Listen to your music; don’t just hear it

Several years ago we had some friends over for dinner and games. One of our guests remembered a song she wanted us to hear, and she pulled her phone out to play it.

“Here, let me go connect that to the stereo,” I said. She waved me off; nah, just play it here.

So we sat and listened to it at the kitchen table on her crappy phone speakers.

No big deal. It’s not like it tanked the evening or anything. But it stayed with me. It’s something I never would have done. If I’m going to listen to music, I generally want to do it the best way available.

That’s a dying sentiment.

Digital music is a great thing, but we’ve normalized listening to it on the delivery mechanism. We’ve raised a lot of kids now who have never heard a decent sound system. Oh, they get a chunk of a good listening experience back if they listen on high-quality headphones or earbuds, but that’s problematic in itself. That ends up being their reference point.

(And how many of them even know how to shop for headphones or earbuds with fidelity in mind?)

Now I don’t claim to have an especially discerning ear, and there is a lot of high-end audiophile gear out there that I consider absurd nonsense, just like there was 30 or so years ago when I first took a real interest in putting together a good sound system. But I’ll only use a phone’s speakers for communication, or if I need to hear something (as opposed to listen to something).

I have a decent way to listen to music in my living room, in my study, in my vehicle, and in my office. If I can’t play the music with some kind of reasonable quality, why bother?

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