Accurate vs Musical

here's another thing to consider.

the issue of musicality and accuracy may be irrelevant to the purpose of listening to music. it may not matter how you describe the performance of a stereo system as long as it satisfies your objective.

i visited a friend the other day and we were listening to the beethoven "kreutzer" sonata. he fell asleep during the last movement.

that is an indication of a great stereo system. sit down, listen and fall asleep, or lower your blood pressure. what difference does it make if the frequency response is restricted or if the stereo systems is low resolution? listening to music is preferable to taking pills.

accurate: input=output. the reproduction of the recording is error free. all stereo systems are inaccurate. there is no perfect reproduction of recordings.

musical: the "sound" of instruments acoustically reproduced.
the sound of an instrument varies with the conditions of the performance venue.

as far as listening to music in the home, musical refers to naturalness of timbre. "It sounds real" is an indication of musicality.

one cannot not know the sound of a recording, so it is not possible to measure the inaccuracy of a stereo system.

in my opinion, accuracy is unattainable, so my focus is the sound of an instrument. i look for adjustments in my stereo system to get closer to the sound of an instrument.

i think most of us can agree on the term "accuracy". "musical" refers to the sound of instruments.

all stereo systems are inaccurate and all cannot reproduce the timbre of instruments correctly.

what is instructive is to listen to a recording of an instrument that one has access to, such as an acoustic guitar. one can compare the stereo system's reproduction with the sound of the instrument.

if it is possible, record an acoustic guitar and compare the recording to the sound of the instrument--in the same room. such a comparison will provide an indication of a stereo system's musicality. this does not tell the whole story, as there are other instruments, ensembles and orchestras. comparisons with other instruments and ensembles may be impractical. a guitar is a good start.

musicality does not mean pleasing or less resolving than "accuracy". rather it refers to the characteristics of music,namely pitch, timbre and harmonics.

thus, if a stereo system is "musical" it reproduces the pitch, timbre and harmonics of instruments correctly. try accomplishing such a feat with commercially available recordings. have fun.

hi paul:

musical has nothing to do with euphonic. musical contains the word music ? what is music ? pitch, timbre and harmonics. the issue of distortion is a non issue.

when you listen to a live performance you hear the sound of instruments. most stereo systems misrepresent, to some extent, the sound of instruments because stereo systems are not perfect and recordings are not perfect.

stereo systems are inaccurate. the distiction you make between so called accurate and musical stereo systems is incorrect. if you consider the definition of the words you will realize that stereo systems are not musical and not accurate. they will represent, inaccurately, the sound of an instrument, to some degree, which cannot be measured.

some hobbyists will attempt to "adjust" their stereo systems to sound more like instruments, while others will try to minimize inaccuracy. both are problematical efforts, because a reference is lacking. the sound of a recording is unknown and most do not have the luxury to record a performance in their listening room and compare the reproduction of the recording with a live performance, which would be an anecdotal approach to assess musicality.

i suspect that so called accurate stereo systems contain inaccuracies of an additive nature, while so called musical systems are inaccurate , subtractively. thus musical and accurate stereo systems will probably sound different, as understood in the connotative ways in which the words are used. but note well again, no stereo system is accurate and no stereo system is musical. it's all a matter of how inaccurate a stereo system is. any ideas on measurement o9f inaccuracy ?