How architecture helped music evolve - Ted talk

Happy new year everyone!

I have recently watch the TED talk entitled How architecture helped music evolve. (Click on the underlined text above to watch it.)

Beside providing a nice and interesting view on the development and characteristics of various music styles, David Byrne also conveys in his talk two important points that while very relevant are often neglected by audiophiles:

1) Different types of music require different reverberation times. That is, the ideal amount of reflections (or absorption) in a room depends on the type of music played in the respective room.

David Byrne provides a very simple and intuitive illustration of this fact by showing pictures of venues in which different types of music are played. I find this most effective. Almost anyone (i.e. not just audio aficionados) will have a decent idea on how those room sound by simply looking at those pictures, plus, very many people will naturally associate the respective room with a specific type of music/sound.

Clearly this is the reason why no speaker-room combo can reproduce realistically any type of music.

2) Recorded music and live music can be two very different things.

Many audiophile argue that their reference is live music. However, as explained by David Byrne, live music may not always be the best reference. It all depends on the type of music one listens.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject.

Paul