Do you play an instrument? Helps in speaker eval?

Hi,

Yes, I believe having played instruments...acoustic instruments -- piano and sax -- in my case...create points of reference in my assessment of a system/loudspeaker.

agree w Wolf on this one. I have not heard an audio system that gets everything equally right. Since I play a nylon string guitar, and particularly enjoy music on that instrument, I tend to gravitate towards system balance in which classical guitar "sounds right" to my ears. none come very close to the real thing in a small room, ime. Guitars do not sound the same from the playing position as they do from an audience position - they are designed for performance, after all, and are directional; some are designed for projection. you almost never hear a classical guitar concert without some amplification, and sound reinforcement does not compare to my (or anyone's here) home system.

I have a thing for cool sounding recorded drums. There, I said it. Also, have you ever listened to a recording a Respected Reviewer used while reviewing speakers or whatever in $300,000 worth of gear, and hear all the same things on your more modest rig? I have...and it's comforting. If anything, a musician might notice things when they're "right" mostly from years of trying to avoid "wrong."

With most acoustical instruments the player has a different acoustical perspective than a typical microphone setup or standing a few feet in front of the instrument.

After I've done a mic setup with a decent engineer my raw Bass track can sound amazingly life like. The file or the knock down to 1/4" tape sounds better at home than at most studios.

What gets past mixing, post production, mastering, and the crud that is publication and production is far from the initial recording.

I had a hard pan of a Soprano-phone and my big 4/4 Slavic Bass with about five minutes of "Giant Steps" that I used to take to audio shows. Knowing what it was supposed to sound like was quite telling to me. So my answer is yes.

I used to play piano more than now, have an old 1926 rebuilt Chickering Grand adjacent to the listening room. I would rather play than use my recordings for evaluation as it always reminds me I started too late learning THAT instrument. Chopin would have cried.:( Played several woodwind instruments starting at age 9 through early 20's. None of this helps when evaluating speakers. How music sounds when you're playing it, or in a band or orchestra, has little to do with how it sounds as a listener. Priorities are different for the two.

Listening to as much live music as you can is the best way to hear the true sound of music and evaluate reproduced.