[mofonyx]

Head-Fiers

I find it quite troublesome to sit down, put on my headphones, lean back and actually enjoy the music. This is because I find that I should listen to my jazz albums entirely, as I feel that it is how they should played.

As such, I prefer my music on shuffle. It gives me a non-committed listening session, which I feel to be more relaxing considering the lack of free time I have. However, putting my music on shuffle feels like I'm not truly appreciating how the CD flows along.

I feel that headphones give you a constricted environment to listen to music. It feels like I am leashed to the equipment. Hmm. Speakers would let me move around more. In and out of the room, you know, it's more relaxed, free.. and I can walk around sing, dance, change my clothes to my music.

Certainly I'm alone on this because this is head-fi. Everyone loves their music, everyone loves their set up, moreover, everyone loves listening to headphones.

I beginning to feel less and less of an audiophile. What's happening?

 

[cwell2112]

I can identify with the feeling of listening to an entire album being tedious. Sometimes I get some free time to listen to some music so I pick an album, sit back in my chair, and start listening, but I find that it isn't engaging or I want to be doing something else.

What I've realized is that it really depends on the mood I'm in. While I feel unengaged sometimes, just last week, I listened to several entire albums for five hours straight, doing nothing else, fully engaged. In order for this to happen, though, I need to be in the kind of mood where I can really let the music dictate my emotions. Then I get really into it.

 

[sebascrub]

It all depends on what I'm doing. Usually, if I'm just at home and moving around, studying, reading, writing, etc, I'll just listen to my entire library on shuffle - my attention is divided anyway. But when I'm walking to school or traveling or something, where my music is my main source of entertainment, I'm much more likely to listen to entire albums. It's just different modes of listening. Choice is fantastic.

 

[kodreaming]

I suspect that you are probably not a very relaxed person, like me.
Sitting there and doing nothing ,but listening to music makes your anxious. You probably want to find the source of anxiety...

 

[zotjen]

Quote:

I feel that headphones give you a constricted environment to listen to music. It feels like I am leashed to the equipment. Hmm. Speakers would let me move around more. In and out of the room, you know, it's more relaxed, free.. and I can walk around sing, dance, change my clothes to my music. Certainly I'm alone on this because this is head-fi. Everyone loves their music, everyone loves their set up, moreover, everyone loves listening to headphones.

Actually, you're not alone on this. There are times when I don't like or don't want to be "chained to the music". That's what good speakers are for.

 

[Tetromino]

There's always the pause button..

 

[manaox2]

I have a hard time listening through an album on anything but a bedside rig. Then I have no trouble listening through multiple albums, even though at some point, I should be sleeping. I have speakers for when I'm studying in the room where I'll listen through albums typically or IEMs for the library through the iPod shuffle in the library.

 

[bigshot]

Music is a language. You have to learn to understand it, or it's just tedious babble. Understanding requires thinking and learning about the music. You may occasionally have to crack a book, do a google search or read liner notes. If you aren't willing or intellectually able to do that, music can make fine background wallpaper. But that isn't listening to music.

If you are willing to make the effort, but you just don't seem to be able to bring yourself to do it, your problem may be your frame of reference. The world of music is vast. There's no reason to stick to one type of music or one time period. Every three or four years, I take a type of music that I am totally unaware of... bluegrass, Bach, Cuban jazz, etc... and I dive into it and read and listen to everything I can find on that particular type of music. It's a good way to keep fresh and to learn different perspectives of looking at the subject. I have yet to find a type of music that isn't worth the effort.

See ya
Steve

 

[indysmith]

ever wandered why an audiophile quality headphone-based setup costs about £5000 tops and an audiophile quality speaker-based setup can cost up to (and possibly over) 10x that?

 

[mofonyx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Every three or four years, I take a type of music that I am totally unaware of... bluegrass, Bach, Cuban jazz, etc... and I dive into it and read and listen to everything I can find on that particular type of music. It's a good way to keep fresh and to learn different perspectives of looking at the subject. I have yet to find a type of music that isn't worth the effort.

Well I like music as a whole, because I have a musical background. I play the Piano and the Saxophone (very poorly) and have limited theory (know all my major/minor chords, augmented diminished etc. - knowledge diminishing over the years).

I quoted you because you said Cuban Jazz. Roberto Fonseca?

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Anyway, I don't like the pause button. I like to come into the room with music playing already. It's just, the way I like things. I like being uncommitted to the music, you know leaving it playing half way as I like and come back when I feel comfortable and continue from there. It's like watching a movie I've seen before. I can walk out, and pick up the story where I left off because I know what it is in between.

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I am not a very relaxed person, and I doubt I can ever be with my audio stack. Reason being that my audio stack is in the UK, and whenever I'm in the UK, it's term-time. I'm doing medicine, it's very stressful, and the only break you will ever have (evenso, you may not get it in year 4 or 5) is during summer. At all other times, it's studies.

So the anxiousness cannot be removed. Anxiolytics maybe?

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I guess maybe I have to take listening less seriously and try to enjoy it at face value.

 

[tru blu]

Hadn't realized it might be blasphemy until Mofonyx mentioned it, but I'm that other Head-Fier who doesn't care much for headphones. To coin a phrase my friends often use, I'd always rather "smell the record." I've heard things on 'phones and then had a totally different opinion of them when I heard them ambiently.

 

[mrdeadfolx]

Thank god for my short attention span, I love just putting the 'pod on shuffle and pausing and unpausing as I go about whatever else Im doing. Sometimes I listen to entire albums, but its usually as Im going to sleep. I never realized this could be a blessing.

 

[cowpat]

i can vaguely relate, since sometimes all i want to do is sit down and listen to my iPod on shuffle. But i find it a much less satisfying way of listening to music on the whole. Individual songs are often great, and getting a bit of sonic contrast can have a powerful effect, but most songs are meant to be heard as part of an album. And so when i listen to something as a whole i feel like i've really heard it the way the artist intended. It's just so much more fulfilling

 

[xnothingpoetic]

one of many suggestions:

Try improving the environment you are listening in. Try getting a very comfy chair and some nice warm lighting, a calm/warm/cozy paint job to the walls.. you get the point. Make it so you don't want to leave. You will also find out that your environment will effect your mood- for the better if done right. This way all you will want to do is relax and listen to your music rather than to do your other chores.

 

[NightWoundsTime]

Most of my serious listening is on vinyl but I approach that cautiously. I don't want to be putting the wear and tear on an album that I'm not going to enjoy and end up ignoring. I spend some time with my portable rig or sitting at the computer posting with a shuffle going (what I'm doing right now), until something really grabs my attention. Then I go grab some vinyl in a similar vein, if not the exact same thing. That takes away the tedious nature of an album I'm not into. If I just walk up and grab something based on criteria like "I haven't listened to this in a while, or ever", I'm probably going to waste my time. I also have a frame of reference for the sound at that point, taking the huge step up to the main rig over the lesser, more pedestrian options.