How do you mainly listen to music?

[Iron1]

I know back in the 70s, listening to music on the ginormous Stereo System was a huge part of US culture. At least for those with a passion for tunes. Then it seemed like in the 80s/90s the big thing was to have a car audio system that rattled the glass. In the 21st century it seems like hardly anyone does those things anymore, and is all about ear buds or "Beats" or some other sort of tiny, personal sound reproduction system. I'll leave the social commentary aside for now, although it's sad how that prevents full-on listening parties, etc. like the past.

How do you like to listen?

The main reason this comes to mind for me is the thought of "mixing for the end user". My guess is mixing/mastering for a massive Onkyo component system is more detailed and volume based than mixing for Apple AirPods or things with fake bass like Beats...

 

[duzie]

Most of my actual music listening occurs on my commute to work.
So my car stereo is the source.

 

[Snags]

With my ears. Ho ho ho.

Actually, to my eternal shame, I don't listen to music nearly as much as I used to. I probably hear more music live than anywhere else a lot of the time now, but only because I haunt open mics and local venues (which can sometimes stretch the definition of music). Otherwise the majority is either when working, so on studio monitors with the source either being online, or pulled from a local NAS, or via the old hi-fi in the house. Oh, plus background music from the radio in the kitchen, as Mrs Snags often has Planet Rock on, more for the dog than anyone else, I think.

 

[Orvillain]

When I'm cleaning my fleshlight at the kitchen counter.

 

[FuzzyAce]

When I'm around the house doing stuff, I'll just tote around a little JBL bluetooth radio. Out and about it's usually my air pods.
Listening intently is normally through my studio headphones or monitors.

 

[Stone]

Vintage Hi-Fi, Pre amp, Power amp, speakers, Currently streaming through it but going to buy a turntable this year and start a Vinyl collection
No Surround just Old School Stereo Hi-Fi

 

[megametal7]

I use ears

Mostly headphones before sleep..

 

[Los-D]

Mostly phone speakers, car speakers or headphones* at this point (ugh). When at home though, I’ll listen through either my monitors or stereo system (loud!)

(*) Due to tinnitus I loathe using headphones for music

 

[AutomationBias]

95% of my music listening is through bone conduction headphones while I run. I wish I could listen to music while I work, but I find it too distracting.

For the house, we plug a device (phone, ipad, computer) into a Zvex Nano Tube head, and that runs out to a huge old pair of Symdex speakers from the 80s. It doesn't seem to matter much what we use. The house was built in the 1700s and absolutely everything sounds amazing here, even my wife's old junk store acoustic. Old wood, I guess.

 

[SKU]

Mostly on my MacbookPro speakers. When I actually want to listen I have a set of studio monitors in my pseudo-treated room.

 

[DrewJD82]

My truck gets the most entertainment playing, that’s where I blare stuff and headbang. Studio would be 2nd, especially after getting the HS8’s and actually being able to hear bass, though I tend to get lost in analyzing stuff rather than just listening for entertainment.

And whenever I get a new album, it’s my couch/Polk Audio system. Since it’s a surround setup that has a stereo function, it does this really cool thing where it seems to know which frequencies to send to which speakers and I’m inside the music. Sometimes I have to adjust the rear speakers where it’s mostly high end stuff, but man is that one of the coolest things ever.

 

[Snags]

When I'm cleaning my fleshlight at the kitchen counter.

Yeah, right. Like you ever clean it.

 

[laxu]

In order of most to least common:

1. Through good open back headphones when I'm working.
2. Wireless earbuds when I'm traveling.
3. Studio monitors at home.
4. Living room hifi speakers.
5. Marshall Acton 1 Bluetooth speaker.

Never through anything truly shitty like smartphone or TV speakers at least!

I do hate to say it but I just don't have a dedicated music listening setup here due to space reasons, the kind that is setup just for music whether it's through vinyl, CDs or streaming. Traveling is perhaps the only time when I'm truly focused on the music as driving or public transport is a situation when you can just look out the window and listen to music.

 

[marsonic]

I guess I'm one of the weird ones. The vast majority is via lossless or uncompressed audio through my mastering rig (big speakers & subs or IEMs) in a treated room. I'm very close to investing in headphones that I find interesting.

#2 is probably the same IEMs plugged into a little "mp3 player" loaded with FLACs.

I have a hifi in my living room, but it's mostly for tv/movies. When we have people over, it's usually playing a concert DVD/blu-ray or a playlist. So, it gets some use.

I have airpods, but I only use them for podcasts and calls. They're "fine" for music, but I just don't think to use them like that.

 

[The Monorails]

95% entry-level studio monitors, 5% crappy phone speaker.

 

[Frodebro]

The majority of time it’s when I’m woodworking, which is my other major hobby. I’ve been slowly remodeling my house, so lots of time in the shop.

 

[la szum]

Fact: What we listen to music on is the worst it has been in the past 50 years.
Collectively speaking, we seem to have descended from the lowly Panasonic
Boomboxes and the Radio Shack Car Stereo. Sorry, Realistic.

 

[Cainer]

these days it's either on my studio monitors while working/jamming over it, via a wireless Bluetooth speaker in the house or outside, or in ear-buds at the gym! (Pantera gets heavy rotation when the workout needs to kick it up a notch )

 

[Frodebro]

Fact: What we listen to music on is the worst it has been in the past 50 years.
Collectively speaking, we seem to have descended from the lowly Panasonic
Boomboxes and the Radio Shack Car Stereo. Sorry, Realistic.

I think it's the changing of mediums from vinyl/cds to MP3s and digital formats, which ushered in a changing of listening habits. I used to listen to albums in their entirety back in the day, and the music was the only focus. Nowadays people mostly stream music as background while doing other things. I know that as an adult I have so much going on that it's hard to justify stopping everything just to listen to music.

 

[Sleezy E]

I'm usually naked.

...did I misunderstand the question?