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

How do you match a speakers and a desk when putting a tuned load on them for example without acoustic response by the room, you need the room response  perceived by the ears/brain which will add or substract 100 gram from the damping load to reach more "musical" timbre experience result and so  optimising  the damping tuning process  ?

How do we know that an electrical match exist as optimal at the end between two components ? if not by acoustic interpretation in some room and not in another and for some location ?

Electrical specs compatibility does not tell all the story, neither mechanical matching ... We need the three working dimensions , and the more important one is acoustics ( not mere room acoustic but also psycho-acoustics concepts)

"component matching" are always electrical,mechanical and acoustical matching ... They go together ...

Because musicality experience is not a taste after electrical specs matching, it is the convergence of three type of working dimensions controls... Acoustics being the more fundamental ...

Btw, @mulveling when I talk of " component matching " I refer to elictrical/mechanical matched.

 

R.

Let's look at objective measurements of four audiophile-grade amplifiers mentioned in this thread as "musical" (some of them may be not exact model mentioned, yet shall be close enough in "amp family sound"):

https://www.stereophile.com/content/plinius-sa-reference-power-amplifier-measurements

https://www.stereophile.com/content/plinius-sa-100-mkii-power-amplifier-measurements

https://www.stereophile.com/content/leben-cs300-integrated-amplifier-measurements

 https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1505:bhk-labs-measurements-hegel-music-systems-h360-dac-integrated-amplifier&catid=97&Itemid=154

All of them would be characterized by objectivists as highly distorting. And yet these amplifiers find many buyers who consider them thoroughly enjoyable. At one time or another, this or that authoritative reviewer would call them musical.

There could be many common perceptual phenomena at work, as well as individual hearing system differences. Also, preferred most often listened to music genres, and even specific artists.

It is no different from widely differing preferences in food, wine, closing, cars etc.Yes, there are common qualities that have to be present in all of them, yet it's the differences that make them unique enough for a specific buyer to choose.

I once had a conversation with a man who is both an accomplished audio gear designer and a successful businessman. He keeps multiple authentic vintage audio systems, almost all of them objectively highly distorting.

Why? Because each of the systems is best for reproducing a specific genre of music originating in a specific era. If one wants to hear the artist's intent, he better listen on a system that this artist used to approve the master mix.

So, my take is that "musical" has correlation with objective metrics, yet is heavily influenced by specific individual hearing system peculiarities, and specific gear that specific music piece was recorded and produced with.

First step must be electrical/mechanical matching. Acoustical matchimg is another and different issue that mainly depends ( everything the same ) of what we like it/taste..

R.

Electrical and mechanical matching of gear need the ears (acoustics) ...

And it is less about our taste than about the parameters of our ears coupled to the parameters of the system/room ...

If i want to tune my speakers with vibrations control with a damping load which must be fine tuned under 100 gram of precision for an optimal result , be it with springs or with a sandwich of various materials we must use our ears to fine tune it ..

if we want to pick an amplifier over another amplifier  choice we must put them in a specfic room and couple them with specific speakers for our ears to judge ...Electricals specs matching are not enough and will not tell all the story to be told  ... And it is less about taste than about our ears catching in an optimal way the   acoustic factors at play with this speakers room or this other one ... Taste there is, but taste it is not ....

Taste in audio, contrary to all the marketing aiming at the consumers ignorance, is secondary ; acoustics and psycho-acoustics knowledge primary ...

All that i described is basic...I dont know way much than you for sure and perhaps less on many others aspects but at least i know that ...

First step must be electrical/mechanical matching. Acoustical matchimg is another and different issue that mainly depends ( everything the same ) of what we like it/taste..

So, my take is that "musical" has correlation with objective metrics, yet is heavily influenced by specific individual hearing system peculiarities, and specific gear that specific music piece was recorded and produced with.

You are right for the part i underline ...

But a good designed amplifier will be TESTED for optimal results and for specific ears in a dedicated acoustic room designed around the chosen speakers and the specific ears ...

Then a well designed speakers will play everything well and this nevermind the styles of music ...

But in a non dedicated room , with inferior design , we can imagine customers picking different amplifiers for different music styles ... But this reflect a lack in design or a lack in room acoustics or the two at the same time ... If not a bad synergy between each gear pieces and between the speakers and the room ...

And for your observation that we must buy the same gear than the recording studio, it reflect a confusion and the conflating of the recorded spatial acoustic information and timbre parameters with the different vehicles and coding (digital/analog,dac versus vinyl) but acoustics information can be coded but is not a code , it is a perceived qualia ...Then we must instead of buying the same gear pieces as the recording studio created a better room acoustics for ourself then putting ourself in position for the recreation of the original acoustics information (qualia) in our listening room ... And also buying a BACCH filters DSP to beat even any studio gear which work without them ...

Psycho-acoustics rule the gear, not the reverse... And taste must be educated and rules nothing but only marketing, or sleepwalking consumers , not audio design or experience...

Acoustics moves not only the brain but the heart, it is why acoustics as medecine is an art based on sciences as physics and neurophysiology of hearing not only a technology ...

The most important core fact in acoustics is the active human body producing sounds and perceiving them at the same time ....It is speech/music with his social motivation (meanings) .... We were trained by evolution forces to perceive meaningful natural sounds but more than that we created ourself meaningful sounds ...Our hearing system live then in his own time dimension and cannot be described and explaimed by linear mappings .. Meaning is a non linear symbolic form, it is an embodied form...... I will stop philosophy here ... 😊

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