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Mostly? I have uncompressed FLAC encoded music on my Plex server, and I listen to that streaming through over ear (Bose NC-700) headphones on a computer, or on our home theater system (Monitor UK, 2 stand speakers, 2 rear wall speakers, 1 subwoofer) with an Onkyo receiver.
I also listen to Tidal hifi a bunch and electronica on youtube because some of the Boiler Room and other club mixes are pretty dope :)
Bluetooth Xiaomi headphones because convenience is king (and I can't afford to pay more than $200 for audio equipment lol)
Plex -> Android -> Synfonium (use internal decoder) -> Meizu Hii+ DAC -> IEMs
I lose some information because of the Android resampler however most of my library is 16/44.1 flac. Although my collection of 24/96.2 is growing.
TIDAL, K3/K7 (the K7 isn't portable), Sennheiser HD600s, and a pair of Hifiman HE1000s that I just bought. Both DACs work on all of my devices.
At the houses of my audiophile friends.
I’ve got a shitty little apartment, no home system. But I drive Uber, and I take great pride in always having excellent music playing when I’ve got a passenger.
I play spotify through usb to the car’s system. It doesn’t sound so great.
But most of my friends are more well off than me, and have great home sound systems. One’s got an underground theater, with a super heavy door. You close that door, the silence is like being in a tomb.
At home: FLACs ripped from CDs (prefer to buy albums I enjoy instead of Spotifying them) -> KORG DS-DAC 100 -> TEAC AX-501 -> Elac Carina BS243.4
On the go: The same FLACs on Pixel 6 Pro -> B&O Beoplay HX
„Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.“
Alan Parsons
I dunno if that's actually an Alan Parsons quote but up vote for any mention of his name. Does sound like something he'd say.
At home: Spotify through Amazon Fire TV through Klipsch The Fives.
On the move: Spotify through Jabra Elite 4 Active.
In the bathroom: Spotify through UE Boom.
I really want to ditch Spotify, but in the meantime...
Well, TIDAL just got some price cuts, and their library is pretty comparable. Just in case you didn't know.
Just read that today! Thank you.
Same, but I want to export my playlists and liked songs from Spotify. Going through that manually atm seems like too much of a hassle.
If you plan to move to another service, there exists a number of tools to aid in moving playlists between streamers. It is really easy, once you find a good one.
Helped me break the feeling of being locked in due to have 100s of playlists.
Tried one service but didn't work with some Spotify lists, like the yearly ones. Any good recommendation that might include these as well?
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.
I’ve got a special speaker assembly that I shove up my ass*. The bass response is particularly pleasing.
At Home:
On the go:
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.
At home mainly records. Rega P6 as a player, marantz amp and totem speakers or koss esp/95x headphones.
On the go Qobuz on my phone to cayin ru7 dac and campfire Andromeda iems.
Budget audiophile here: I wear Superlux HD681 semi-open back cans paired with a Creative G6 DAC/amp.
The headphones are $25 but have the the most realistic soundstage I've ever heard in a pair of cans, even better than $500+ ones. Pinna activation is almost perfect; feels more like being surrounded by speakers than wearing headphones. Makes them amazing for gaming and movies, but not the best for music due to harsh siblants in the 12kHz range, which I've managed to EQ out a bit using Equalizer APO. Nice neutral sound otherwise, mids are almost perfectly flat and bass is tight—yet full—extending well below 20hz. Honestly you can't do better without spending half a grand or more.
At home I have a set DML panel speakers set up in a 2.1 channel system with a subwoofer. The panels themselves are made of EPS polystyrene that has been sanded down and coated in wood glue, are about 1 meter tall, 30 centimetres wide and 2 centimetres thick (3 foot 3 inches tall, 1 foot wide and 4/5 inches thick) and have rounded edges and corners. Each panel has a Dayton Audio 10 watt exciter mounted to it on the location recommend on their website. The subwoofer is a ported down firing unit, which I have placed in the corner of the room for corner loading.
I match the music to the speaker. I don't buy gear to match the music.
Audiophiles don't listen to music, they listen to their headphones
I just use YouTube music revanced
You should give ReVanced Extended a try. My biggest complaint about YT Music is that plays music videos with long intros, but with YT Music RVX you can have SponsorBlock and skip non-music parts automatically.