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

Once in awhile, I hear the term 'this amp is more musical' for some amps. To describe sound, I know there is 'imaging' and 'sound stage'. What exactly is meant by 'more musical' when used to describe amp?

dman77711-16-2023 4:37pm

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mahgister Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 13,307 posts 01-05-2024 at 08:35pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete A good system an OPTIMAL system cannot be only good for one style of music... This is completely beside acoustic understanding of what is a "musical sound" ... Buy some beats headphone or a boom box it will do ...No need of acoustics for you ... 😊 as I have typed before: what pleases some does not please all, and therefore not everyone defines "more musical" the same way. And by the way in a top acoustic Hall everyone know it sound "musical" even a heavy metal group recording there ...Musical taste had nothing to do with "musical" qualities in acoustics experience by the way ... And every one listening mike lavigne room/system say it sound "musical" ... No one claim that for his taste his boom box sound better ... As a dog racing his tail go on with your definition of musical in relation with one individual taste: your own ... It will be enough for you brain ... And Go on laughing at people here ... myself my own taste in sound GROWS in the last 12 years with my acoustic knowledge and experiments ... We must LEARN how to hear exactly as you must grow our brain all our life ... 😊 Well, that may be getting some where. However, in that case, "more musical" may differ depending upon one’s musical tastes. If one was a thrash-metal fan, one might find different equipment "more musical" than if one was a fan of chamber music.
immatthewj Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,843 posts 01-05-2024 at 09:00pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete "musical" cannot be put in words except by using synonyms as in the Merriam Webster... Almost any word can be used as a synonym for another word. Including the words you have been using. Sorry, but that is just what language has evolved to. "musical" can be defined in acoustic factors as these factors can be controlled in a room by some ears/brain EXPERIMENTING ... Fine. But you have yet to provide a coherent definition of what is more musical. "Buy an Atmasphere amp is the most concise thing I've read by you so far. We know for example that the transients are important in the timbre "musical" judgement by a listener... To improve the transients it is possible for example to play with the room ratio between absorption, reflective and diffusive surface ... Okay, I'll give you points for "improved transients." If one piece of gear compared to another piece of gear produces "improved transients" that piece of gear may meet some of the definitions of "more musical." However, some musicians probably are also able to produce music with transients that are better than the transients than other musicians can. If that's the case, "more musical" may go beyond just gear and room acoustics? To give another example, imaging will be greatly improve by the listener location and the speakers location and the wise use of the lateral reflections at the right timing ... I'll give you points for that also. Better imaging should be "more musical." I have never argued that the room and the placement of speakers in the room was not important to imaging. But I'd also say that the most noticeable improvement in my last upgrade (the preamp) was definition and imaging. And yes, I admit that I did play around with speaker placement and adding rugs to tweak that. Or as any idiot i can ask forever a definition of musical in words that dont exist , because "musical" being an acoustic concept suppose some ears/brain and a pair of hands modifying the room acoustic parameters to his liking and after studying the concepts of timbre , immersiveness and spatial qualities in such a way and enough then he had learn what to do instead of changing cables and gear without end... Well, actually it appears that words do exist. But if words didn't exist, then it would be up to everyone what their own feelings about "more musical" is. And then it would be subjective. Then you will understand what is a "musical" timbre perception by being able to perceive any of his aspects ... So I assume you are talking about accurate timbre, not timbre that is pleasing? For timbre there is 5 aspects to play with.... You cannot put this understanding and set of experiments with specific gear in a specific room in few words...You must experiment with acoustic concepts... Even if i paste any text acoustics if you dont play with the parameters associated with these concepts you will not understand ... Acoustics is an APPLIED knowledge not words and not even equations because hearing is too complex ... That doesn't tell the OP what the answer to his question is. Do you get it ? Or will you roll in laughters ? You are saying "more musical" means improved transients and imaging and more accurate reproduction of timbre? Okay . . . that is something solid that OP can hang is hat on. However, as I just replied (somewhere up above) to Atmasphere, equipment that one will find "more musical" for one genre may not work for another genre. No, I am ot laughing . . . this time around you did not answer OP's question by saying that the definition of "more musical" is equipment and room acoustics upgrades. But that was funny.
immatthewj Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,843 posts 01-05-2024 at 09:04pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete To realize and understand why your smug laughter is ridiculous in the face of the complexity of the problem and your real or simulated incapacity to understand the concept of musicality here is the definition from Wikipedia Smug laughter? Hardly. OP asked "what is meant by more musical" and you basically said that the definition is to buy an amp from Atmasphere. That was hysterical laughter. Everything below is lah blah blah that does not answer what OP asked. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Musical acoustics or music acoustics is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from physics,^[1]^[2]^[3] psychophysics,^[4] organology^[5] (classification of the instruments), physiology,^[6] music theory,^[7] ethnomusicology,^[8] signal processing and instrument building,^[9] among other disciplines. As a branch of acoustics, it is concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds are employed to make music. Examples of areas of study are the function of musical instruments, the human voice (the physics of speech and singing), computer analysis of melody, and in the clinical use of music in music therapy. The pioneer of music acoustics was Hermann von Helmholtz, a German polymath of the 19th century who was an influential physician, physicist, physiologist, musician, mathematician and philosopher. His book On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music^[7] is a revolutionary compendium of several studies and approaches that provided a complete new perspective to music theory, musical performance, music psychology and the physical behaviour of musical instruments.
immatthewj Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,843 posts 01-05-2024 at 09:16pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete A good system an OPTIMAL system cannot be only good for one style of music... This is completely beside acoustic understanding of what is a "musical sound" ... Buy some beats headphone or a boom box it will do ...No need of acoustics for you ... You are probably going to get some push back from more than just me on that one. I have never done the SET experience, but I am intrigued. "Goose bump territory" or so I have been told. But years and years and years ago I liked it loud and louder, and given what I know about the thrash metal scene, 14 or 15 wpc wouldn’t sound "more musical" to that crowd. "Beats headphones"? I don’t even know what those are. Boom box? No, 30 years ago I had a rack system, and it was ggod for background, but I really didn’t find it engaging enough to sit in front of for hours and enjoy what I consider a "more musical" experience. But keep it coming . . . I find your attempts at insulting me amusing, although not as hysterically funny as your "buy an Atmasphere amp" definition of "more musical."
atmasphere Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 12,099 posts 01-05-2024 at 09:20pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete However, in that case, "more musical" may differ depending upon one's musical tastes. If one was a thrash-metal fan, one might find different equipment "more musical" than if one was a fan of chamber music. If one was a fan of the latter, one might find a 12 wpc SET amp and some high efficiency speakers to be "more musical." If one bought that combination to jam out on Mega Death, one would probably be disappointed. A massive SS amp with some huge JBLs might be "more musical" in that application given your definition. @immatthewj I see this as entirely false. The reason is that no-one has ever documented a way that electronics can favor one genre of music over another. As a result, what makes a system good at classical will also make it good at rock. As you know orchestras can play pretty loud. I play classical, gothic metal, electronia, folk music and the like all on the same systems in my house. They all do all forms equally well. All humans share the human hearing rules. So we all very naturally concoct our musical compositions inside of those rules. So if you measure the energy spectrum of a well recorded metal band you'll find its not all that different from that of a well recorded orchestra at full tilt. I'm not saying that certain instruments are not asked to carry unusual energy for a bit; when that happens its usually not sustained unless the musician is making some sort of point. For example the piccolo in Mancini's Baby Elephant Walk. When I encounter the myth that certain speakers or amps or combinations thereof can favor a certain kind of music, I've found that if I can dig into it, the simple reason for this is the person entertaining that myth hasn't heard everything- not every recording and not every system. The more exposure you have, the more light is cast upon this particular myth; the quicker it dissipates.

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