Hi Dh,
I am following your thinking very carefully and I believe that you find yourself exactly where many of us who listen critically find ourselves...what I mean is that you can locate more or less what you are looking for in reproduced sound...I can say in all honesty that it has taken me several years to identify what it is that I find in reproduced sound that stimulates the suggestion that I am experiencing the essence of the musical experience...
Music is ineffable...I have often pondered on the idea that of all the art forms that we take seriously, and place on a high level culturally, music is the most mysterious and incorporeal...unless we "play" it, whether we do it ourselves with a musical instrument, or through the "reproduction" of an already existing musical event, it has no real "existence." Of course "film" shares with music a similar lack of existence until it is "played." But film contains images that were once "real," even if they are transformed by film into something else, something more like texture and patterns perhaps. Although silent film could convincingly create a narrative through the juxtaposition of a sequence of events, it did depend on written text to "key" the viewer into story and music played live to give the film its pace and emotional cues.
Music seems to be a fundamental part of our expression of what it is to experience life as a human being; how we speak and laugh and cry has a powerful musical presence "built into it." It must be this ground, the emotional expression that is fundamental to speech and human communication that is the basis for musical form. Of course the animals make music as well. I recently saw a show of a certain species of primates that actually do sing during their courtship ceremonies, and to warn other primates to stay away from their territory. Birds sing to each other during courtship as well, and the best male "singers" of certain species of birds will get the girl (no kidding!). The wind sings through the trees, the ocean sings the sound of rippling surging water, the thunder roles like a giant drum across the skies; all of life makes music. It is not merely a coincidence that much of music replicates the heart beat, which we hear on the unconscious level every moment of our lives...perhaps even in our sleep!
In any former time I would have to have been rich to summon musicians to my house to play the masterpieces that I can hear now by carefully assembling an audio system that reproduces music with a good degree of realism. Of course in the great ages of music past, almost everyone played a musical instrument and could get together and play music for their own entertainment.
I have often pondered on the fact that if we allowed ourselves to be trained in musical accomplishment, like our conterparts in former times, our preoccupation in assembling an audio system might not have the passion that it does for us.
In any case, I am geniunly astounded that I can hear/play music from all over the earth and from the far reaches of musical history up to the present, including music made by my own contemporaries, just by purchasing a CD and playing it on my audio system. This is astounding to me and I do not take it for granted...ever.
Like many audiophiles/music lovers, I also have a facination with technology. However I think I am more interested in tracking down and "aquiring" information than I am in purchasing the latest and the greatest and making expenditures that I really can not afford (that is; that would make it impossible to do other things that I also find important to pursue). Can I imagine someone who might spend his/her life savings on audio eguipment because they love music to much it becomes their very "food" for life? Yes of course I can and I would respect them for it.
My interest is to spend the least money but to approach the "state fo the art" in musical reproduction. To that end I have no prejudice when it comes to amplifier or speaker design.
If a so-called digital amp can get me where I want to go, musically, I will not hesitate to purchase one. Admittedly, those of us who have had experience with well designed tube amps have developed a certain "romantic" connection with them, and this may well have something to do with the tubes themselves, which exhibit a certian "life" that we can connect with...they glow as if alive and they eventually die, like we do, and they have the look of an older technology that seems accessable and understandable. The fact that tube rolling can help us to "shape" our experience of how the music sounds is another plus.
Which leads me to believe that the technology of the future should allow us to shape the sound we would like to hear with infinite control and finesse...why should we accept the sound of any one amplifier designer...aren't they merely giving us what they "think" is the musically "correct" ideal, based on their personal experience? We so-called audiophiles know what we like and what we want. The amp of the future should give us the control we crave to shape our musical experience to fit our mood and temperment.
My rambling is entirely your fault Dh, your own thoughts have inspired me to wax a bit philosophical. Sorry!
Best-Richard
