How do you find time to enjoy your $$$ speakers and system?


Maybe this topic is more of recommendation and sharing ideas than a question. We invested in our hifi systems for years to get to a place where we appreciate what our systems sound. Now, how do you find time to enjoy listening to music if many of us work long hours and still need to take care of family, errands etc…I don’t remember when was the last time I spent more than 2 hours a week at the most to enjoy the system I spent $$$ to build. How do you find time to enjoy your system?

128x128analoguefan

Music is playing about six hours a day here and I probably sit in my spot ninety to one hundred twenty minutes of that. And that’s four to five days a week.

@analoguefan this is a great post. Unfortunately, it's because I can so empathize and have had these very same thoughts. Especially in today's wild and crazy non stop world we now live in. I have spent so much time and money getting my system to exactly where I want it to be. Except between work, taking care of daily chores and errands, and then trying to get everything done that I can't get to on the weekends, I literally find I have no time to sit, relax, and enjoy my system and music. I will flat out admit then when I sit down for my critical listen, this is something I can only do alone. My wife loves music and so appreciates the sound, but for the critical listening that is something I do alone. I just do not have the time. My system does double duty for music and tv/movies. Fortunately, this is something we both enjoy together. So, on the weekends we at least get to enjoy what we have watching a good mystery documentary or horror flick.

 

But critical music listening is where my heart is and why I went to the lengths I have to put this system together. I guess for now I just take advantage when I can. Like this morning my wife had to work so I battened down the hatches, grabbed my chair, shut the curtains, and got lost in the music. Though wishing your life away is so not something you want to do, I find myself yearning for retirement and for the next 5-7 years to fly by so I can have the time to listen more...

 

You ain't alone my friend I feel you...

What a long, strange thread this has been! So many of you don't seem to spend much time at all listening to music. But, as several have said, it's all a matter of priorities. 

Speaking for myself, I spend several hours almost every day parked in the sweet spot doing nothing else than listening. I read a lot, too, but not while I'm listening; I don't believe in "multi-tasking," and in any case, reading and listening to music are not "tasks." I rarely watch TV or movies. I've got a good second system connected to the TV; Von Schweikert speakers, good acoustic space, surround setup. And a pair of HiFi Man HE-1000 headphones plugged into a Headroom Supreme for portable high fidelity. But, other than the headphones, ALL of my music listening is done on my main system. I never listen in the car, and I never put music on as "background." 

Fortunately, this house is big enough for my wife and me to inhabit different parts of it. She's in the library/media room (with the Von Schweikerts), while I'm in the acoustically blessed living room with my main system. She's a pianist and, in her former European country, a musicologist and music writer, but she vastly prefers live concerts to recorded music, something I've never really understood.

As Nietzsche wrote, "Without music, life would be a mistake." Don't make that mistake! You've got an amazing technology for the purpose.

It never stop amazing me how fast a post can evolve from the original question. This one for example was asking how we find time to listen to the system we have spent years putting together to enjoy the music. Now we have to endure people referencing that listening to music through their cell phone speaker is finding time. Just as I tell my kids listening or understanding what your have read is an art. 

Sometimes I feel sorry that I am not spending as much time. 

If you still work full time and if your kids are still around, it would be hard to spend more than an hour per day for the music.

However, if you are a true music lover, you can still find time for music because the music brings a joy to your life. I listened to the music especially when I am tired and somewhat feel empty. The music always feels the void. 

My average time for music (in active listening mode, not as a background music or casual listening) is about 5 hours per week. Hope I can pull more hours.