Music vs. Components

hi tholt:

listening to music may or may not alter one's health, as is true of other activities.

the reason for saying this is that the poster of the thread posed the issue of music vs components and i wanted to add the affect that music may or may not have on the listener.

you are correct in that reading and other activities affect one's health.

some of the variables that will determine whether music affects your health include physiological states, such as metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate, mood and others. cleasrly, e.g., if one has a very low resting heart rate, listening to music may have no affect.

one is not always able to measure bolld pressure, or notice a change in mood after listening to music. there probably are other indicators of mental and physical states that one is unaware of that can not be determined after listening to music.

for example, after listening to music one may not "feel" any different, although there may be internal factors which are changing, biut are uanabled to measured by you, the listener.

this is the best i can do unless you ask me other specifc questions.

my original purpose was to suggest that some people do not listen to music because they like the music or want to "hear" the components, but rather to change the way they feel, so the musical content may be unimportant. as an esample, the sound pressure may be more important than the type of music.

@ Mrtennis - I believe I understand the point(s) you're trying to make. However, my interpretation of the OP's question is that it was narrower than your broadened scope that includes physiological/mental changes based on the act of listening.

My questions to to you were posed in this context. Mainly, that the outcomes you describe are influenced by the act of listening, not that music would change, or not change, how one felt during and afterward. I think it can be reasonably assumed that people listen to music as a form of pleasure, be it for relaxation, inspiration or whatever.

I truly believe that the majority of audiophiles listen to components. People that are only in it for the music don't need hi end equipment to enjoy the listening experience.

I'm not saying that audiophiles don't enjoy listening to music, but that's just one layer in the equation.

When I ordered some NOS tubes because they might run out, I knew I was over the deep end. After over 20 years of listening to capacitors, resistors, and everything except music; I quit. My rig is as good as it is going to get. Since I quit, the music sounds so much better. I had no idea how beautiful music is.

I've noticed just in the last week that when I'm intentionally listening to my new CD player I'm less impressed than when I just have the music on and am doing something else while listening. I find myself having the realization that I'm hearing things in the music that were not there before. I think part of the problem with a direct A/B comparision is that the new CD player has a higher volume level that makes enough difference to be distracting.

Audio components are a hobby and music is a hobby, but I think that audiophiles are component collectors and people that spend their time playing and writing music are all about the music. Some people, I'm sure, do both.