I think that to make the generalization that musicians don’t care about the quality of their playback equipment and of reproduced sound in general is nonsense. As to the suggestion that they are “pretty much, well, deaf”, the absurdity of that comment should be obvious and is unbecoming of someone who takes pride in thinking outside the box. Yes, it is absolutely true that many musicians aren’t interested, particularly, in the quality of their stereo systems. There are several reasons for this. One very important reason has already been mentioned and before anyone thinks I just made a contradictory statement consider this:
The number of musicians, as a percentage of the general population, who appreciate and own quality stereo equipment is infinitely higher than among non-musicians. As a possible example consider just this thread and the percentage of posters who are also musicians or who have spouses who are musicians. In my professional musician circles there are many who own very nice stereo systems by audiophile standards; a much higher percentage than among my non-musician acquaintances. I think that the misconception comes about because there is an expectation that all or most musicians should be interested in quality personal playback equipment. There are several reasons why this is not always the case:
bdp24 and stringreen made excellent points which go to what I think is the most important, and ultimately most useful takeaway for audiophiles. The degree to which the sound of even our most sophisticated stereo systems deviates from the purity of sound in live unprocessed (or minimally so) music is typically and seriously underestimated by most audiophiles. Musicians who are around the unadulterated purity of live music on a daily basis and who, as charles1dad points out, have that sound engrained in their aural point of view are much more prone to be dismissive of ANY equipment since the flaws are heard so readily. To nycjlee’s point, the kind of absolute tonal honesty that many musicians look for in their sound systems may not be what some audiophiles look for. It should also be remembered that the playback equipment used by some musicians which we audiophiles deem “crappy” is still generally better than what those in the general non-audiophile population use and is good enough for the already mentioned and very real ability of musicians to “fill in the blanks” to kick in. In the case of music which is, almost by definiton, amplified and processed it should not be a surprise at all that musicians might have wildly and ”bewildering” different reactions to the same recording; a recording which has been processed and subjected to a “mix” which is the product of the engineer’s aural point of view and not necessarily that of the musicians’. This is not a criticism of that type of music or that type of recording art at all, but what comes into play in these situations is not necessarily that musicians are “deaf to reproduced sound” only that this musical setting opens the door to much more variability.
There is another reason why some musicians aren’t particularly interested in high quality equipment and is one that is seldom mentioned. As we all know quality equipment requires a certain amount of time and dedication on the part of the user. Even if an audiophile is not interested in time consuming tweaking of a stereo system a certain amount of time and effort is required in setup and maintenance. Moreover, I think that as concerns this topic it would be useful for we audiophiles to recognize that in addition to the love of music and good sound one of the things that steers us toward this hobby is probably also a personality trait that strives for order and perfection in certain areas. I should probably speak only for myself on that last point, but what I’m getting at is that for many musicians the acquiring, tweaking and maintenance of their instruments can be an all consuming thing; not to mention the countless hours spent working on the craft of music itself. There’s only so many hours in the day and even putting aside the issue of time musicians are able to scratch the “perfection itch” just by doing what they do in their craft.
Happy New Year to all!
