I play guitar mainly as a hobby. I find it to be a great stress reliever in addition to being enjoyable. For the curious, my guitar setup is a U.S. Masters Lacewood F-Classic guitar, Mesa/Boogie Mark III Simulclass all-tube amplifier, and Mesa/Boogie Recto 4x12 cabinet. I also have a 1958 Gibson acoustic guitar and a Dunlop Crybaby Wah-Wah pedal.

I love to listen, but can't play a lick of anything.

Playing my guitar gives me a greater sense of what other guitarists are doing, and what things should sound like in a good system.

Trombone

Played in groups (semi-pro) throughout the '60s (ah, the '60s . . . can hardly remember a thing!), and still have a music room full of guitars and keyboards. Now, of course, they are used mainly by my 17-year-old son and twin 15-year-old daughters, who are slowly driving me insane by playing grunge/punk/rock etc. . . . badly!

I play classical guitar---every time I get frustrated not being able to afford the megabuck gear you review, I take heart that I can produce the actual acoustic sounds, which, I doubt, many of these rich owners can do.

I BELIEVE THAT PLAYING MUSIC IS WHAT LED ME INTO A DESCENT STEREO SYSTEM.

I'm a Masters student in voice AND an audiophile, although my bottom-line restrictions have held me to the lower side of hi-fi.

I play for fun 1-2 hours per week.

1930s-vintage Czech-built cello, looks like crap, sounds wonderful (when I practice). Just bought a new carbon-fiber bow (about $1000)---beats the hell out of your average audio upgrade.

I own 3 guitars(2 Taylors and PRS custom), and nothing beats playing my acoustics very early in the morning before I go off to work and no one is in the house. This is heaven. Now I own good hi-fi (Aerial, Krell, CAL, McCormack), but sometimes you just HAVE to play.

unfortunatly I am an audiophile who niglects his instruments.

I don't want to work. I want to bang on the drum all day. Really.

I quote from Eddie Vedder: "Without music, I would have shot myself." Nobody else sums it up better. P.S. Eddie, if you're reading this: 3 cheers, mate!

I play the bassoon quasi-professionally. I don't make my living doing so, but enjoy much more the opportunity to play in and support a number of professional-quality community-based musical organizations in the Twin Cities. These include several fine orchestras, woodwind quintets, and other chamber-music playing opportunities. I hope Stereophile readers everywhere make the effort to support and enjoy your community groups in addition to the professionals. One of the few things that is better than listening to a fine recording (of, say, the Vienna Octet perfoming the Beethoven Septet) is participating in a fine performance!

I'm just a duffer, but I enjoy expressing myself through music as well as listening. I think that having some working knowledge of how instruments are played helps a music listener evaluate the merits of specific players and styles.

Having the best in both CD and Phono front ends allowed me access to both formats. I played my CD system, maybe 30 times this year and never for over an hour. I would just get borred with it. Listening to vinyl is my choice by actual experience. Vinyl time 98%% to 2% for CDs. Who knows why? It just satisfies me more.

I play just for fun. Guitar, Bass & a little singing.

I started playing guitar about 4 months ago. During that time I found myself listening to my home stereo less. However, my wife got me a subscription to Stereophile for Christmas, and now the upgrade bug has bitten. Long live 2-channel stereo! Seriously, though, my experience and this topic stimulates some much-needed thought. For me to be trully happy with music and enjoy it to the fullest extent, there needs to be some middle ground for the musician and the listener (in myself as well as others) to come together on. Otherwise, we are distined to grow further apart, thus ultimately killing each other's true love: THE MUSIC.

I am a professional conductor. I know what real music sounds like. Analog playback on vinyl and even metal cassette tapes on a Nakamichi deck sound more musicial than anything digital. I refuse to record onto anything digital because I know how harsh and unmusical it sounds, and because that technology is constantly changing. I don't want my master recordings on an obsolete digital format, while analog is forever.

I play for personal enjoyment and in my local church. Sometimes while I'm at home listening, I get the urge to get up and play some of my favorite music. Both listening and playing are a blast!

I'm quite rusty-haven't played in quite a while

IM A MUSICIAN AND I LOVE SOUND REPRODUCTION AUDIBLE ILL. MOD 3A PREAMP QUICKSILVER MONO BLOCKS WBT CONECTORD ON PBJ KIMBER MARANTZSE CD

I've noticed that there seem to be quite a few bass guitar players in this audiophile hobby of ours. Have you?

Played organ (classical) for a few years as a kid; abandoned it for guitar (too many strings), and then bass guitar. Naturally, I was in several bands which broke up for want of a keyboards player. I still play bass (a Fender Jazz with Alembic strings, JA) in a band with some old friends, one of whom I have now converted to high-end sound. Fortunately, he's the one building the all-analog recording studio in his basement!

Everyone in my family played a musical instrument. I didn't, yet I am the only one interested in having a large music collection and good reproduction equipment. The most talented players still listen to boomboxes!

I like piano more than the others, though I also play them. The piano's sound doesnt degrade much than the other instruments mentioned.

I play trombone in several community groups, and I find that there is no better way to get acquainted with great orchestral music. As much as I love my audio hobby, the time I spend making music means even more to me.

trombone

I'm too "attention-deficit disorderly" to learn to play.