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What is Musicality?

Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Recently I made some improvements that have been quite rewarding. When you make improvements in amp and speaker at the same time, it's impossible to tell "who is doing what". Since the sound is much more "musical", I began to ponder that word.

"Musicality" in regard to components is a misnomer. This new music I was hearing, was on the CD before I got the new components. This new "nuance" was the musicians "musicality" that I had not heard before. Audio components are not musical instruments, consequently they possess no "musicality".

Since my system is "ultra neutral", there is nothing about it that can be termed "musical".
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,737 posts
 
IME, how well the musicians and instruments gel with one another.
frogman
7,457 posts
 
Musicality is the measure of a piece of equipment's ability to let the natural elements of the recorded PERFORMANCE pass through it without so much editorialization that it loses the musician's intent. If the equipment adds "musicality" to the signal, that is a distortion.

Simply put, musicality IS accuracy; not the opposite of it.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Frogman,
That`s a beautiful definition of musicality. Natural being the all important term.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Charles1dad I like the part

"If the equipment adds "musicality" to the signal, that is a distortion."

This equates to the "better than real" comments that is occasionally mentioned, kind of like a drug but one thing for sure, over time it becomes increasingly obvious, its always there when sometimes you know it shouldn't be. The thing is that we all hear differently and we have our preferences but unless you spend a lot of time listening to live acoustic performances it can become a bit tricky determining where that line lies. Again great observations Frogman.
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