Fidelity vs. Musicality...........Is there a tug of War?

Musicality is a very vague term and in most cases it means nothing. Often it is just the ability to enjoy music.

So. First of all, we need to realise that hi-fi does not play music, it just pushes and pulls air giving us an opportunity to reconstruct sound waves into music. Whether we can do it depends of what he've got between ears. That's why a Beethoven string quartet is beautiful music for some and just noise and cacophony for others.  

Second, "musicality" always goes hand in hand with fidelity.  A musician carefully selects his instrument because he or she is looking for a certain tone, and fidelity is needed to reproduce it correctly.  The interaction between musicians brings you the essence of the music and the good timing and truthful micro dynamics are needed to reproduce it.  

Etc etc...

Excessive detail have nothing to do with fidelity, it is just what it is - subjectively excessive details, often caused by distorted reproduction of certain frequency range. Transparency though is vital for an emotional impact, or in other words musicality.

So there is no contradiction between musicality and fidelity, quite the opposite. A more interesting dilemma is between fidelity and realism. Do we need high fidelity to create an illusion of realism? 

Previous post......

Musicality is a very vague term and in most cases it means nothing. Often it is just the ability to enjoy music.


Means nothing?


OMG

kijanki, this thread is not about you and your Benchmark.

Musicality is a rather vague and nebulous term but I think coined to differentiate between a system that is overly detailed and a system that has detail but does not slap you alongside the head. The fixation with detail has lead to systems that verge on the unlistenable when a few of these detail monsters are combined.

I have such a system that allows me to listen to maybe 20% of my files, the others are just screech. I am working to attain a system that truly entertains with the vast majority of my collection. So to address the OP's question, I err on the side of 'listenability'.

The endless striving for detail, detail, detail leaves me cold. The type of detail some systems produce are not heard at a live performance unless you are one of the performers. Have you ever closed your eyes at an unamplified performance and tried to locate a certain instrument? I find I can hear where it is located but certainly not with clinical precision. I feel audiophiles themselves are partly responsible for this sorry state of affairs by elevating detail as a fundamental requirement.

A friend of mine borrowed a Devialet amp claimed to be awesome. I'm sure the measurements revealed vanishingly low distortion etc. but the amp did not stay connected for very long. We inserted his 300B tube job and immediately relaxed with the music, enjoying the sound coming at us. It did not have the bass slam or control of the other amp but it sure did entertain us. My &%^$ detailed system is hardly used now except for movies which used to take a back-seat to the music evenings my wife and I once looked forward to. Sad but true.

I don’t know if it is a tug of war so much as a mosh pit of musicality, fidelity, pace, rhythm and timing. By Omega, I guess. Who even knows what this stuff means? 

Lemonhaze It is not about "My Benchmark" but rather about idea we are discussing.  It could be any other amp of similar character.  I hope you understand it.

Let's summarize what you said:

You don't like very detailed sound
You don't like perfect imaging
You like coloring of the sound by overly warm 300B

You're perfect representation of what Absolute Sound review, I quoted, was talking about.  You have great future on this forum.