Being alone with your music

I almost always listen to music in solitude.

There are several reasons:

I am able to get more deeply into the music if I am alone.

I feel more free to change what I am listening to on a whim.

But mostly, because my tastes tends toward the progressive, avant-garde, intense, 'thorny' sounding. 

My wife's and my tastes overlap quite a bit. We both like standard prog quite a bit (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Anglagard, Echolyn, Gentle Giant, PFM, etc), but when I break out the more avant-garde stuff, I loose her (Henry Cow, Univers Zero, Thinking Plague, Art Zoyd, etc).''

She can also hang with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Brand X, Return o Forever, etc. But then, when I break out progressive and avant-garde jazz (John or Alice Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharaoh Sanders, Thomasz Stanko, Anthony Braxton, Michael Formanek, Tim Berne, etc), she's gone. 

She also doesn't stick around with atonal classical music (Elliott Carter, Bruno Maderna, Joan Tower, Magnus Lindberg, Berg, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, etc).

I’d say what grew my interest in music was the mp3 revolution. That really opened my ears to the enjoyment of music. The hobby of collecting the best possible combo of gears at a price point just came naturally thereafter.

My first experience of a dedicated audio equipment was most likely a solitary experience.

My first experience of Live Music has been a Crowd Experience and one that proved to be a very stimulating and to be revisited occurrence. I am still quite happy to experience a Live Performance more than 40 Years on.

My interest in experiencing music on Audio Equipment run parallel with my planning to see Live Performances, where Audio Experiences were the secondary of the priorities.

Listening to Audio as a Small Group experience was quite popular as a occurrence in my Teens to Early 20's.

When I got my first home, I took investment in Audio Equipment seriously, where more monies was spent on this entertainment for a period of time than any other form of entertainment.

When first building a Audio System many periods of listening were a solitary experience or with my Partner and on occasions with a few friends.

Another period had the use of the Audio System pretty much a form of entertainment for myself, and this was a situation I did come to learn was not able to provide any form of enjoyment, as it was also a time when Audio Equipment Obsession was a very controlling element of the maintaining the interest.

Quite a few years past, I was very fortunate and changed, I restructured myself, taking on the view of the Audio Equipment being merely a Tool and a means to an end.

The end being able to listen to recorded music, what ever the chosen medium is with a embedded content.

I become actively Social around Audio Equipment and ventured out to meet others with a similar interest in the equipment and replaying recordings as my own.

I have met some who like Audio Equipment and cherish their owned recorded media. These individuals are from all walks of life are now friends and very much appreciated. 

Additionally, these friends have introduced myself to music, that I am glad to have experienced, and would most likely never have experienced it under any other circumstances.   

I have met some who are now friends, that through their Careers, have received training that enables them to be very creative with Audio Equipment, there is a pleasure in experiencing the work produced.

In more recent times, I have extended my Company that shares in listening to my home system, my Grandchildren are becoming listening companions. 

I certainly am not to return to a lone listener, until the time becomes for me, the only option.

When I'm serious about listening to my favorite music; it's by myself.  I truly enjoy how music makes me feel and where it takes me emotionally.  I love that I can change the artist or type of music on a whim without having to worry that someone else may not enjoy it or even want to hear it. 

I have friends that I discuss music and audio equipment with a lot.  When it comes to actually listening to my favorite music, it's a private affair.

I’m old enough to say, for me that was an 8 track player. Heck, I remember when there were car turntables. Those were the days. But I love being nostalgic, for our generation grew up in the age of real musicians and real music. We didn’t know we had it so good. We never thought there’d come a day when the music industry would stop producing real music. But fortunately, we can find almost anything ever produced, on vinyl. Thank goodness for vinyl!