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Accuracy vs. musicality

I imagine if you have an unlimited budget you can have both ultimate accuracy and musicality.
For those of us whose budget is somewhat limited, we usually have to make a choice.
I very recently obtained  speakers (which I prefer not to name so as to avoid debate.  Some of you do know them.) These speakers were criticized by an Agoner for not being accurate.
Now, I heard the speakers he liked better and they we’re fine, and maybe more “etched,” but they did not convey the musical message as well to me.  Indeed I compared many such speakers recommended by members (there was little love for mine) and I found them not to have the sound I hear in a concert hall. They did not communicate to me as well.
So, what’s more important: precise accuracy or musicality?
128x128rvpiano
ngkt's avatar
ngkt
1 posts
 
A musical system is balanced (through component matching) and sounds natural to our auditory senses. It’s not necessary accurate which requires true reproduction of music through each elements of the system chains (from source to speaker to room acoustics).

On the other hand, a musical system with more accurate (or faithful) reproduction should be the goal towards the Nirvana since the listener will hear from recording what’s closer to true music. 

In my own experience, my 1st priority is to find the new balance in each attempt to upgrade my system (e.g cable switch, realign speaker placement, etc after I replaced my digital source) so I can rediscover the musicality I enjoy before the change was made. Hopefully, the “new” system will also be more accurate to give more of the key elements (e.g more dynamics, less noise) after each exercise of tweaks of mix and match is done.

A truly accurate and musical system takes time, effort and dough to build. That’s what makes the journey memorable (think about how you started from day one).
tarheelneil
35 posts
 
First of all, the accuracy of a speaker changes dramatically from room to room, and within a given room, from placement/positioning to placement/positioning.  It changes with each component in a given system.  What matters is the accuracy of the entire system within that room that you listen in.  If you nail THAT, you will have great musicality.  
moto_man
322 posts
 
And there you have it in a nutshell.  No matter what the "reviews" say, or other people that have heard a system, ultimately we all hear things differently.  Some of it is biological -- hearing is not uniform among all people, some is environmental -- such as the synergy between components and the room, and some of it is just preference.  That is why it is so difficult to buy components, and especially speakers, without hearing them in your own system.  One person's "musical" system might be another person's "bloated" inaccurate one.  If I purchase another pair of speakers, I am going to go to NYC, where I can actually listen to the speakers that I am interested in rather than rely on comments and reviews!  That being said, my equipment is for listening to music, not to see how close to the source signal it is.  Musicality beats accuracy to my old(er) too-many-Led-Zeppelin-concerts ears!
papafrgog
101 posts
 
One of the best posts/responses I’ve read on this forum!!  Great answers and examples - it’s a joy to read and appreciate thoughts of others without the usual argumentative posts.  I don’t believe accurate and musical are mutually exclusive, and both are influenced by so many things- equipment, source, room acoustics, and most importantly the ears. I’ll only spend money if I love the improvement in SQ I hear whether it’s accuracy musicality or hopefully both. Well done OP
niodari's avatar
niodari
297 posts
 

Who knows the definitions of "accuracy" and "musicality"?

Do you wish to be imposed by someone's ideas on what the accuracy means? And musicality is your personal matter, what you consider or not musical. Depends also on the music you listen. If you listen to badly recorded heavy metal, for instance, I think there is no issue of musicality, roughly, it should be just loud enough. If you listen to acoustic jazz, then you may compare the sound of your system with that at a live jazz concert. Then I think the musicality and the accuracy should somehow coincide, as you cannot call an inaccurate sound of some instrument musical.  Tube amplifies, for instance, normally have much higher harmonic distortion than solid state ones, but I think they are musical and mostly accurate for my ear. I think good speakers must be firstly accurate, and if they reproduce the sound as it was recorded  (given that it was recorded well) then you automatically get musicality. Listen to a well recorded human voice / vocal and you will have some idea on how musical and accurate your system sounds.


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