Good call on the Grados. I haven’t been happier (and spending the money to get an equivalent or better loudspeaker system is not in the cards for extremely early retirees, methinks) with audio setups. I would, however, caution you about headphone amps. Grados are of low enough impedance to be driven adequately from just the headphone jack on the computer (I’ve even been pleased with plugging them directly into my mp3 player).

Hypem.com rocks for club music.

@matt g
The point of the HeadRoom amps is that the audio is delivered over USB to a high fidelity DAC in the amp. So the laptop’s sound card is a non-issue.

@matt g – Based on my experience with a hifi rack, I would start from the outside and work my way in. The speakers are the most important. The amp is the second most important. Then the source, and finally the medium although admittedly, poor recordings start revealing themselves pretty easily after getting a better amp.

@frugalscholar – Oh, I didn’t know one could transfer credits. Does it still cost money to get the CDs? I have swapped 40 things on swaptree so far. I think I have been flaked on once (still dealing with them).

Jacob – remember that while there’s a cost associated with Amazon etc., it’s also perfectly possible to resell your CD for close to what you paid (minus fees).

I like an eclectic mix of punk, hardcore and heavy rock music that isn’t typically available from my local library/on exchange sites, so sometimes the best bet is to buy the CD used, rip it to iTunes and then resell it once I grow sick of it.

Still, I’m not entirely sure if this is any better (for the artist) than illegally downloading it, as they won’t get any money for a resale…

I wrote a blog post expanding on this topic:

http://misplacedcoupon.blogspot.com/2011/02/re-music.html

I hope some of you find it useful!

Music and how you listen to it is personal. It is different for almost everyone. From listening to the radio, iPod, Pandora, records (yes, records), CDs or who knows what. Just like the music you listen to is equally personal. As far as buying instruments, make sure you stick with it. Used is a good choice.

I second the vote for LP records. A decent deck can be had for under 100$ (used, they basically last forever) and be plugged into old thrift shop speakers and receiver. Depending upon your taste in music, you then have access to thousands and thousands of albums, sometimes free from friends and older relatives, sometimes 1$ or less.

Of course, a full size Hi-Fi rack takes room and resources, and can get to be quite addictive. Caveat Emptor.

Am I seriously the only one here using torrents? I realize it’s not exactly legal, it’s just so common that I am surprised it isn’t mentioned.

That said, we occasionally purchase things when we can’t find it on torrent and our library doesn’t have a copy.

Since getting an internet radio (sometimes referred to as a wifi radio) I find less of a desire to buy music since there is always something on that I like. Not surprising given that there are literally thousands of stations available fromn around the world, all free. The only cost is the price of the radio itself (assuming you already have an internet connection). I do like being able to listen to stations from multiple countries.

Routine use is simple. On mine just press on button plus a station preset button to listen to that station.

I am surprised that these radios are not more popular. When I mention mine most people have never seen one.

Main downsides are that unlike an ordinary radio it does not come on instantly (it has to boot up since its basically a computer) and if something goes wrong it could be the radio, your network, the internet or the station itself so there is some complexity. For me usually rebooting the radio fixes any problem.
Also there is some one-time initial setup that you have to do to choose station presets and set up the connection to your network but its not that onerous.

Other negative might be if you live in a very large city (I don’t) where you already have a huge selection of stations available. In that case you may not feel the need for thousands more.