****Is someone else going to "man-up" and join in?****
I'll join in.
****This is, after all, a free/site/ that all can post their own feelings!... or at least, that's what I thought?****
Like I said, I'll join in.
****I, don't have ANYONE "backing me up ",****
Be careful what you wish for; "backing up" takes different forms.
Slaw, your passion for music is undeniable and admirable; there is no way I could not back up someone with that kind of love for music. It is for that reason, and because I am a participant in this thread, that I feel compelled to practice what you preach and freely express my feelings.
Imo, you personalize these issues way too readily and come across as very heavy handed with, among other things, your demands for admissions of being wrong. It is unfortunate that what could be interesting discourse gets derailed by passion that shoots itself in the foot as exemplified by the fact that participants stop participating (posting).
The connection between this attitude and the relevant (to me) musical issue might be very interesting, but is probably way above my pay-grade. That musical issue is the relationship between the quality of the music and the perceived sound quality of the recording of that music. I feel it needs to be pointed out that for all the proclamations about love for the music, about 99% of the commentary has been about the sound quality of the recording. Where is the commentary about the music? Not the sound of the drums or the soundstage; the music. We as audiophiles love our music to sound good, but I think there exists a lack of understanding or, at least, lack of context about the relationship between the music and the sound.
Comments were made in earlier posts about respect for the artists; impossible to argue against that. However, it should be remembered that in order to respect the artist one must understand the artist and the artist mentality. Dirty little secret: many artists don't concern themselves with the "sound" of their recorded music the way that audiophiles do. They are so steeped in what constitutes MUSIC that concern about the nth degree of soundstage clarity or tonal nuance becomes almost insulting to the music and that artist's musical vision. Remember, what may be "horrific" sound by audiophile standards is perfectly acceptable to the vast majority of listeners and perfectly capable of getting the musical message across. As always, perspective is everything. I am not talking about truly awful recordings that are so sonically toxic that the music can't come through. Frankly, I don't hear too many like that; and, obviously, there is nothing wrong with seeking out great sounding recordings. Clearly, there are some artists that do care about having superb sound; but, it needs to be remembered that the final sound is often beyond the artist's control or concern. The take-away of all this is that if we truly respect the music and the artist, we should be prepared to put sound quality a distant second when assessing a recording's greatness. IMO.
