How do you listen to music?

What is your process for listening to music? Do you typically listen straight from the physical CD/cassette/vinyl? Do you only buy digital? If you rip CD's/cassettes/etc., what tools/software do you use for that? Do you have a preferred digital file format for songs and a preferred media player? Do you have a preferred physical medium?

My collection consists of a bunch of CD's, about 7 cassettes, and only one vinyl (and a number of albums that were purchased only digitally). I don't actually have any means of playing or ripping the cassettes and vinyl. While I could play the CD's in a CD player, I often end up ripping them and then sticking them on the rack. I'm a Linux guy, so I use a program called Asunder to rip. I typically rip to Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) files, but if I want higher quality (which isn't usually the case), then I rip to FLAC. For listening, I use VLC media player, both in Linux and on my Android phone.

For me the vast majority of it is on CD and that's how I listen to it at home.  I still have many cassettes I bought as a teenager and still work (and 3 vinyl with no way to play them).  I rip all of my CDs to iTunes .M4A's.  I know there are better quality files out there but these are backups, for use while traveling, and at work.  At work it's fun to put my phone on shuffle and see what I get.  I don't have any sort of whole-house music system so a CD player in the few primary rooms to play CDs is actually still more efficient for me.

I am a die hard CD collector and will buy the CD version whenever possible (especially in the extreme sub-genres of Christian metal toward which I gravitate). There are, of course, many underground bands who only release digitally and I'm glad to pay for Bandcamp downloads when applicable.

I'm no audiophile so I just rip CD's to 320kbs MP3 files using Windows Media Player. My collection is vast and I like the ability to change artist/album/song quickly on a whim so I stream my music on my cellphone using Google Play Music. When I buy new music, I upload the MP3's to my Google Music account. You can adjust sound quality during playback if you have limited monthly data i.e. the app settings allow you to reduce to 192kbs (or whatever you prefer) when on mobile data instead of wifi. I have never had any issues because I don't use a lot of data other than streaming music but it's nice to have the option.

It would be very nice to listen to FLAC but I can't imagine the kind of space all of the files would take up and there's no way I am going to rip them all over again lol. @CW do you store all the files on your home PC and use it as a file server to stream on mobile? (it's been a while since I used VLC player but I assume it has that functionality?)

I still buy CDs whenever possible.  I will buy downloads if the disc isn't available.

I rip all of my CDs to kbps MP3 and store those on a 1 TB outboard hard drive.  I put all my music on a FiiO M9 hi-def music player.  I use it everywhere I go as I can carry tons of albums with me everywhere I go.  I literally have over 1000 albums on there.  I listen in my truck with my FiiO.  I listen if I go for a walk or take a book and go get breakfast by myself to the FiiO on my Aftershoks bone conduction headphones.  I have speakers in my building and I listen when I am working on guitars.  My FiiO and me are bestest buddies and go everywhere together.  I will be listening to it when I go work on my sermon for tomorrow as well.

Deepfriar wrote:It would be very nice to listen to FLAC but I can't imagine the kind of space all of the files would take up and there's no way I am going to rip them all over again lol. @CW do you store all the files on your home PC and use it as a file server to stream on mobile? (it's been a while since I used VLC player but I assume it has that functionality?)

VLC has a lot of functionality. I know it can pull streams from the Internet (from YouTube, Internet radio stations, etc.) so it can probably do personal setups too. My collection isn't very large (around 40 GB iirc) so it all easily fits on my main SSD in my desktop as well as on my phone. My phone has 64 GB of storage but other than all that music and a limited number of apps, I don't really store anything on there (not many pictures or anything like that) so it's enough space for now.

In my truck CDs and digital. In the home 100% vinyl unless you count music choice which I guess is playing thru cable TV. We don't even have a working CD player in the house anymore so I only play those in my truck. We play records every day. Usually jazz or big band but sometimes I'll throw on a rock or metal record

I actually buy more music via digital now since most of the music I listen to isnt available in stores (the only place to buy music in town is Wal-Mart, who are phasing out cds slowly), and when I buy an album I like to have access to it immediately. As for listening, I mainly listen to cds, though I do have a massive amount of vinyl and cassette (which I'm slowly upgrading to cd or digital), or through my computer, or even Spotify at times (though that's mainly if I either dont have the album yet or am going through the entire discography of a band).

I always buy a physical copy, either vinyl or CD depending on how much I love the artist, or if I know I am gonna dig the album

I generally listen on my computer, with my Itunes collection which is all of my CDs or Spotify

I always break out the vinyl occasionally as well

My car is old enough I have to use CDs

I listen to Spotify when I explore new music, or music that I haven't gotten into yet. If there's something I really like, I'll buy their music on CD. I only buy music digitally if it isn't available physically.

I rip my CDs to 128kbs, the way I mostly listen to music, I won't hear the difference in quality anyway.

And lately I've started listening much more to music on internet radio, my favourite is Fuel Radio. I usually have it on all days long at work, either with the sound turned down low, or with headphones.

I rip my discs to Google Play music, the tunes upload to the cloud, and then to my phone.  And I collect vinyl.

I collect CDs, vinyl, and cassettes. I primarily focus on CDs, but I also get the vinyl if it's an album that I really enjoy. I get cassettes if its a demo or the only affordable option. I rip the CDs onto my computer as 320 kbps mp3 files and organize them for listening in Windows Media Player (like I used to do back in 2004 ) which also allows me to track what I'm listening to on audioscrobbler (last.fm). I do a lot of reading for my career so I listen to the music off my computer with some over-ear headphones. I have a CD player and a cassette deck (not sure if that one works) in my vehicle. My record player is currently in storage, unfortunately, but I look forward to getting it back out so I can listen to some vinyl and cassettes at home. One day I need to get a CD stereo with 5 disc changer like I used to have when I was a teenager (hopefully with some nice speakers). When I'm walking around or in the gym I stream my library off of Google Play Music, though I'm looking for ideas for a sort of ipod-like device that I won't have to have internet to use and that's more convenient than a discman .

CrimsonWarrior wrote:

Deepfriar wrote:It would be very nice to listen to FLAC but I can't imagine the kind of space all of the files would take up and there's no way I am going to rip them all over again lol. @CW do you store all the files on your home PC and use it as a file server to stream on mobile? (it's been a while since I used VLC player but I assume it has that functionality?)

VLC has a lot of functionality. I know it can pull streams from the Internet (from YouTube, Internet radio stations, etc.) so it can probably do personal setups too. My collection isn't very large (around 40 GB iirc) so it all easily fits on my main SSD in my desktop as well as on my phone. My phone has 64 GB of storage but other than all that music and a limited number of apps, I don't really store anything on there (not many pictures or anything like that) so it's enough space for now.

Ah gotcha, makes sense. I can't really use a PC as a media server because I don't have a dedicated PC space right now with a PC that is 'always on'. I also use my phone for mobile gaming and don't have enough free space to store a music collection, so streaming via the internet (either wifi or mobile data) just makes more sense for me.

When I'm listening to music in the living room, I usually just pull up whatever I want to listen to on YouTube and play it on my TV. I have a sound bar that works well for this purpose. I can also connect my phone to the sound bar via Bluetooth and get good quality that way also if I prefer to stream from my phone.

When I listen in the bathroom (let's be real, music is awesome while you shower) or in the kitchen while cooking, I use a simple portable speaker: Anker Soundcore Boost (got it half price refurbished on eBay)

Son of Nun wrote:When I'm walking around or in the gym I stream my library off of Google Play Music, though I'm looking for ideas for a sort of ipod-like device that I won't have to have internet to use and that's more convenient than a discman .

If your phone has enough space, then simply loading all of the music onto there and using a local offline media player like VLC would probably be a good solution. That depends on how large your collection is though. It was easy enough for me to load music files onto my phone by simply connecting it to my computer with a USB A to C cable. My file manager makes it easy to use the media transfer protocol (mtp) to move files onto the phone. I'm not sure what this would look like on Windows or macOS but I'm sure it's not too hard.

I've been using Google Play Music and streaming from my phone with headphones or to my bluetooth soundbar at home. GPM is going away though and being replaced by Youtube Music so I'll probably switch to that since it will still allow me to upload my own music purchased elsewhere. I've been trying Spotify but I w discovered some albums I like that are not on there, and the layout is very much like YTM anyway...

Being home for work and play I have been playing CD's more often. So glad I have a good collection with different genre's.

I do usually rip my CD's to MP3 to play on my Sony Walkman, but the sound coming out of my CD player is so much better.

Anyone else had the problem with their MP3 rip becoming corrupted? Has happened a couple of times to me when restoring the backup.

Yes I have.  A prime example example of this was on an old Jerusalem disc.  So glad for the remasters a few years ago.

Man, there is SO much signal lost at 128.  Cymbals begin to sound like you are listening to them under water.  The bass is also greatly reduced.  It would worry the daylights out of me to listen to something at 128.



You definitely want to check out FiiO players.  While you need your computer to load them, your music is on a micro SD card.  Even if the player says it reads 128, you can drive way more than that.  I'd have a 1 TB card if they weren't so expensive.  Some FiiO's have TWO card slots.  They will take almost any music file types as well.  I have the M9 which is pretty affordable now.  Since the M9, they have come out with an M11, M11 Pro, M15, and M15 Pro.  Those will set you back quite a bit.

FiiOs are rugged, and you can actually talk directly to their software programmers on the Friends of FiiO Facebook page to tell them about glitches and such.  If they can, they will fix the problems.

Mostly cds and digital music I bought through Apple and Google. Lately been using Spotify to check out new music.

Does anybody know if Last.fm is a good music service? I checked their site and they have the album's that I cant find on Spotify or YTM. I was wondering if anyone here had experience with them...

Guenther321 wrote:Does anybody know if Last.fm is a good music service?  I checked their site and they have the album's that I cant find on Spotify or YTM.  I was wondering if anyone here had experience with them...

Last.fm isn't a streaming service, if that is what you mean.  Years ago, they did do some of that but I guess it wasn't profitable for them.

They're basically a site for music charts made by tracking users' listening via an app.  They also have social media elements, but unfortunately those are pretty inactive these days from what I see aside from the technical support forum.  I enjoy the charts though and I've discovered several bands I like over the years thanks to their recommendations, including Theocracy, which was my introduction to Christian metal.

They do have links to off site music like Youtube and Spotify, but nothing on their own site as far as I know.

Well that makes it a little easier.....it still looks like YTM will be my choice because of uploads and access to listen to audio from youtube so most of what isn't on their service is still accessible.

CrimsonWarrior wrote:

Son of Nun wrote:When I'm walking around or in the gym I stream my library off of Google Play Music, though I'm looking for ideas for a sort of ipod-like device that I won't have to have internet to use and that's more convenient than a discman .

If your phone has enough space, then simply loading all of the music onto there and using a local offline media player like VLC would probably be a good solution. That depends on how large your collection is though. It was easy enough for me to load music files onto my phone by simply connecting it to my computer with a USB A to C cable. My file manager makes it easy to use the media transfer protocol (mtp) to move files onto the phone. I'm not sure what this would look like on Windows or macOS but I'm sure it's not too hard.

My phone doesn't have a lot of space, although I might try to upgrade in the near future. I think I'd like to a have a separate, dedicated device anyway.

alldatndensum wrote:Man, there is SO much signal lost at 128.  Cymbals begin to sound like you are listening to them under water.  The bass is also greatly reduced.  It would worry the daylights out of me to listen to something at 128.



You definitely want to check out FiiO players.  While you need your computer to load them, your music is on a micro SD card.  Even if the player says it reads 128, you can drive way more than that.  I'd have a 1 TB card if they weren't so expensive.  Some FiiO's have TWO card slots.  They will take almost any music file types as well.  I have the M9 which is pretty affordable now.  Since the M9, they have come out with an M11, M11 Pro, M15, and M15 Pro.  Those will set you back quite a bit.

FiiOs are rugged, and you can actually talk directly to their software programmers on the Friends of FiiO Facebook page to tell them about glitches and such.  If they can, they will fix the problems.

I might look into this FiiO for a portable music player. Thanks for the suggestion.

Athanasius wrote:

Guenther321 wrote:Does anybody know if Last.fm is a good music service?  I checked their site and they have the album's that I cant find on Spotify or YTM.  I was wondering if anyone here had experience with them...

Last.fm isn't a streaming service, if that is what you mean.  Years ago, they did do some of that but I guess it wasn't profitable for them.

They're basically a site for music charts made by tracking users' listening via an app.  They also have social media elements, but unfortunately those are pretty inactive these days from what I see aside from the technical support forum.  I enjoy the charts though and I've discovered several bands I like over the years thanks to their recommendations, including Theocracy, which was my introduction to Christian metal.

They do have links to off site music like Youtube and Spotify, but nothing on their own site as far as I know.

Last.fm is fantastic. I first found out about it probably around 2004. My current account only runs from 2016 though since I stopped listening to most metal (and wasn't so obsessed with music) for several years while on my spiritual journey.

For complete Christian albums, I buy the cd, for secular I buy the digital. I also buy secular singles.

I have my entire collection in digital format (all cds have been ripped).

I store my entire music collection in multiple locations.

1) My laptop has my entire collection on it. I can access it anywhere inside my house via Plex (apps on AppleTV, Roku, Android)

2) I have a 3.5 HD in a HD enclosure with a backup of my collection on it. This I have plugged into my network router, then I use either my Roku or my Onkyo receiver to play it.

3) I have another external HD connected to the network that has a backup of my collection. I also can access this via Plex.

4) For on the go, I have SanDisk Ultra Fit Flash Drives with my collection backed up on them. Then I use a small USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter  so I can play my collection on my phone (I use Omnia) without having to have internet access.

My preferred way of listening is on my CD player. It's just that there isn't really any time for me to sit back, relax and listen to a CD. Most of the time I have to pick the right moment to listen to the right CD considering my wife and children.

So most of the time when I'm outside walking the dog, or underway to something, I'm listening on my almost 10 years old MP3 player. We are low key planning on coming back to the Netherlands, and probably buy a house, so I'm interested in this man cave thing with a good CD player. But well, it's a luxury to listen to music a lot, so I'm not complaining that I can't do it that often

I mostly listen music using my CD-or vinyl player. That's the thing for me. I've also bought some albums in mp3-format (f.e some game soundtracks).