... I was just discussing with a friend recently that years ago we used to buy bigger and better sounding hi-fi equipment, whereas now we listen to music mainly on headphones or portable speakers that are greatly inferior. Not to mention the fact that the actual format (mp3 etc.) is inferior also.

Video appears to be heading the same way too. We'll soon be watching tv on 3" screens and ditching the 32" LCD in the corner of the living room.

Backwards evolution?

And yet computer gets used a lot, iPod and a quite decent iPod speaker system get used all the time. Three stereo systems gathering dust!

I can remember the days when, if our amp went wrong, you couldn't afford to just go out and buy another one with the result that you would be miserable for weeks. There was nothing else to play any music on.

Whereas nowadays we have players everywhere I look. There must be five or six iPods in various states of decay around the house and as for DVD players, if you add in the computers, there may be as many as ten.

We only have one thing I could describe as a proper hi-fi and it wouldn't greatly upset me if it went wrong for months.

half-decent computer speakers at work (a home office), cheapo iPod dock speakers (sound quality: utter big jobs) plus 25-year old Panasonic boom box (sound quality: fantastic) for radio in the kitchen, and my trusty old stereo (Technics + JBLs) in the lounge. The only part of the stereo that gets used these days, though, is the amp, when I plug the iPod into it or use it to watch a DVD with stereo sound (I don't need no steenkin 5.1).

I don't think I've said "I'm going to put some music on" and reached for a CD for at least a year now.

The sound of the iPod through the amp isn't that bad - roughly comparable to a chrome cassette, I reckon - but it's hardly hi-fi, even with high-bitrate mp3s.

we have two stereos; the monster one in the living room, and the little biddy one in my office. I'd estimate that I do 50% of my listening on the little fella, which although older, smaller and weaker than the big 'un is still what I'd call hi-fi rather than stereogram.

The monster gets fired up whenever people are here to have din-dins with us, as it'll easily fill the house, garden, and even the neighbourhood, without distorting. I'll also tickle the rafters whenever Mrs Fox is out, and I have the place to myself.

So the big stereo gives me another 25% of my listening, and the final 25% takes place in one of two locations; on the CD player in the car, if I'm working somewhere I can reach that way, or on the Zen (320 kbps MP3s) if I'm catching the choo-choo.

I try hard to only use the MP3 player when I have no alternative.

Suddenly I feel a bit old-fashioned. I hate listening to music on my laptop (and I have a decent set of Harmon-Kardon SoundSticks gathering dust that I could use), so I do all my home listening on CD, on a reasonably decent hi-fi.

Mp3s/iPods are for traveling only, and I have no plans to ever watch video on my mobile phone.

Whilst my listening devices of choice are the PC, iPod and iPod in the car, I've rediscovered all those old prog records I bought in the 70s. And what better way to listen to them than on the original vinyl. My hi-fi system is otherwise redundant (it doesn't pick up digital radio either), but I'll probably hang onto it for the vinyl.

I listen to a lot of cd's and vinyl on stereo. I Listen to the radio on either the tv or my roberts digi radio. Rarely listen to lots of music on my lap top it sounds rotten and too quiet. I do probably listen to most music on mp3 Nokia phone but that's because I have longer commute. I Probably need a new amp but fear they have stopped making normal stereo amps i'm not that fussed about big tellys and surround sound.

Mainly i listen to music on my iPod through the Car system, via a tape adapter, so probably worse sound quality then palying CD through it.
I also seem to have aquired this habit [for which i;m sure someone has coined a phrase] of skipping through track after track on shuffle, presumably looking for the holy grail of music. On occation you actually find it, yesterdays was The weight covered by aretha franklin. [ see the 'cover me i'm going in thread.]

I try and listen to the main stereo as much as I can, also attempting to force the plaster off the walls, but these evenings are becoming fewer and fewer due to the GLW complaining it's to loud, competing with 18 year old playing his banging tunes, I believe the young folk call them, on his decks.
I paid extra for my company car to get the uprated hifi installed and a lot of the time touring the highways and byways is where your humble blogger gets his musical fix.

The I-Touch is used a lot on the train and walking the pooch.

I have definitely changed the way I listen to music. I find myself using my cd player less and less whcih is a concern because music sounds much better via my hi-fi than either laptop (which is pretty crap) or iPod (which is okay with the Steinhauser headphones I've got).

Most of the music I listen to is now via my iPod (although I have got a decent speaker system that I hitch teh iPod up to. I now very rarely use the car cd player either. It is far easier (and more fun) to bung the iPod on shuffle and have a choice of nearly 11,000 tracks.

...but I'm kind of the alpha & the omega, because I listen about half to mp3 and half to vinyl. The newest and the oldest with a healthily Stalinist attitude, disappearing everything that took place in the middle inna Pinochet stylee. Or something.

I very rarely listen to CD, as that's immediately ripped onto the PC.

Radio only in the car, by choice, but even that's not very often.

PC hooked up to main stereo, along with the turntable, and, while you can tell the difference between a clinical 3meg lump of 1s and 0s and a glorious analogue signal created by dragging a small rock through a trench, once you get above a level of competence, you can switch off listening to the delivery mechanism and focus on the content.

Best of both worlds, I'm saying.

Digital radio in the kitchen, hi-fi (CD & vinyl) in the dining/xbox room, and Klipsch iPod dock in the living room, plus CD and iPod in the car.

This is mainly due to some problems over the years with hard disk crashes etc and not being bothered to fill up the Pod, on which only new stuff goes now.

I still listen to music on a hi fi whenever possible. I occasionally use the computer. I don't have an iPod or other MP3 player. I still dig out vinyl. The major shortcoming with vinyl is that I've now got used to 40 mins+ playing time and getting up to flip sides after 18-20 mins seems a bit tiresome.

Old stereo in the basement plays the vinyl (a recent thing) and some old tapes and the occasional Cd, usually on a Friday night accompanied by bottles of wine, the odd ciggy and the Word magazine if its out that week. Computer wired up in the kitchen with a decent cheapo surround sound thing playing I-Tunes. I usually load up any new Cds so we get to hear them before they "dissapear" into my collection. I-pod for subway riding and gym (dont laugh) sessions. Play a lot of BBC "play it again features on the computer. I love the Radcliffe/MacConnie shows
Mon to Thurs on Radio 2, DJs who are unpretentious, funny and play some decent music (Fleet Foxes in session last Wednesday night).

I haven't actually pulled a vinyl record out of its sleeve in anger for now 11 years. ELEVEN YEARS! I've a lovely NAD amp and an original SL2 turntable with a near on new cartridge gathering dust in the loft. All my vinyl is now securely, dust and damp proofed, sitting in the garage. CD's now get ripped to the laptop - backed up to the spare hard drive and then sent to the garage too...

This is not through choice, I hasten to add. My listening habits changed dramatically through the onset of marriage and then the blessing of children. Space and time are both at a premium, so now I tend to either listen to the iPod in the car/train or plug the Sennheisers in to the laptop whilst Mrs Nodge catches up with Dirt and various other bits of trash TV on Sky +.

I dream of the day when I sniff the vinyl again and action the old record cleaning cloths....

5 ipods with 3 docking stations, 8 CD players (mostly in computers), 6 CD autochanger in the car, and one 20 year old stereo in the home office - on which I play maybe one record per year. So mostly I am choosing convenience over audio quality.

Then again, my hearing was shot years ago by too many loud gigs (I failed the hearing test at my first job, which was a surprise) so I don't really get the benefits of real audiophile kit anyhow.

sweating blood to get the snare drum sound just so and it's place in the mix just right. The trouble they go to to get the master right, QC the pressing process and make sure they release something they're sonically proud of. Then two things happen: a) the record company gets someone to compress it so it'll sound punchy on the radio; and b) along come we consumers, reduce it to a tinny 96kbps file and listen to it on a mobile telephone.

This debate risks going the punk argument way of saying you just get a guitar and bash out some chords rather than listen to some well produced music. Or even the hi fi one which asks if you're listening to the music or the kit. Personally, I use iPod and computer and the hi fi - it simply extends my listening opportunities.

I think the real debate here is: how much time do we devote to really listening to music, as opposed to hearing stuff in the background or while doing other things? Does your TV or hi fi take pride of place in the living room, and which gets most use?

I think so, yes. I don't know if it's down to choice but when I was a teenager I had less disposable income and less music. This is mid to late 80s so it was always on the stereo on vinyl. The exception would be recording onto cassette and then the Walkman on the bus. Still using public transport to work means that a lot of music gets listened to on the go and at work on the iPod. I couldn't imagine only having access to a C90's worth of music for the whole day - now it's 80gb worth.

I think I still prefer to listen to my hi-fi but there is stuff I have only on MP3 which means the iPod stereo comes out increasingly regularly. I suppose it can just do more and there's the access to everything - apart from all that vinyl I haven't got round to converting yet!

Long car journeys can be quite stressful as I have to choose which CDs to take with me. What if I decide I want something half way through that I didn't bring!

Telly is in the living room. I'm in the study with the computer and speakers. Mr Bose is lying in wait in the living room, waiting for Mrs P and the dogs to go out or for visitors to come calling; you never know when you really have to play all 11 versions of "Who knows where the time goes", by point of comparison, to, um, make the time go (nicely).
I travel an hour each way to work: CDs get a good going over, as does Mr I-Pod, thru a radio transmitter thing of, admittedly, variable signal quality, but better than the cassette player in my last car.

I only got my first car early last year, but that has totally changed my listening habits. I'm forever burning discs for it (rarely risk leaving the originals in there) so it's my main place for new records. My mp3 player has loads of music on it, but I mainly use it for Podcasts now.

At this very moment I'm sitting in what is called 'the CD room' at home listening to a CD on the laptop whilst an enormous separates system sits there gathering dust.

Despite all the time and effort I put into putting the thing together, I do nearly all of my listening to music in the car. I bought a new car this year with an IPOD connector that plays directly through the car speakers without needing any fiddly iTrip stuff. Ever since I have only used the CD player to listen to Now Hear This CD's on the way back from the newsagents (and since becoming a subscriber even that has stopped).

I've two young kids who insist that I only play 'She Loves You' whenever I do get the rare thrill of firing up the system in the CD room.

A few months ago after about 10 years of subtle hints my father gave me a pair of 1970's Garrard speakers. They have the most beautiful rich sound - especially on stuff like the Johnny Cash American Recordings albums. But after a decade of tormenting the man and then making a business case to the GLW on why I should have these enormous speakers (3ft each) in a tiny room I have only had about half a dozen times to actually enjoy them.

Just bought a Macbook, and have been discovering the benefits of Last FM, online radio stations and various music blogs, so it's fair to say at the moment most of my listening is through a laptop. Yes the sound can't compete with a magnificent old hi-fi with huge speakers, but there's such an astonishing amount of new music to be discovered via the internet. There is still the option of playing all my old records, but most of them I feel I know inside out anyway. The quality listening time I would previously have spent 'taking stock', lounging about listening to a few of my favourite LPs or evaluating newly-purchased records, is now spent in this never-ending trawl of the web for exciting new stuff!

I blame the play counts in iTunes, and the inherent list maker in me for this switch

My iMac is the central depository of everything I have so far converted. All new CD's go straight into here at a high VBR (now that I understand this aspect, I have a huge upgrade of discs pending which were ripped at only 160 kbps). The CD goes back into it's case and seldom sees the light of day again.

I have been working through the vinyl too, ripping those that have not been replaced on CD, via a very cheap Ion turntable that produces reasonably good results, at least to these ears. My old turntable is not even connected to speakers now, so I can only listen through phones if I feel the need.

My iPod (160 gig and one of about 6 we have in the house) goes from room to room and docks in various systems, and sounds pretty good through my amp and Hi-Fi speakers, reasonably good through the Bose Sound Dock, and less so through the foldaway Altec Lansing travel speakers that occupy my bed-side. It connects seamlessly in the car too, and the fact that an entire collection can go everywhere with me, was the stuff of Science Fiction when I was growing up.

Like a previous poster, my ears are not at their peak, and in truth I was always about getting then music than having something really fancy to play it on. Decent systems amounted to hundreds of albums missed, s I never saw their point.

When we get rid of the CDs, the `big` hi-fi, etc, what will do with the space? Call me a cynic but all tecnology is drip fed to us anyway, so, for example the holy grail of hi-fi quality mp3s being readily available seems a long way off but as soon as its decided its `time` we`ll be given that and then look for the next thing to get dribbly and horny about. My Harman Kardon and Wharfedale stuff hardly gets used in the conventional sense but having a wee Griffin iTrip to use at home, garden, car, friends house, work, etc. does make life musically pleasurable.

With or without speakers. Or the laptop.

I no longer own a CD player but I've a cupboard full of CDs and shelves of vinyl I'm never getting rid of.

I use my 'proper' hi fi with CDs or vinyl whenever I'm listening to music at home. It's just nicer. If there's people round then it's more than likely a carefully crafted playlist in iTunes either via the ipod or the Mac, but still through the hi-fi. In the kitchen, it's a natty little Eton DAB radio with ipod dock that certaintly booms away above the crashing and splashing of the pots and pans. I have brilliant ears and I genuinely can't hear the difference between properly ripped cds to mp3 and CDs themselves, especially in the car (rumble rumble). I find listening to music on the laptop speakers unbearable - even the superior ones on a Mac laptop - there just isn't any bass.

You see, I'm one of those people who listens to his music, not his iPod, or stereo, or whatever.

I find I don't have the time to listen to music "properly" anymore

I don't have an MP3 player as I don't have the time to put all my CD collection on my laptop. I do sometimes wish I had one when I'm on trains/planes/whatever.

I have the big and carefully assembled "separates" hi fi in the lounge. That's for CD, vinyl or radio but if I'm honest it mainly gets used for running the soundtrack on DVDs. Otherwise it's mainly for social gatherings as I never have the time to sit down and listen to an album.

The kitchen has an all in one mini system for radio and music when we are cooking and eating. But it's mainly the radio that gets used - I blame Radcliffe and Maconie.

In the car it's the radio. The CD player rarely gets used.

This has all started making feel a bit guilty about the number of CDs I buy and listen to once.....

I have used an Archos media player for the last 18 months for my trip in and out of London from Northamptonshire 2 or 3 times a week. I watch a film on the train and music on the tube. On the rare occasion that I have forgotten the Archos I have gained an insight into what fag-smokers go through when trying to quit.

In the house I've got the usual pile of obsolescent stuff in cuboards etc (4 Mp3 players from memory). My music is stored on my desktop and linked via a Squeezebox to my living room equipment. I too have spent a small fortune (Well more than I originally intended anyway) on an upgrade of said equipment, but rarely use it. I will admit to spending rather more time on the playlist for an evening when we've got people coming around, than my wife and I spend on the food etc.

mean the end for those independent HiFi shops run by well meaning chaps in sweaters? Do people no longer take their favourite piece of music in to check out all the different speakers? Buying shares in companies that manufacture gold-plated connectors not the best idea? Will one famous chain change their name to Poorer Sounds, to adjust to the mp3 market?
Judging from the results on this thread, they're doomed.

.. my daughter, who's not even 2 yet, has a thing for vinyl and regularly demands that we go upstairs and listen to records. She won't accept music being played off the computer through the stereo - cos she wants to watch the records going round and round while they play.

I bought a new Cambridge amp earlier this year, and some huge new speakers the year before, and I'm thinking of upgrading or at least servicing one of my record decks. OK, I listen to cds nearly as much in the car as I do on the hi-fi, and the iPod speakers in the kitchen even more than that, but some things only work listened to loud, with concentration on the hifi. The Fleet Foxes for example, or that bootleg of the Led Zep reunion gig. The second hi-fi is behind me in my office, where I keep my 2000 or so 7" singles, which (like my LPs) get played regularly. (OK, not all of them and, sometimes, rather than look to see if I've got something, it's quicker to get it off limewire and then I'll have it on mp3... hey, I never said I was a vinyl purist!)

It's a case of convenience over quality, methinks. I too have a pretty decent Arcam/Cyrus/Mission set up in the living room and more CDs than I have space to store them, yet it's iTunes on the computer played through an old amp and speakers that gets listened to the most.

Then there's the iPod that lives in the glove compartment of the car and the over-priced iPod kit that allows me to control it (after a fashion) via the steering wheel. Then there's another iPod that lives by the bedside in a Logitech speaker dock (barely hi-fi quality), but that rather than Radio 4 wakes me up these days. Still, at least I've bothered to get some decent headphones for when I use my iPod for what it was originally intended for.

I still have a stash of vinyl that rarely gets played. Although I like the sound of a vinyl recording, I now find it so irritating! I can't skip a track that I don't like and you have to turn over after only 20 minutes! Prefer the 12" sleeve - much better for artwork than the measly 5" CD size.

Even CDs are becoming a chore. They usually get fed into iTunes and that's about it. They might get the occasional play on the big hi-fi, but otherwise they clutter up the house...which brings me onto another thing. Isn't it time The Word stopped giving away CDs each month and gave us the opportunity to download instead? Just the saving in production costs and potential landfill alone would make that worthwhile.

Anyway rant over. Off to Glastonbury Wednesday. Hope to see some good and unusual stuff and may be even The Egg at the Rabbit Hole!

Play your music through your hi-fi, even if it is on a computer - it's the only way!

I used to have a huge cable coming out of the back of our main PC and running to the Amp in our sitting room; I've now got a pair of transmitters from Oono( http://www.oono.co.uk/products_transmitavii.php) which send the signals wirelessly. The sound quality is more than good enough and is a damn sight better than standard computer speakers...

A quote from The Word July 2008 - 'Few people can play vinyl any more now that turntables are so hard to obtain...'. Tosh! Whilst not nearly as ubiquitous as 20 years ago, turntables are readily available from hi-fi stores and still sell steadily (otherwise no-one would make them!). There is so much nonsense writen about music formats; the great thing now is that we have so much choice of format for all the various bits of our lives. I have a huge selection of music in the car on mp3, but wouldn't dream of listening to the stuff in my living room. Anyone who has heard a good hi-fi would have it no other way.