2. music
  3. 167235-161753

Garbage In - Garbage Out

Been reading a tremendous amount of information and opinion on what makes up a great stereo system, and all the ways to improve the sound.  Seems we give little attention to the music going into the system.  There are certain tracks that just make my stereo come alive.  I think yeah, that's where the money went!  Other tracks are limp.  Since some music sounds terrific, the not so much stuff can't be the fault of my equipment, but must be the recording itself.  So many recordings suffer from poor engineering, mixing, pressing etc....  I would be interested to hear what your favorite tracks are when you really want to show what your system is capable off.  Limit of two selections?  Artist - Album - Track.  Like:
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way - Shhh/Peaceful  (Side One)
Grant Green - Idle Moments - Idle Moments (Title Track)
128x128bigtwin

Showing 2 responses by simonmoon

simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
462 posts
 
As a "music first" audiophile, I put substantially more importance on the musical content, than the recording quality. But, it sure is nice when the two attributes align. 

Also, I must say, that even though the majority of my listening is done with my main focus on the music, there are times, maybe a few hours a couple of times a month, when I spend my time listening to "audiophile approved" recordings, and putting most of my attention on the gear. 

Both types of listening are enjoyable on different levels. 

At this point, I feel it is pertinent to post a quote by the very talented Alan Parsons (musician, producer, recording engineer), that I believe is wrong for the vast majority of audiophiles:

" Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment."




simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
462 posts
 
It seems to me that one thing that defines a hi-fi enthusiast is that, mostly, we listen to music and sometimes we listen to the system. After adjusting speaker position or re-tweaking cartridge, etc, you have to pay attention to the system to determine if the change made a sonic improvement.

It seems to me that one thing that defines a hi-fi enthusiast is that, mostly, we listen to music and sometimes we listen to the system. After adjusting speaker position or re-tweaking cartridge, etc, you have to pay attention to the system to determine if the change made a sonic improvement.


I listen both to my hifi and the music. Because I’m an audiophile, I love sound as well as music. There’s no tension for me between these kinds of listening.


These 3 quotes spell out pretty much my feelings.

I constantly run into people on YouTube threads, and general audio forums that don’t seem to understand that there is joy in both types of listening; paying attention to the music, or paying attention to the gear.

The weird thing is, like the above quote from Alan Parsons, there seems to be some sort of derision aimed at audiophiles are into their gear. If those types of audiophiles put their gear above the music, why should that bother anyone?
More to discover