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
I haven't been to the Vanguard but do have both vinyl and cd of Waltz for Debby and most of Evan's recordings for that matter. I can CERTAINLY hear that low ceiling, very typical of a lot of jazz venues I've been to, one place quite close to us in Florida that has since closed Dino's for anyone that has been to that place in Cocoa Beach, FL. Had some really good local jazz here in the day along with Wolfies, oh well probably no one on this site is familiar with these obscure places but that Village Vanguard recording does remind me of the acoustic space of Dinos.
Put your favorite record on the player.

Set the volume.

Sit in your favorite chair

Close your eyes

Does it honestly sound live - that is musicality for better or worse.
Musicality is neutrality in the extreme in regard to high end audio set up to perfection, it's when that record or CD that you've heard a thousand times, sounds brand new.
Musicality is a subjective term that describes natural sounding music. You can't break it down into a technical description because the whole point is to describe the sum total of technical specs. Musicality means the system sounds right. The tone and timbre is correct. The frequency balance is not artificially augmented, but naturally flat. There are no shortcuts like huge negative feedback, yet the music is not distorted.

It is easy to measure one spec, but the brain is a much more sophisticated analyzer. We perceive everything at once, and if the music sounds like Julia Fisher is in the room playing the Bach Concerto, the system has musicality. I'll put it another way- try going back to an all-in-one-box system, and you will know what "musicality" is not!
I think musicality has to do with the ability to express heart and soul, the ability to express a certain feeling and convey it in a way that listeners feel or relate to that same feeling. Musicality is expression of what is within one's self through the medium of melody and harmony, and different musicians have different levels of accomplishment, as well as simply having different interpretations of a piece, that is all subjectively enjoyed by each audience member. No person in the audience perceives the performance the exact same way, with some preferring other artists, techniques, or styles, none of which is right nor wrong, simply preferred.

I believe that the most 'musical' system is that which does not lose any information from the media it obtained it from, since the system itself is not expressing anything in and of itself, but simply reproducing that which was provided. Still, technique to an artist is not necessarily musicality (though it does provide better ability to express it), and likewise detail, soundstaging and perfect frequency response does not guarantee a 'musical' system.

I have heard live performances that were technically flawless, but inspired no emotion from me, and have heard performances where notes were missed but I still cried. The same has happened for me with systems, some sounding great in technical regards yet I am unmoved, while others may not accomplish all the 'audiophile' requirements but still grip me. I believe that this is the conundrum we all discuss, and all try to solve in our own systems with our own list of priorities of what makes up 'musicality'. Everybody's lists are most assuredly ordered differently, judging by the systems put together here!