I think I'll join the fray again here, in spite of what I had said before:
1. Music can move you, no matter what medium is used toconvey it.
2. Once you have become an audiophile, sound matters, sometimes more than music. One might even go so far as to say, that music becomes just a means to an end, the end being to prove to yourself and others, that your rig sounds "right". That is one extreme of the complex phenomenon of audiophilia.
3. The other extreme is the music lover, who will indeed be moved by music, no matter what the sound, who -also an audiophile - will build up a system, which he feels will produce a sound in his own home, which will best transport the essence of music, the concept of which has most probably be formed by his listening to live performances.
Where in the one extreme music serves the sound, being subservient to sound, example being someone showing off his rig with the latest audiophile recording of a musically irrelevant ditty, like from the infamous "Jazz in the Pawnshop", proudly pointing out every belch from the audience there.
The other extreme now would be an audiophile for example, who settles down to listen to a newly bought piece of music, which he had first heard on his car radio and which had moved him. He wants to hear it now in all its glory, hoping that the sound would serve the music, bringing out all its "soul" . If the rig sounds right to him, he'll get it in spades, the sound being a faithful servant to the music.
But what happens if the rig does not sound right? Most probably all "soul" is spoilt and gone.
This is one of the crucial moment in the life of an audiophile who is also a music lover. He will find, if he is introspective, that his loyalties are deeply split. He loves music no doubt, but he is also deeply attached to his rig. The rig should be servant and do its job as deliverer of sound and you will be able to forget about it, as long as it functions well. But if it does not it can spoil the music and the servant may turn into a tyrant. There is true love on the one hand (music) and on the other a "narcissistic fixation" (rig).
MrTennis is quite right in pointing out to us that "soul" resides in the music and not in the "sound". But in this strange neurosis called Audiophilia, sound, especially if it does not sound "right", will drive out all the soul from the music. The "dark angel" winning over the good angel "soul ".
This is just the point, where sound suddenly becomes immensely important and could spoil all the fun. If we were wise men, we would shut down the rig, take the cd to our car, drive to a nice spot we know, plunk it in to the player and get all the "soul" we want. Why? Because we don't care much about the car-radio, do not give it importance, so that sound can serve the music again undisturbed by our narcissistic predilections. Well most of us ain't wise, I certainly am not, rather we would forget about the cd and will worry about what is wrong with the sound and what we could do about it........
What now is the point of all my blabberings here:
Not all audiophiles love music. There are lots of variations between the two extremes . And of course not all music lovers are audiophiles. To them the sound matters not, the music does. Here MrTennis' argument holds good. On the other hand of course, the same argument will irk and insult our sensibilities as audiophiles. We know that he is right on the one hand, but with no pity and feeling for us at all, his reasoning cuts like a razor across those disturbances and upheavals in our inner being, when the rig just won't sound right and it spoils all our expectations for a wonderful shot of "soul". Only we know, in the dark night of our insulted ears how terribly important "sound" can be. Yes it does not carry "soul", but it can ruin it. It can ruin it because of our split loyalties between the music and the soft-and hardware. So to us, with our strange affliction,
"soul" is only forthcoming, at least if we sit in our listening chair at home, if the "dark angel" of the machine and the "good angel" of the music work together to form "soul in the home". Oh what bliss, if that works, because then we can forget that the life of an audiophile can be compared to a man who has two exacting ladyfriends at the same time, who both clamour always for his full attention. Strenuous at best, hell at its worst, but bliss, when all are combined in "soulful union". (((-; Detlof
