What is meant exactly by the description 'more musical'?

Music is processed in the amygdala. But if the brain detects something wrong (speed, distortion, tonal balance and the like) then there is a tipping point where the processing is transferred to the cerebral cortex. At this point a lot of the emotional impact is lost.

When you are auditioning cables or comparing two audio products, the cerebral cortex is where the music is being processed.

The goal of the designer is to keep the musical processing in the limibic system (amygdala) so as to have the most impact on the listener. To do this, the equipment has to be designed to honor and obey the human hearing rules.

For example, the ear uses the higher ordered harmonics to sense sound pressure and also assigns tonality to all harmonics in the same way as it does for musical instruments. So if an amplifier has higher ordered content that isn't masked somehow (the signal cannot do it) then the amp will sound harsh and bright (due to the ear's assignment of the harmonics) and the processing will likely not be in the limbic system.

There are a good number of similar examples- its like negotiating a minefield for success. But if the designer understands the hearing perceptual rules then they can be applied to the design (engineering).

atmasphere

Music is processed in the amygdala. But if the brain detects something wrong ... then there is a tipping point where the processing is transferred to the cerebral cortex.

That’s not consistent with the science I’ve seen.

Work done by Daniel J. Levitin shows, "Musical activity involves nearly every region of the brain ... and nearly every neural subsystem."

Work done by Daniel J. Levitin shows, "Musical activity involves nearly every region of the brain ... and nearly every neural subsystem."

for sure Levitin is right but,

Musical activity involve all the body not only the neural system...

And consciousness can react to something that appear disruptive or disturbing as non musical and also non "musical" ... For example a British amateur of Puccini encountering what may appear to him , uneducated, "savage" didgeridoo music from Australia...Judgement is related to emotion and the amygdala too and to all the body history...

But the goal of human journey is the emergence of a larger consciousness from the already existing one through investigation and the crossing of our unconscious trends ...

In a more trivial way we can improve our musical and sound experience with a better knowledge , learning how to put our taste aside for a moment ...

In a more trivial way creating a good system /room playback ask for way more than "tastes" ...Psychoacoustics concepts and music concepts can do the job especially if the designer use them too and incorporate them in his design ...

As atmasphere in his design or Dr. Choueiri in his own had done ... And as Dr. Rudolf Gorike did it with his AKG headphone K240 and K340 which i am honored to own not because of my mere taste ( i did not like them right out of the box) but because the learning experience of this acoustically designed headphone with a grid of passively tuned resonators improve all my "musical" and musical experiences now ... ...To appreciate something we must learn how and why to use it , the amygdala reaction is not enough but nobody can do without his amigdala for sure ...

@atmasphere: ​​​@cleeds is rigth and you are wrong. You need to read complete the link I posted and some of its references at the end of that link. You need to learn and yes I'm still learning and try to do it every single day.

@mahgister , enough with you . Btw,  the Brain neural structures are whom handle all our body that makes that any kind of stimulus, musical or not, involve the whole or part body.  The neural structure is in  command. You are wrong too.

R.

Saying without explaining anything that i am wrong is a joke not an opinion...

In the definition of the adjective "musical", taste there is for sure; but at the end it is not about taste ...It is more than taste, it is learned knowledge shared with all other humans as do any acoustician and musician or designer going toward a better understanding... Taste dont progress, they only can be educated by knowledge and relativized ... The perception of musicality and of what is more "musical" or less must be learned out of our uneducated tastes and sometimes in spite of them ...

A perception is not a taste ...Even if this perception can be judged positively or negatively ... "Musical" is a perception BEFORE being a taste and it stay a perception AFTER being adopted as a taste or not ...

But there is between taste and amygadala ( emotions) and perception and concept a dynamical relation called knowledge ...When we are at peace with our perceptions because our emotions dont oppose them , we are in a "musical" state of relaxation ...This state is a state before and after we taste it as good ...

Relaxation can be objectively controlled and induced in the body by meditation, in the same way a "musical" experience can be created and controlled and induced from a system/room/body in the mind , we can learn how to do it by setting the right conditions and parameters ... All this dont contradict the common place fact that this relaxed state is our taste too because we like it ...

There is no contradiction between heart and mind in any relaxed or contemplative state... This is why music as silence are musical states of peace ...We can understand and create peace as taught Christ the greatest acoustician ... 😊

Enough my point is made...

 Merry christmas to you and to your family ...

🎄

😊

@mahgister , enough with you . Btw, the Brain neural structures are whom handle all our body that makes that any kind of stimulus, musical or not, involve the whole or part body. The neural structure is in command. You are wrong too.