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The Sound or Music

I listen to all genres of music but really enjoy it with good sound. I know of people who just love one particular type of music but don't care at all about audio. My late relative just loved classical music and had hundreds of good records but his system was like bad transistor radio. He had means but was not interested in better system at all. Music, for him was 99.9% and sound 0.1% of the pleasure. He was most likely missing half of instruments of orchestral music, he listened to - either by limited frequency response or very poor resolution. He was a music lover. Am I a music lover or just only an audio freak?
What about you?
128x128kijanki
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onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,152 posts
 
I don't cherish sound over substance. I like good sound, but I love good music. If I had to chose between all my music or my systems. The choice would be a no brainer. The music would win. Fortunately, it's never an either or choice.
jamiek's avatar
jamiek
43 posts
 
Elizabeth, no offense but I think you should speak for yourself. Without good music, I would never have wanted a good system to hear it on. Personally, I would rather hear the music such that it moves me and I really feel it, rather than simply being able to identify the song, as with a poor system.
hellofidelity
77 posts
 
I would listen to music on a crappy boom box if that's all I had. It's difficult for me to imagine life without music. I prefer listening to music on a nice hifi, but I've learned that just because a component or system is "high end" doesn't make it "musical".
kijanki's avatar
kijanki OP
4,413 posts
 
Thank you Elizabeth - I feel a little better.

Jamiek, Hellofidelity - Imagine that you have choice of two versions of the same orchestral performance:

- exceptional performance recorded 50 years ago with
really bad sound and a lot of noise.
- recently released, not as great but recorded beautifully.

What would you choose? Said relative of mine would not hesitate selecting first one while I would always select the second. I'm perhaps audio freak but am not as bold as Elizabeth to admit it.

Onhwy61 - In example above it might be trade-off between 10% performance difference for 90% sound improvement. Is it still sound over substance?
Whole experience is important to me - substance AND sound.
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