How much of your music do you actually listen to?

[Jud]

On another thread, this comment about the Roon/Tidal combo caused me to think:

 

More time browsing, less time listening (attentively).

No Roon for me, thanks. I'm done with addictive substances.

 

R

 

I haven't gotten around to ripping more than 5-10% of my CDs; just those plus downloads amount to a month's worth of music available on my computer. There are also my 500 LPs, which I play the old-fashioned way, on a turntable. I doubt this is as large a collection as those of many people here, perhaps even on the smaller side among CAphiles.

 

I work, have a dog, house, yard, car and spouse that require varying degrees of attention (actually we're in the design and financing stage of having our retirement home built, so there are both a current and future house to think of these days), and don't have even a fraction of the time needed to listen attentively to more than the tiniest sliver of that collection. In fact, if I have the uninterrupted opportunity to listen to a few songs together or an entire(!) album, it feels like a luxury.

 

So what fraction of your collection do you take the time to listen to? Consider this from the standpoint both of the time you have for listening, and what you listen to when you have the opportunity. Would you rather not listen today to things you've heard recently, or do you find yourself returning again and again to certain recordings, sort of your own "canon"?

 

Is there anyone among us who doesn't have far more than half of his/her music moldering away unlistened to for months or years?

[sandyk]

Is there anyone among us who doesn't have far more than half of his/her music moldering away unlistened to for months or years?

 

Perhaps more like 90% ?

[Paul R]

I Have a few dozen vinyl albums that are not yet digitized, and while they get turned twice a year, they probably don't get played. I believe that to be mostly because of the hassle of getting them out and putting them on the turntable. Or in other words, that is one thing I am lazy about.

 

The digital collection is much much larger - so yes, there are some albums that have not been played in a while. Even in years.

 

There are some my wife loves and I hate, and vice versa. And there are a few I simply do not like, but I paid for and figure my taste might change in the future. (Think the Chesky composition that is 100% played on 'artiifical' instruments. Really does remind me of traffic in many ways...)

 

But by and large, the greater mass of my collection gets played in a rotation at least once every couple years. That includes listening to it in the Jeep, on headphones, streaming it, and other various means besides listening to it on a main system.

 

Sure, there are favorites that get into heavier rotation, but in general, it is a pleasent surprise to hear an old favorite, or even (especially) when an old album sounds new to me again.

 

The downside? I have to spend less time worrying about what the equipment sounds like than enjoying the music.

 

This is not really an issue, simce even rather modest systems are very listenable these days. A higher end system is also a delight, but - some music is virtually unlistenable on some high end systems.

 

I do believe something is wrong if our systems are so good the music sounds terrible on them. Or if we cannot enjoy some large fraction of our music collections on them for any reason.

[realhifi]

On another thread, this comment about the Roon/Tidal combo caused me to think:

 

 

 

I haven't gotten around to ripping more than 5-10% of my CDs; just those plus downloads amount to a month's worth of music available on my computer. There are also my 500 LPs, which I play the old-fashioned way, on a turntable. I doubt this is as large a collection as those of many people here, perhaps even on the smaller side among CAphiles.

 

I work, have a dog, house, yard, car and spouse that require varying degrees of attention (actually we're in the design and financing stage of having our retirement home built, so there are both a current and future house to think of these days), and don't have even a fraction of the time needed to listen attentively to more than the tiniest sliver of that collection. In fact, if I have the uninterrupted opportunity to listen to a few songs together or an entire(!) album, it feels like a luxury.

 

So what fraction of your collection do you take the time to listen to? Consider this from the standpoint both of the time you have for listening, and what you listen to when you have the opportunity. Would you rather not listen today to things you've heard recently, or do you find yourself returning again and again to certain recordings, sort of your own "canon"?

 

Is there anyone among us who doesn't have far more than half of his/her music moldering away unlistened to for months or years?

 

Couldn't agree more. When I purchased much of what is in my cd, lp collection I believe, for one thing, that I had more time to listen. In fact I'm pretty certain that is the case. So I picked up lps or cds that I had a passing interest in only to find they simply ended up as one listen, then onto the shelf to sit and sometimes never make their way back to he turntable, CD player.

 

When I finally started to burn all my disks to a hard drive for digital storage and listening, I didn't do nearly as good a job editing as I should have! I pretty much just started ripping and box after box just emptied onto hard drives. Now of course, like you, I listen to a portion of that collection and I'm MUCH more selective as to what I ultimately purchase and add to my collection.

 

So to answer your question, I probably listen to around 20% of my current collection and could easily weed out many many recordings.

[Cornan]

There is so much good music around...and so little time to listen. One of the major reasons why I have concentrated all my effort to get the best out of Tidal is because I contantly explore and listen to new music (newly released and/or new to me). I am never content listening to "old classics" although I tend to collect them in my album list for later. In genral my keyword is music first....but a big portion of my music listening tend to be audio-evaluation-related. Lately I have found myself urging for "tweaking-peace". A place were I can be happy enough with SQ, sit down and just listen to all that previously explored music that is collecting "Tidal-dust" or "Lastfm-dust" in vain. I think I will need to quit my day job to catch-up though! ;-)

[semente]

I was forced to rip my whole CD library due to a move abroad.

But even though I have easy access to all my music, I don't think I listen attentively to more than 6 or 7 hours a week.

It was easier in the CD days, because all I had to do was to turn the system on, grab a CD from the shelf, sit and enjoy, whilst now I have to grab the laptop, turn it on, wire it to the R-Pi, browse with iTunes then drag into HQPlayer and if the battery level is low I need to get the charger and plug it in...

Besides, as the children grow older they go to bed later which narrows the listening time window to an hour or two.

On top of that I've just moved to a place that doesn't allow music after 11pm...

 

R

[realhifi]

 

This is not really an issue, simce even rather modest systems are very listenable these days. A higher end system is also a delight, but - some music is virtually unlistenable on some high end systems.

 

I do believe something is wrong if our systems are so good the music sounds terrible on them. Or if we cannot enjoy some large fraction of our music collections on them for any reason.

 

Curious as to what the cut off is as far as spending for a "high end" system when it makes music "virtually unlistenable". Do you mean systems over $10,000 or higher?

[firedog]

Before computer audio that was true for me. Not since. I've ripped all my CDs and albums-or bought the digital version of the LP.

 

I do a lot of listening in "random play" mode, or some subset of that (e.g., random play, jazz genre) so there are few albums that I never hear a cut from. Another advantage of listening this way is that it reminds me of albums I haven't listened to in a long time, and I'll pull them up and listen to the whole album.

 

In addition, I find the advantages of easily finding and playing music through digital library management increases the amount of my library I listen to. For instance, if a cut comes up that has several versions in my collection, I can quickly put them all in a playlist and compare, etc. Before that would have been to much of a hassle to deal with.

 

The "Discover" feature of Roon is also helpful in this regard: it reminds you of artists, genres, label, songs, or composers, you haven't listened to in a while.

 

The flipside of this is Tidal: I "favorite" all sorts of music I hear about on sites like this one, but don't "own". I generally listen to it once, unless it is something I especially like. I try to go through the Tidal library periodically and delete selections I realize I won't be listening to much, if at all.

[semente]

I never had trouble finding anything in my CD library.

In fact I still prefer browsing CDs than files.

 

R

[MrSprout]

Curious as to what the cut off is as far as spending for a "high end" system when it makes music "virtually unlistenable". Do you mean systems over $10,000 or higher?

 

I'd blame the switch from vintage mosfet and tube amps to modern bipolar and digital designs. The modern bipolar designs in particular are really impressive but its like they're on a knife edge when it comes to music selection. They also seem to be much more sensitive to volume level on a song by song basis. Is that because they're 'really good' or is it just a by-product of the technology? None of my old mosfet amps have those problems, regardless of price.

[plissken]

I go through phases of the style of music I listen to. So almost my entire library makes it through rotation excepting some albums I didn't end up really caring for all that much.

[JoeWhip]

I probably listen regularly to about 20% of my collection. Right now I am listening to none as the house is undergoing major construction and the music room is part of that. I do not use streaming services.

[Paul R]

Curious as to what the cut off is as far as spending for a "high end" system when it makes music "virtually unlistenable". Do you mean systems over $10,000 or higher?

 

No, I mean systems of any cost that are tuned to promote particular qualities of the equipment rather than the music, and that the owner has configured to be "high end" according to their expectations and preferences. I suspect you might hear that more than I, as I tend to run away from some of them.

 

Think the car system than rattles the windows of other cars on the interstate with $11K worth of speakers and custom install, or the ultra-expensive home system than makes Karen Carpenter sound like Yoko Ono. Those are very extreme examples of course.

 

I think the best sounding systems I have heard range from around $18K to upwards of $250K and have been tuned to make the owners preferences in music sound - just gloriously good.

 

 

-Paul

 

 

-Paul

[Cornan]

If I could wish for something I would love to see something like Cooliris as a album discouvery app with direct access to Lastfm, Tidal and Upnp/dnla/OpenHome control points. I do not know if that is even possible...but it would certainly make my own listening sessions, discouveries & re-discouveries of artists much more flexible and enjoyable.

 

[Jud]

I tended to do what Danny (firedog) talks about, putting the collection on random play and allowing myself to be surprised by my past good taste.

 

Interestingly, though, as technology has marched on and player software has gotten into DSD128/256 upsampling, my poor old computers (mid-2009 CPU in my MacBook Pro; late 2010 CPU in my desktop) have come along only grudgingly. I get the occasional stutter with HQPlayer and the occasional ramping up of fan noise with Audirvana Plus, certainly not on every track but often enough to make simply settling in for an hour or two of uninterrupted random play pretty much impossible.

 

So I'm torn at the moment whether to listen to each track in the sound quality I think is best, or relax and settle back for the long haul and hear everything in slightly lesser fidelity. But that doesn't reward attentive listening....

 

Eventually I'll upgrade the computers. But right now our finances are laser-focused on getting our retirement home financed and built, so the music will have to wait its turn. (I am having fun helping to design things so the house will be quiet and the power to the audio system will be good quality.)

[chilledbongo]

When I owned cds, I listened to all of them. Even though I owned maybe 600-800.

Now I see them all sitting there on Tidal including all those I always wanted but never got around to buying.

These include am mostly listening to those former holes in my collection.

It's a great time to be a listener.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Jud]

I was forced to rip my whole CD library due to a move abroad.

But even though I have easy access to all my music, I don't think I listen attentively to more than 6 or 7 hours a week.

It was easier in the CD days, because all I had to do was to turn the system on, grab a CD from the shelf, sit and enjoy, whilst now I have to grab the laptop, turn it on, wire it to the R-Pi, browse with iTunes then drag into HQPlayer and if the battery level is low I need to get the charger and plug it in...

Besides, as the children grow older they go to bed later which narrows the listening time window to an hour or two.

On top of that I've just moved to a place that doesn't allow music after 11pm...

 

R

 

Yes, I really do feel the squeeze in available listening time from a practical point of view.

 

Earlier this year my wife persuaded me to get a test and I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. (I was blissfully unaware of not breathing for up to 70 second periods, being asleep at the time; and I thought feeling sleepy in the afternoon was just common to everyone.) I got a CPAP machine and feel much better. Along with getting more restful sleep, I also get more hours of sleep. The CPAP has an app that scores you on your sleep, and to get the full 100 score you've got to use it at least 7 hours a night. I've become pretty assiduous about getting that 7 hours, while fully realizing it's a little ludicrous allowing a number on an app to assume so much importance. Of course it's for my own benefit. As I get up at 4 am workdays, that means getting to bed at 9, so activities like listening to music stop at around 8:30-8:40. It's usually not until 7:30-8 that I'm done with dinner, playing with the dog, watching a TV show with my wife, etc., so it doesn't leave a lot of time.

 

So your 6 or 7 hours probably beats me. I'm guessing that means I might listen to, in round numbers, 20 hours of music a month. If my collection holds about 30 days' worth, that's 720 hours, so 20 hours is a little less than 3% of my computerized collection. If we take a rough estimate that perhaps 5%-10% of my total music collection is computerized (about 5-10% of my CDs, none of my LPs, all of my downloads), that's .15-.3% of my total collection I hear each month, or between 1.8-3.6% per year. And that's only if all the songs I played were different, which isn't the case.

 

Anyone else want to work this out on an hours-per-week basis and see what they come up with?

[whoozwah]

I personally listen to new music more than anything else. I'm always looking for a new band or a new release from an old favorite. I have my albums sorted by year in descending order so the newest stuff it always at the top of the list. However I do go back and listen to a few select albums frequently.

 

I have EVERYTHING (including vinyl) scrobbling to my last.fm account and my top albums are from the last 365 days and I use that really as a baseline for what I enjoyed the most in the past year.

[Cornan]

I have EVERYTHING (including vinyl) scrobbling to my last.fm account and my top albums are from the last 365 days and I use that really as a baseline for what I enjoyed the most in the past year.

 

How do you manage to scrobble your vinyl? RIAA/DAC to PC? I had great difficulties to get BubbleDS Next controlpoint to scrobble...but thanks to both Lastfm app and Simple Last fm scrobbler it works fine now.

[Priaptor]

Yes, I really do feel the squeeze in available listening time from a practical point of view.

 

Earlier this year my wife persuaded me to get a test and I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. (I was blissfully unaware of not breathing for up to 70 second periods, being asleep at the time; and I thought feeling sleepy in the afternoon was just common to everyone.) I got a CPAP machine and feel much better. Along with getting more restful sleep, I also get more hours of sleep. The CPAP has an app that scores you on your sleep, and to get the full 100 score you've got to use it at least 7 hours a night. I've become pretty assiduous about getting that 7 hours, while fully realizing it's a little ludicrous allowing a number on an app to assume so much importance. Of course it's for my own benefit. As I get up at 4 am workdays, that means getting to bed at 9, so activities like listening to music stop at around 8:30-8:40. It's usually not until 7:30-8 that I'm done with dinner, playing with the dog, watching a TV show with my wife, etc., so it doesn't leave a lot of time.

 

So your 6 or 7 hours probably beats me. I'm guessing that means I might listen to, in round numbers, 20 hours of music a month. If my collection holds about 30 days' worth, that's 720 hours, so 20 hours is a little less than 3% of my computerized collection. If we take a rough estimate that perhaps 5%-10% of my total music collection is computerized (about 5-10% of my CDs, none of my LPs, all of my downloads), that's .15-.3% of my total collection I hear each month, or between 1.8-3.6% per year. And that's only if all the songs I played were different, which isn't the case.

 

Anyone else want to work this out on an hours-per-week basis and see what they come up with?

 

Jud,

 

As we are of similar age and "suffer" from the same sleep apnea thing, one recommendation is to ensure that you, assuming your doctor clears or has cleared you is a very strenuous exercise regimen. While I have always exercised relatively vigorously, for the last 8 years I have been exercising using shorter interval sessions but extremely high intensity and the weight I lost is a healthier weight loss and my sleep is much better with much less episodes of apnea and snoring.

 

My listening sessions have also improved significantly as a result. While like others, I have an absurd number of albums in my collection, I have now embarked on eliminating the jitters of listening to just a track at a time but to entire albums. I am really enjoying it, have been rediscovering some great music and just enjoying listening. In addition to "actual time" listening is the quality of the time listening. My favorite times are before work, after exercise and after work between the hours of 11-1 ( I work 4-10 these days).

 

One other recommendation to enjoy one's collection is to in addition to a main system to have a headphone system. There are times I just don't want to listen to my system, just want to really lounge, and a good can system allows me to do just that and further discover my collection.

[r_w]

I listen to far more of my library than I ever used to, now that my system is more euphonic and forgiving... but out of over 18k tracks, how much of it am I ever going to listen to... it will probably always be way less than half, due to subject material preference/taste.

[esldude]

Good topic. My listening tends to be somewhat seasonal in time and type of music. Out of roughly 500 albums at any given season I may listen to at least one song on 15-20% of my albums. During an entire year I may listen to at least one song from 70-80% of my albums.

 

In prior years with an album centric approach I didn't usually buy albums that had only a song or two I liked. Now with playlists off a hard drive I am a bit more selective even amongst a given album. Then there is streaming in a multitude of ways to listen cutting into things. Time listening to music I own is a little less, and listening to a larger variety of things I don't own is more.

 

I knew a few LP collectors with 2-5 thousand album collections. I saw what a problem that was for listening. And realized if you listened 3 hours a day it would be multiple years to listen to something from everything you owned. It became a bit dubious in my eyes to have that large of a music collection. I think the same of people now who have multiple terabytes of music. Unless you have everything in DSD 256 or 384/32 you aren't likely to live long enough to listen to very much of it. Of course with streaming you have an effectively infinite collection and will never hear 2% of it. A different situation than physically owning it in some form.

 

Of course such things grow organically until they grow out of hand with most hobbies. So no reason for anyone to feel badly about things whichever type of music listener they are. My music gear cost me roughly what I have spent on music for yet another useless metric. When I look at the number of hours I have and presumably will listen and enjoy the cost per hour isn't too terrible. Since I purchase second hand the gear even has substantial percentages of value should I wish to sell it at some point.

[bluesman]

So what fraction of your collection do you take the time to listen to? Consider this from the standpoint both of the time you have for listening, and what you listen to when you have the opportunity. Would you rather not listen today to things you've heard recently, or do you find yourself returning again and again to certain recordings, sort of your own "canon"?

 

Is there anyone among us who doesn't have far more than half of his/her music moldering away unlistened to for months or years?

I was just considering this myself while ordering 2 new CDs. I took the time to rip all of my 1000 or so CDs a few years ago, which took me over a year at 2 or 3 per day - and I've immediately ripped every new one I bought since then. So I have immediate access to well over 1000 of my favorite albums now from anywhere I happen to be. I listen to my music while commuting, while working at my desk, while working out (which I do daily), and for at least an hour per weekday + twice that on weekends and holidays.

 

What I pick depends on many things. I may listen to the same album multiple times because I haven't heard it in a few years, or I may pick one track that I suddenly crave. And I often have to dig out a tune so I can re-learn the lyrics and changes, if I have to do it with my band or if I just don't remember it. I just did it with a great old Freddy King blues called "Someday After Awhile", and I'm about to do it with Coltrane's Giant Steps (which has changes that are both complex and difficult to hear on the fly). In an average year, I probably access at least half of my ripped albums, many for just one track.

 

Vinyl's a different story. I have over 1000 albums, of which about 700 are contemporary LPs (which, for me, began with my first album purchase in 1958) and the rest are from our families and date back to about 1920. I have a lot of them on CD as well, but far from all. I probably listen to one side of a record for pleasure 2 or 3 times a month these days, although I do have to go back to vinyl when I need to learn or relearn a specific tune that I don't have in a digital file. In all, I probably haven't heard a few hundred records of mine in 5 or more years.

 

FWIW, the 2 new CDs are both rare Bonnie Raitt recordings. The Lost Broadcast was a radio concert played by her in 1972 for WMMR. It was held at & broadcast live from Sigma Sound Studios, which was one of the finest and most loved recording studios in the world for many years - and they recorded the concert! I can't wait to hear it when I get home tonight. The other disc is "Ultrasonic Studios 1972" - it's another live recording, this time with Lowell George and John Hammond (!!). The reviews suggest that this is a poor quality recording - but I'd listen with joy and rapture to anything played by that trio, even if I had to do it through a snorkel or a cardboard mailing tube.

[sdolezalek]

Jud,

 

As we are of similar age and "suffer" from the same sleep apnea thing, one recommendation is to ensure that you, assuming your doctor clears or has cleared you is a very strenuous exercise regimen. While I have always exercised relatively vigorously, for the last 8 years I have been exercising using shorter interval sessions but extremely high intensity and the weight I lost is a healthier weight loss and my sleep is much better with much less episodes of apnea and snoring.

 

My listening sessions have also improved significantly as a result. While like others, I have an absurd number of albums in my collection, I have now embarked on eliminating the jitters of listening to just a track at a time but to entire albums. I am really enjoying it, have been rediscovering some great music and just enjoying listening. In addition to "actual time" listening is the quality of the time listening. My favorite times are before work, after exercise and after work between the hours of 11-1 ( I work 4-10 these days).

 

One other recommendation to enjoy one's collection is to in addition to a main system to have a headphone system. There are times I just don't want to listen to my system, just want to really lounge, and a good can system allows me to do just that and further discover my collection.

 

+1 on all counts! Fully agree on the importance of vigorous exercise and I added a headphone system in my office as a place to "escape" for 15-20 minutes when I need to depressure enough for deeper thought.

 

I have, however, derived three significant benefits from the Tidal experience:

 

1) I only "keep" the songs on a particular album I really like (which is usually half or less) and that means that when I listen to Tidal radio there is a far greater likelihood that almost everything I hear is something I like.

 

2) I often bought CDs or SACDs after hearing a single song I liked and then discovered I really didn't like anything else on the album. But all that "other stuff" was in my collection and got played anytime I put it on random play. Or, I didn't buy the CD because I really only liked that one song. With Tidal, no problem; I keep the song, forget the rest and if I really like the entire album AND it is well recorded, I'll buy the hi-res version of it when available.

 

3) I "curate" my collection to get rid of stuff that suddenly isn't so enjoyable after a few listens. Somehow, when I paid for the album that was emotionally harder to do. With Roon/Tidal I just hit "delete" and keep the overall quality of the colection at a higher level.

[bluesman]

1) I only "keep" the songs on a particular album I really like (which is usually half or less) and that means that when I listen to Tidal radio there is a far greater likelihood that almost everything I hear is something I like.

 

2) I often bought CDs or SACDs after hearing a single song I liked and then discovered I really didn't like anything else on the album.

 

3) I "curate" my collection to get rid of stuff that suddenly isn't so enjoyable after a few listens.

I don't know how old you are or how long you've been at it, so YMMV. But I've discovered that I like things today that I left unplayed for years because there was no hook on first listen. This has made rediscovering my older albums a pure delight, and I've found many new favorites that I used to shun.

 

One-track buying is largely limited to pop music for me - I rarely ignore tracks any more on jazz or blues discs, and I almost never skip anything classical. But I do pick up some pop, country, "smooth jazz" etc after hearing one cut that I really like, only to find that the rest of the disc is different (sometimes surprisingly so). Still, I do revisit them and find new likes from time to time.