Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
At work, in between meetings, I'll play music in my headphones all day long. And I play it one album at a time.
Audiophiles treasure the time spent listening to their systems—but how often do you get to listen to an entire album uninterrupted?
Rarely if ever, if I am talking about literally listening to an album from start to finish. Because of my Squeezebox I now listen haphazardly. Not sure if this is a good thing or not? Any takers? How often do I get an album's worth of listening time uninterrupted? "Several times a week." I wish it was more!
I usually listen to music for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours in the evening. During the first hour, there are usually phone calls or my wife needs me for something. Afterwards it usually is uninterupted unless I interrupt it myself for some biological reason. Of course, there are days when things need to be done and I can't listen at all. For the most part, I think I am pretty fortunate to have this amount of time to just dwell in the sweet spot.
I ought to listen to music much, much more than I do. There are many excuses I can give for my non-listening behavior, but none of them are at all valid. Music is the axis on which the world revolves; I suppose that my life is temporarily on hold.
I'm pushing 60 years old, but even for me, the "album" concept has become almost meaningless. Oh yes, I still occasionally listen to LPs, but mostly I stream my music to a Squeezebox 3 connected to a CIA VDA-2 DAC. With this arrangement, I believe the losslessly encoded audio files sound as good as any CD player I've owned. Surprisingly, it works out particularly well for classical music, because I can listen to whole long piece of music, like a Mahler symphony or a Bach oratorio, without needing to switch CDs in the middle.
I get to listen at work, so a few times a day (including at home) I'll hear a CD start to finish...but of course at work it's more background music than really listening, but I'm not going to gripe about that as long as I get to listen. My 4th system is at the office including an older Yamaha sub under the desk...works great there.
I clicked "More than once a day," because when weekends and extended listenings are averaged I do listen to more than 7 full albums per week on my better system, but I actaully do more listening at work where music spins from a CD changer most days all day. My room at work loves this cheap little system and it can be surprisingly musical. The electronics (Adcom GCD-700 changer, Hafler preamp I built 28 years ago, and Sonance 260 amp) are decent, but the wierd thing are the speakers: REALLY cheap Sharp 3 ways speakers from an otherwise long-dead 3 box system that sound remarkably good at modest volumes.
I listen to one whole side every time I play a LP. That can happen several times a day. Flipping the album to play both sides, a couple of times a week. Play a whole CD non-stop is something I just don't have the time to waste.
Despite occasional weekend work and family obligations, I still manage to get a couple of albums in, maybe half of the Sunday mornings in a month. It's getting tougher in the evening as my kids stay up later, and also with too many sports channels. But I can usually snag for 2-4 nights each week, most weeks. With vinyl, it's easier to listem to the entire album since there is only one symphony or concerto of reasonable length on an album. Not sure if this is a case of "less is more."
Well, I listen to at least one album a day, more on the weekends, but I'm often engaged in other activities (working, cooking, cleaning, talking on the phone, etc.). So, if by uniterrupted, you mean just really sitting an listening, I'm afraid that these days that occurs with far less freqquency, maybe one every couple of weeks.
My music listening is often but varies from day to day. One day I may only listen to one complete album, yet another day may include the review of two, three, or more. On average, I would say about one complete disc a day.
The great thing about being retired and able to do what I love: sit down and listen to an album or two almost every day. It's interesting how the pop and rock albums you loved 20 years ago don't seem that great anymore! I love jazz and it seems timeless. Lucky me!
It's the iPod damn it! Shuffle mode, when I'm not in the house... But nothing beats Gaye on the Marantz, cover to cover... Snickerdoodles baking, and my lady getting ready to experience divinity under the sheets... that's music... the sound coming out of the speakers is just the score to what will become a tribal chant of instinctual bliss shared between two...
Over the years, I have heard wonderful sounding High End amps and preamps costing many thousands of dollars. To this day, I have not heard a better sounding amp than the "Natural Sound" Amps made by Yamaha which cost well under a thousand dollars!!!
Every Friday is dedicated music appreciation night. I turn the lights low, make sure the ale is chilled, get the SOTA spinning, and wait in joyful anticipation (still) of the lads from Liverpool to let forth their Magic. I love Friday nights.
Part of my routine at the end of the day is to pour a glass of my medicine, put on a recording, sit in my comfortable chair, then the cat sits on me ans the listening begins! The system is an important part of relaxing at the end of the day.