How do you negotiate a cure for wrong audio view


It is a shame when our art degenerates into 'hobby'. To let the mind stray from the wonderous pregnancies of the composer or performer's works into mere material quest for sonic reproduction is sad indeed. Now mind you, I love the pursuit of sonic excellence same as the next audiophile, but when my mind looses the 'big picture' of the art I become reduced to a mere 'hobbyist', which for me is a sad feeling indeed. My remedy is a total shift in view: from the deaf equipment to the animate speaking beauty conveyed by the mere devices. When I recognize that I am spending my time thinking about the 'machines' I hopefully remember to LISTEN, THINK, APPRECIATE, and disappear into the magic of sound. What do you do with this inevitable problem?
chashmal
Hi Chashmal,Take a look at the Anstendig Institute website.
Interesting stuff.
I am a classical musician.My interest in stereo was initially to listen to recordings of my concerts.
Then,20 years ago,I lost the ability to play,and because I do not go out much,most of my listening is done at home.
Without going into the finer points of the issues that you touch on,it would probably be useful to ask which aspects of recreating sound are most important for the suspension of disbelief.
And there,most probably,different people have discovered that their priorities are different.
My guess is that color,or harmonic complexity,would tend to be high on most peoples' lists for the simple reason that our brain can not synthesize this quality to fill in for what is missing on the recording/system.
Hence,the popularity of SET triode amps.
My solution is to have different sounding systems at home.
Chashmal,

I do not mean to be unsympathetic but these types of discussions have been on this forum ad nauseam. There is music and there is the pursuit of the "absolute reproduced sound." It is a journey where we never reach our final destination. However, if the journey is destroying your love of the art, pull off the road. You need perspective. It may even take turning your system off for a while. Celebrate life, do a kind deed. Give of yourself instead of selfishly pursuing and then go back and listen afresh.

Best Regards,
Hoopster
One thing that prompted this thread was another thread entitled somerhing like "how do I get off the merry-go-round". The use of the word 'hobby' also factors in. Is it a hobby? Is it an art? Where is the line?

My personal opinion is that music is spiritual and not material, despite the physics. It is mind to mind, and mind is not dependent on brain. My 2 cents.

Thanks,
Dave
Reylon, it's very interesting that you should place "color, or harmonic complexity" at or near the top of the list of requirements. I had not thought about it, but this quality is what my systems have gained through numerous swaps and upgrades and it is probably fair to say that's what I'm looking for. I had thought that detail was most important to me, but you lead me to believe it may not be so.
You can equate this hobby with others. I know people that are into cars (hot rods, or other fast cars). They spend great amounts of time and money tweaking their hot rods.

Well, our stereos are our hot rods...and our sound rooms, are our garage.

I agree, it's about the music....but for many, it's about the other parts of the hobby too.

If you don't want a hot rod?....you don't need to invest as much?....you nan still have a nice car (stereo in this case). Point A to point B, is good enough.

Dave

Dave