Audio gear, sonic quality when you listen in less (or non-) focused ways

SFL - Semi-focused listening -- listening is the central but not only activity (sitting in front of audio, listening but also reading, playing games, emailing, etc.)

CL - Casual listening -- listening to music but also involved in equally important tasks (cooking, doing dishes, laundry, etc.)

@hilde45   You have these two the wrong way around.  Reading , playing games involve intellectual input, that get's in the way of listening.  I know, I often listen while reading.  Cooking, and especially dishes, laundry, need no significant intellectual input, so do not interrupt the connection between brain and music.  My wife listens to talk radio while gardening and follows it perfectly.

OP left out sitting in traffic next to a car that is 80% subwoofer in weight and no one else being able to hear anything else for about a mile

+1 Sonos for casual listening - surprisingly good especially at lower to mid volume. My cottage has several sets plus a semi-portable headphone system for more critical and solitary listening when I miss a higher definition setup 

At home my system is in my study and I’m either listening or reading with lower volume

@clearthinker I can see how those two might be swapped. Thanks!

I appreciate the answers so far.

There is a bias toward listening to music the way we look at paintings in a museum -- e.g., by staring at them. We call it "immersion" and we often aim for it in our systems and in our listening habits. Of course, music is everywhere, and used in many different ways. Brian Eno understood this when he developed ambient music, and he sought to challenge the idea that focal attention was the only (or even the superior) form of attention. (This is a good challenge to audiophiles, if only because it raises a question that may engender a more intentional commitment to the focused way of listening. It stops being an automatic bias and it becomes more intentional.)

My curiosity is about the intersection of sonic character and listening that is not focused (like in a museum). Some of the best times I’ve ever had with music was when it was blasting all over my apartment or house on while I moved around, did dishes, sang along -- or if I was driving down the highway. I have been surprised that while I enjoy my focused listening (with clearly better sound quality) that it is not as ebullient or fun as when I listen in other, non-focused ways. It is transcendent, intense, joyful, and lots of good things -- but it is not enjoyable in those other ways. Clearly, enjoyment varies in different situations, and the question becomes, What kind of acoustics/sound goes well with those forms of enjoyment?

@hilde45 

Listening while driving is an interesting case.  I have done many long drives with a pile of CDs to listen to.  If I am concentrating on the music my driving goes into totally automatic unconscious mode, as it can do in other circumstances like if I am thinking about something.

How do I know?  Because something happens in the traffic and conscious driving input comes back into play.  I realise that for the previous 15 minutes or 25 miles I have been driving without being conscious of doing so.

I am sure other long-time drivers experience this.

You might be wondering how many traffic accidents I have but it is well over 30 years since I had one and that was another driver jumping the lights and T-boning my car.