What do you listen to music on the most

[MDV]

Its not about volume its about quality. Youre average mini system or standard pc speakers or whatever are to a well configured good system as a 10 inch black and white tv is to a 48 inch plasma screen.

imo

plasma sucks.

I mostly listen to music on my ipod. i use £39 sennheiser in ears. I think they cancel noise and have some in-ear bass response thing going on. Most of what I listen too is shockingly recorded anyway. so meh.

Kind of redundant info for me, mate - I dont have a TV. You get the idea though!

[Dmoney]

I was actually going to argue the point... but that would have been stupid.
I know what you mean.

I dont record stuff often, but for me, I only use garageband, but I find i can mix levels in garageband and export a tune to itunes and the levels will be totally different on my iPod. Even if I'm using the same headphones to mix on.
Anyway, since i use my ipod to listen to stuff on mostly, I usually to a fix mixdowns and tweaks until it sounds ok to me on that. Probably not much help to you... but... ya know.

[MDV]

Best you didnt bother! It would have been wasted on me I'm afraid. Insert whatever high quality display is widely sought after in place of 'plasma' :)

I'd use my iaudio, but I dont trust my senn IE8s at the best of times, and utterly hate my E4s, and the headphone amp doesnt quite have the juice for any of my cans.

I do, however, have several sets of lesser speakers of various quality kicking round, and a couple of lower quality sources and a cr@p amp (sub/amp from an old creative 5.1, DT2200 or something like that), and a decent spare amp, so I think I'll set up a couple of systems more like probably options 4, 6 and 9.

[dave_mc]

mini-stereo (convenience speaker placement), car and computer are the main 3- i picked pc speakers (stereo), though at the moment I only have a laptop. But normally I'd be using a desktop with pc speakers.

Oh I listen to music on the tv/digital radio too. :lol:

[bucketshred]

Convienent Mini Stereo, monitors and Car is what I picked.

The mini stereo runs off my iPod as does my Car system.

I'm not a fussy audiophile at all, as long as it sounds 'ok' then I'm happy. I can indulge in some of my friends big, expensive, quality systems and appreciate why they'd buy them, I just choose not to. Mainly cos I can't afford a nice Hi-Fi and because there is always something else going on in my flat/car/wherever that I don't often get to fully sit down and listen to the 'quality' of the sound. Just give me good songs :)


Paddy

[38thBeatle]

I put :

Separates, listening position, Car and PC though I also use my Ipod. I wouldn't say I am fanatical about the sound but I try and make it as listenable as possible. A mate of mine is one of those who likes to by a "system" that has lots of flashing lights and it sounds awful. He played me a track the other day and I remarked upon the cr@p sound (in my most diplomatic manner) and asked him about the eq setting-he said that it was what it was and couldn't be changed. In about 10 seconds I'd changed the setting from "techno" to a more suitable one for rock. Hes a drummer though so he couldn't help it.

[Philly Q]

plasma sucks.

I was actually going to argue the point... but that would have been stupid.

Oh what the hell, I'll rise to the bait.  :|

Go on then, what's so very terrible about plasma?

[MDV]

The B&Ws are killing your mixes.

The point of the triangle should terminate 18" behind your head, btw, not at your head.

the 'btw' confuses me - do you mean that as additional or that B&Ws are somehow killing my mixes other than by their location? This has been bugging me!  

It has to be said, I dont like them, but I'm not in a position to buy new hifi speakers at the moment.

Edit: they're DM602, series 2.

[nfe]

Mid-range separates in convenient position, though arranged as such that I can place myself in a listening position if I'm wanting to listen to my own mixes on a non-monitor system. Quick listens to myspace or whatever is generally just through the laptop, though. And I listen to a lot on mid range cans and an iPod when I'm out and about.

Worth noting though, that there's no point in thinking "Ah! It's because you're listening on cr@p gear" when someone complains about your mixes, since the overwhelming majority of people will be listening on rubbish, so you need to mix with that in mind. Or do multiple mixes, one for cds etc, and one that works better on laptops/computer speakers for online streaming, downloads etc cause that's what 99% of people will listen to those on. That or justlisten to it on as many sources as possible and do a best of all worlds.

None of it's ideal, but it's the job nowadays, sadly.

[MDV]

Worth noting though, that there's no point in thinking "Ah! It's because you're listening on cr@p gear" when someone complains about your mixes, since the overwhelming majority of people will be listening on rubbish, so you need to mix with that in mind.

 I know that, thats why I made the poll. Reading before preaching please! I'm not trying to 'blame' anyones gear, I'm at the very least entertaining the possibility that because my gears pretty good that I'm mixing for good gear and people arent getting the best from it on lesser gear, and setting up appropriate reference systems to address the issue, because, yes, it is me that has to deal with it and not complain about peoples gear.

The other possibility is 'cant please everyone'. We'll see. I've dug out my old, little/cr@ppy/little&cr@ppy gear now and have enough to cobble together 4 extra reference systems from cr@p to alright, a mini-system equivelent with random speaker placement and stereo PC speakers at the very least.

[Denim n Leather]

The B&Ws are killing your mixes.

The point of the triangle should terminate 18" behind your head, btw, not at your head.

the 'btw' confuses me - do you mean that as additional or that B&Ws are somehow killing my mixes other than by their location? This has been bugging me!  

It has to be said, I dont like them, but I'm not in a position to buy new hifi speakers at the moment.

Edit: they're DM602, series 2.

Yeah, the DMs and CMs were the beginning of the end for B&W; even the Nautilus range which started coming out in the mid-90s on showed B&W's desire to be the next Polk Audio and started building speakers to a price point with mass sales in view. They achieved their commercial goals, piggybacking generations of sub-par speakers built on a hifi foundation and critical acclaim, just as Polk did, but in doing so threw the baby out with the bath water, in my opinion.

The 'by the way' was just meant to be that ... an aside. Ppl seem to think that your head should be one of the points in an equilateral triangle when listening in the near or mid field, but that's not true.

Everyone needs to have a pair of cr@p spkrs to check their mixes on, but you should never mix your material to sound good on them; just use the cr@p spkrs as a reference as to what essential bits will be lost in translation. Tailoring your mix for such playback is a waste of time. I think you're on the right track -- make it sound as good as you know how, reference it on many systems, and then let it go. Deciding that 99% of all ppl listen to mp3 on their cr@ptastic PC speakers shouldn't mean making that your sonic reference! It does ensure that you have enough midrange and high frequency content, however.

Just my 2 cents.

[Antag]

FWIW, I listen to MDV's clips either on shitety headphones at my work PC or knackered Dell PC speakers at home.  Then again, I've never complained about the bass (or alleged lack of) in his clips... :)

Most other music gets listened to either in the car or on some half decent separates in my music room...

[ToneMonkey]

I can highly recommend my speakers (for the price).  You can pick them up for between £40-£60.  IMHO, Perhaps one of the best speakers you can get for the money

[Dr. Stein]

Logitech 2.1 PC speakers, positioned not too badly but by no means perfectly in my living room. They're good speakers, never had any desire to move to anything more expensive. Never really had the ears to get any advantage out of audiophile stuff  :lol:

[MDV]

Cheers ben. I was wondering, as I think the 602s are brash, harsh and hollow sounding I never really expect anything to sound *good* on them - they do have decent low end extension and resolution though, so I rarely dont hear bass on anything on them.

What are your speakers tonemonkey? Like, that you make or something?