Music lover or audiophile?

I listen to live music, perform and record with several choirs, a chamber group and a full orchestra.  If I don't like the music, it doesn't matter to me how good it sounds.  

@briangingrich

There’s nothing wrong with Floyd or Tchaikovsky - I’m just surpised there’s not a wider range of musical taste among in the high-end community.

My own observations are completely at odds with yours.

I’ve found over the years that audiophiles tend to have a wider range of musical interests than the average person. Personally my collection contains classical of many sorts, various types of jazz, fusion, rock, prog rock, folk, disco, funk, electronica, pop...you name it. I’ve found that most audiophiles I know have a similarly expanded interest in music, often because their interest in sound, and their systems, was a good vehicle for exploring a wider range of music.

rvpiano

I have to admit that I still listen for the sound at least as much as the music.

While I do understand the gist of what you are getting at there, I think it bares reflection that listening to music is to also love the sound. The musicians pick their instrumentation for how the instruments sound, because it is as much an influence on the music as the choice of notes.

It can be quite hard to separate the enjoyment of "music" from "sound."

I can listen to music as pleasant "background" from any number of "crappy" systems.

But to be compelled to sit down and directly concentrate on the music, I need a reason to do so.


Yesterday I heard a bunch of my LPs played back on a big, full-range pair of $20,000 speakers. I heard the music, but wasn’t compelled by the presentation to enjoy it nearly as much as I know I can. Throwing the same tracks on my system, dialed to my own preferences, and even though I happened to be using at the moment an old, tiny Spendor S3/5 monitors, I was just swooning to the music and sound in a way that just escaped that other system. Once the timbre and presentation of the music sounded "right" to my brain, I could just relax and luxuriate not only in the melody and beat, but in the sensuousness of the sound, which increased my involvement in the music.

Music is like heroin. It doesn’t do anything unless it’s the real thing. A junkie knows right away when somebody’s trying to scam him. Well, maybe he doesn’t. How the hell would I know?

An ordinary man has no means of deliverance,

I’m a music lover period.......

I bought mu current very high-end system 7 years ago and I haven’t replaced a single component.  I’ve added a 2nd pair of amps, an atomic clock and a cement rack in year one - did an “A-B test” for each of these, but I haven’t upgraded/changed the turntable, CD player etc. for different ones.

I don’t know or wanna know how al of this works - it’s a black box.  (Just like when I go to buy a new car - salesman always wants to pop the hood and explain everything - I tell him, “don’t bother - I don’t care what’s under the hood - I’ll take a test drive and decide)”