How do you listen to your music?

Hi guys. I just thought this would be a good topic to make after all those <<favourite music threads>>. So, here are my questions. When listening to music:

1) Do you use speakers, ear buds or headphones/headsets and what model?

2) What kind of files do you store your music with (mp3, wav, flac, e.t.c.)?

3) Do you prefer digital music or more physical means of storage like vinyl, cd and cassette?

I personally use headphones (ATH M30X), my music files are in mp3, wav and cda (cd audio track I think) and I prefer having cds, though I have some tracks on mobile as a playlist or some of my favourite albums.

I use some cheap headphones from Insignia but they work great and even have a mic. For me I save common music files in MP3 128kb/s. For full CD albums I've ripped to my PC to rip them to their highest quality WAV, then use Audicity to convert to 320 kb/s MP3. Quality is amazing on those rips, even on MP3. These days I prefer digital since it's so easy to use and move, although I burn CDs all the time of playlists I've made so I can listen anywhere that has a CD player. I have an old iPod Nano but I never use it lol.

I got to use more of the rip feature for taking my music on the go. First time I saw it, I thought to myself : <<Why would I want to destroy my cd with Rest In Peace (rip).>>. Then I searched about it and found out what it was. :)

Also, I generally use Audacity more for making basic ringtones than anything else.

And is it better if I convert cda to wav quality-wise?

almost all digital in mp3 V0/320 whether at home or out and about.

i tried FLAC but just couldnt be bothered with the extra storage space required on mobile devices so havent made the 'switch'

for listening, at home: AKG K550 & FiiO E10K headphone amplifier and for more 'relaxed' listening i've got old (~10 years...) Logitech 2.1 speakers. actually quite good comparatively to my headphones so i havent bothered replacing them

out and about: Cowon J3 & thinksound ts02 IEMs

the AKGs are brilliant, theyre 'monitor' headphones so coming from a more bass-heavy sound they might be quite a shock

the Cowon J3 is incredible; the best sound off a mobile device ive heard

the ts02's are good, if a little 'warm' for my preferences. i havent bothered replacing them because i dont do much mobile listening any more when im travelling. they are good enough.

Yeah, that is what bothers me with FLAC too. The extra space. Also nice picks you have there.

I nearly listen everytime to music when im on the pc (like right now) and not speakin with someone else. I use a Sennheiser GSP 300.

Most of the time I hear my music on Spotify but sometimes I go to Youtube for some live Versions. I really hate Stuff you dont own physically like Music or good Games ! Just for that i bought my fav. Games like the Original Half Life , Blue Shift , Opposing Force or the original Doom II BigBox even I will never use the Original CD's.

Same with Music :) good and classical albums I buy physicaly as a CD. But im also very interested in vinyl records ! :D
  

On my PC - Creative Titanium HD and Sennheiser 598 HD. Mostly 320kbps and FLAC.

1) I use speakers most of the time (currently Logitech Z623). When I need to keep my music to myself or I'm out of the house, I use headphones (currently Sennheiser HD 471G). I never use earphones - they make my ears hurt after a while.

2) Most of my music is in the MP3 format, either bought as such or ripped from my CD collection or converted from my iTunes purchases. I still use Winamp to play my music at home and an iRiver to play it when I'm out and about.

3) I adopted digital music when I got my first PC in 1994 (and my Doom obsession began) but at that time was limited to CD audio playback or downsampled and horrible-sounding compressed audio files. My love for MP3 files began in 1997. But my passion for CD collecting began back in 1992 and I still collect them to this day.

Here's some photos I took when I was sorting some of my CD singles collection recently-ish:

I'm clearly better at collecting them than photographing them. haha ;P

Oh, and yes - that is a pink wheelie bin in the bottom left-hand corner of the second pic. lol

27 minutes ago, DAZZER said:

Same with Music :) good and classical albums I buy physicaly as a CD. But im also very interested in vinyl records ! :D

Man, I want to start collecting vinyl. But that would require some investments (record player and the vinyls themselves are out of reach for me right now), so I guess stick with cds at the moment.

Also, how much did the boxed Doom 2 set you back? I have seen many copies going for a 100$ and sometimes over that.

savagegrant, I swear that if I was drinking anything the moment you sent the pics, my keyboard would end up covered in liquid and probably break. :) Seriously, it is a nice and huge collection you have there. And I agree about earphones. In fact, I never liked them and I always owned cheap ones that tended to break after a month.

savagegrant... WHAT THE HECK O_O That's really a lot... 

Headphones, cheap, not that great, but they get the job done, before using H.Phones though, i used earphones and it was annoying to put then back and forth in my ears do to the hair.

As for format, mp3 or ogg, highest quality possible, i'm more of a digital person, mostly because there's some music that can't be found anywhere or is hard to find, mostly obscure japanese ova music, anime music, video game music, that kind of stuff, though i do like to have physical cds.

Cheap Logitech speakers, YouTube playlist, and this site.

1 minute ago, Pencil of Doom said:

Headphones, cheap, not that great, but they get the job done

I was still using some cheap headphones 2 months ago. They were some sony's that cost 17 euros, which is really cheap in my opinion,but I got more than I payed for, anyways, so it was a good deal. 

3 minutes ago, Pencil of Doom said:

mostly because there's some music that can't be found anywhere or is hard to find

I have the Shadow of the Beast OST as a playlist in my phone and as you said, it can't be found easily (there was only a 2015 remix, which I don't know if it was on disk). The original needs to be extracted from an Amiga, so good luck with that. I got it from youtube and cut it in parts with Audacity (wav format). 

12 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Cheap Logitech speakers, YouTube playlist, and this site.

Logitech is love, logitech is life! Logitech as a brand from what I know is very trustworthy. I had a set of wireless mouse and keyboard from logitech and they worked like a charm. Also, I didn't know about that site and I always got what I wanted from youtube, manually. That could save me a lot of time.

30 minutes ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

savagegrant, I swear that if I was drinking anything the moment you sent the pics, my keyboard would end up covered in liquid and probably break. :) Seriously, it is a nice and huge collection you have there.

Thanks. The scary thing is that it's not even half of my CD collection. I have CD singles in other formats (jewel cases, cardboard sleeves, Digipaks) and of course, there's my CD albums. If you're wondering how I store them...

I've since run out of space and have to keep the excess in storage containers until I get MOAR of those things^^^ :O

42 minutes ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

Also, how much did the boxed Doom 2 set you back? I have seen many copies going for a 100$ and sometimes over that.

It cost me 150 € (161$). But I never saw one in a that good condition so i had to buy it. At the moment im searching for a Blood or Heretic BigBox but they are pretty rare :(

43 minutes ago, savagegrant said:

 

Here's some photos I took when I was sorting some of my CD singles collection recently-ish:

 

Holy Shit ! Thats a nice collection you have there ! :O

savagegrant, I approve of the storage method!

Also thank you DAZZER for the info. I will probably gather some money now and spent it in a copy of Doom 1 or 2. 

20 minutes ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

Logitech is love, logitech is life! Logitech as a brand from what I know is very trustworthy. I had a set of wireless mouse and keyboard from logitech and they worked like a charm. Also, I didn't know about that site and I always got what I wanted from youtube, manually. That could save me a lot of time.

 

Logitech does make good, quality stuff! I just mean that I bought the cheapest speakers they had available (less than $20, IIRC).

YouTube bugs out when playlists exceed 200 videos, so that's why I use that site.

10 minutes ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

savagegrant, I approve of the storage method!

Hehe. I'm not sure where I'm gonna get more of them though. My local hardware store has stopped selling them. :(

I've put the CDs to good use (besides playing them). Seven years ago, I started a music website that helps people reconnect with the music they've liked from the past. In the old forums, I had its URL in the homepage section of my profile but I see that's gone now. Dunno if you're allowed to mention your own non-Doom related sites in posts here or not?

I don't think that you can't mention sites, but you can always PM me, right? I would love to see your site.

5 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

YouTube bugs out when playlists exceed 200 videos, so that's why I use that site.

200 videos? That is some variety you have here. My playlist is merely 40 songs.

1 minute ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

I don't think that you can't mention sites, but you can always PM me, right? I would love to see your site.

Is the site blocked? I am able to follow the link... :-\

I'll PM you.

1 minute ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

200 videos? That is some variety you have here. My playlist is merely 40 songs.

267, last I checked. ;-)

15 minutes ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

I don't think that you can't mention sites

Oh cool, then it's http://top100singles.blogspot.com :)

14 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Is the site blocked? I am able to follow the link... :-\

I'm not sure what you mean by blocked. ;/

I have some 500 songs, all of which are in a single playlist and played on shuffle mode. I don't care about the format... until I run out of space, then I convert everything to MP3 128 kbps, I see no difference between that and super-cool-trendy-fashionable-high-quality FLAC or whatever.

I listen to them on my cheap-ass Logitech S-150 speakers, they work OK, but the USB connector is kinda fragile... and I have a legitimate phobia of those.

3 minutes ago, savagegrant said:

I'm not sure what you mean by blocked. ;/

 

@ShotgunDemolition seemed to indicate that he could not follow the link I posted. Wasn't sure if DW blocks external links...

7 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

@ShotgunDemolition seemed to indicate that he could not follow the link I posted. Wasn't sure if DW blocks external links...

Oh ok. FWIW, I was able to open your YouTube playlist randomiser link. :D

I prefer having a physical copy of all my music, but I mostly use digital files for listening convenience.

As of now, I have 410 releases (both albums and singles) ripped as FLAC + CUE on my PC.

For listening on PC I use a Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphone, for my phone I use OGG files and Monoprice 109927 earbuds.

Finally, in my car I use a mix of CDs, a USB stick with music and streaming music from my phone via Bluetooth.

I listen to things like this:
 

With Sennheiser HD 4.40 BTs.

Why? Because using a speaker setup with proper bass will get me out of my appartment quicker than a desert melts ice. Give it a try, and turn it up, if you dare. ;-)