What define "musicality" ? And what constitute "musicality" in audio ?



I think that "musicality" is the most important factor and attribute in living audio experience... The experience of "musicality" i think, cannot be reduced to subjective factors only, nor objective one...It is more easy to describe what it is not, than to describe what it is, perhaps like the experience of God in theology...But for sure if you get it, it seems the most important resultant factor of your audio grid system,you feel it and like it the most...After 7 years i feel it more than ever...The urge to upgrade recess in the background because when you feel "musicality" already at a certain level, you dont believe that it is possible to push that level really higher at an affordable cost... "Musicality" for me, in my words, correlate with realistic musical timbre and voice, fluidity,no harshness at all, no fatigue, and last but not least, listening music and forgetting the sound...

This is my personal my experience, i am curious to read others about that,about their "way" and "means" to live that experience...Thanks to all...
128x128mahgister

Showing 2 responses by fsonicsmith

It's a lazy meaningless term. The proof is in the fact that someone decides to defend it in the OP. It is like calling food "tasty". Good audio writers never use the term because they don't have to. They have the writing skills to describe what they are hearing without resorting to meaningless shorthand. It also gets thrown around more often with regard to low to mid-priced gear. It bothers me less than PRAT because that too is a horse-crap term. "Toe-tapping" is another. I have one for all these stupid terms; "cringe-worthy". 
Thelonious Monk is known to have said, "writing about music is like dancing to architecture". The same can be said for trying to describe attributes of audio gear but since we gear-heads love to read and write about our hobby, here we are. 
In this age of the internet, there is a democratization of audio reviewing. We have webzines like 6Moons and Parttimeaudiophile in which the level of writing/reviewing is a whole step down from the likes of Mike Fremer, Art Dudley and Jon Atkinson and then below the webzines we have "the 600 lb fat guys living in their mom's basements" putting up whatever they want on this Board and others. And no, the reference to 600lb fat guys is not meant literally, it means some anonymous person who could be anywhere with little or no meaningful knowledge or experience. 
I have multiple hobbies and gravitate to multiple forums/boards. On each, one has to rifle through a ton of chaff to find any wheat. 
This time I find myself in agreement with Geoff Kait. It seems to be a weird combination of impending death, hearing loss, and refusal to admit failure when the time to start over has come and gone. I can’t count how many old geezers have smugly announced that they have finally discovered the Holy Grail and announce it was found in a yard-sale sourced 1970’s Sansui receiver, Bozak loudspeakers, and carefully tinned lampcord. These are the same guys who want us to know that after 50 years of marriage their sex lives are better than ever.