Time Will Tell
Posted by: Haim Ronen on 16 April 2017
On the average, how many hours per day is your music system playing and what portion of it are you seated in the sweet spot?
Here it is around three hours of daily musical dosage with less than 20% of it spent in front of the speakers.
Isn't Will Tell an overture by Rossini?
More than that, there's a whole damned opera. You won't get through it in 3 hour either.
1 1/2 to 2 hours, and all in the sweet spot. That's because I listen in a small, dedicated room. If the audio setup was in our main room, my answer would be very different.
Hook posted:1 1/2 to 2 hours, and all in the sweet spot. That's because I listen in a small, dedicated room. If the audio setup was in our main room, my answer would be very different.
Nice to have a dedicated room. Do other family members use it as well?
Haim, this thread does tend to beg the question " what are your listening habits?" Since I moved the main stereo from the family living room to a dedicated listening room I tend to listen to it less. Perhaps an hour a day vs 2 hours from the living room location, and usually off centre on a long couch because that is where it is most comfortable.This is despite upgrades such as a Fraim and dedicated power supply. I have come to the conclusion that I prefer to listen to music in short bursts of favourite tracks, as opposed to a whole album. I also feel a bit psychologically "cut off " from the rest of the family of wife and 2 adult children when I am in my special room. My darling wife would only like 20% of what I listen to, and I guess it is best to listen to it in a different room, but I cannot play it too loud or else there will be hell to pay. So listening is most satisfying achieved when I have the house to myself, air guitar and all!
Haim Ronen posted:Hook posted:1 1/2 to 2 hours, and all in the sweet spot. That's because I listen in a small, dedicated room. If the audio setup was in our main room, my answer would be very different.
Nice to have a dedicated room. Do other family members use it as well?
It's just me and Mrs. Hook, and we both make good use of the room. She enjoys using the Naim app with Tidal subscription, and most weekends, we'll spend at least one evening listening together. We usually play DJ, taking turns selecting individual tracks.
The system is in the lounge, which I've sort-of stolen, from about 7 o'clock in the morning (Radio 3 on the NAT01) through to 1:00 with gaps for morning constitutional, gardening and shopping etc. From then on it's streaming (UPnP, Qobuz, Soma FM Deep Space, on the NDX>Dave) until bedtime at around 11 o'clock with gaps for the odd TV programme.
So, on a typical day about 12-15 hours, of which maybe 1/3 will be in or near the sweet spot (I'm not too fussed).
For me it's 10 to 12 hours during winter or rainy days, much less if it's nice and I can work outside, maybe 2 or 3 hours in the sweet spot either way.
The NDS/552 based system is in the living room. Used by family mostly.
the other system is in the study. I listen to it when I work at night.
The latter has better acoustics, but is a smaller room.
the former a huge room, lots of glass, but gets more use.
sweet spot listening - 0%
lisening circumstances indicate that I should optimize for polite speakers - so it should be Harbeth in the living room. But safety comes first - don't want stand mounts in the living.
so - compromises galore.
I have been debating whether to ask a very similar question on here, but figured it was probably just myself with this type of situation. Now I see that many on here also have life getting in the way of a good listening session. I have my system (SU+LS50s) set up in an open concept lounge/kitchen flat. Music is on almost non stop, during weekends when we're home. And mornings/evenings during the week. However, I only really get a chance to sit down in the sweet spot for perhaps 1 hour in total, a day. And even then it's usually after my children have gone to bed, and it's too late to play very loud anyway. Weekends are filled with doing the washing and cooking, and kids running around, and watching films, so the open concept flat is not ideal, as it's too noisy to appreciate a good sound system. I do have a pair of Grados I use on occasion, but I find that even with open back headphones it's just not the same.
Perhaps some day, when I move out of London, I'll buy a house in the country with my own listening room, to really enjoy the system. Then again, by then my kids would probably have left for collage.
The living room system (alternates with our kitchen / dining room) - it's on most of the day if either Mrs Z or I work from home - mostly FM radio for background music or lighter classical repertoire (classical music is good for our orchids you see...).
Music room - possibly 1-2 hours per day. It only has one chair in it - so 100% in a sweet spot 
Generally we have music on all the time - the only breaks are for watching a movie or for sleeping 
As I've been on gardening leave since Christmas it's been about 12 hours a day. I use my Uniti2 as the LR channel for the telly (Netflix mostly) as well as for playing music and about 75% has been in the sweet spot.
Open concept flat here as well, music plays when I'm at home and not sleeping or watching a movie. Most of the time I'm busy with some work and getting stuff done, so the majority of my music listening is outside the sweet spot, yet enjoyable.
Relaxing and listening to music in the sweet spot is only one or two hours per week, sometimes less. Every now and then have some friends over to listen to the latest records - then of course the guest occupy the sweet spot, they seem to enjoy it.
It is variable here, where listening can go from a few hours minimum to all day. On average, I would say 6 hours in home time listening.
Since relocating my system, I think the sweet spot is anywhere in the house that I can hear music! In the technical sweet spot though, I would say I'm parked there 40-50% of the time. Mostly when I have a music score in hand. The remaining time, I am usually within 8 or 10 steps of the sweet spot. I honestly don't notice that much of a difference.
About 3 hours a day on average, on main system and Muso...., mostly at the sweet spot...
In addition some listening in the car and on my mobile setup - however less frequent and intensive. In the car I tend to listen to the radio or audio books.
About 2.5 hours a session, 5 or 6 sessions a week, one system only in a dedicated room so 100% in the sweet spot. Most of my listening is active (i.e. no background listening) and I find that 2.5 hours is enough as it can get somewhat tiring as a degree of concentration is involved. Concentration is probably the wrong word but music rarely 'washes over me' and I enjoy listening more when I am engaged.
Not long enough...but retirement beckons at the end of the year
In my case, probably about 2 hours a week, all using headphones :0(
Sweet spot = 0%
My living room chairs are symmetrically placed, but not bang on center.
Sitting in front of my main speakers listening to music = 2 to 4 hours most days.
M
I am semi-retired so on the days I don't work I usually have a Tidal playlist running on the main system in the dedicated listening room as background music. I've converted the loft to a workshop so when I'm up there I run the Naim app on a tablet through an old Logitech 2.1 system (definitely no sweet-spot). That being said, it's surprising how enjoyable the music can be when there's no point in analysing the SQ.
I usually get an hour or so in the sweet spot most evenings when SWMBO is watching tv and when she does join me, like [@mention:1566878603910888] we take it in turns to DJ.
On avarage 3-4 days a week, 1 hour +/- 0,5 in the 500 room after dinner , 1 hour before sleeping with S400. Sometimes early in the morning in the basement room with nSat.
Regards
Roberto
I have a dedicated room so during the 1 to 2 hours per day that I listen, it's all in the "sweet spot." My wife has no appreciation for hi-fi but she does like music. I sometimes feel like I'm isolating while in the dedicated listening room/den, so I try to limit my time to reasonable amounts. We do have another system (non-Naim, front R & L in a 5.1 channel theater) in the main open-design family room, so that ends up playing a couple of hours per day (non-"sweet spot").
At the moment I'm managing precisely zero listening hours, due to a major room refurb 
Starting to feel a bit deprived already, but with a big fat 10mm dedicated mains going in, I'm hoping to bounce back in style. Normally I might average anything from half an hour up to 3/4/5hours, depending on what I'm doing. Much of that is often on the second system, which is actually the main system with the door open to the kitchen/dining room where we spend much of our time.
This thread has just reminded me of the Fawlty Towers sketch with the psychiatrist "how often do you manage it"!!!!
