There's a depth to analog that digital just cannot match.

I just use Spotify, and blast it through my headphones, stereo, or car speakers.
From Al Di Meola to ZZ Top. From Sinatra to Slayer.

I listen to music while driving or working outside.  MP3 or FLAC, headphones or speakers.  I record and listen at a PC through a pair of reconditioned Heresys that were standard issue where I grew up.

Symphonies sound better through high end, but rock and roll is just rock and roll. For example, if it's too clear, the squeaky pedal in Since I've Been Loving You makes me skip it.  A little hum doesn't crush my groove.  I prefer the direct experience of live music.

(July 21, 2021 at 9:29 am)no one Wrote: There's a depth to analog that digital just cannot match.

Yeah, that's an interesting position, and I've gone back and forth on it.  I find that good digital is just better these days (provided the electronics is good).

My rule of thumb is that vintage vinyl is always better than the CD of the same album.  However, digital remasters (especially high-res) are often better than both.

I'm not talking sound quality exactly, there is just something missing from the digital version.

Like I said I use Spotify, which is all digital.

You like those vinyl distortions I also found that digital was missing something until I got really good digital electronics about 6 years ago. It really should be easier, but it isn't. Anything less than high-end (many thousands and recent electronics) falls flat for me.

My system isn't very high-end, but $250 on one of those EVGA Nu soundcards sounds like a good investment.

I use either my laptop, my iPad, my car stereo, or my Hidizs AP80 DAP with wired earbuds. And, frankly, those wired earbuds tend to be cheap because, every couple of months (4 or 6, if I were to estimate), they start to malfunction (usually by going mono) and I have to replace them. And before you claim that a more expensive one would last longer, the last time I tried that, it wound up not being worth it, the sound quality wasn't different, and for how long they lasted (a bit less than two years), it was still probably cheaper to use the cheaper ones.

At least I no longer have to use my phone's headphone system (iPhone 6S), which, if I used a set with a built-in microphone, would try and trigger Siri at the slightest provocation, even if I disabled it.

My main audio system is in my living-room-turned-music-studio. I have a very nice Yamaha receiver, a TEAC CD player, a linear-tracking turntable obtained in an equipment swap (traded a bass guitar for it), and some small but heavy Radio Shack bookshelf speakers that I wall-mounted. Just the right size for the space, and it has good presence anywhere in the room even at lower volumes.

Sometimes I breakout my tiny guitarist.

I have no audiophile-preferred system. iTunes ripped at 352kbps or something like that, with $20 earbuds. I have a friend with a tube amplifier and electret speakers. Many thousands of dollars. It's in (I think) the "living room", but that room is big enough for a square dance. For example, the grand piano is...way...over on the other side of the room. Enough floor space to swing many cats. Those electret speakers make it sound like the band is right there in the room! My house has the wife's sh...tuff piled everywhere. No room for anything other than my laptop on the dining room table, and not much room there, either.