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Demographics And Listening Style Poll

What is your age group and primary listening style?

  • Total voters
    318
Serious listener on the main system with one chair in the sweet spot. Background whenever I'm doing something in the garage or driveway.
 
I'm 22, and mostly a serious listener! For me, there's nothing better than sitting in front of my system, closing my eyes, and truly experiencing the soundstage without any distracting visual elements.
 
The living room system is for casual background listening while socializing with friends and family.

My main system in "my space" is for critical listening. I'm a bit different than most with my serious listening as it's 50/50 for me. Fifty percent about the gear/quality of sound and fifty percent about the music itself.

As an engineer, I have a penchant for the gear and what it is capable of but I also appreciate the art of the music.
 
Rob41 said:
The living room system is for casual background listening while socializing with friends and family.

My main system in "my space" is for critical listening. I'm a bit different than most with my serious listening as it's 50/50 for me. Fifty percent about the gear/quality of sound and fifty percent about the music itself.

As an engineer, I have a penchant for the gear and what it is capable of but I also appreciate the art of the music.
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This is me as well.
 
tybrad said:
Alright- all categories filled! Data looks sinusoidal. Keep 'em coming!
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That's one way of describing the expected result that most people on an audio website don't decribe themselves as "background music" people. I'm fine with putting myself down for that if you think that's the appropriate answer based on my post #3, though. :thmbsp:
 
Maybe 10% of my music listening is undistracted one on one. But even when I'm here typing such as this there's always good music playing that demands at least some attention. Kills my wpm.
 
I'm also selected "50's and serious listener," but I have music playing most of the time whether I'm listening seriously or not.

I live most of the time alone with my two dogs so the stereo is the first thing I turn on in the morning.

I start out with one of the big-guns in the main room so I can hear from the kitchen, then another is turned on in my radio room usually a small Fisher 100 while I do emails and such.

Life is good with music...
 
As much as I would like to have responded as a 50s serious listener, I decided to base my response on hours spent listening. I spend more time listening to music while in the kitchen cooking than I do in the main room listening seriously, although I take my serious listening time upstairs very seriously. I concentrate more on the cooking than on the music while in the kitchen, so it is what it is. I have a pretty decent boom box in the kitchen, though. No problem drowning out the sound of onions and garlic in the olive oil...:yes:
 
Serious listener, by which I mean that my attention is engaged with the music as implied by this thread's juxtapositioning of "serious" vs "background" listening. However, the engagement is generally emotional vs analytical; I do sometimes listen to evaluate gear, but most of the time it's about enjoying music. Of course I also realize that an analytical approach is sometimes employed for evaluating a musical performance, too, but I think most of us - when in analytical mode - do so more often for the purpose of evaluating gear. Point is that there is more than one type of 'serious' that we all engage in at different times; perhaps there is also more than one type of "background" listening. What is the listening mode of a dancer?

Perhaps there are many shades of grey between serious and background listening, and there are some modes which may be about fifty-fifty.


Edit: I'd like to have a meal at Spalls' place.
 
I started out as a kid in school band then moved on to play in many rock/country/ blues bands for most of my life. Along the way I started mixing sound and recording bands.
I’ve had many sound systems over the years and I go through spells where my listening tastes change.
My listening room has only one chair and that’s where I do most of my serious listening.
I always have several guitars sitting out and generally play everyday though I don’t listen to music everyday.
I like most types of music but I tend to stick with rock/country/blues most of the time.
I’ll be 53 next month.
 
I go in cycles but largely I'm a background listener. I like it to sound good, and I like good music but I very rarely sit and do nothing but listen to music. I usually read while listening. Once in a while though I just sit back and listen to music without a book or anything. I also have music on at work, when working on my car, working around the house, cooking, cleaning, whatever. Very seldom is it actually just quiet here, though I don't listen at very high volumes either.

nearly 32 BTW.
 
musichal said:
Serious listener, by which I mean that my attention is engaged with the music as implied by this thread's juxtapositioning of "serious" vs "background" listening. However, the engagement is generally emotional vs analytical; I do sometimes listen to evaluate gear, but most of the time it's about enjoying music. Of course I also realize that an analytical approach is sometimes employed for evaluating a musical performance, too, but I think most of us - when in analytical mode - do so more often for the purpose of evaluating gear. Point is that there is more than one type of 'serious' that we all engage in at different times; perhaps there is also more than one type of "background" listening. What is the listening mode of a dancer?

Perhaps there are many shades of grey between serious and background listening, and there are some modes which may be about fifty-fifty.
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I always hated the term "critical listening". I mean, I don't sit and listen to '60's jazz and hold my index finger in front of my mouth, all-serious-like, and say, "Hmm... Yes... That's interesting". Who am I? The Thinker? The way I see it, if you're not a hi-fi audio critic evaluating a piece of gear or reviewing the technical and dynamic aspects of a new CD or LP release, then it's not critical listening. I listen because I love the music (even '60's jazz) and want it to sound as good as possible so I can ENJOY it more. I'm a music-lover, end of story. But I'm a musician as well, so I do have a good ear for sound-quality. But that's not to say that I'm an analytical listener. I hate that term as well. I don't even like analytical-sounding gear.
 
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Ha, just submitted mine - 40's/serious - and the total was 40! Now that timing right there. Probably a sign to go buy some gear today :yes:

Definitely in the serious camp, in a good healthy way...err something like that.
 
I prefer the term knowledgeable listener. I think this is what most musicians are. I only become a critical listener when I hear a work that I am intimately familiar with having played it. As for back ground music I agree it can get annoying because it never really is background music. I am deeply into the new age music, I got into this type of music on the ground floor and have watched it evolve. It is in the psychoacoustic style where you find true background music, the preferred name is environmental music you are not supposed to consciously notice it at all.
 
Background, background, background.

I truly can't recall he last time I just put on a track by myself and just focused in on it w/o doing something else.

Music is pretty much the soundtrack for my life, but not the primary focus..:scratch2:
 
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40's and primarily background. At least, as I understand the question. I have music playing anywhere from ten to twenty hours daily, and only a very small percentage of that would be time spent just sitting and listening with no other activity.
 
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