choose to do it.

These kind of things are six of one half a dozen of the other. Do more and more young people use music as a utility - pop a few tunes on shuffle for the jog - rather than imbibing an album as a contained piece of art? Sure. But they're the people who don't go out of their way to actually list music as a passion. They've always been there. Bopping away, going to the big show in town, but generally not that bothered. There's also plenty of people able to obtain and enjoy more high quality albums than ever before these days. It's up to you if that devalues things a little for you or not. Personally I'm doing just fine and I'll be buying albums, getting pissed and inhaling the fucking things for a long time to come.

[astfgyl]

I'm a bit not interested in music as much as in past years/decades. There's too many ways of listening to music from free to expensive, and in many ways there's far too much music these days.

Does anyone have a system to maintain some level of interaction with music, but it's maybe inbetween just telling Alexa to play 90s thrash or whatever, and having masses of cds or vinyl etc?

is there a middle ground where you don't have to abandon it all completely, but you don't have shelves of stuff you can't find the time to listen to?

Honestly, I recommend sticking to the CDs or Vinyl or Cassettes. Whichever physical format is your preference. I have a bit of a system going these days, where I check out new things on streaming or whatever and if I like it enough after 3 or 4 listens, I try buy a physical copy. In the last 12 months or so, I have tried to limit myself to listening to albums all the way through to try recapture some of the magic I felt when listening as a younger fella.  I find myself enjoying the confines of my collection much more than during the few years when I stopped buying things and used youtube and downloads for my kicks. I have a walkman for using in work but I don't even plug it into the car when I driving. It's CDs all the way for me these days. I don't even skip shit songs any more, I just accept them as part of the album. I can't handle doing that with streaming, it just takes away all of my patience for things.

And if the collection is getting too big, just weed out the weak ones and update the collection accordingly. 10 in, 10 out sort of concept

[mugz]

I'm a bit not interested in music as much as in past years/decades. There's too many ways of listening to music from free to expensive, and in many ways there's far too much music these days.

Does anyone have a system to maintain some level of interaction with music, but it's maybe inbetween just telling Alexa to play 90s thrash or whatever, and having masses of cds or vinyl etc?

is there a middle ground where you don't have to abandon it all completely, but you don't have shelves of stuff you can't find the time to listen to?

Honestly, I recommend sticking to the CDs or Vinyl or Cassettes. Whichever physical format is your preference. I have a bit of a system going these days, where I check out new things on streaming or whatever and if I like it enough after 3 or 4 listens, I try buy a physical copy. In the last 12 months or so, I have tried to limit myself to listening to albums all the way through to try recapture some of the magic I felt when listening as a younger fella.  I find myself enjoying the confines of my collection much more than during the few years when I stopped buying things and used youtube and downloads for my kicks. I have a walkman for using in work but I don't even plug it into the car when I driving. It's CDs all the way for me these days. I don't even skip shit songs any more, I just accept them as part of the album. I can't handle doing that with streaming, it just takes away all of my patience for things.

And if the collection is getting too big, just weed out the weak ones and update the collection accordingly. 10 in, 10 out sort of concept

cds are underrated- the shitty art/ inlays, and decades of overpricing turned people off them, but I enjoy the sound quality, even if it doesn't match a brand new tape or a vinyl in an expensive hifi.

thanks for the account of your solution, it's helpful to learn how other people got over a slump with music

[Ducky]

Not once in my life have I ever heard someone say they prefer that CD can't match the sound quality of tape.

Anyway, I make a point of still listening to albums in their entirety and still having a proper session with them (as in, I'm sitting with feet up, nothing else, just the album).

I think having good audio quality and gear is very important too. I was using a set of Sennheiser HD4.40BT headphones for a while, and while they're usable, I couldn't EQ them how I wanted them (no warmth to the bass, eugh), they didn't have noise cancellation and their max volume made listening to older albums a chore. So I fucked them off, bought some Sony WH1000XM3s (snappy names all round, eh) and I love listening to music on them to the point where I'll find an excuse to use them.

[mugz]

Not once in my life have I ever heard someone say they prefer that CD can't match the sound quality of tape.

Anyway, I make a point of still listening to albums in their entirety and still having a proper session with them (as in, I'm sitting with feet up, nothing else, just the album).

I think having good audio quality and gear is very important too. I was using a set of Sennheiser HD4.40BT headphones for a while, and while they're usable, I couldn't EQ them how I wanted them (no warmth to the bass, eugh), they didn't have noise cancellation and their max volume made listening to older albums a chore. So I fucked them off, bought some Sony WH1000XM3s (snappy names all round, eh) and I love listening to music on them to the point where I'll find an excuse to use them.

I'm terrified of wireless headphones. 3.5mm is something I like

[101_North]

Not once in my life have I ever heard someone say they prefer that CD can't match the sound quality of tape.

Anyway, I make a point of still listening to albums in their entirety and still having a proper session with them (as in, I'm sitting with feet up, nothing else, just the album).

I think having good audio quality and gear is very important too. I was using a set of Sennheiser HD4.40BT headphones for a while, and while they're usable, I couldn't EQ them how I wanted them (no warmth to the bass, eugh), they didn't have noise cancellation and their max volume made listening to older albums a chore. So I fucked them off, bought some Sony WH1000XM3s (snappy names all round, eh) and I love listening to music on them to the point where I'll find an excuse to use them.

I'm terrified of wireless headphones. 3.5mm is something I like

No need to be terrified of wireless these days. Wireless headphones have improved to a ridiculous degree. The Sony's already mentioned are fantastic and I also have a set of Bowers & Wilkins that sound fantastic.

[Ducky]

Why are you 'terrified' of them? Bluetooth tech has come a long way.

Had a thing typed, but what 101_North says.

[mugz]

Why are you 'terrified' of them? Bluetooth tech has come a long way.

Had a thing typed, but what 101_North says.

I want my music to have some relationship with mechanically wound copper wiring. It's not entirely rational. We all have our preferences though.

[Trev]

Just as an aside, what's the battery like on wireless headphones? Been avoiding them as I hate the idea of having more stuff that that can run out of power when I'm out listening to music

[101_North]

Just as an aside, what's the battery like on wireless headphones? Been avoiding them as I hate the idea of having more stuff that that can run out of power when I'm out listening to music

My Bowers & Wilkins give about 30hrs with noise cancelling on. A 15min charge gives them around 5hrs if you get stuck. I believe the Sony's are about the same playback time.

[Ducky]

Same as that for my Sonys (I charge them using the same charger as my S8). I can charge the first 80% in around 35 minutes, to max them it takes about an hour.

They're advertised at 30 hours with noise cancelling on and that's effectively what I get. I don't use DSEE HX in the app (it 'upscales' lower quality files, but I don't have any low quality files) - that apparently skims about 20% off the battery life.

I had the same concerns about battery life but it's never been an issue.

[Ducky]

As an aside, I bought one of these two years ago and it's one of the handiest things to have.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerPort-Family-Sized-Technology-Smartphones-Black/dp/B00PK1IIJY/ref=asc_df_B00PK1IIJY/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=214877336784&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6721229385399637525&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007895&hvtargid=pla-420046835187&psc=1

[Ducky]

Why are you 'terrified' of them? Bluetooth tech has come a long way.

Had a thing typed, but what 101_North says.

I want my music to have some relationship with mechanically wound copper wiring. It's not entirely rational. We all have our preferences though.

Ha, fair enough.

Audio software and wireless codecs have so many bells and whistles these days you'd be hard pushed to tell what sort of source and connection you're using.

[Yung Led Zeppelin]

I grew up with the internet/MP3s and vinyl was just stuff my parents had in a box that I never got around to until the general resurgence in popularity. Vast majority of my listening has been on my iPods, which are still going strong for me daily.

I still managed to obsess over albums and know them inside out. It's entirely up to you how you choose to engage with music and I think we've never lived in a better time for it. Absolutely love how I can hear a song somewhere, make a note of some of the lyrics and then just find it in most cases. I do enjoy listening on vinyl as well, definitely a different experience, in the sense that it's rarely a "background music" scenario and it's a pain to skip.

I genuinely think the analogue vs digital thing belongs in the bin with the enormous pile of hocus pocus that seems to come with the territory of audio/music. I'm not buying the 320 claims for a second. I'd be willing to put money on no one here actually being able to discern the difference between it and uncompressed. That's not how the data compression works, it relies on exploiting an auditory illusion, if it sounded properly shite it wouldn't be standard. Not having a dig at anyone, I just think it's really overstated in these discussions.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

For the laugh