How do you listen to music?

[Milestones]

1) Sit back or lay back and listen with full concentration to a CD on a good traditional stereo system. This is how I developed as a listener, especially a jazz listener. Total focus, hearing all the details...the advantages are obvious. Like most people (I suspect) I don't do this very much anymore.

2) Listen on the computer. This one makes sense in an age where you can put 1,000 hours of music on your computer and it barely dents the hard drive. I love to do it, but when I'm listening I am often writing, paying bills, browsing the Net for work or fun. I do it a lot, and I should get better speakers.

3) Listen in the car. I do it almost all the time, especially when it's just me in the vehicle. A good way to listen, as I can focus pretty well on the music, and my trips are short enough that my attention rarely wanes. Not the best sonically, especially while on the highway.

4) Radio. I don't listen to much radio, whether the real thing or on the Net. It was important when I was a jazz novice, though the hours for genuine jazz were always limited in the Cleveland area.

How do you listen? Where do you listen most?

[colinmce]

The last few weeks I've hardly listened to music at all. Not in the mood.

I usually put it on when I'm going about the house, which means I hardly hear it. I have a 30 minute commute each way to work, so I listen in the car, too. Third most often, I listen to spotify or other streaming things a bit at work.

[BillF]

1) Sit back or lay back and listen with full concentration to a CD on a good traditional stereo system. This is how I developed as a listener, especially a jazz listener. Total focus, hearing all the details...the advantages are obvious. Like most people (I suspect) I don't do this very much anymore.

2) Listen on the computer. This one makes sense in an age where you can put 1,000 hours of music on your computer and it barely dents the hard drive. I love to do it, but when I'm listening I am often writing, paying bills, browsing the Net for work or fun. I do it a lot, and I should get better speakers.

3) Listen in the car. I do it almost all the time, especially when it's just me in the vehicle. A good way to listen, as I can focus pretty well on the music, and my trips are short enough that my attention rarely wanes. Not the best sonically, especially while on the highway.

4) Radio. I don't listen to much radio, whether the real thing or on the Net. It was important when I was a jazz novice, though the hours for genuine jazz were always limited in the Cleveland area.

How do you listen? Where do you listen most?

Let's take your modes of listening one by one, Milestones:

Like you, I grew up with 1), but use it very little now. The 23-year-old equipment doesn't sound too good by today's standards anyway.

Yes, I use 2) a lot nowadays - with earphones - either via Spotify (huge, huge collection) or from selections from my CD collection added to iTunes.

Differ from you on 3) as I don't own a car (not unusual for European large city dwellers), but I walk or ride public transport listening to the same music sources as 2) with iPhone and earphones. I agree with you on background noise which is bad on buses and by the roadside, but very reduced on Manchester's Metrolink tram system.

As for 4), my fairly recent adoption of Spotify has seriousy eroded my jazz radio listening time, but I have a sense of loyalty here and make an effort to listen to highlights like Ghost of Miles's Night Lights and WKCR's artist marathons.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

About a quarter on computer, the rest on the hifi.

When I get something new, I concentrate on it - generally play it once a week and listen closely. Later, it's kind of in the background but I'm always listening out for stuff I didn't notice before; I find that some things you can only truly absorb if you're not wholly conscious.

MG

[BillF]

I find that some things you can only truly absorb if you're not wholly conscious.

MG

Of music that's very true.

[TedR]

I used to sit in the "sweet spot" and enjoy the sound stage. And I still do occasionally for new music I've purchased. But as you said I usually don't listen with as much concentration anymore. We have an open stairway to a partially finished basement where my stereo is. Now I'm content to listen in the living room or kitchen as the music drifts upstairs.

[jazzbo]

Ideally I like to sit and concentrate on listening, and I have built a really nice (imo) system to enjoy. But my life is not allowing much of that now.

I never listen on the computer. I just don't like digital files and using the computer as a music source.

These days I listen to classical music on the radio a lot more often than I have ever listened to the radio period, because my Dad likes that, and it is nice to have in the background.

[A Lark Ascending]

I always wear a dinner jacket and have the score in front of me. I have a dedicated set of pince-nez to scowl over when I disapprove of the recording (which I try to do most of the time).

I often flounce out of the living room if the recording is not up to my exacting standards.

Edited June 20, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

Probably about 90% via the traditional hi-fi route and 10% through spotify or on the I-Pod.

[mjzee]

I'd like to add another choice: Listening to iPods connected to powered speakers, clock radios, or boom boxes throughout the house. By now, we have a motley collection of iPods of various vintages that can be repurposed in this manner (it's especially useful to use them this way when the battery is shot).

When at my computer, I either listen to tracks selected randomly using iTunes (through either powered speakers connected to the computer or sent to my stereo via an AirPort Express) or to entire CDs or LPs on my stereo, which is in the same room. Even when I'm listening to the stereo, I'm usually doing something on the computer at the same time.

In the car, I listen to random tracks played through my iPhone (it also helps to keep the iPhone charged).

The only time I listen to radio is on the clock radio waking up, but even there, we listen via an iPod to a station "broadcasting" through the Web from 1,500 miles away.

Edited June 20, 2013 by mjzee

[mjzee]

It's interesting that the same music can sound differently in different environments and with different technologies. For example, I used to think of Coltrane's music (post-Prestige) as very earnest and serious, humorless. It was when I listened in the car did I realize it made great driving music, and that "lightened the load" for me. Conversely, I listened to the new John Fogerty CD in the car and found it bland; listening to it now on the stereo is a delight.

[A Lark Ascending]

It's interesting that the same music can sound differently in different environments and with different technologies.

And if it's like that for one listener, imagine the multiple variations of impression that are generated by all the different people listening from different contexts. Makes it all the more strange why some people are desperate to nail the bloodied butterfly in one place and insist that that is where it should reside.

Over the last year one of the ways I've gained greatest pleasure is using my iPod(s) with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Gets me into the music much more immediately. I especially enjoy listening to classical music that way - I find it easier to hear the different groups of instruments than on my main system where I've never really been able to get a proper stereo image (mainly, I think, because my living room is very small).

I too like the car for listening. I get a good 90 minutes done on workdays - get quite excited as it comes to the time to drive to work/home.

Edited June 22, 2013 by A Lark Ascending