There is often music in our home. My husband might be blaring something from the den, while I have music competing for airspace from my computer.
When we married and merged our belongings, he brought a stereo system with a set of speakers that were taller than me. They could rock the house – literally. He had a fidelity demo cd with a multitude of sounds ranging from a soft breeze rustling prairie grasses to the deep thud and whirring of helicopter blades. It also had a 747 flyby. Our son used to beg Dad to make the airplane fly in the house – with the volume turned up. It’s a wonder we didn’t break the windows.
Last weekend, I went over to the den, flopped into a chair, and asked hubby, “What is it with guys and music?”
He gave me the usual blank stare.
Unthwarted, I pressed on. “Well, I like music. But I don’t listen to it like you do. There are plenty of girls on WordPress who post music, but guys seem to *really* get into music. Is it a guy thing?”
“It’s not a guy thing. They’re probably audiophiles.”
“Huh?”
The next twenty minutes presented a husband before me who was animated and passionate about music. Not that I didn’t know this, but we haven’t talked about it for years.
He explained that a good sound system will not allow you to hear violins moving from one speaker to 
the next, it will allow you to hear the violins in their proper section in the orchestra. He went on to say that when he bought expensive sound equipment, he could finally hear *all* of the music in a song.
I told him that my mp3 player surprised me by how good it sounded as the sounds separated and ran around the back of my head.
“They’re supposed to fill your head.”
“They run around the back of my head,” I told him.
“Some people might hear the sounds in the front.”
“My frontal lobe is probably damaged,” I said.
“Well, your mp3 player should sound better because the music has nowhere else to go. It can’t bounce off of walls or be diffused by the carpet or furniture.”
“Cool,” I said with a smile. My ADD was kicking in, and I was done listening. “Thanks. I have to go. I have blogs to read. See you at supper.”
Audiophile: A person having an ardent interest in stereo or high-fidelity sound reproduction.
Music soothes my soul. Music is emotional for me. I am not an audiophile.
Are you an audiophile? How do you view and/or listen to music?
Breezy Books 
I like music and I play it occationally in the house. Mostly at work with pandora. Grass cutting with my ipod — too loudly, but I dont notice until I shut off the mower.
Marcus, my mp3 player is turned up all the way when we are out riding the motorcycle. That would kill me if I did it in the house. It’s a wonder I’m not deaf. You, too!
I listen to music every way! Blasting, background sound, headphones, in the car, at work, you name it! I play guitar and piano to get my music fix (I am also capable of playing harmonica, bass, drums, mandolin, accordion, and a lot of percussive instruments), I sing as much as I can (went to school in Music), and write and play my own songs. So yeah, a little crazy about it, in a theoretical way and because I just love it. I wasn’t aware a good sound system could really do that. I like earbuds because they seem to block everything else out and I find i can hear little subtleties that I didn’t notice when listening to it through my speakers.
That’s what my husband talks about – the little subtleties. When we were dating, he tried to show me how he heard the music. It was dark and quiet in the room, and he probably had Sade on because he *loved* her. He pointed out the sounds I had never heard in the song before. Not just every little sound, but the slow start of a sound and the gradual fading away. It was pretty amazing. … So great that you have so much musical ability. I’m envious. I tried to teach myself to play the piano but without much success.
Piano is great to start with because you can really visualize things after…well, I find lol!
Nice! I think I am definitely an audiophile. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is put my Iphone on the Ihome and set my music to shuffle or Pandora. Same goes for when I arrive home after work. I don’t even watch TV! (except netflix online – dawson’s creek… it’s weird I know).
I work at home, but I never turn the television on until evening. And I usually only half watch/listen to whatever show I thought I wanted to see. Shoutcast or the radio is on all day long. Dawson’s Creek, eh? I’ve never seen an episode. Just this past weekend, I fired up Netflix to catch Weeds for the first time. 🙂
Music is important to me. I need it to fill my head and be a part of me. It usually makes me dance like crazy.
Did you have any professional dance training? I know you love to dance. I love music, and I used to “go dancing,” but I don’t even dance around the house. I must have missed that gene when they passed them out.
Hahaha, no, no professional training here. Just a lot of shaking.
You copied my dance moves 🙂
You caught me.
My wife and I just sold the Kenwood speakers that we bought in Germany. When we’d play the music too loud over there, our landlord would bang on the floor to let us know he didn’t appreciate it.
Yeah, apartment living with loud music was hard. Did you replace the Kenwoods? We have a corner property with only one house bordering our property. We can pretty much do whatever we want here with noise. 🙂
We run everything through the TV surround-sound system now. When the grandkids are over, I have to turn it down because they put their hands over their ears. “Grandpa likes music LOUD!”
Too cute! And it’s not because we are losing our hearing that we listen to it loud. 🙂
Major Audiophile here……. Playlist always on shuffle and playing in the background whenever I am at the computer, Satellite Radio on throughout the house when nothing is on TV, classic radio or CD’s in the car, IPOD with 10,000 songs while I am on exercise bike or walking, ….not to mention the horrific sounds of me singing Disco in the shower…… 🙂
I had a feeling you were a big music guy. You are pretty passionate. Disco in the shower is awesome! 🙂
Thanks for the audiophile label 🙂 I do have a passion for music! lol Great post my friend.
Thanks! I thought you might like it. 🙂
i did lol
I’m not an audiophile, I just like my tunes loud… but you have given me an appreciation for music snobs now!
Yay! You appreciate my husband. 🙂 I wish I had time to look at music like he does, but it feels like work to me. I’m with you, I just like my tunes loud. 🙂
A short story for you here….
My Mother, who lived in UK, had the neighbours complaining about the loud music/TV. Mam was in her 80’s. Grandson came over one day, he is a district nurse, and said to his Gran “Go see the Doc” so off she went. The Doc cleaned the wax from her ears. When she next turned on the TV it nearly blew her head off!!!!
Mam lived to be 95 and had good hearing and sight and lived in her own house to the end.
I agree about males listening to music more critically. I think females tend to listen more as an emotional experience. Of course this is just generalising.
Love the story of your mother, Pauline! She was so fortunate to live in her own home all her days. … Yes, I agree with the generalization; I know I listen more emotionally. I found an article in a audiophile magazine which said women made up only 1% of their readership, so it may be more than a little generalization. 😉 Thank so much for stopping by!
I absolutely love my music. I have it on constantly. I remember I was at the beach fishing one day and listening to Annie Lennox in the headphones. Next thing I thought I was getting swooped by a bird and ducked, but then realised it was coming from the song she was singing “Little Bird”! Brilliant 😀
I probably looked like a complete idiot!
Very funny! 🙂 I’ve had to yank my earbuds out on many occasions when I thought something had happened in the house, or the dog was into something – and it was nothing more than something in the music.
I love music but I’m not an audiophile…or perhaps I should say I’m a recovered audiophile. 🙂
I can see being recovered. My husband is always analyzing music while I simply enjoy it. 🙂
I know a lot of people use music as background noise, while coding, writing etc but I just can’t do that! I have to give it my full attention, with the exception of driving. I really notice every element of the music with my sound system in the car!