What sonic qualities connects to you deeply and emotionally?

Songs with minor chord progressions.

The sonic highs of a violin, bells, or a beautiful female voice

Harmonic textures really get me smiling 

Any well recorded music..  Example , Bob Marley's Exodus album... This song

"One Love, One heart, Let's get together and feel all right"

Then the pulsating basslines on that album..

Album of the century... 

Piano.  Must be expertly played,

Cello.

Thanx, maps.....;)

We know what most don't, and never likely to....

Try surround, really.

In the 'big room'...

What if I do run away to Mars? 😏

Lyrics like those in "No Time To Cry" by Iris Dement.

Just about my favorite musical technique is the bassist playing inversions (playing not the root note of the chord being played by the piano, but one of the other notes in the scale of the key the song is in, typically the 3rd). For a sterling example of that listen to the bass in "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" (the original, sung by Jimmy Ruffin). Playing bass on that fantastic song is my favorite: James Jamerson.

Another is modulation (key changes), one reason I like Baroque-era Classical music as much as I do. Bach’s chord sequences/progressions are insanely great!

And of course vocal harmonies. 2-part is nice, 3-part even better. And 4-part? VERY hard to pull off, but Marty Stuart and the three guys in his great band The Fabulous Superlatives do it.

+1 for @asvjerry comment about Walsh drivers. High end or not they are still the thing that takes my listening experience to the highest level by bringing the music to life. 

Have tix for this and them the 23rd eve....

Open mind, open ears....

Puscifer

A sucker for a well-miked and played piano....

Ambiance that almost allows one to walk through it....precisely why I love my Walsh drivers, crude though you may think or consider them to be.

Nailing the balance between mains and subs.

'Tuning the space' for flat...(works for me, yours' will vary...maybe...*G*)

...and Wayyy too many lyrics or snippets of that invoke many moods and responses to categorize...

Tired of lying" in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

devastating."

hifiguy42-

Thankfully, some things don't change-even among the younger crowd.

(137) Pink Floyd- Time REACTION!! (EMOTIONAL) - YouTube

Certain harmonic structures. Celtic music almost always gets to me.

Distortion from a guitar. Or anything Rory plays. When you listen to him play he is literally releasing his soul from every string fret and amp. It’s magic when you reach zen listening to him.

I only care about the music, they could say about anything if the music is good!

Music that resonates to my tastes. Different kind of instruments or vocals are of no specific importance in my favoring one kind of music over another. As long as the music moves me, I don't think about why I like it. It's more of a connection of the soul, not a study of why.

ambient envelopment, no matter the music.

Bass that shakes the windows.

Rhythm & Pace and midrange bloom.

The passion imbued by the artist I think goes a long way in bringing tears to my eyes. By way of example, Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland. Pretty tune, pretty voice, Ho Hum! Now that same song sung by Eva Cassidy. The power and the passion  she brings to this song is incomparable and moves me greatly as no others do.  And so it goes. :-) 

Venue acoustics -

• those little background echoes and reverberations
• they add the reality otherwise missing
• they provide the "height" of the venue

Regards - Steve

It can be almost anything that's done well at the right moment.  Vocals, strings, percussion, a haunting flute. 

Good vocals can be very moving, and there's something about a nice guitar solo that gets my attention.  I especially love the sound of a well recorded resonator guitar being played well.   

the warm embrace of early/mid-70s synth from Stevie Wonder's run of four magical albums: Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale and Songs In the Key of Life. 

Joni's voice, Zappa guitar solos, the part in "If I Fell" where Paul's voice cracks, the entirey of Zep's "Ten Years Gone", etc. If I had to pick one lyric, the line from Floyd's "Time" gets me every, erm, time: 

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

devastating.
 

Sometimes lyrics; the line from Wichita Lineman for example:

"And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time"

This never fails to bring a tear; if lyrics were boxers, this lyric drops me to the canvas every time. The melody of the track is also instrumental in evoking this emotion.

Voices are also important to me. Some vocalists could sing the blurb from the back of a cereal box and evoke an emotional response; the late Mimi Parker of the band Low was one such artist

Vibes, saxophone and acoustic guitar.