How do you listen to music? Speakers, headphones, which types, etc., [More options have been added; please see posts #60–62] Options

[skamp]

What kind of speakers do you use for listening to music? Speakers, headphones, IEMs, earbuds… Multiple choices are allowed to reflect different use cases.

Notes:

• a distinction is made between stationary use (e.g. at home or at work) and on the go (when walking / riding / driving, commuting…)
• circumaural headphones surround the ears
• supra-aural headphones (on-ear) are usually smaller (but not necessarily always) and sit on top of the ears
• custom mold IEMs require a visit to an orthophonist who makes silicon molds out of one's ears, which are to be shipped to the custom IEM manufacturer
• earbuds sit on the outer ears and are not inserted into the ear canals like IEMs

This post has been edited by db1989: Jan 17 2013, 22:42

[greynol]

It is still completely unclear to me as to whether this poll is trying to determine what types of speakers people use, how they are being used/misused or both (or neither?). What is the point exactly?

The first question asks about devices, to me this would mean something along the lines of a player which, in keeping with the title of the poll would contain speakers (eg: tablet, boom-box, laptop, home theater system). Why not use a less vague term to describe types of transducers since that is what is being listed. Now let's look at the devices listed and relate them to the follow-up questions. The last three items in the first question are specific entries in the third question, whereas the first item in the first question is the general category of the second question which is essentially already captured as a null vote in the second question. This is a mess!

We could fix this by changing the first question to "Which do you use to listen to music most often?" and give speakers and headphones as the only two options. Unfortunately this leaves out some things I'm personally interested in knowing, which is whether people are still using conventional types of sound systems such as two-channel stereos, multichannel home theaters and personal media players or are they moving towards things like tablets and laptops (using the built-in speakers). What about >2 channel audio? Is it becoming more popular, less popular or is it staying the same? In other words, I like that the word "devices" is being used, but wish that it was actually being used in a broader sense instead of being just a synonym for transducer.

Oh, and another speaker type to throw in the mix (since that appears to be the trend of the conversation irrespective of my stated concern about the point of the poll) which is getting increasingly popular these days: sound bars.

This post has been edited by greynol: Jan 18 2013, 01:43

[Ed Seedhouse]

It is still completely unclear to me as to whether this poll is trying to determine what types of speakers people use, how they are being used/misused or both (or neither?). What is the point exactly?

Well, I don't see the point of web surveys at all, since there is never any possibility of a random sample and so no possible way to generalize the results. Since this kind of poll doesn't have any scientific value, I wonder why it is even available on H.A. Is it not removable in the software?