Hours sitting around just listening to music?

"Audiophile" simply defines as "lover of sound". What the hell is so pretentious about that? Realize that a good percentage of us became gearheads BECAUSE of lifelong love of MUSIC, the most sophisticated stimulus the brain receives from any senses, IMO.

I get in around 2 hours a day on average. Some days I get 3-4 hours in. Being retired with a wife that isn't, gives me the freedom to listen often and long. Still, I am afflicted with computeritis to some degree. If I could stay away from the internet, I could probably add another hour or so to my listening. Perhaps soon I will.

I'm surprised by the responses here and thought more folks would have intense listening sessions. I just listen to music when I listen-- there's usually no other activity going on. As a matter of fact, I avoid putting music on when I'm watching tv or surfing the net. I work plenty hard as a lawyer, so I can't have super long sessions, but when I fire the system up, I just turn down the lights and stare into space.

I'm a musician, so I can be a little more entertained by listening alone than most, and I'm single so I don't have anyone in the house distracting me. I only have my shrew of a downstairs neighbor to worry about :P

Funny thing is, my system is pretty mid-fi by most audiogoners' standards.

Just sharing my experience-- interesting question from Quicke

24 hours.Take an average day in many peoples lives.Sleep 8 get ready for work and breakfast 1 hour,commute 1 hour work day w/lunch hour 9,dinner and time with kids or
wife 1 hour,total 20 hours.You can shuffle some of those numbers but just for sake of discussion that leaves about 4 hours a day.Almost everyone I know has no time during weekdays,due to longer drives,kids,and pets.Then throw in helpings of colds/flu season,gassing vehicles,repairs driving the wee ones to school,telemarketers,bill paying time,e-mail,phone talks,shopping,ect.
Weekends doing yard work and next thing you know your not
on the lawn.The lawns on you.Time is so precious.Most of
us use the lion share of it to work,sleep,watch t.v. and
eat.A few sweet hours a week listening to music we love is
a great escape from all the above.I will bet a good many
us read while seated on the john(multi-tasking!).
Most enthusiast reading material always goes deeper into
the product aspect than the"how is it" side.Yep pride does invade the hobby,sport,activity.
I heard a quote that many people who collect books may
feel as though they are purchasing the time to read them
all.Time is a great equalizer we all have so very little
of it here.(I'm using a few precious hours on-line,wheres my wife I wanna hug her).Just my 2 cents.

It IS ultimately about the music. We are all trying to get the most sweet, dynamic, kickass system we can to reproduce the music we all love to listen too. We stretch our budgets to get the best system that we can afford to in our living rooms, dens, etc. Pride, snob appeal, sure. We're mostly guys, fachrissakes, and bragging rights goes w/ the "package". Everyone here, for the most part, wants to feel proud of the job he did building his system. Looks, reputation AND sound have a lot to do with our decisions relating to the equipment we buy.

I turn on my stereo the second I walk thru the door every evening. Just the tuner, for warm ups. If I put on a CD during my cooking sessions, I can barely hear it, because my home is a nut house, with 2 kids, a dog and a wife who can't stand loud music. Only later, after the kids go to bed can I really sit down and enjoy what I've built. But as a budding audiophile, I'm never satisfied w/ my system. I always want more. That's why I do spend so much time here and at audioasylum reading posts and getting opinions regarding this, my most favorite hobby. I suppose one day, I'll be happy, or broke. Then I can really stop worrying about how my system sounds and then really enjoy the music.

Turn it up and enjoy!