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Yes, All the time. BBC 1, just for John Peel. BBC Five Live. Film Soundtracks live online, etc.

Quite often. At work I listen to CDs and streaming audio. The stock speakers are not hi-fi but do the job better than nothing at all. At home, I use the line out on my PC to play video games and have tried a few CDs out of curiosity. It certainly does not compare to my DVD player or outboard DAC.

For the time being, using a computer to play music strikes me as about as promising as using a toaster oven to do word processing.

Like AM/FM in the car, it's ok, but......

I listen to most of my music on my computer though a Stereo-Link model 1200 connected to my computer's USB port. The 20-bit DAC does a great job of converting the audio so that I can listen to my music at very close to CD quality through my home stereo system. I've put most of my CD collection on my computer at high quality bitrates (15 gigabytes of music!!!), so I usually just put that on when I want to have music playing in the background. When I want to completely focus on the music though, I always opt for the CD player.

Yes, but serious listening is from the system in the back room

I always have it playing when I am on the computer but I don't go on just to listen to it.

Why on earth would anyone sit in an uncormfortable computer chair, listening to $200 speakers, cheesey amplification, $2 wires, and a $30 CD playback mechanism? When you can go in the next room and louge comfortably in your La-Z-Boy, close your eyes amd relax to the sounds of the system you've been building for years and keeping your kids in bologna sandwiches so you can afford that Linn Ikemi CD player, 800.00 cables, Mcintosh amplification? No! my kids would be fractured if they caught their audiophile papa listening to the computer. That is for the games they play. So to jump ahead to next week's question, my answer is. No I don't surf the net on my hi-fi.

One thing that nobody has ever explained is why we should be spending so much money on sound that will never rise above Class E.

Only to make sure I'm recording the song I think I'm recording when creating a compilation disk or to listen to a song sample on CD Now or another online music seller. It's not serious listening.

With poor to average speakers on my computer why bother. I let the $ invested in one of my premium Audio/Stereo systems and a DSS music connection entertain me throughout my home or while at my keyboard.

This is one of those convience things. The sound quality sucks, but it's easy to load a CD and listen while you work.

I have played CDs on my computer while I did other tasks such as working on a spreadsheet. While the sound was actually pretty decent, for some reason that I can't explain I gave that up and now listen to another sound system in the same room which is not part of my computer while I work at the computer.

I am willing to compromise on the quality in order to use an MP3 player at work.

At the office - only music option

It's a STUPID question for an audiophile. What in the world does a "decent" sound card sound like? Does it exhibit air, focus, low THD, and a lack of negative feedback? Another question like this, and my Stereophile subscription is history!

more often than my main system - it doesn't sound as good but is in the room where I work and play my instruments

I have listened to music via computer since 1995. Sound cards, speakers, and audio compression schemes have improved a great deal in the past six years, and now I enjoy true high-end computer sound using lossless compression and Acoustic Energy's Aego2 sub/sat system.

I have 1000s of MP3s, but I also have 100s of CDs, and since my computer is next to my stereo, I would prefer to listen to the CDs than the MP3s. The MP3s come in handy when auditioning music or having parties (my Sony 400 disc CD player takes 18 seconds to change discs while there is 0 delay when changing MP3s).

I run my audio out to a 1950's Fentone integrated amplifier. SET (of course) 6BM8 tele's in there, mono-FM is multiplex, speakers are Fostex 108 backhorns :_)

It's like this, I live alone in a small house, and my main system in the next room sounds better than a computer.Now, there are some internet radio sites that might catch my interest, particularly as they play jazz, but that's for background music [and maybe music discovery] but nothing else

With a computer and a high speed internet connection (not to mention a decent audio setup), you have the flexibility to listen to almost any song any time you feel like it. I listen to mp3's everytime I'm on the computer, whether I'm surfing or typing up a Word document. And the quality beats the radio hands down.

I download MP3s from MP3.com and also make some of my favorite songs into MP3s so they fit better on my laptop's small hard drive. Sound quality isn't the best but it's way better than the older Real Audio format. I also have a Turtle Beach sound card on my full size computer with digital RCA out that I hooked up to my Audio Alchemy DTI and then into my Theta Pro Prime and it's SOOOO much better than listening to the DAC on the sound card and then into an input on my receiver. Even MP3 tracks sound better thru the AA/Theta! However, there's not much hope for great sound playing CDs from the CD drive, that sound quality can't be made much better even with a Mark Levinson DAC! It works great when I'm working on mixing CD tracks on my hard drive so I can hear the full quality of the music. I noticed that HDCD encoded discs don't transfer all the intricacies of the music when I copy the songs onto the hard drive. But when I listen to full CDs I put them in my Pioneer LD/DVD player and then through my AA/Theta digital section and then into my Marantz 2235 receiver. The sound from that setup is really great!

With the "big-rig" downstairs why on earth would I choose a computer-based music system. why would I or anyone choose to patch in a computer's drive and soundboard into the main system? Of course that does not even take into account the facet of the inferior amplifier and speakers.

only if forced to...i.e. listening to bbcRadio3 (the best) which only streams in the extremely lo-fi Real(bad)Audio.

Only when I'm at work. At home, I prefer my Denon D/A converter to the Whateverblaster, and Infinity speakers to my LabTecs.

Between all the stops and starts, and buzzes, and lock-ups, I find I can make out the melody enough to make a decision to buy or not. But as an audiophile, I think it sucks. Give me a good LP any day!

I'm lucky enough to have my computer installed in my main listening room. So when I use it I can also listen to good music. I can't stand bad sound if I have the choice. At home, I can listen to what I want, at leat until MP3 will be the new standard... High end PC sound cards are okay if you intend to RECORD music, i.e. as a sound engineer. But then better using a portable Mac and multi channel direct-to-disk software, akla the Nagra D of the "poor" engineer. My PC sound card is a crap one, but it is enough for hearing what Windows lets me hear. On the other way, I also use a DV cam machine to feed my computer both with images and sound, fully digital, through a Fire Wire Interface. So no trouble. It is digital, thus NOT perfect, but at least I know what I get.

Only as background when working\ at the computer, and only with lo-fi asperations. No serious listening to be done.

I'm still looking for an audiophile grade sound card focused on sound output instead of input.