Thank you.
I was thinking about the distinction between appreciating sound quality and enjoying listening to music last night. What I call the objective and the subjective.
First I listened to and enjoyed a couple of good sounding albums by Bob Marley and the Wailers and Underworld on streaming mainly ripped CDs. But when I moved on other streamed albums I grew tired of listening.
So I changed to vinyl. Although the sound quality was no better, I found the longer I listened the better it got and the more I enjoyed listening. This is the exact opposite of what happens with streaming. It is typical for me and the main reason I prefer vinyl.
So steaming sounds as good as or better than vinyl. Yet I find listening to vinyl more enjoyable. I can’t explain this. It defies logic. Therefore I presume there must be some psychological factors at play here.
I have made a lot of effort in trying to improve the quality of streaming. However, it has done nothing to change my preference for vinyl. In other words, upgrading hasn’t really helped much.
It's like upgrading beyond a certain level is just window dressing and not really getting to what's important. Perhaps this is what people are getting at when they talk about diminishing returns. Maybe, I should stop trying to understand and just enjoy the music.
