Questions for Audioholics

[DanG]

Hi Audioholics,

I am a graduate student in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am currently working on a masters thesis exploring recent trends in music technology and listening habits. As a part of my research I am interested in collecting responses to the survey questions below. Please email responses to me at Guberman@email.unc.edu. I will not share your personal information with anyone. In the event that I choose to quote a response I will identify you by name. If you would not like to be quoted please let me know and/or just don't provide your name. Also please let me know if you are willing to be contacted by me for potential follow-up questions.

Demographics information (Items with a * are optional for the purpose of quotations and contact for follow-up questions)

*Name:
*Email:
Age:
Gender:
Race:
Location (country/city):

Survey Questions:

1. Do you consider yourself an audiophile? (why or why not)

2. Where do you buy your equipment? (as specific as possible i.e. The Audioholics online store)

3. How much money have you spent on your system?

4. What do you look for when purchasing new equipment? (i.e. price, sound, appearance, easy to set up, etc)

5. What role does your significant other (if you have one) play in purchasing new equipment?

6. Do you tweak your system and to what extent? (I won't tell Tom)

7. When buying speakers are you most concerned with the sound of music or movies?

8. When demonstrating your system for others do you use music or movies?

9. Describe your music purchasing. (Do you buy DVD-A/SACDs, from sites like AIX records, normal CDs, LPs, if MP3s bought or acquired through other means (don't worry I won't tell the RIAA) what bit rates?)

10. Do you own a portable music player (mp3, CD, minidisc, etc)? (If yes also answer a-c)

a. Where and under what circumstances do you use it? (i.e. while at the gym, or when your roommate is sleeping)

b. Do you listen to the same music on your portable device as your main system?

c. What bitrate do you rip tracks at and what type of headphones do you use?

11. What are your opinions about the "loudness war," and has it affected your listening/purchasing habits? (if you've never heard of it I want to know hat too)

Thank you very much!
Dan Guberman

 

[Seth=L]

Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Location: Fort Wayne, IN, United States


1.) No, I consider myself a music lover. I also have an obsession with electronics, but not dance-able cables.

2.) I buy equipment from the used market, mostly pawn brokers, and a little on Ebay.

3.) My current system (sound system only,and the most often used one) would have been around $700 new, but I only paid about $150 for it collectively.

4.) I look for sound quality, build quality, appearance, ease of use in that order

5.) Not available (sad)

6.) I do not "tweek".

7.) Sound for music is first and foremost, because if they sound good for music chances are they will sound good for movies. Speakers that sound good with movies (like pro-audio gear in a movie theater) might not sound all that great with music.

8.) I use music, because it offers the most detail and reveals more of what a speaker is capable of doing.

9.) CDs and MP3s, I try to keep the bitrates around 320kbps, I prefer FLAC files if I can get them.

10.) I have a portable CD player I rarely use

a.) I use it when I travel sometimes, which isn't very often.

b.) Yes, I listen to the same music on the portable.

c.) I don't have an MP3 player and I use the Maxell HP.NC.III headphones.

11.) The loudness war has discouraged me from purchasing CDs and has encouraged downloading MP3s and FLACs. I don't want to pay for CDs with peaked out levels of output that sound flat and dull when I can download MP3s that sound flat and dull, and possibly better in terms of loudness compression. I don't see the point in the loudness war on music CDs, is turning the volume knob on your stereo up a little more all that hard? Who gets a sense of satisfaction from this garbage? I could probably rant all day about how much the loudness war annoys me, but it wouldn't do me any good.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

That's kind of like emailing the responses to him as requested

Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Caucaisin
Location: Fort Wayne, IN, United States


1.) No, I consider myself a music lover. I also have an obsession with electronics, but not danceable cables.

2.) I buy equipment from the used market, mostly pawn brokers, and a little on Ebay.

3.) My current system (sound system only,and the most often used one) would have been around $700 new, but I only paid about $150 for it collectively.

4.) I look for sound quality, build quality, appearance, ease of use in that order

5.) Not available (sad)

6.) I do not "tweek".

7.) Sound for music is first and formost, because if they sound good for music chances are they will sound good for movies. Speakers that sound good with movies (like pro-audio gear in a movie theater) might not sound all that great with music.

8.) I use music, because it offers the most detail and reveals more of what a speaker is capable of doing.

9.) CDs and MP3s, I try to keep the bitrates around 320kbps, I prefer FLAC files if I can get them.

10.) I have a portable CD player I rarely use

a.) I use it when I travel sometimes, which isn't very often.

b.) Yes, I listen to the same music on the portable.

c.) I don't have an MP3 player and I use the Maxell HP.NC.III headphones.

11.) The loudness war has discouraged me from purchasing CDs and has encouraged downloading MP3s and FLACs. I don't want to pay for CDs with peaked out levels of output that sound flat and dull when I can download MP3s that sound flat and dull, and possibly better in terms of loudness compression. I don't see the point in the loudness war on music CDs, is turning the volume knob on your stereo up a little more all that hard? Who get's a sense of satisfaction from this garbage? I could probably rant all day about how much the loudness war annoys me, but it wouldn't do me any good.

 

[Seth=L]

That's kind of like emailing the responses to him as requested

Ok, I will send an Email as well. I still think it would be nice to see other's responses to this questionnaire. Also, who is going to see this thread if it's not bumped.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Just giving you a hard time.

I didnt know you lived in Fort Wayne, IN. I have been there quite a bit.

Ok, I will send an Email as well. I still think it would be nice to see other's responses to this questionnaire. Also, who is going to see this thread if it's not bumped.

 

[fmw]

I'm curious what musicology is and how it differs from the study of music. My college had a pretty good music department but the students there called themselves music majors not musicology majors. I'm an hour and a half West of Fort Wayne.

 

[mudrummer99]

musicology is the study of music itself, not the study of playing music or teaching music, which is most likely what the music majors are doing.

 

[fmw]

musicology is the study of music itself, not the study of playing music or teaching music, which is most likely what the music majors are doing.

Music history? Music theory? Composition? Music business? Things like that? I think every music major went through courses of that sort at the music department of our college. At our college only a minority of them were interested in musical performance as a career. Most of them, I guess, were musicologists rather than musicians?

I'm a musician myself. While I didn't study music in college, I performed pretty often with many of the music students there and interacted with and befriended several of them because of the common interest.

 

[mazersteven]

Name: Mazersteven
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Location (country/city): Melbourne, Florida

Survey Questions:

1. Do you consider yourself an audiophile? (why or why not)

In my opinion, Audiophile is a term made up for someones ego.
To be a Biker do you have to own a Harley, and wear Leather? No, so you don't need to be an Audiophile to enjoy audio.

2. Where do you buy your equipment? (as specific as possible i.e. The Audioholics online store)

Audio/Video boutique stores.

3. How much money have you spent on your system?

$17,500

4. What do you look for when purchasing new equipment? (i.e. price, sound, appearance, easy to set up, etc)

Sound Quality, Appearance

5. What role does your significant other (if you have one) play in purchasing new equipment?

Absolutely Nothing

6. Do you tweak your system and to what extent? (I won't tell Tom)

Not really. I calibrate the system every 6 months or so to ensure proper settings.

7. When buying speakers are you most concerned with the sound of music or movies?

I am most concerned with music. IMO if a speaker can reproduce music with detail, imaging, clarity. Then it should do fine with HT.

8. When demonstrating your system for others do you use music or movies?

Both

9. Describe your music purchasing. (Do you buy DVD-A/SACDs, from sites like AIX records, normal CDs, LPs, if MP3s bought or acquired through other means (don't worry I won't tell the RIAA) what bit rates?)

My music purchases are all CD's. Next will eventually be a music server.

10. Do you own a portable music player (mp3, CD, minidisc, etc)? (If yes also answer a-c)

No, I'm trying to stay away from that. An I-Pod purchase for me would lead to a spending frenzy of portable amp, and headphones.

a. Where and under what circumstances do you use it? (i.e. while at the gym, or when your roommate is sleeping)

N/A

b. Do you listen to the same music on your portable device as your main system?

N/A

c. What bitrate do you rip tracks at and what type of headphones do you use?

Headphones
AKG 701's
Sennheiser HD600's

11. What are your opinions about the "loudness war," and has it affected your listening/purchasing habits? (if you've never heard of it I want to know hat too)

"Loudness Wars"?

Thank you very much!
Dan Guberman

My answers are listed above.

 

[mudrummer99]

Each of those you mention are separate entities. most colleges require you to take a curicudullum that has atleast entry level courses in each of these subjects. Musicology would most closely be associated with music history but goes far beyond that since it can also deal with, as the survey conveys, current happenings in music. One of the most common forms of musicology is ethno-musicology. This mainly deals with non-western forms of music such as traditional African, Asian, or native styles. Music theory is the study of written music and how it is written and sounds the way it does. This centers mainly around Bach since he pretty well invented music theory. Composition and music theory have a lot in common except that comp majors do a lot more writing than studying someone else's work. Music business is just that, more towards the business end of music, like managing and marketing. The most common music major at most colleges is music education. Where i went to school, about 80% of music majors were this, with a majority of the rest being performance majors and a few BA in music business. As far as my experience goes, though, all music majors must take a base knowledge set of course that include theory, analysis, ear training, history, and beginning composition. One last thing, I have never meet any music major, theory, composition, education, musicology or music business that was not a musician. To be a musician all you have to do is play an instrument, whether it be drums in a garage or singing at Carnegie, they all fall into the same fraternity.

 

[Seth=L]

Mazer, the loudness wars are what they (the recording studio, production, someone) are doing to CDs. Many new music CDs have no dynamics because someone decided it was a good idea to max out the output on CDs. I purchased a CD from Stonesour on a recommendation (lame music btw) and one of my biggest beefs with that CD was the complete lack of dynamics. You will notice when playing the CD that A.) at specified volumes it is noticeably louder than most CDs on a constant basis and B.) it clips, meaning there is audible clipping at any level of output from your sound system. A way to test to see if a CD or another medium I suppose is dynamic is set it at a volume at which you can barely hear it or just loud enough as it where from another room. Allow it to play and if you can hear it through the whole CD, no matter which part, it has no dynamics. If you keep finding you need to turn it up and down to hear it, then it has some pretty good dynamics.

 

[3db]

Hi Audioholics,

I am a graduate student in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am currently working on a masters thesis exploring recent trends in music technology and listening habits. As a part of my research I am interested in collecting responses to the survey questions below. Please email responses to me at Guberman@email.unc.edu. I will not share your personal information with anyone. In the event that I choose to quote a response I will identify you by name. If you would not like to be quoted please let me know and/or just don't provide your name. Also please let me know if you are willing to be contacted by me for potential follow-up questions.

Demographics information (Items with a * are optional for the purpose of quotations and contact for follow-up questions)

*Name: 3db
*Email:
Age:45
Gender:male
Race:
Location (country/city):Ottawa Canada

Survey Questions:

1. No, I do not. An avid audio enthusiast. Audiophiles use voodoo and snake old to tweak their systems. I stick to the theoreys of science and relativity.

2. bought my system at specialty stores, Audio Center and Planet Of Sound. I may do a big box store for my receiver unless I get a smokin deal from the people I've purchased from before.

3. Aprroximately $3200 including upgrade costs

4. Electronics..reliability and then sound..Speakers, Sound and build quality.

5. My SO keeps me from going broke.

6. Tweak my room acoustically and speaker postioning. Does that count as tweaking?

7. I use music to audition speakers because its contains more information than movies giving me a better picture of the speakers abilities

8. When demonstrating my system, I use both. Music to show of my main speakers, and HT do show off what HT is all about.

9. CDs, vinyl and MP3s with bit rates no lower than 256Mbs. Majority of them are 320Mbs.

10. MP3 player to pass time while commuting to work and back.

a. Commuting back and forth from work

b. Same music but not the same format

c. 320Mbs..No headphones.. don't like them

11. Loudness war sucks. I'm going back to vinyl because of it. Vinyl sounds so much better to me than the new recordings being released on CD.

 

[Seth=L]

c. 320Mbs..No headphones.. don't like them

320kbps (kilobytes per second) can you imagine 320mbps, that would be half a CD in just one second.

What is it about headphones you don't like, is it the feeling the sound is in your head?

 

[fmw]

Each of those you mention are separate entities. most colleges require you to take a curicudullum that has atleast entry level courses in each of these subjects. Musicology would most closely be associated with music history but goes far beyond that since it can also deal with, as the survey conveys, current happenings in music. One of the most common forms of musicology is ethno-musicology. This mainly deals with non-western forms of music such as traditional African, Asian, or native styles. Music theory is the study of written music and how it is written and sounds the way it does. This centers mainly around Bach since he pretty well invented music theory. Composition and music theory have a lot in common except that comp majors do a lot more writing than studying someone else's work. Music business is just that, more towards the business end of music, like managing and marketing. The most common music major at most colleges is music education. Where i went to school, about 80% of music majors were this, with a majority of the rest being performance majors and a few BA in music business. As far as my experience goes, though, all music majors must take a base knowledge set of course that include theory, analysis, ear training, history, and beginning composition. One last thing, I have never meet any music major, theory, composition, education, musicology or music business that was not a musician. To be a musician all you have to do is play an instrument, whether it be drums in a garage or singing at Carnegie, they all fall into the same fraternity.

Thanks. Obviously, you too are a musician and probably a music major.

I guess I never thought of Bach as the inventor of music theory. I think of him as the first contrapuntalist and certainly a genius of composition, particularly for his time. Many of his contemporaries were involved in keys, scales, harmony and chord progressions. Did they all learn it from him?

It is fun to play Bach on the piano and excellent practice material. I do it fairly often and have for many years. I've used some of his compositions for jazz improvisations and they work pretty well. You should have heard Oscar Peterson play Bach. It was stirring to say the least.

 

[fmw]

I guess he might need an old guy in his mix so I'll post my answers as well. My name is Fred. I'm a 62 year old man living in Indiana, USA.

1. I'm a recovered audiophile. My greatest epiphany in audio was that most of what I believed was false. You would consider me an objective audio enthusiast and subjective music lover.

2. On-line wherever they sell what I want. I've bought pieces and parts at retail stores but not enough to develop a trend from it.

3. I've spent approximately $150,000 over the years on audio gear. My current "home theater" has about $9000 worth of equipment.

4. I buy whatever stirs my juices at the moment. There isn't often a logical reason to buy what I buy. I buy what I like.

5. None

6. No

7. Music. Movie sound really isn't that interesting sonically or even of such a high quality. Most of it is dialogue, as you know.

8. Both

9. I buy CD's and SACD's primarily from music clubs and on-line sources. I don't download music and probably never will.

10. Yes.

a. I use it only when I'm riding one of my bicycles.
b. Yes, I transfer it from my music server
c. 320 MP3
d. I have earbuds for the MP3 player, I have other units for the stereo system and the digital musical instruments.

11. I don't know what a loudness war is either. If you mean the practice of making recordings at a high level with excessive compression, then it doesn't affect me. I listen primarily to classical and jazz. I don't hear much of that in those types of recordings. They can compress rock music all they want and I don't care.

 

[mudrummer99]

you got me fmw, just graduated in december with a music performance major. Bach got it all rolling and just about everyone that followed him took his original ideas and expanded on that. He is also the foundation for counterpoint and between these two ideas 98% of music heard or used today is based on his "rules" (although these weren't actually put into a book form until almost 50 years after his death). About the only genre of music that doesn't at all follow Bach would be post-tonal or atonal music. These in their most abstract form are derived from math and number series. Even with this, all the composers of this style of music studied traditional theory before growing into this off shoot. I'll get down from my spouting now and let everyone get back to the thread at hand.

Edit:modality (the idea of keys and harmonies) had been around for centuries before Bach, starting with minstrels in the middle ages. Bach through his compositions showed a consistency that became the basis for what traditional music theory is, just as chord leading, voicing, and candencing. IV-V-I for example had been around for a long time before him but in his composing and subsequent teaching of why this is the ideal way things should happen and growing that to the voice leading that works best for each situation and what to do and not to do, he set the standards for the beginning of the study of written music (theory). Listen to all 371 Bach chorals if you have a 3 day weekend to kill, although each is different and has it's own nuances, there is not one exception to the basic rules of theory in all the music. And I'm really done this time

 

[Seth=L]

Where in Indiana does fmw live?

 

[Soundman]

Hi Audioholics,

I am a graduate student in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am currently working on a masters thesis exploring recent trends in music technology and listening habits. As a part of my research I am interested in collecting responses to the survey questions below. Please email responses to me at Guberman@email.unc.edu. I will not share your personal information with anyone. In the event that I choose to quote a response I will identify you by name. If you would not like to be quoted please let me know and/or just don't provide your name. Also please let me know if you are willing to be contacted by me for potential follow-up questions.

Demographics information (Items with a * are optional for the purpose of quotations and contact for follow-up questions)

*Name:
*Email:
Age:
Gender:
Race:
Location (country/city):

Survey Questions:

1. Do you consider yourself an audiophile? (why or why not)

2. Where do you buy your equipment? (as specific as possible i.e. The Audioholics online store)

3. How much money have you spent on your system?

4. What do you look for when purchasing new equipment? (i.e. price, sound, appearance, easy to set up, etc)

5. What role does your significant other (if you have one) play in purchasing new equipment?

6. Do you tweak your system and to what extent? (I won't tell Tom)

7. When buying speakers are you most concerned with the sound of music or movies?

8. When demonstrating your system for others do you use music or movies?

9. Describe your music purchasing. (Do you buy DVD-A/SACDs, from sites like AIX records, normal CDs, LPs, if MP3s bought or acquired through other means (don't worry I won't tell the RIAA) what bit rates?)

10. Do you own a portable music player (mp3, CD, minidisc, etc)? (If yes also answer a-c)

a. Where and under what circumstances do you use it? (i.e. while at the gym, or when your roommate is sleeping)

b. Do you listen to the same music on your portable device as your main system?

c. What bitrate do you rip tracks at and what type of headphones do you use?

11. What are your opinions about the "loudness war," and has it affected your listening/purchasing habits? (if you've never heard of it I want to know hat too)

Thank you very much!
Dan Guberman

Hi Dan!
When I have more time I'll do the survey, but I had to comment when I saw you are studying in Chapel Hill. I'm about an hour and a half from where you are. I'm aslo a major UNC fan! How about them Tarheels, now 18-0! Good luck on your research, Dan.

 

[fmw]

Where in Indiana does fmw live?

West by northwest of you by about 90 miles. I'm located between Plymouth and South Bend.

 

[fmw]

you got me fmw, just graduated in december with a music performance major. Bach got it all rolling and just about everyone that followed him took his original ideas and expanded on that. He is also the foundation for counterpoint and between these two ideas 98% of music heard or used today is based on his "rules" (although these weren't actually put into a book form until almost 50 years after his death). About the only genre of music that doesn't at all follow Bach would be post-tonal or atonal music. These in their most abstract form are derived from math and number series. Even with this, all the composers of this style of music studied traditional theory before growing into this off shoot. I'll get down from my spouting now and let everyone get back to the thread at hand.

Edit:modality (the idea of keys and harmonies) had been around for centuries before Bach, starting with minstrels in the middle ages. Bach through his compositions showed a consistency that became the basis for what traditional music theory is, just as chord leading, voicing, and candencing. IV-V-I for example had been around for a long time before him but in his composing and subsequent teaching of why this is the ideal way things should happen and growing that to the voice leading that works best for each situation and what to do and not to do, he set the standards for the beginning of the study of written music (theory). Listen to all 371 Bach chorals if you have a 3 day weekend to kill, although each is different and has it's own nuances, there is not one exception to the basic rules of theory in all the music. And I'm really done this time

Excellent. What do you play?