It’s been a long day and you’ve just arrived home. You want to silence all your thoughts with some good music, so you switch on your stereo, computer, MP3 player, or whatever technology you use to play your tunes, select your favourite track, sit back, close your eyes and unwind. Soon, the day’s office drama is mentally far, far away.

At home I still use my grandfather’s Pioneer system

But what if playing music is your bread and butter? Do you still play music to relax from a hard night’s clubbing?

Here is what local DJs Owen Baldacchino and Simon Sauter play at home.

Watt’s playing?

Owen Baldacchino

Current favourite track: Vision of Love by Bicep.

All-time favourite track: Feelin’ Love (Soulsearcher Club Mix) by Soulsearcher.

What type of music do you usually play when DJing?

I play a mix of soulful, deep and jackin’ house music.

And in your off hours?

I keep an open-minded attitude to music, so I pretty much listen to most genres – however, if I had to pick favourites, I would definitely include jazz, disco, funk and rock music.

What home technology do you use to play your music at home?

I use a 500-watt amplifier with five speakers – it accepts input from my computer, PlayStation and phone and also doubles up as a home theatre system.

What’s your advice for playing music at home?

If you love music, make it a point to have sufficient music sources in your available space, whether it’s an MP3 player, tablet, personal computer or hi-fi separates.

I recommend investing in one quality amplification and speaker system as your main source of music.

Also, where possible, use vinyl or compact disc as these capture the entire frequency spectrum of the original recording. As for the digital fans, I suggest storing music collections in .aiff file format or at least as 320kbps mp3 audio files.

Notes on music

Simon Sauter

Current favourite track: Hard to Find (Maceo Plex Funk Drop) by Bazar.

All-time favourite track: Star Guitar by Chemical Brothers.

What type of music do you usually play when DJing?

I almost always play electronic music, namely house music. More importantly, I make it a point to play good music.

That said, there are many genres and sub-genres of dance music and I prefer not to limit myself to just one.

In fact, I usually like to slightly vary the style of my set, especially if I’m playing over a long period of time. I think this adds variety, keeps the crowd interested and helps you build your set better.

In general, I’m instantly attracted to anything that has good rhythm, a solid beat, some melody and a funky bass line.

The event at which I’m playing and the time of my allocated slot could also influence the style of my set.

I believe in having the right warm-up for any event and therefore my selection of tracks for an earlier slot will be very different to what I play at prime time.

And in your off hours?

Until a couple of years ago I used to listen to everything – from classic rock and indie to hip-hop and all forms of electronic music. I also used to enjoy discovering a lot of new, less popular artists.

However, as I started getting more opportunities to DJ and took on more gigs, plus a weekly residency with METRO, I now have less time to listen to everything. Playing on such a regular basis requires that you buy a lot of new material, which takes hours of filtering.

Also, with DJing you have to know your tracks inside out, which means listening to them repetitively – again, this is very time-consuming.

It’s a win-win situation though, since you’re listening to the new tunes you’ve just acquired and, at the same time, tuning your ears to their structure and musical content.

What home technology do you use to play your music at home?

At home I still use my grandfather’s Pioneer system – it includes a stereo amplifier and a set of speakers arranged around my room. My computer, CD player and turntables are all hooked up to the amp. I also have an iPod dock which I use for portability.

What’s your advice for playing music at home?

There are some really cool home systems that allow you to transfer music around the house to be listened to in different rooms from the same source.

One example is Apple’s AirPort Express, which supports the AirPlay service and allows you to wirelessly stream iTunes content around your home.