how do you listen to music?

suzyq

Computer via hifi system, great sound quality. I mainly listen to jazz try https://www.wbgo.org 1st class radio station.

Ben84

I have a record player from the 70s that sounds really good and about 3000 LPs. I only listen to music at home while relaxing, never while working or out and about so being portable isn't important. I do sit down to listen to a record and do only that. Sometimes I use the speakers, but for a really immersing feeling I use the big headphones.

sarabande

Usually turntable.

scheming_gypsy

I download illegally but only listen to music in cars or bars.

TwelveStopsThenHome

Through my stereo with CDs when at home in the back room. In the lounge, I listen via my laptop via Spotify, Youtube.

When out and about, it's via my mobile or Ipod (I have a click wheel one).

esuhl

I think the only music files I've ever paid for were in FLAC format. Most of the time I prefer to buy CDs because the sound quality is better than most downloads and I like having something physical with artwork, etc.

I unlawfully rip the CDs I own (has that been legalised yet?) so I can listen to them on my audio player when I'm out and about. I find that variable-bit-rate WMVs at the highest quality sound best to my ears (compared to other lossy file formats such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, fixed-rate WMVs, etc.).

At home, I had an old amp, CD player and big wooden speakers from the 1970s. When the CD player broke I realised that I couldn't really notice any difference in sound quality when playing CDs through my PC (my old PC generated a continual hum/buzz) - so I haven't felt the need to replace the CD player. Could do with a better amp & speakers, though.

I use Spotify (free) and put up with the terrible sound quality and adverts because I mainly use it to discover new music. It'd be okay to get rid of the adverts, but I wouldn't pay for the service unless the sound quality was at least 320kb/s, and even then I'd feel shortchanged compared to CD quality... I might get a premium account at some point, though.

Finally, since the earphones supplied with audio devices are invariable of a only-just-about-bearable quality I never use them. At the moment I mainly use a pair of Shure E2c or SCL2 in-ear monitors (IEMs) which I think normally cost about £80 and I got 'em for £60. They're worth every penny, and I might even upgrade to a better pair (£125 to £200-ish) at some point as long as they look easy to repair (with detachable cables, etc.).

robin_banks

Tape, vinyl, cd, mp3, dab .

NEver listen to mp3 when at home though.

Voyager2002

My preferred source of music is black vinyl (records), and I play them on an LP12.

Some music, sadly, is not available on records so I need a CD player. I use a Linn Ikemi (same company as the LP12) since unfortunately I could not afford their CD12 (Sonndeck). Sound quality is OK so long as you don't listen too carefully.

Either way, the music passes through a Sugdens amplifier: British genius, made in 1976 and then a pair of Kef loudspeakers. Earphones just don't do it for me: in stereo, they don't enable you to listen in three dimensions. (With decent speakers, you can hear that some musicians are in front of others, as well as to the left or right.)

MackemPunk

Ripped to a 2tb hard drive and streamed via my PS3 to my surround sound system at home, on the move I have a Android with 16gb of room and usually have about 11gb of music on it(using headphones of course)

CathWales

I use youtube and listen to muD's on my trusty Discman, tho I could do with better earphones than the 'in the ear' ones it came with all those years ago!