Do you listen alone or with guest s


I am curious about the social element of listening to an audiophile system. Do you listen alone?? with wife, ladyfriend, buddy or guests?? For myself, I prefer to listen alone and for a few important reasons. I like to listen to the performance of the system I have put together or have made changes to. I listen to judge the performance of the musicians in terms of innnovations,and new revelations about the music's structure. I listen to "just" listen, to get that emotional fix that only music can provide. I occasionally ask my wife to listen with me or to a particular cut, but after about six minutes she loses interest. In the past, with lesser systems, I tried to point out things to friends in the music that I was hearing. After a short while, I realized I was making others uncomfortable, and also myself. Listening alone over the years became a ritual. I never regretted following this path, and was/am surely open to other listeners in the room....Maybe this is smug attitude to have; I think it comes with the territory of high-end audio. It often annoys me when I see people switch on a stereo and listen for just background music, or incidental music. I feel it denigrates the music and the musicians (excluding hip-hop, Daughtry,and Lady Gaga) I realize and am grateful there is no "golden rule book" for listening to music. The audiophile who drops thousand of dollars on his system cares about sound and music---science in the service of art.
sunnyjim
True music lovers dont mind being out of the sweetspot.
I have one friend in particular who I met through our audio club. He comes by monthly, we do lunch or dinner, shoot some pool in my basement, sip some beers at the bar down there and jam all day long. We will at times sit and just listen to an entire dics and at times enjoy talking about the music as it plays. Yes I do admit we swap places from time to time in "the spot" but I pretty much can get 3 in that zone where it is still really sugared.
It is really awesome to be able to share this with someone who gets it, I have 5 good men I can do that with, well 6 cause of my father. While I know it isnt always possible or practical for others to find and click with others into Hi Fi I sure hope those who dont at this time have anyone give up trying, it really is great to experience all this in real time with someone else.
We shop for music together at a used LP store, burn discs for eachother, roll our eyes at the magazines....you name it but the point is we are on the same page...fantastic!
Interesting. It is probably 50/50 for me. people love to listen to my system and are usually taken back by the quality of sound. I will ask for a request and put it on. Friends and visitors often say that they have never heard “x song” sound like this and did not know they were missing so much. There are certainly times when conversation kicks in and a song or 3 are not “heard” properly, and other times when 3 or more people just get quiet, taken by the music. Lastly, when alone with a lady friend, the music can often be as seductive as a glass of wine or martini.
I listen alone. When my wife is home, I'll turn the volume down to her liking. She will on occasion ask who is playing, or take a stab at naming the artist, but mostly tolerates my hobby. She will ask me to pick out music for her drives to and from work.
My brother in law recently asked for my help in his choices of what speakers and amplifier to get his wife for Christmas. He is a radio station DJ, and through work was able to pick up a Technics turntable to build the system around. They are not serious listeners, but it was nice that he asked for my advice. I'll try to do my best to infest them with the upgrade bug as time goes by....who knows where it may lead...
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I listen alone with my friends Mozart, Beck, Juana Molina, Simon and Garfunkle, Joanna Newsome, Leo Kottke, Oscar Peterson, Swingle Singers, Tony Vivaldi....