When did you most enjoy the music?

There were moments in my youth that really stand out in my mind as well. Tubed counsel radio when I was 12, Early 60’s hearing the Beatles I Want to hold Your Hand for the first time (literally the first broadcast of the group in the US) on a plastic clock radio. Sears “portable stereo” with speakers removed and placed head in between. College several systems... drugs were involved. The ESS AMT 1D system I heard when buying a small bag of grass... he also had one of the most beautiful women (girl) as a girlfriend I have ever seen... guess that was a positive association..
All of those experiences were motivators to pursue high end audio and music. But I think they were circumstantial, emotional state when they happened. I think music, particularly when coupled with high hormones and associated emotional states create these marker memories and interests that we follow throughout our life.

Happily I don’t listen to my system any more, just the music. This is a fairly recent thing with my most recent upgrades. I find it difficult to listen to the system... it is so musical, I just get captivated by the music and do not listen to the soundstage or micro details. Come to think about it, increasingly over the last two decades I would upgrade as fast as posdible to get back to listening to music. My current system is incredibly good at establishing the emotional connection with me. It can work as a time machine given the right 1960’s or 70’s... or 50’ input. I can only think how much my young self would have loved the system I have.

Good question. It really made me think about what made the system I have today so compelling... it is that it has that emotional connection that I think I had been working so hard at creating for the last fifty years. I have finally done it.

I enjoyed music the most when I was in the process of discovery. Audio was not such a big deal back then and 'sweet spot' was practically unheard of.

My audio system has improved markedly since then. Its properly set up and I sit in the sweet spot most often. My music collection is quite large so I have plenty of recordings on hand - I don't shop much anymore - I think pouring through record bins was half the fun. I know most of my music well now so the sense of discovery doesn't occur often (but it does and I'm thrilled).

 Unfortunately I don't believe that the improved audio system has really replaced the involvement with the music I had back then. And, as I think for many, I have redirected my interest in music to its reproduction for an audio system. Poor exchange I think.

Thinking about your post reminded me of one I made elsewhere a while back. I started writing and out came an interesting conclusion I hadn’t realized before:

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Lost in the Details
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I have spent the last fifty years slowly learning, earning, and building my audio system. I loved the outcomes and process. I upgraded to what I thought was to be my ultimate system about ten years ago with an ARC Ref 5se preamp, Sim 650 DAC with outboard power supply, Pass x350 amp and Sonus Faber Olympica 3 speakers, VPI TT and a couple B&W 800 series subwoofers. I did this while still working, in advance of retirement. It sounded fantastic. I have an incredibly good sounding audio room (lucky not good). It was good at all sorts of music. I considered this my reference system as it laid out everything, the venue, the mastering style, the microphones used, the violin played. It was musical and really enjoyable to listen to. I learned new things about each recording I listened to.

Throughout the process of building over the years I learned about more aspects of sound and music: details, micro details, tonal balance, midrange, imaging, slam, transparency, rhythm and pace, etc.… and then I took them into account. For much of my life I had ribbon or electrostatic speakers of some kind but I was careful to built a system that was not too far into the detailed end so half my recordings sounded bad… however, they imaged the soundstage very accurately. I could easily hear the venues. They were also musical and believable. I have had season tickets (row 8 center) to the Oregon Symphony for nearly the last decade. It has a surprisingly outstanding orchestra and hall.

On my quest for my system, I occasionally would hear an incredibly musical system. One that would just pull at my emotional core and involve me in the music. These were inevitably tube systems. Usually the emotion came with an incredible loss of detail. Sometimes I would hear incredibly detailed… natural with great slam… but usually lacked in the emotional draw.

My system found a great balance to all the different aspects. I tried and quit streaming… then tried again and upgraded to an Aurender WE20se… that incredible piece of equipment changed everything and caused a cascade of upgrades… see my profile.

While auditioning the ARC REF160s my audio guy brought over a ARC REF CD/DAC. I did not want to try it… I was not interested. But he had brought it over, I respect him, we have had a relationship for twenty years. Within two minutes I had sent him a message to order me one. I really did not have the money… I then upgraded all my interconnects to Transparent Ultra. Wholly cow.

So, the reference system is gone. Now I have a 100% music system (funny it is a known thing: All Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Transparent interconnections). It has the heart and soul of those incredibly emotional tube systems I heard but with all the detail, silent background, and imaging. I am completely captivated. But it is making me rethink the approach I had taken to get here. I just wonder when one triggers the "evaluate… analytical" process in our brains it jumps on the easily distinguishable parameters… details, slam, stuff that really should be secondary thoughts not primary. I know some folks must start looking for musical first (I don’t know any)… but I am pretty sure that is the minority. Most of us are pretty analytical. I am not sure that sometimes we get waylaid by details that are really not important. My system does not have the slam (precipitous rise in a kick drum), the vivid edges of the sound stage, the micro structures of the edges of instrument sounds, but it has the best bass I have heard, it has all the details, and space (but not in the spotlight like my reference system) and most importantly it has incredible emotional pull of great rhythm and pace. It does not make poorly recorded albums sound bad… but just plays the music and draws me in and makes the experience amazing. I can’t help but thinking if I had taken a turn towards smaller scale musical system 35 years ago based on musicality, and built up from that side of the equation I would not have gotten here much quicker. But, then, I really did enjoy the journey.

We all parrot the same crap now - that our systems are transparent and disappear, but do they?

Mine does. 

But seriously, what you're talking about, "music", we focus on the sound with our systems but music is much more than sound. It comes from the root "muse" the nine goddesses who presided over science and the arts. Today we use the word muse to mean the source of inspiration. 

When you are young and life has yet to beat you down you are full of hope and promise and inspiration. So of course music, which you now know means of or like a muse, inspires you. It still does- if you are young at heart. 

Had a wonderful long talk with Ted Denney the other night. Now there's a man still young at heart. Boy is he ever in the right line of work!  

There really is nothing in "music" then that requires sound. See? Like in Margin Call when the Jeremy Irons character has just been told the financial world is about to collapse, he says the music has stopped.  

We audiophiles work in a realm that is passing strange. We want perfect sound to create something that does not even require sound at all. No wonder one of the more common complaints is here we go down the rabbit hole.

It's the same for me now at 66 as it was back in the day. A good record played low at 1am sends me right back. I have to force myself to go to bed, I just want to keep listening. The magic is still there.