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What is Musicality?

Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai
goofyfoot's avatar
goofyfoot
1,380 posts
 
In terms of audio components, it seems as though many but not all audiophiles are attempting to create a live atmosphere and an emotional experience that is dependent on the quality of certain chosen electronics. So that in itself negates the argument of recreating a sonic moment in time, when and where the musician/s played his or her instrument. I can take a high quality photograph which will communicate a feeling or an understanding but it will never be more than a photograph. Hi end audio is a great thing and achieving higher standards will never end but have you ever tried having a conversation with your amplifier?
Musicality is also a language but I still believe that it's better where there is flesh and blood. That's my standard.
soundsbeyondspecs
132 posts
 
Musicality naturally evolves from familiar musical scales and familiar sounding instruments. Instruments in turn mimick our voices and other interesting natural sounds, emotionally.

My "objective" music system allows me to access and to reach much further into the "subjective emotional performance". The moving emotional drive within the performance is the holy grail of musicality.

Delivering music at home is a triad to me. It starts with the musician's emotional performances, then, the engineers' recording quality, and then onto a well-matched audio system.

Musicality is something like driving a great sports car and feeling one with the roads, or, feeling one with the music, verses admiring the car parked away at a distance. The true holy grail is the changing emotional connections to the road only felt best from behind the wheel. Great musicality is a emotional connection to music that draws me to modern short tunes, or a longer journey like a great album or a jaw-dropping fabulous symphony.
lacee
811 posts
 
What is the meaning of life?

There's 7 billion answers to that question, and just as many interpretations of what musicality is.

Really, it's all about personal preference.

And it will change as you age and gain experience.

Musicality is not an absolute, it's in flux, intangible, and mostly elusive.

It's the butterfly we can't catch, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

It's in a system cobbled together costing a few dollars to one's costing the GNP of a third world country.

It comes in all sizes shapes and colours,and just when you think you have it , you hear something that has even more of it than what you have.

Musicality will haunt you for all the days of your life in this hobby.

It's all around you,yet you can't capture it and put it in a jar, or a tube, speaker etc.

You can get a taste of it now an then, but you'll never drink the cup dry.
hifisoundguy
630 posts
 
It's when a product brings a "HUGE AMOUNT OF EMOTION" into your system....Crimson R.M. Music Link Cables !!..
hfisher3380
167 posts
 
"Musical" literally means "of the music". In general it tends to be used to describe the subjective artistic merit of a musical performance. In my opinion the word has been "bastardized" to hifi. Components and stereos are not "musical" - they are sophisticated electronics designed to reproduce the musicality of the original recorded event - or lack thereof. They should be designed with the explicit goal of reproducing the signal as accurately as possible - not to be "musical", "artistic" or otherwise call attention to themselves.

My own opinion is that this term is one of the most overused words in the hifi press. It means little more to me than the reviewer saying "I like the way it sounds". It is not edifying or descriptive as it has no frame of reference.
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