I am always amazed how many audiophiles spend so much time talking about music. There is only so much time to go around, may run out of time to actually listen to music. Which btw I have done for the last 4 hours. Got my bluesound NODE to sing with the new Teddy Pardo LPS. Highly recommended! Using Shunyata venom 14 pc.
The thing about objectivists is...
Listening is the essence and central activity of music appreciation. Listening is purely a result of the essential reality of subjectivity, and not that of any "objective reality" which is assumed to exist "out there." The human mind tends to rigidly cling to measurements, pedestrian concepts, and elaborate abstractions in attempt to simplify, subdivide, define, and categorize within the immensity of the realm of the experiential/subjective.
Over-reliance on concrete definitions and ideas serves to attach oneself to a sense of stability and security. The mind secretly hopes this will sufficiently ward off the uneasiness of feeling unsure, or off-balance, about one’s actual degree of comprehension regarding a given topic.
But what is it that is capable of registering sounds, recognition of patterns, recalling memory, and awareness? It’s pure subjectivity. It’s not the brain. That’s only an idea which is based on an entire system of definitions which define other definitions. The mind fortifies the boundaries of its interconnected structure by using circuitously self-reifying definitions.
Consider this: A description of a thing, proposed by the human mind, is only of that which a thing is not. A thing’s reality is not the same as its description.
What is it that is present in the pure silence during the instant just prior to sound waves propagating into the air space of the listening room? What is it which listens?
It’s subjective awareness, devoid of mental content. Your ideas aren’t listening, your experiential awareness is listening.
The more one thinks the same boring ideas one’s been thinking for years, the less one can listen. Subjectivity is the self-existent authority prior to the discernment of any quality, measured quantity, or the detection of that which we term "music". The deeper we can relax and sink into pure, silent subjectivity, the more deeply and purely we can listen and behold. Our subjective awareness becomes purer and less colored, our mind becomes more open and flexible, and experiential reality is seen to be the ever-present continuum which is of the greatest value of all.
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Great audio is the result of optimal use of objective measurements(the right ones) and subjective listening. Without the combination there is audio chaos and the inability to repeat what has been achieved. This shouldn't be a war between two sides but cooperation for a common goal. There are meaningful objective measurements that give significant clues to the final result. They just aren't only the ones that are easiest to measure and they often aren't the ones used in ads. |
@gladmo Brilliant! Wonderful writing, and salient, cogent arguments! |
I like this guy. All of the discussions that followed remind me of Haykawa's admonition that the symbol is not the thing being symbolized, the word is not the thing, and the map is not the territory. Actually, it was Korzybski who came up with the map saying but Hayakawa is the one I read all those years ago. Experience is a purely subjective thing. Reconciling after the act, can be done objectively if one wishes, but it's done afterwards. All the best, |
OP, Music satisfies a subconscious need. We invoke our analytical prefrontal cortex to pursuing a system to satisfy and optimize an audio system. This is often at odds with achieving our objective because our analytical side identifies attributes easily understand… tonal balance / slam… and satisfy our analytical side, but miss the subconscious requirements… rhythm and pace… musicality.
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