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?

dman777

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.

@atmasphere , so you are saying that the thrash-metal guys would dig 14 wpc of SET with some high efficiency speakers? I think you are wrong. That crowd wants to rattle windows, shake the walls and piss off the neighbors. And that is how they define "more musical."

"Musical" in acoustics is not defined by deaf 50 years old rockers who dream to put walls of Jericho fall down again ...And doing this they will put atmasphere tube amplifiers in the trash bin and will bought 5,000 watts amplifier to do so , BECAUSE THIS IS THEIR TASTE ...

By the way i never said that atmasphere amplifier are the only good design on the market... This is your usual misreading of my post...I said that his design are well known for a reason: he apply psychoacoustics knowledge  to his design ...it is enough for me...

You get it ?

Psychoacoustics rule audio gear not the reverse...

buy a book ...

 

@atmasphere , so you are saying that the thrash-metal guys would dig 14 wpc of SET with some high efficiency speakers? I think you are wrong. That crowd wants to shake windows and piss off the neighbors. And that is how they define "more musical."

@immatthewj What you think and the reality of metal dudes are two different things or maybe many different things. My best friend for years (Earl Root, RIP) pretty well founded the metal scene here in the Twin Cities so I’ve been to a lot of metal shows of all sorts.

An SET with high efficiency speakers would probably be quite pleasing to them if there were subs as well (most high efficiency speakers trade off efficiency for LF bandwidth unless the bass horn is very very large; most people don’t have room for that) because such can play quite loud. They aren’t interested in pissing off the neighbors because Bad Things happen; that’s different from someone being simply inconsiderate.

Earl owned our amps and preamp with Snell B loudspeakers right to his death.

Most of the people I’ve met in metal bands (a few of which I’ve opened for) were really nice. If you didn’t see their stage get up, you’d never know they played in a metal band. Earl told me that for the most part all metal is theater, so if you’re not laughing a lot and having a good time you probably don’t get it.

Earl also told me (he ran a record store; that is how I first met him) that the metal guys preferred vinyl because it could get the cymbals right. So he was careful to pick up the LP releases for his store whenever possible.

So what you’re saying doesn’t jive with how they define ’more musical’ IME...

Metal musicians in reality are not  deaf people who want to put walls down how suggested our friend here speaking about  their hungry  watts Taste  , they are often great classical musicians as the first female singer of Deathwish was, and often recorded in acoustic Hall or even church...

"musical" had a precise meaning  in acoustic ONLY ...No word replace acoustics parameters controls ..

Tastes of immatthewj or mine has nothing to do with what we must learn in acoustics to improve any system in our room ...We improve our taste in music as we improve our taste in sound by LEARNING , TRAINING, and EXPERIMENTING all our life ...

 

«Only crocodiles cannot improve their tastes»--Groucho Marx 🤓