[rif]

So let's say you have 10 new CDs/albums in your hand, how will you play them?  Do you listen to snippets from all of them, listen to one complete CD/album then move to the next, listen to a complete one several times then move on...

I find myself listening to snippets from 2 or 3 CDs, mainly songs I already know, then focusing in on one CD/album that I'll play a few times in its entirety.  Then on to the next to CD to play a few times.  Once I'm done with these 2-3 CDs, I go back and start again with snippets from the next 2-3 CDs. 

[won ton on]

Well i listen to a the whole cd with the headphones first,then later with the speakers.Then listen to something i've had for awhile before going back to a new one.

[WC]

I have taken to listening to each new one completely, before I rip it to iTunes. I started doing this because I have a whole bunch that I have not yet listened to that I purchased. I only listen to whole albums.

[Diamond Dog]

I also only listen to albums in their entirety - as anachronistic as that may seem in a "singles" era ( thanks to iTunes, it's the early sixties all over again! ). Beyond that, all bets are off. I have unopened stuff I have owned for months that I haven't heard yet. I'll get to 'em... By the same token I have a new album that has been going non-stop in my car all week. When I was a musician, music got very regimented for me and I spoiled music for myself that way...it became a chore. Now I just listen to whatever whenever and am a happier camper.

D.D.

[Devil Doc]

First of all, all CDs and albums are listened to in their entirety. New music is placed on the "New Shelf" for a month and rotated into my listening on a regular basis. After about a month they are shelved with some never to heard from again and others placed into my regular rotation. I hate to overplay music, even music I like a lot.

Doc

[ArthurDent]

Generally speaking at this point in time I rip new discs to the HD first, then listen to them, album by album. As I've picked up a number of collections lately which have 4 discs, with 7 or 8 albums on them I will jump around between artists, and throw in some old stuff as well. Just depends on the mood & circumstance. As to whether I stream via my M2Tech or use the CD player also depends on where I am in the house and what I'm doing. New stuff will often get played a number of times over the week or two after arriving, then depending on how much I like it assume it's place in the general 'grab what strikes my fancy' play. 

[FullRangeMan]

I hear the possible worst first, and the best for last.
No medley, snipet, I listen one album entirely, if there is doubs on one passage I listen the full CD again.
I avoid listen many discs in one day, no more than 3.

[charmerci]

I have unopened stuff I have owned for months that I haven't heard yet. I'll get to 'em...
D.D.

   Wow. What discipline!!!

I only buy them one at a time. Listen to them in my 5 CD changer for a week or so till I start to tire of them, then put it in my computer and listen radio-like to my music.

[geowak]

I listen to cds on an Rega Apollo cd player feeding a Benchmark DAC. After that I rip it to a HD as a AIFF file in ITUNES. Not too hiRez but good enough for me.

[SteveFord]

I normally only buy albums.
The album gets burned onto a CD-R.
The CD-R makes good background music, the album gets pulled out when I really want to sit down and listen to music.
When I get multiple albums I'll usually do two at a shot and then space the rest out to give me something to look forward to.
I don't play snippets from the albums, it's Side One and then Side Two.

[Diamond Dog]

  Wow. What discipline!!!

More like " What discipline ???"
I don't let anything like discipline creep into my enjoyment of music anymore. It's for me. Now if I could just find the time to indulge myself more often...

In the meantime, please enjoy this musical interlude:      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D76x0Vtb_Zc

D.D.

[kevin360]

More like " What discipline ???"

Indeed! I understand precisely what you mean. Once upon I time, I would record ONE song on a reel over and over and over and over... Then, I'd play that tape, listening to a single song a sickening number of times. It was necessary, at least for me, in order to understand and commit the entirety of it to memory. Hell, I'd play the damn tapes as I slept. What began as pure pleasure (listening to music) as a kid became a chore.

My life turned in a different direction and the playing of music actually ceased (which I sometimes regret), but listening to music became fun again. I will, however, still fall back to that practice of listening to certain songs again and again - now, only because I found one that really speaks to me. I especially fall into that trap with songs sung in German - takes several listens for me to even understand the words (alas, my command of German is barely passable - by the time I understand the first half sentence, I've missed the rest of that one and the one that followed ).

---

These days, the first thing I do is rip each new CD. As I tend to buy in bunches, I will often sample them first to find the one that makes my brain say, "Oooh, listen to all of that one!" Sometimes that happens, sometimes that doesn't. In honesty, probably less than 10% of my music collection are albums that I play in their entirety. That has been especially true since transitioning to a digital source - so easy to skip the less inspired cuts (or, the ones that inspire me less).   

[Elizabeth]

I will buy stuff which looks interesting and i read was well rated, and often buy way more than i will listen to.
Often I buy a pile of stuff and stick it into the collection without listening.

Like today i decided to listen to four Belle & Sebastian Cds plopped into the changer.. I swear I never listened to them before.. (well probably I did, but I have no memory of it..)
I have 6,500 Lps, 2,500 CDs and easily one third I have not yet ever played...
I am lazy...
PS I listen to music all day every day now I am retired...
Life is good.

I only listen to full albums.. On CD or LP.

[WireNut]

I normally only buy albums.
The album gets burned onto a CD-R.
The CD-R makes good background music, the album gets pulled out when I really want to sit down and listen to music.
When I get multiple albums I'll usually do two at a shot and then space the rest out to give me something to look forward to.
I don't play snippets from the albums, it's Side One and then Side Two.

Are you using a PC for burning?

[SteveFord]

No, I use an Hhb BurnIt 830 Plus unit which I've had for 20 years or so. 
Time flies!
With an external DAC it also makes for a nice sounding transport. The drawer mechanism has recently gotten weird and will open and close right away if you don't grab it but other than that, I like it.

[Chazro]

Interesting subject.  One I never put any thought to but now that I have....If I bought the music in question than it's simple, I listen to it completely, mentally making notes of the highlights (to decide which cuts to be 'burned').  But for the last few years I've re-discovered the goldmine known as the local library!  For a buck I buy a library tote bag, and with the limit being 50(!) items that one can borrow at once, I borrow CD's by the dozen!  Since the majority of these are either a)records I didn't deem worthy of purchase or b)by artists/genres I'm not familiar with, I'll 'sample' each track.  Than it's burn, baby, burn time!  Been doing this for awhile now and still haven't gotten around to the Classical section, like I said, it's a goldmine!!;)

[charmerci]

I will buy stuff which looks interesting and i read was well rated, and often buy way more than i will listen to.
Often I buy a pile of stuff and stick it into the collection without listening.

I have 6,500 Lps, 2,500 CDs and easily one third I have not yet ever played...

   Discipline, resistance, laziness, whatever!

I really can't see how!!! I get new stuff and I have to listen to it all before I listen to anything else.

This thread makes me want to come to your houses and open them up and listen to them! 

To each their own, I guess.

[Napalm]

So let's say you have 10 new CDs/albums in your hand, how will you play them?

As loud as I can get away with..... 

[kevin360]

But for the last few years I've re-discovered the goldmine known as the local library!  For a buck I buy a library tote bag, and with the limit being 50(!) items that one can borrow at once, I borrow CD's by the dozen!  Since the majority of these are either a)records I didn't deem worthy of purchase or b)by artists/genres I'm not familiar with, I'll 'sample' each track.  Than it's burn, baby, burn time!  Been doing this for awhile now and still haven't gotten around to the Classical section, like I said, it's a goldmine!!;)

That's stealing! It's the reason technologies get straddled with copyright protection.

I have come to adore YouTube - permits me to sample quite extensively before making my purchases (I couldn't care less how it's rated by anybody - I can judge for myself if I hear it, and YouTube makes that simple). What I want to have, I buy. Some of that money makes it to the artist. As someone who once intended to make a living in that arena, I am highly sensitive to what I owe the creator of the art that I enjoy.

Think about it.

[Napalm]

That's stealing!

May I suggest some reading about "copyright", when was it first invented, what was its original purpose, when was it first adopted in US, by whom and why, and how it got "enhanced" over the years until it got in the current form?

Then I will agree with you that it's "stealing" but not in the direction you've originally though of.