Well, the term “ musical” is notoriously squishy and is often just an audiophile stand in for “ I really like the sound of this component.”
So to define “musical” in terms of how I might use it, I would say it expresses:
- having a pleasant or beautiful sound to the ear
2. A sound that is not artificial or mechanical, and able to sound natural when reproducing voices and acoustic instruments.
3. A sound that allows a maximum enjoyment and engagement in the music itself.
To that end, I find my current Joseph Audio Perspective2 speakers, powered by my Conrad Johnson tube amplifiers, to hit a bull’s-eye in every respect. And I consider in this case, the speaker and amplifier combination the system that produces precisely the sound I’m looking for.
A few days ago, I was playing an early 70s Brazilian music album, in which in a single track it had lightly played acoustic guitar, a distant drum set and cowbells wood blocks, a lightly swelling horn section, occasional saxophone, swelling strings, rodes keyboard, etc.
The sound was deeply spacious, open and airy, and every single instrument sounded glorious: that beautiful brassy warmth of the trumpet and gently played brass instruments, that warm reedy sound of the sax (that I recognize from playing the sax myself), the delicate finger plucks of the guitar, the distinct timber differences between the metallic and wood percussion accents in the distance, the strings swelling with a seemingly perfect balance of bow texture and body. It was just heaven. The two words that come to mind are “ unmechanical” and “ luxurious .” Because there wasn’t even a hint of grain or etch in the highs to remind me the instruments were being played through a mechanical device. And the delicate range of timbral differences felt luxurious.
It was the sonic equivalent of a warm bath.
And of course, musical systems are the ones that keep your butt glued to your seat and you just can’t stop listening and you find yourself many hours later trying to drag yourself off to bed :-)
Although not quite as refined, I could say I find the other loudspeakers that I have kept around to be among the most musical I have owned in their different ways: Thiel 02, Thiel 2.7, Spendor s3/5, and I still have the highly musical Hales Transcendence 1 and centre speakers doing duty in my home theatre which I also use for listening to music in surround.
I’m out of the gear buying part of my life now and I feel quite lucky as to where I’ve ended up.