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LoFi

My sound system is down for repairs (I don’t know for how long). I’m now reduced to listening to music on Alexa’s transmission of WQXR, New York’s classical music station, in LoFi. Surprisingly, I’m getting into the music more easily. Without the distraction of sonic values, I’m able to totally concentrate on the music itself. I don’t need Hifi and soundstaging to “get” the musical message. it brings me back to my youth when I listened on a table radio and first fell in love with music. I find that I now can follow a piece of music from beginning to end more easily.

Not that I’m ready to give up the hobby. Just an interesting observation.

rvpiano
deep_333
2,450 posts
 

Get a pair of Sony's 360 reality headphones. It is more enjoyable than all this hifi crap somedays.

Or Temu sells some in-ears for 20 bucks that are kinda jawdropping (shop like a billionaire....i always knew there was a billionaire in ya).

 

kennyc
3,001 posts
 

 Alexa - any sonic tweaking? Add a subwoofer?

rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,989 posts
 

No subwoofers yet.
But listening to the radio I realize this a classic case of missing the forest for the trees.
Too much sonic detail to hear a composition as a whole.
This is true especially for classical music (bigger forest) which tends to be more complex than other types of music

lanx0003
1,961 posts
 

I strongly suggest that you stick with lo-fi to avoid any dissatisfaction when switching back to hi-fi. Like my son (no kidding), who enjoys lofi much better and care less about hifi. My best half also enjoys WQXR better than anything else. I am the minority who can not live without hifi.

deep_333
2,450 posts
 

I don’t think OP’s issue is low-fi vs hi-fi. It is the wrong approach of hifi, which focuses on some soundstage, separation and how things are spread out in it, pinpointing whatever. It makes an analytical mind go crazy, takes you out the music.

About a month ago, i watched an orchestra in a grand acoustical hall, not too far from where i live. There was not even a remote instance of not being fully enveloped immersed in the music, almost transcendental, while watching a dense orchestra.

To do that type of envelopment and immersion at home (that shuts down the analytical mind) at home, one may need to resort to some atmos/multichannel/object based audio....I recall 10 years ago, it was the classical guys who were switching over first. But, of course, it requires a larger space, more expense, setup complexity, etc.

Or the other extreme is to get a bluetooth boombox or transitor radio to completely kill all expectations and lower standards drastically... so it becomes enjoyable again.

I strongly suggest that you stick with lo-fi to avoid any dissatisfaction when switching back to hi-fi. Like my son (no kidding), he enjoys lofi much better. My best half also enjoys WQXR better than anything else.

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