Asklemmy

My ears.

No just joking, YouTube music mostly. It's convenient, available everywhere, has a large catalogue, and good enough quality for me.

FLACs through PlexAmp, either to nice headphones ($500 range) or two channel stereo into some decent speakers with a decent subwoofer. I'd like to upgrade to "full range" speakers one day and save the subwoofer for movies.

PlexAmp does FLAC when connected to Wi-Fi but I have it set to transcode if I'm using mobile data.

At home it gets played through Chromecast Audios (R.I.P) which keeps it all digital until it hits my receiver.

„Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.“

Alan Parsons

Audiophiles don't listen to music, they listen to their headphones

Spotify through Sonos at home and work. Spotify on Google earbuds when out and about.

I used to really love music discovery on Spotify. I now find it's the same ald songs over and over. It finds what you like and reinforces that rather than gradually expand it.

I have converted all my CDs to FLAC and I mostly listen to my music collection in stereo speakers instead of headphones because I find the sound more natural. I have built my sound system around the moOde audio software.

FLAC's on NAS. Bluesound Node to stereo system, controlled with Roon. PlexAmp when remote.

Tidal is actually giving their lossless plan to their lower tier subscription, just got an email about it. Pretty nice.

Spotify -> MOTU M2 -> HiFiMan Ananda non-stealth

"High resolution" audio is completely useless for listening (16 bit 44.1 kHz is the best it gets) and there is little value in lossless encodes for listening purposes too, so I don't get the point of all those "Hifi" streaming services.
If you own lossless encodes, I guess it doesn't hurt to use them even for listening as storage is cheap these days.

Speaking of which, I'd like to switch to purchasing my music though because Spotify will certainly continue on its path towards full enshittification. I want to be in a position where I own all my favourite music before Spotify will be infected with ads on premium plans. Oh and artists are somewhat more likely to be paid a little for their work that way (I hope...)
I plan to use the free YT music for discovery at that point.

Music collection as flac, navidrome as streaming server, symfonium as android app and B&W P5 or B&W Pi7 S2 for headphones.

CDs ripped to FLAC and streamed using Emby. I also use Amazon Music. At work I have a pair of ATH-M30x headphones I really like. At home ibhave some Sennheiser HD350, which are ok, but I don't like them that much as they're not that comfy. I prefer going through the hifi - Audiolab 6000A amp, Wharfedale Pacific Evo 40 floor standers and a Wiim mini. I also have a NAD C541i CD player. On my PC I go through a NAD C320 amp and Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelves.

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...

I listen to music mostly on my computer and in the car. The car system is nothing special. I listen through either some ATH-M40fs cans, or Presonus Erie 3.5 monitors, which are honestly glorified bookshelf speakers, but decent for the price, IMHO. All running from my (older gen2) Focusrite 2i4 interface.

I used to listen in the train/metro/bus a lot more, but I now work remotely. That’s where I used Bluetooth stuff. No need to worry about the cable getting stiff in the cold or stuck in my winter jacket. I had a pair of Beats Studio 3 I paid less than $100 for that were pretty decent for the price I paid. The sound was as bass heavy as you’d imagine from the brand, but not terribly overpowering for casual listening, and the ANC in particular was pretty impressive. I also had some Anker wireless earbuds I got with a coupon on Drop (formerly Massdrop) that were good enough for listening to podcasts and having background music.

In terms of platforms, YouTube Music mostly, and a hand picked selection on Plex for stuff that’s not on there or that I want to have always available. The music discovery algorithms are completely useless for me though. It’s the one thing Spotify did better than YTM for me. The “My Mix” playlists and artist radios have been pushing me the same artists for months on end now. Want to know the ironic part? I discover most of my music on YouTube (not Music) nowadays…

I use deemix to get songs and jellyfin/finamp to listen on my phone. I do miss the discovery of new music from things like Spotify or YouTube music. If anyone has suggestions for music discovery I'd love to hear about them.

Flacs on a server direct streamed to my source. Jellyfin is nice. for on the move I buy sony phones just cause they still have a headphone jack. I prefer to download what i want before i leave but also not a big deal. at home i use moodeaudio attached to my setup or kodi

Sennheiser 6XX

Qobuz for me.

At Home:

• FLACs via mpd with a topping headphone amp and Audeze LCD2C headphones
• Vinyl using an Audio Technica LP120, a Denon AV receiver and cheap wharfedale bookshelf speakers and a Klipsch subwoofer. That Setup isn't really audiophile tbh, especially because the room sounds terrible.
• Streaming via Qobuz on both systems

On the go:

• Everything encoded as Opus 128 kbit/s to fit on my phone. Played over Lypertek Tevy true wireless IEMs. Not really audiophile but tbh when I'm not at home I care much more about convenience as long as the audio quality is good enough.
• also Qobuz, but at MP3 320 quality to save bandwidth

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.

FLACs/Qobuz via Roon. I spend the most time in my office so that’s where my favorite setup is. LS50 Metas + SVS SB-1000 Pro + Peachtree GaN stack.

I also love my HD660s with the Bottlehead Crack tube amp I built.

I use the schitt magnius and modius as my DAC amp and the meze 99 classics as my headphones (though im looking on upgrading because my dacamp is overkill)

Spotube is my music player but by necessity im looking for something better if somone wants to recommend 👀

A technics changer or linear tracker. I think the changer has a shure cartridge still but the linear tracker has an at. Sometimes through a pair of numark ttxs with m447s and a rane.

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 :)

Amazon music streaming has flac with their HD quality, I really like my Vanatoo speakers with optical in

If I want the highest quality streaming, then Amazon Music.

Otherwise, things I've purchased in 96khz or 192khz from ProStudioMasters.com

I work in the audio post industry, so I'm generally listening on my work rig either through Genelec speakers or Beyer DT880 Pro headphones, fed by a UA Apollo audio interface.

Plex, though I do occasionally listen to online radios using my podcast player

On the go: Truthear Nova IEMs + DAC via Sony Xperia 5 III LineageOS for microG phone or Shanling Q1 DAP (rarely Sony WF-1000XM3 if wireless is a requirement)

At home: Moondrop Variations IMEs + DAC via Moto M2 audio interface (all machines running Linux)

Music from: Bandcamp or Soulseek via Nicotine+, occasionally YouTube for discovery

Buy on Bandcamp, listen with Strawberry.

Download from Deezloader, listen with Lollypop on desktop and Auxio on mobile.

I also transfer all my music to my Hauwei watch GT2.

Edit: not sure if I count as an audiophile.

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.

HD 560S for the cans. For my source, I use spotify, using my local library of FLACS for the stuff I like a lot, and just normal spotifly for everything else.

MusicBee on PC

Vinyl Music Player on my phone

Local mp3s and flacs work the best

I dabble with YouTube Music and music-map.com for music discovery

Haven't found a nice self hosted music streaming setup that I'm happy with (unsatisfied with the apps and features). I want a nice looking app (super subject of course) that supports offline play and ReplayGain. I'm super happy with Navidrome but not with the Windows/Android apps

The best quality that is convenient.

On the go? Bluetooth headphones from Spotify.
At my desk? Open back sennheisers from the FLAC from the NAS, or Spotify.

Openback neutral headphones. Listen to music the way it was mixed. Obviously higher bitrate is better, but I cave in to the convenience of streaming and am content with minimum 320kbps for casual listening. Definitely lossless for critical listening.

For earphones I have a set of KZ ZSN Pro X IEMs for when I'm on the go, when I'm at home I have my Audio Technica ATH-M50X.
On the player side I love InnerTune as a YouTube Music Frontend, while for analog I refurbished my father's BSR turntable and Phillips amplifier, both straight from the '80s

I buy it if I can find it on a platform where the money is actually going to the musician. Then, I upload it in CD quality FLAC format to FunkWhale, and also add it to the SD card in my DAC (a Shanling Q1). Where it's convenient I listen on the DAC, where it's not I stream through FunkWhale.

Dynaco ST-70 (stereo tube amp, mine is maybe 1960s?), 8Ω tap to either Klipsch Heresy II or Vandersteen 1c speakers.

I've had the Klipschs for 20+ years, so to me they're sort of reference/completely neutral speakers. (I know Klipschs aren't everyone's cup of tea though.)