Anje
Active member
I'd be curious to hear from you on that vast open question; could be about the gear/setup, places/environment you like, what is important to you, state of mind... from any perspective really.
Sharing my train of thoughts on this:
I've always been listening to music a lot, all the way back to my childhood; it's been such an important part of my life and try to do it as often as I can. I just "need" music.
There are times when it's for the pure enjoyment of it, this is when I pay more attention to the gear/place/setup so that the sound and overall "experience" is as good as it can be.
Other times it's as a support for work/focus, or background for any kind of activity, or just relax; in those cases the technical aspects and overall "quality" of the sound is not the primary concern, it's more about how it fits / mixes with what is the other main activity going on.
As I was sharing in another thread, I've been fortunate to be able to experience great Hi-Fi systems from day1 thanks to my dad, I feel that gave me great references in how things "sound" and helped in developing a "musical ear" / listening skills. When going into the family room to listen through one of those systems, it often as if the rest of the world stopped for a moment, and I was in a kind of bubble being 200% focused on the music; also opened the free mind to all kind of imagination/creativity.
I wore out a small compact disc / tape sound system I got as a present in my early teens, countless of hours going through records or recording the radio in my room back then; this was a key enabler in being able to discover new music, get to know what you like / develop your "style", and enjoy it in your own private space. Also a great instrument learning tool.
The car was another key place to experience music, often sharing with the rest of the family especially over hour long drives. I usually find cars to be a good specific "auditorium" in their own way.
Those days we have so many easy options to access / listen to music. But I often find this is not easier to find "better quality" listening opportunities/time. And this can have its downside.
For instance, I find so many "consumer" headphones / compact speakers are so bass heavy; I struggle to feel I hear a "natural" balanced mix. Or so many young people I see listening only through the "speaker" of their phone.
I feel the references one develops/has of how things "should sound", or how he has been able to experience the music, is a major foundation of how he listens in the end; and then influences how he plays / develops his(her) "sound-style" as a musician.
I haven't had a room to listen to music through a nice dedicated system at home for years, but I found I got used to smaller equipment; can be small monitors, or mostly directly the computer actually. If you can have a well balanced clear enough mix with what you have, have good references how "this or that should sound" to you and learn how to use what you have, I feel you can adapt to a lot of different ways to enjoy the music and be able to use those "smaller systems" for referencing as well.
Still, I love being able to experience a good well balanced Hi-Fi system whenever I can; there's quite nothing like it to (re)discover pieces of music you love, and just be lost in the moment.
Here's a recent capture of my dad's dedicated room/lab setup, ever evolving so it's probably different now; that's been one of my happy places and visit it as often as I can:
Sharing my train of thoughts on this:
I've always been listening to music a lot, all the way back to my childhood; it's been such an important part of my life and try to do it as often as I can. I just "need" music.
There are times when it's for the pure enjoyment of it, this is when I pay more attention to the gear/place/setup so that the sound and overall "experience" is as good as it can be.
Other times it's as a support for work/focus, or background for any kind of activity, or just relax; in those cases the technical aspects and overall "quality" of the sound is not the primary concern, it's more about how it fits / mixes with what is the other main activity going on.
As I was sharing in another thread, I've been fortunate to be able to experience great Hi-Fi systems from day1 thanks to my dad, I feel that gave me great references in how things "sound" and helped in developing a "musical ear" / listening skills. When going into the family room to listen through one of those systems, it often as if the rest of the world stopped for a moment, and I was in a kind of bubble being 200% focused on the music; also opened the free mind to all kind of imagination/creativity.
I wore out a small compact disc / tape sound system I got as a present in my early teens, countless of hours going through records or recording the radio in my room back then; this was a key enabler in being able to discover new music, get to know what you like / develop your "style", and enjoy it in your own private space. Also a great instrument learning tool.
The car was another key place to experience music, often sharing with the rest of the family especially over hour long drives. I usually find cars to be a good specific "auditorium" in their own way.
Those days we have so many easy options to access / listen to music. But I often find this is not easier to find "better quality" listening opportunities/time. And this can have its downside.
For instance, I find so many "consumer" headphones / compact speakers are so bass heavy; I struggle to feel I hear a "natural" balanced mix. Or so many young people I see listening only through the "speaker" of their phone.
I feel the references one develops/has of how things "should sound", or how he has been able to experience the music, is a major foundation of how he listens in the end; and then influences how he plays / develops his(her) "sound-style" as a musician.
I haven't had a room to listen to music through a nice dedicated system at home for years, but I found I got used to smaller equipment; can be small monitors, or mostly directly the computer actually. If you can have a well balanced clear enough mix with what you have, have good references how "this or that should sound" to you and learn how to use what you have, I feel you can adapt to a lot of different ways to enjoy the music and be able to use those "smaller systems" for referencing as well.
Still, I love being able to experience a good well balanced Hi-Fi system whenever I can; there's quite nothing like it to (re)discover pieces of music you love, and just be lost in the moment.
Here's a recent capture of my dad's dedicated room/lab setup, ever evolving so it's probably different now; that's been one of my happy places and visit it as often as I can:
