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The use of the word "musical" as an adjective

For years I've read reviews and many comments from audiophiles describing this, that, or the other component as "musical."   I never understood the term used that way, especially given the endless variables involved when it comes to how human beings perceive music, whether reproduced or "live."

Can anyone define precisely WTF "musical" means in any meaningful way?  

I didn't think so.   :)

Have at it, folks.
ps
terry9
2,259 posts
 
Perhaps PS wants something specific.

Listen to Barber's Adagio for Strings, twice, without wincing, once.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,814 posts
 
I would apply it as an adjective to speakers and components that don't exhibit distortions that distract me while I'm listening to music. 
ps OP
744 posts
 
@roxy54
"I would apply it as an adjective to speakers and components that don’t exhibit distortions that distract me while I’m listening to music."

I like it. 

Full-disclosure:
I'm reading this book written by Andrew Durkin. It's an "ear opener".for me

Here's a quote from a description on the Penguin Random house website:

"Decomposition is a bracing, revisionary, and provocative inquiry into music-from Beethoven to Duke Ellington, from Conlon Nancarrow to Evelyn Glennie-as a personal and cultural experience: how it is composed, how it is idiosyncratically perceived by critics and reviewers, and why we listen to it the way we do....

...Durkin makes clear that our appreciation of any piece of music is always informed by neuroscientific, psychological, technological, and cultural factors. How we listen to music, he maintains, might have as much power to change it as music might have to change how we listen."

I have no affiliation. As a former musician, lover of many genres of music, and some sort of "audiophile" I find the book fascinating.



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