I jam on the piano a lot, classically trained, working on jazz improv. I like to play popular music. I've gotten into playing all of Keane's album entirely by ear. I'm too cheap to buy sheet music, so that's how I learn most popular music.

I am definitely an audiophile - I'm obsessive about my music collection, and I constantly prune it and select only the best for my ever-limiting hard drive space. I insist on buying original CDs, and I would buy vinyls if I had a record player. I'm more of a music audiophile than an equipment audiophile, though.

My music taste is pretty wide - I go through phases of indulging in different types of music. Epic rock these days is stuff like Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, and M83 - fusing electronic soundscapes with traditional instrumentation. That's the mode I'm in right now - obsessing over "Run With Flowers" by M83. Before that I was bigger in the beat side of electronic music - RJD2 and the IDM (edIT, Telefon Tel Aviv, new Autechre) and Asian Massive movements (Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney, etc.). Before that I was obsessed with underground or not mainstream hiphop (Crown City Rockers, Cage, Styles of Beyond, Atmosphere, MF Doom, etc etc). Still before that I was into Motown (Marvin Gaye, Temptations), then jazz (MMW, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Build an Ark)... yeah, this keeps on going for a while. I'd better stop. *cough*Carl Orff/Mozart/Radiohead/Blackalicious/Daedelus/okay stop*cough*

Audio system brand - haven't heard that question before. I distrust all audio equipment equally, having substantial training in electronics engineering. My JBL 2:1 creatureII speakers work pretty well (especially for the discounted price), but it induces a nasty resonance in wood structures near bass frequencies, which despite my best efforts to damp with a TVA have not worked out. I suppose I'd lean to JBL or Bose - good experiences with them.

If you want to trade any music over AIM feel free to message me.