How does sound influence your appreciation?


Since I’ve gotten my system to a very good place, I find myself liking the performance of almost everything I hear. Now in classical music, there are sometimes dozens of performances of the same piece, each performance having its own unique take. I now seem to like every interpretation I hear regardless of differences, due to the great sound. I’m losing my discernment because the sound is so much a part of the equation. This is more true of orchestral music than other types
How about you?

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@immatthewj

The body of the text explains it all.

 

How does sound influence your appreciation?

 

I now seem to like every interpretation I hear regardless of differences, due to the great sound. I’m losing my discernment because the sound is so much a part of the equation. This is more true of orchestral music than other types.

 

How about you?

Weren’t people answering your question(s)?

How can any audiophile not discern, appreciate sound quality of their systems. I doubt its possible for us to listen without at least some part of our minds appreciating the sound quality vs just listening in music appreciation mode.

 

I'd suggest the pure music appreciation mode could be easier to enter with lesser systems as critical listening may bring about dissatisfaction, to avoid that unhappy state of mind we force ourselves into music appreciation mode. Devoid this  mind trick we'd quit the entire pursuit.

 

As my system has improved I'm no longer critical of my sound, rather I'm admiring it. And yes, I do often enter pure musical enjoyment mode, but then along comes something I've not heard previously, ever increasing levels of resolution means the presentation has changed in some way, this stimulus results in my mind going into critical listening mode, but rather than being dissatisfied with sound quality, I'm admiring sound quality.

 

@rvpiano admits to this very thing, he's admiring the sound rather than the performance. Thing is why should this be bothersome, isn't this in fact the holy grail for what we audiophiles seek.

Good sounding system is appreciated without musicality it won’t connect to the listener. 

It could be that a bad sounding system leaves only the musicianship to be appreciated, so it differentiates more than a good sounding system, which also reveals the pleasing sound qualities of the instruments, voices, and the concert hall. Bad sounding systems leave bad musicians no place to hide.

i concur with your post.

I never needed a good system to appreciate the music i love.

But a bad system/room is a problem to solve if we want to explore complex choral music or big orchestra as in symphonies. Anyway a piano sound horrible in bad system/room. An organ is nowhere near what it is: a beast...

And human voices ask for a good system/room for the voices timbre and nuances...

I dreamed about a high-fi system of great qualities all my life. I succeeded only few years ago without big money investment ( thanks to basic knowledge especially acoustics ).

 

It could be that a bad sounding system leaves only the musicianship to be appreciated, so it differentiates more than a good sounding system, which also reveals the pleasing sound qualities of the instruments, voices, and the concert hall. Bad sounding systems leave bad musicians no place to hide.