What is meant exactly by the description 'more musical'?

This is not a hard question 

Simply put musical more musical means 

“more real or realistic”

Good luck Willy-T

For me "more musical" it means you hear all the instruments in more clarity and detail. 

@atmasphere

First, I’d like to say that it’s a privilege to exchange ideas with you. I admire your work, your intellect, and your ability to express ideas clearly.

We are at an impasse which is well known in philosophy -- it is a 2000 year impasse, at least.

Perception is both a process of registration by the brain and interpretation by the mind. Kant argued that nothing is perceived "as it is in reality" because in order to make sense of reality, it must first be taken in and conditioned by our understanding. Even the measurements you’re speaking about are done with human instruments, using human metrics, with patterns which humans notice. Everything measured is also an interpretation. Even what seems solid -- invariant readings, for example -- are only invariant due to human interpretation. Change the scale of the reading, and it becomes invariant, again.

So, it’s all interpretation -- whether one talks in terms of numbers and machine readings, or in terms of more literary sounding descriptions (i.e., "taste").

What engineers and scientists object to about the more "subjective" instances of taste -- which you single out as my "false conclusion" -- is how wildly variable taste is compared to measurements in a lab (whether that’s a neuroscientist’s lab or an audio engineer’s lab). I think that’s a fair judgment, but not for the deep metaphysical reason you’re claiming (namely, one between the "reality" of measurement and the "subjectivity" of taste).

I would agree with you (and science) on this, only: that "taste" outside of the lab is often too wild, too unregulated in procedure, too unstable in judgment to be reliable. That’s fair. Where I disagree is that the scientist/engineer somehow can "anchor" laws of perception in reality in a way that is capable of correcting interpretative judgment. If someone hears a 2nd order harmonic as unpleasant, would they be wrong? No, what we’d say is that some people are not "wired" to enjoy the 2nd harmonic -- just as some people are "wired" to dislike even mildly spicy food.

But I put the word "wired" in quotes because it’s really a misleading (because physicalist) word. It’s not really wiring at all. Rather, there is a complete system of human physiology, habituated expectation, and linguistic training at work, here. These include what seems to be only the "last" node, the listener (or eater). What some scientists get wrong is that the listener doesn’t just receive a stimulus (a 2nd order harmonic) and then have a response (pleasure); rather, every listener approaches a stimulus with previous experiences that condition how the stimulus is received. There is a circuit at work which includes the context, past and present, of the listener. That includes their wants, needs, desires, expectations at the level of meaning and interpretation.

Is there a correlation between 2nd harmonics and the way we measure the brain? Sure. Just as there is between the chemical composition of sugar and the taste buds -- and the sections of the brain which register "sweetness." But preference for sweetness also requires habituation in conduct; one can habituate to dislike sweetness and other "natural" preferences. Often, how one is raised plays a role, here. (Cf. Bordieu on habitus.) The brain is a plastic instrument.

I don’t expect we can settle this on a forum. Libraries are required to address these kinds of debates. Just engaging with you about it -- even though we differ -- is enormously pleasurable to me. But that’s because I’m habituated this way. ;-)

Cheers and thanks for the conversation.

Lots of conflicting points. I always try to go the simpler route. +1 @erik_squires  "emotionally engaging vs. analytical and accurate".

Try this on for size:

"musical, musicality A personal judgment as to the degree to which reproduced sound resembles live music. Real musical sound is both accurate and euphonic, consonant and dissonant."

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