The quest for sound vs. music

I know exactly what ignited my initial lust for a better hi-fi: I heard an ESL for the first time (though it was only a tweeter: the three RTR’s in the ESS Transtatic). The ESL transparency revealed so much more of the music that was on my LP’s, making the music more emotionally and intellectually engaging, moving---satisfying. Once you’ve experienced that, you want to do everything you can to remove as much of the veil between you and the music as possible. THAT has always been my goal, though great sound is thrilling in it’s own right, especially soundstage and deep bass!

Sometimes it feels more like a curse: unlike civilians, an audiophile can’t separate the sound of music from the music itself. But while all music is sound, not all sound is music. The writing of Art Dudley introduced me to the idea of listening for the musical character of a hi-fi component, not merely it’s sonic one: how a component can effect the music itself, apart from "the sound" of the music.

J. Gordon Holt wrote about hi-fi as sort of the sonic equivalent of photography. Yes, musical reproduction and photography share many similarities; but photography is static, while music has it’s temporal component. Gordon’s number one hi-fi priority was getting the instrumental and vocal timbres accurate: the lack of coloration (as in getting color temperature correct in photography). His second was that of transparency (resolution in photography). Art’s priority was getting the temporal component of music---it’s timing---correct. To him, everything else was secondary.

Art faulted Gordon for insisting that his priorities were the "correct" ones, the one’s that define hi-fi. Art argued that though important, lack of coloration is but one aspect of high quality music reproduction, and not necessarily the most important. And that a components abilities at reproducing musical timing also greatly effected one's perception of the music being reproduced, and in a more profound way that the "mere" matters of lack of coloration and transparency. I had acquired my hi-fi wisdom from the writings of Gordon, but Art changed my way of thinking. And my appreciation of reproduced music is the better for it.