Let’s not forget that music reproduced by Hifi is a step backwards fidelity wise, compared to how music had been enjoyed since its inception. Music was always played live and in person, often by family members to entertain each other.
Being an audiophile is nothing more than seeking the experience of being in the same acoustic space as when the music was performed, to be able to experience as closely as possible the musical intent of the musicians and composers.
Audiophiles have kept alive the lost activity of sitting just really listening to music. I would venture to say a very small percentage of the population sits down to do nothing other than listen, just as one would during a performance.
Today music is a background, a soundtrack for life while we’re doing other things.
Audiophiles are deep music listeners, lovers of the emotion behind the music. We appreciate the beauty and tone of the compositions. We seek to be moved, excited, and most of all to experience the drama of the performance.
I sometimes joke that I have the best jazz club in the city. I get to spend time with many of the long gone legends of music. But they are resurrected nightly through sonic holograms that allow me to share the same sonic space of the original event.
To travel back in time to Rudy Van Gelder’s living room, to a Bill Evans club date, to a performance whose master tape was long ago damaged or lost in a fire.
The deep focus on the music is almost meditative. The subtle cues of live music recreated allow the emotion to flow. There’s an intimacy between performer and audience that occurs when everything is dialed in, and it’s thrilling.
And while we all have our test tracks and reference cuts used to evaluate the system, once that critical phase is completed, out comes the music that is played for pleasure. As my system gets better and better, it’s not fewer recordings that sound good, but more recordings, average and even ancient.
