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  • Audiophiles don't listen to music, they listen to their headphones

  • Ehhh, I'm ballin on a budget, so take that into account.

    Generally, if I really want to sink into the music, I'm going with either my lgg7 and my beyerdynamic 770 80 ohm; or whatever device can connect with my usb DAC, a fiio q3.

    I do have other options, but that's my main listening because I simply don't have the budget to do a proper system with how little I get a chance to listen to music away from headphones. My computer has a decent sound card, and some klipsch speakers that aren't bad. There's a home theater unit with cd/bluray hooked up, as well as the shieldTV, and the ability to connect via Bluetooth or cable to whatever device I prefer.

    My car is decent, but not audiophile level. More bass focused than anything else.

    I do have other headphones. Some tin t2s, some sonys, an old set of koss, that kind of thing.

    File wise, its flac and opus.

    I use poweramp and/or usb audio player pro. I prefer poweramp, but the other does bit perfect, which I do like on occasion, and it's more DAC friendly.

    I'm happy with the options I have, all considered. Most of it was picked up either on sale or used. I would save up while shopping, then get the best I could get when I was ready. But the key to me is that when I want to, I can listen to anything I have and hear the nuance of it. The sound is as clean as I can get it on my budget, and in all reality, my old ears can't make use of anything fancier.

    You spend almost fifty years living and listening to it loud, you aren't going to get much bang for your buck out of the really high dollar, precise gear. Hell, I can barely tell a difference between lossless files and mp3 om any given listening method. It's there, I can still hear a difference, but it's barely there for me. The better gear helps, but not enough to keep upgrading for tiny changes.

  • CDs ripped to FLAC and streamed using Emby. I also use Amazon Music. At work I have a pair of ATH-M30x headphones I really like. At home ibhave some Sennheiser HD350, which are ok, but I don't like them that much as they're not that comfy. I prefer going through the hifi - Audiolab 6000A amp, Wharfedale Pacific Evo 40 floor standers and a Wiim mini. I also have a NAD C541i CD player. On my PC I go through a NAD C320 amp and Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelves.

  • I use deemix to get songs and jellyfin/finamp to listen on my phone. I do miss the discovery of new music from things like Spotify or YouTube music. If anyone has suggestions for music discovery I'd love to hear about them.

    • Open the Nicotine program that connects to the Soulseek network, then chat with the heads on there. Name a few artists you like and they can hook you up. The most knowledgeable music listeners around. Pretty sure you can search for ppl who have files of an artist you like, and then view their entire library. (NB. Been 10 years since I've used it, so YMMV)

      https://nicotine-plus.org/

      Seriously though, the real answer is to resurrect whatever Audiogalaxy was doing in their recommendations-algo, shit was dope.

  • At Home:

    • FLACs via mpd with a topping headphone amp and Audeze LCD2C headphones
    • Vinyl using an Audio Technica LP120, a Denon AV receiver and cheap wharfedale bookshelf speakers and a Klipsch subwoofer. That Setup isn't really audiophile tbh, especially because the room sounds terrible.
    • Streaming via Qobuz on both systems

    On the go:

    • Everything encoded as Opus 128 kbit/s to fit on my phone. Played over Lypertek Tevy true wireless IEMs. Not really audiophile but tbh when I'm not at home I care much more about convenience as long as the audio quality is good enough.
    • also Qobuz, but at MP3 320 quality to save bandwidth

    I wrote my own scripts to tag the music and encode it to FLAC and Opus and use syncthing to copy the files to my phone. So whenever I add an album to the library it will be available every where I want in the specified format without any manual copying involved. It's a little janky but has worked surprisingly well for years.

  • Flacs on a server direct streamed to my source. Jellyfin is nice. for on the move I buy sony phones just cause they still have a headphone jack. I prefer to download what i want before i leave but also not a big deal. at home i use moodeaudio attached to my setup or kodi

  • I use the schitt magnius and modius as my DAC amp and the meze 99 classics as my headphones (though im looking on upgrading because my dacamp is overkill)

    Spotube is my music player but by necessity im looking for something better if somone wants to recommend 👀

  • 24bit 96kHz FLAC (purchased from Bandcamp & HDTracks) -> JRiver Media Center software player -> Merging Anubis Pro DAC -> Coleman Audio M3PHmk2 passive monitor controller -> Pass Labs X250 class A solid state power amp -> B&W Nautilus 802 3-way floor standing speakers

    Or if from vinyl KAB modded Technics SL1200mk2 -> Shure V-15MR cartridge -> Simaudio Moon LP5.3 balanced preamp ->

    (in 20' x 14' x 9' room with bass traps, absorbers and diffusors by GIK, ATS, and Auralex)

  • For earphones I have a set of KZ ZSN Pro X IEMs for when I'm on the go, when I'm at home I have my Audio Technica ATH-M50X.
    On the player side I love InnerTune as a YouTube Music Frontend, while for analog I refurbished my father's BSR turntable and Phillips amplifier, both straight from the '80s

  • I use Neutron Audio Player which has a profile for my headphones but at the same time I don't really think Bluetooth could realistically be called audiophile.

    So yeah I do the best with what I've got but don't really go crazy with it.

  • Modded Rockbox iPod with Wolfson DAC and 500gb storage. Around 150gb of CC music.

    Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones.

    A bunch of old CDs, played on 2 shelf stereos or in car.

    On phone, .opus files with Aeropex Aftershockz(average sound) or 2x UEBoom2 paired in stereo(slightly above average)

  • Sources:
    • FLAC on Plex or Jellyfin
    • Apple Music set to highest quality

    Output:
    • Bluetooth to Car speakers when driving
    • AirPods when walking
    • AppleTV to Denon receiver to Polk speakers when playing music for whole house (occasionally I use a turntable here instead)
    • iPad to a 2.1 Edifier setup playing VSQ when falling asleep

    Not often enough:
    • Technics SL-1200MK5G or SL-1500C to my AKG K240 Studio headphones
    • high

    Edit:
    Now I’m gonna have to go back through all my old Lemmy posts because there’s so much info here it feels like I doxxed myself.

  • Plex, though I do occasionally listen to online radios using my podcast player

  • MusicBee on PC

    Vinyl Music Player on my phone

    Local mp3s and flacs work the best

    I dabble with YouTube Music and music-map.com for music discovery

    Haven't found a nice self hosted music streaming setup that I'm happy with (unsatisfied with the apps and features). I want a nice looking app (super subject of course) that supports offline play and ReplayGain. I'm super happy with Navidrome but not with the Windows/Android apps

128 comments