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
immatthewj said

 "@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""

 Oops, I think that you may be the one that's wrong! I'm sitting here listening to Sacrifice (thrash from 1987) on tubes and high efficiency speakers, lol. Sounds glorious!

I think most metal heads appreciate great sounding gear, a lot metal does have more nuances that non metal fans realize.

 Oops, I think that you may be the one that's wrong! I'm sitting here listening to Sacrifice (thrash from 1987) on tubes and high efficiency speakers, lol. Sounds glorious!

@newfzx7  , I did stipulate that this is what "I think", meaning that I could be wrong.  Are you using a SET amp and how many wpc does it put out and how loud do you do your thrash at?  The SET folks I have talked to (except for the ones with higher powered SET gear, such as the Cary 805s or 211s) tell me that they didn't go the route that they went because they wanted to reproduce loud music.

@newfzx7 +1

When Rocky Mountain AudioFest was running I was regularly visited by a group of local metal heads at that show. I would play something for them and  they usually had some LP for me to hear as well. 

There was a reviewer who was also into metal who would also play faves of his in our room. Metal heads appreciate good sound like everyone else.

Metal heads appreciate good sound like everyone else.

@atmasphere  , I am not saying that you did not have this experience; what I am saying is that 14 or 15 wpc of SET would not have done it for the metal heads I used to know.

@immatthewj that would only be because they didn't have the right (more efficient) speakers to go with it. So that would also mean that someone into classical wouldn't be satisfied either unless they got more efficient speakers as well.