I wanted to get a sense of how people were connecting their systems at home.

This is my first questionnaire on HA, so I appreciate all feedback.

I can't answer the last question (and therefor the whole poll). I listen to lossy and lossless audio files at home alike. Sorry.

oops!

You are correct. My mistake. And its too late to edit the poll.

Could one of the moderators please add the option:

"Both Lossy and Lossless at home and/or on the portable"

as the last option on the last question?

I'm partially unhappy with the first question:

"What what is your MAIN source of music at home?"

"Audio files my portable music player"

In the privacy of one's home it's quite common that people either listen to music via their hi-fi system or by firing the computer up, but not by practicing nasty doings with their iPod, at least not during the cold months, making this choice a somehow seasonal one. Or are you really crazy enough to move your butt out to the balcony, throw yourself into the canvas chair and stop up your two eavesdroppers with the portable's earplugs when the temperatures are around the freezing point? During summer's joy this might be the only imaginable use for a portable thingamabob while you're in your private realm - at least for me. Though I could also shift my regular jogging, which I always carry out with the portable in my pocket, to my flat's premises. Pacing around the hall for three times, straight through the kitchen, seven circles around the dining table, back to the hall, on to the bathroom, into the bathtub, outta it, one skillful jump over the crapper, followed by a high-speed sprint through the living room and a final jump through the previously (hopefully) opened window out to the balcony.

"CD's"

This choice is somehow mistakable to me. It's not quite clear whether you mean listening to original CDs or self-burned data CDs containing encoded files. It makes a serious difference concerning someone's listening habits if she/he keeps wasting her/his time feeding the hi-fi with different CDs or if she/he relies on large collections of self-encoded material squeezed onto a single CD instead. The latter would also be very similar to the "Audio files on my computer" thing, since it's only up to the boxes and the hi-fi's features whether listening to the files on the computer or on the possibly MP3-capable hi-fi is the preferrable idea. To make things clear I'd change this point to "original CDs in my hi-fi device" and add another one named "data CDs in my MP3-compatible device".

Nice idea for a poll.

Lossy audio files stored on external hard disk connected to laptop with external soundcard outputting directly to headphones for me.

Reasons:
Laptop: saves mucking around with CDs (space and convenience)
Lossy: mp3 lame vbr-new standard is sufficient quality for me, and very compact
Directly to headphones: I spend most of my time travelling and only have a small flat just to stash my stuff, really. I don't have the room nor the cash for an amp and speakers.

I call that a "transportable" system, ie not portable but easily taken with you in your suitcase during your travels.

Thanks for the feedback. That line contains a typo and I understand the confusion. Some people though just plug their iPod directly into their stereo, clock radio or boom box.




I can see where this is ambiguous. I meant CDA's containing uncompressed audio played through any playback device - PC home stereo, portable, etc. I did not mean mp3 CD's or data CD's with other compressed formats.

Then again I can't answer correctly, since I listen only lossies on the portable and a mix of lossy and lossless at home. Depending on where the came from... And the wife listens lossy on her portable at home.

You're in Germany, but hey this is internet. People can live in countries where it hardly ever freezes.
In Australia it's christmas on the beach.


I use the doors to my balcony

Main source: PC

How I listen: Dual Squeezeboxes. One upstairs, one downstairs.

Lossless at home, lossy on the go.

All my music is stored on my server, most stuff is FLAC unless it's (legally) only available as MP3, there is also a copy as lossy so it's easy to keep my nano full

Use a single Squeezebox at the mo via the analogue outputs and a decent cable, will use more Squeezeboxes once I have my own house.

Always lossy on the go and lossless at home just because I have the space at home not necessarily because I can hear the difference on my system.

Sorry, I've just seen this. Done. NB: Next time feel free to send a report, or pick a mod to PM.

While I'm here...

I mainly listen to lossy files via my PC, soundcard to speakers. In fact I probably get to listen to my music more using my portable or car stereo (MP3 for both) than at home.

I would dearly love to have a PC wired up to a nice stereo, maybe when the kids are older, and I have some spare money.

Personally, I plug my Sennheisers(HD-555s) straight into my Mac Mini, on which I play mp3s, encoded with LAME -V2. Sounds great to my ears, and didn't cost me much. I'll probably re-rip my collection into lossless(probably ALAC since I'm on a Mac) once I buy a bigger harddrive.

Thank you! And I will do that for sure next time.

Almost forgot...

Lossy files at home and on the go. I connect via an Air Port express to a external DAC in my home office book shelf system.

No connection between my PC and my living room stereo yet - I just dock an iPod to it. Though I am hoping for one of those apple iTV doo dads.

Maybe in the future when I get storage upgrade on my PC I'll listen to lossless. For now its just for archiving.

Always lossy files on the iPod. At home, I use a mix - real CDs, both lossy and lossless files from my main computer (upstairs in my office) via Airport Express into the big stereo (downstairs in the living room).

I really only do this because it is convenient. I can search for CDs among the thousands around the house or I can find it quickly in iTunes and start listening.

Right now only the living room stereo is wired this way. The dining room is too far away, I need another Airport Express. Ditto for the small system in the bedroom. I will extend things over time, I am sure.

My house is just a bit too big (250 sq meters) for anything else.

- Audio files on my PC

- Sound card directly connected to speakers

- Lossy for playback, lossless for archiving. Using lossless for playback makes little sense for me because I can't hear the difference anyway.

I wonder how Apple TV will affect this - if the media server/streamer will go mainstream?

PC->Squeezebox-DAC-Integrated AMP->Speakers

And lots of CDs, Radio (FM) and LPs