This has really been buggin me recently.
What do you guys use to listen to music with. Like does anybody here have what you'd call 'audiophile' equipment. (ie, not a pre-packaged Technics or Pioneer system for $1500).
I'm talking at least $10,000 to $50,000 for the whole system and the real audiophile stuff you find in audio magazines...at the very least Luxman or Denon or something.

I'm just curious cause I used to manage a high end stereo shop so I basically spent 5 years demoing some of the best systems around. Like car stereo systems with 2000 watts in the back running two 15" subs, another 1000 watts running the mids, high end tweaters behind the rear view mirror.
Same thing with home systems like high end audiophile stuff with Oracle turntables ..M3 monster cable ... $4000 CD player etc...
When I started working there I had no clue what a good stereo system sounded like and it just blew me away that I never knew how well music could sound. Then I kinda got used to it and got used to always using great sounding demo CD's that would show off the system.... right from the highest highs to the lowest bass and lots of reserve power.

So it's like, now I'll go to a friends place or something and they think that their new Sony or Pioneer surround sound systems or car stereos sound amazing and all I can think is that they don't have a clue what a real system sounds like. I have to put on this fake smile and go 'yeah.. sounds great :rolleyes:

I guess one thing that's really been buggin me recently was spending several months recording a bunch of songs that I thought would sound good on a high end system. (at least as good as I could do it without going into a million dollar studio)
Like buying some of the best software synths available (absynth, halion, Pro-52, B-4, Battery etc...) and keeping everything except the guitars and bass as digital and clean as possible.
I posted the songs in several newsgroups and got some decent replies for the most part, but every once in awhile I get a comment like the drums are really cheap sounding or all the songs sound the same & I'm like... huh? What the hell's going on? I bought the best drum loops on the market... how come they sound cheap?

So I guess the question is, when you guys demo somebody's music, do you play it through a decent stereo system or are you just listening to it through small computer speakers?
Do you use headphones?
And if you have a decent system, what is it?