How can you have your pudding if you don't eat your meat?
When I listen to my system.......
As I have stated many times, I listen to the musicianship and the composition. As I listen to SRV, just as an example, there are three musicians working together to create a "performance". How is it that anyone can put tone, sound staging, or anything else with the "sound" before the performance. There is much information on our recordings, and generally, many of these recordings are just so so with the fidelity. In fact, why do many listeners only listen to top notch recordings of higher fidelity, of the "sound", rather than appreciate those qualities I look and listen for. Is it because I was a singer / vocalist in my youth? Is it because I was around musicians who shared the joy of "music"? Is it because at a very early age, I was introduced to big band music and eclectic performances by so many, via my dad (he would have been 100 today; happy birthday dad). Yes, I consider myself an audiophile, because I spend money on gear and am careful with my dedicated room....my system allows me to hear more of the performance. But, it is the "music", the "performance", that matters most to me. I suppose I am feeling a bit nostalgic today, because of my pops. I am bringing this up again, because I do not understand the mentality of folks who listen differently than I. I know this subject might be ad nauseum to many, but some of the folks I used to design systems for, became less interested in the music, and more about the sound, placing the music and performance secondary, or not at all. I am just venting. If you would like to add to this post, I welcome all thoughts. No judgement from me. I wish everyone well. Enjoy! MrD.
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Its funny when I think of equipment churner homes I've been to and see literally hundreds of thousands dollars worth of equipment stacked up in boxes or sitting unused on component racks. And then I listen to their 'reference' system which has a mixture of some very nice equipment alongside lesser components, and this carelessly set up in just an ordinary room. Sound quality serious lacking for me, yet they hear it as state of the art. In my mind I'm thinking about how I could make their system sing with a more sympathetic partnering of equipment they already have in house, alongside some work on room and AC quality. Don't have the heart or lack of grace to criticize when they appear this content so I keep my mouth shut.
Used to attend audio shows quite frequently, often amazed at what passed as good sound, same with audio dealers. And the music played same issue.
Over time I've come to accept that people are into this audiophile thing for all sorts of reasons. Same thing with perceptions of good sound. While I may be curious about what makes people tick, simply not in my purview to judge them, I do my thing, they do theirs. |
YMMV but I’ve experienced a big (!) difference in the foot tapping factor when changing integrateds. My current Hegel H390 really moves the music along. Its predecessors by contrast were downright sluggish by comparison. And it is not dependent upon the music being played. BTW, I didn’t know what I’d been missing in this regard until I experienced it for myself. |
I'm going to use a couple of car analogies. If I am taking a scenic drive it is much more enjoyable in a clean Lexus than a rusty Yugo with dirty windows. It's the same scenery but the experience of driving a nice car is, for me, much better. I can enjoy the drive in both cars but give me the Lexus any day. Decades ago, in the age of AM car radios, a guy I met at a conference turned out to be an audiophile and we were discussing our hobby. I mentioned the "goose bump test" for audio systems and he said, "Yeah, but I can get goose bumps listening to the car radio." I thought for a second and agreed. Bottom line, I like listening to music whether it's high fidelity or not. The only exception is a few rock concerts I've attended where the sound was painfully loud and distorted. But give me good music with a poor recording and I can get plenty of goose bumps. |
@immatthewj
"My way is the right way so therefore yours is wrong."
I'm not sure how you get to that interpretation of the OP's statement. He said he didn't understand why some people listen differently than he does. He never said anything about whether he or those people were right or wrong. |
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