This is complex for me and depends upon my mood. Let me start with stating that there are some excellent performances of iconic music that are so poorly engineered in both analog and digital, where early digital engineering exacerbated the sound quality issues, that I can not listen past the issues into the performance. So with recordings in this group I can affirm sound quality impacts my ability to enjoy the performance and musical composition. From that point it depends on my mood my objective for my listening session. At times, I want a critical listening session, not only to enjoy the performance and composition, but also to revel in the engineering quality of the recording and my system. My focus is on reproduction of timbre, dynamics, staging, and imaging. So, in these instances I also can affirm sound quality matters. Most often, greater than 90% of the time, I am just trying to relax, using music as the tranquilizer. In there sessions I find myself engulfed in the performance and composition, reveling in the conductor’s interpretation, musicianship, interplay between the musicians, and swings in mood and energy that a composition leads you through. I am lucky that have my system established to a point that permits me to travel this path into the musical performance as well as taking the aforementioned critical listen path depending on my mood. During these sessions into the performance for relaxation, sound quality matters not. Maybe, for me, it’s a form of audiophile/music lover dissociative identity disorder.
How does sound influence your appreciation?
Since I’ve gotten my system to a very good place, I find myself liking the performance of almost everything I hear. Now in classical music, there are sometimes dozens of performances of the same piece, each performance having its own unique take. I now seem to like every interpretation I hear regardless of differences, due to the great sound. I’m losing my discernment because the sound is so much a part of the equation. This is more true of orchestral music than other types
How about you?
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An audio system /room can be an obstacle to what we listen or help the perception... My system/room dont bother me now, as in the times i was unsatisfied because of my ignorance level... I listen music 5 hours per day minimum... I never think : what if i could upgrade... Before, when i was passive consumers with no experiments, no studies, no increase day by day S.Q. with each experiments, more than 10 years ago, i bought and sold and dream an impossible dream : I want a 100,000 bucks system minimum .. I was a brainwashed passive consumers...Only dreams were possible i thought... As you see we change with studying and experimenting ...I did it after retirement 24 hours a day for few years to understand acoustic in my system/room... My system/room gave now the minimal acoustical balanced satisfaction if i take into account all factors at play.. My taste in music had no relation to sound but as said the OP :
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That’s interesting. I can’t say that sound quality has had much to do with my preference for the way music is played by the musicians. The closest match to that I can think of is that it seems my ear is more forgiving of musicianship when I’m hearing it live than when recorded. I used to play in a youth symphony, and while playing, I thought our orchestra sounded very beautiful. Hearing a recording of it was very embarrassing. |
@rvpiano Your title stated as a question was “How does sound affect your application?” which many responded to directly. However, based on your response to @audphile1, you were really questioning is whether the high quality sound from your system has impacted your ability to discern the between the artistic musicality of different performances. This was posed as a statement IMHO. Regardless, I now understand your question. I agree with @audphile1. I also point to the response from @ghdprentice, and his accurate descriptions of analytical vs. natural systems. IMHO GHP is on point in that overly analytical systems tend to make me focus on sound, giving me a wow moment, which fades to fatigue. They do not let me focus on the performance. Natural sounding systems, that are also highly detailed, let me focus on the musicality of the performance and composition. As I stated in my first response, I have the ability to, and I am lucky to have developed a system that permits me to go into a critical listening mode to revel in the quality of the recording and equipment engineering and enter into a relaxation listening mode where I revel in the musicality of the performance. Too many audiophiles simply focus on the critical listening mode. I also once was at a point where I only focused on sound. It’s an audiophile trap. So it is good your system is at the point that everything sounds good. It must be a natural sounding system. My recommendation is to try to concentrate on musical appreciation and the artistic qualities of the performance…the conductor’s interpretation, the organic and dynamic flows and differences therein alternative interpretations, and the emotion flowing from the musicians rather than the sound. I do not know how to get you back and as stated by AP1, I am sure it’s a phase that will resolve since you are obviously a music lover since you posed this question and miss this ability to do so. Do
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