Listening to music I don’t particularly like

 For me, this is really a 'to each his own' case as the audio hobby in general. I have gritted my teeth at someones new toy when I worked at a local college. Dam, the kid was so impressed by his new ear buds, what was I going to say? He loved them. I listened to them and tried my best not to wince.

  Same for me though. Sometimes when I get 'the next level' component (or think that I do), it takes a little bit to come clean with myself. 

 I have to remember how excited I was by the music itself, way back before I had ANY good gear.

I would rather have a Root Canal without anesthesia than spend 5 minutes listening to music that I don't like because it sounds better on my system

I was considering starting a thread very similar to this one, you beat me to it.

I'm of the opinion that many 'philes go for what sounds good on their system and happens to be in their wheelhouse.  Some of you remember the days when an audio demonstration included sound effects tracks...jet planes, trains and such.

It also appears to be readily apparent that many contributors to this forum are music lovers as opposed to equipment addicts.  I love all my gear, but not to the point that I discount music because it doesn't stand up to what sounds the best on my system.

I do not listen to music that I dislike, I only listen to music I really like.  There is a life time worth of listening in that category.

As an aside, if I start to think that my rig is not performing well all I do is put a 78 on my 1917 Victrola.  And then listen to the same music on the big rig.  Brain foolery works every time.

Regards, barts

Back in the seventies I used to argue with high end dealers that I don’t like or play the demo garbage they used in the showroom on my home system. When I did bring in records I liked and their products only magnified the bad recordings they became as silent as car salesmen when you bring up another brand. 

What is the problem here? You can listen to anything you want for whatever reason you can come up with. We like music for a multitude of reasons and that includes badly recorded music. Sometimes the bad recording is part of the charm. If you are listening to it there is something you like about it and that can legitimately  be anything.