Music lover or audiophile?

I am a music lover first.  I have 7,000 78s and listen to acoustical recordings as well.  My preference for sound extends back to hot sounding 78s from 1925 on.  The performance is everything.  I've sold 18,000 records in the past 35 years because I made a rule not to keep anything that I wouldn't enjoy listening to 3 times a year.

Yes, I have a high end system but rarely change equipment, mostly adding tweaks to the room and power system.   

Most of my music buddies are snobs to some extent.  They only want to listen to stereo recordings, some just to modern stereo recordings.  They are shocked at how good 50's mono LPs can sound but don't want to listen to it at home (exceptions-Frank/Oregonpapa & Robert, our good friend).  Anoth friend only listens to LPs and another two only listen to CDs.  I enjoy all solid formats except cassettes (haven't had the desire to stream or download music with 42,000 LPs/78s/CDs/tape in my collection).  

I listen to live music, perform and record with several choirs, a chamber group and a full orchestra.  If I don't like the music, it doesn't matter to me how good it sounds.  

@briangingrich

There’s nothing wrong with Floyd or Tchaikovsky - I’m just surpised there’s not a wider range of musical taste among in the high-end community.

My own observations are completely at odds with yours.

I’ve found over the years that audiophiles tend to have a wider range of musical interests than the average person. Personally my collection contains classical of many sorts, various types of jazz, fusion, rock, prog rock, folk, disco, funk, electronica, pop...you name it. I’ve found that most audiophiles I know have a similarly expanded interest in music, often because their interest in sound, and their systems, was a good vehicle for exploring a wider range of music.

rvpiano

I have to admit that I still listen for the sound at least as much as the music.

While I do understand the gist of what you are getting at there, I think it bares reflection that listening to music is to also love the sound. The musicians pick their instrumentation for how the instruments sound, because it is as much an influence on the music as the choice of notes.

It can be quite hard to separate the enjoyment of "music" from "sound."

I can listen to music as pleasant "background" from any number of "crappy" systems.

But to be compelled to sit down and directly concentrate on the music, I need a reason to do so.


Yesterday I heard a bunch of my LPs played back on a big, full-range pair of $20,000 speakers. I heard the music, but wasn’t compelled by the presentation to enjoy it nearly as much as I know I can. Throwing the same tracks on my system, dialed to my own preferences, and even though I happened to be using at the moment an old, tiny Spendor S3/5 monitors, I was just swooning to the music and sound in a way that just escaped that other system. Once the timbre and presentation of the music sounded "right" to my brain, I could just relax and luxuriate not only in the melody and beat, but in the sensuousness of the sound, which increased my involvement in the music.

Music is like heroin. It doesn’t do anything unless it’s the real thing. A junkie knows right away when somebody’s trying to scam him. Well, maybe he doesn’t. How the hell would I know?

An ordinary man has no means of deliverance,