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Has your system changed the music you listen to?

I recently went through a "sell it all and start over" phase with my system. I now own an all McIntosh system driving Thiel CS 2.3 speakers. All of a sudden, I cannot listen to enough jazz. I have never been much of a jazz listener but now i am buying books on jazz music and compiling a sizeable jazz collection. (BTW: I don't consider this a problem in any way, just an interesting phenomena!) Previous system changes have not produced such changes for me.

Life circumstances have certainly been part of this but I cannot help but think that my system change has contributed to this revolution in my music listening habits. Has anyone else experienced anything like this.
pardales
ozfly
887 posts
 
Pardales, good observation! When I first heard a great system (not my own), Tomita and other similar music sounded great and changed my tastes. Later, when I got my first good (and perhaps best to date -- that's another story) car audio system, Rick Wakeman really grew on me -- yes I'm busted Mwilson. Still later, when I got my first very nice home audio system, it was jazz, jazz, jazz. Right now, everything finds it's way onto the turntable or CD player. I agree with Albert that good systems open up the possibilities of all kinds of music. Good post!
rives
953 posts
 
Absolutely. I used to own a Klipsch based system in college and for a few years after. I listened to mostly rock. I then got into Martin Logans after hearing them at a friends house. The vocals were so amazing that I went searching for every great vocal I could find. Then I got into jazz and more jazz--but then needed to get the woofer to work properly for great jazz recordings. Now I listen to mostly jazz, vocals and classical--in that order. Very seldom do I listen to rock. Was it the system change--or did I change (reminds of a light bulb joke--nevermind)
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,247 posts
 
Not really. Over the past 20 years my taste in music has expanded and evolved, but I don't think it's related to my audiophile tendencies. I would think that over time everybody's musical taste changes, but I would be suspicious if it's driven by changes in your system. That's not to say that a good system won't help you appreciate different types of music, because it will, but a good system should definitely help you enjoy the music you already like.
clingman71
64 posts
 
I have had the same experience. I have always been a blues fan, but not until I got the audio bug did I really start listening to jazz. I believe, for me at least, that a lot of it has to do with the simplicity of the recordingss. My taste in jazz is almost exclusively acoustic "traditional" jazz(50s - early 60s). You had piano, drums, and bass with a trumpet and/or sax lead. The recordings were very pure and simple, just the musicians, their instruments, and the music, no overdubs, processing, or extreme editing.
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
Yes! When I started getting into HiFi in the mid 80’s, I was strictly a rocker. As my system has evolved, along with getting older, my taste in music has expanded to include everything from Megadeth to Mozart. My current fav is Bluegrass. Sampling music on the Internet as also helped widen my musical horizons.
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