The Sound or Music


I listen to all genres of music but really enjoy it with good sound. I know of people who just love one particular type of music but don't care at all about audio. My late relative just loved classical music and had hundreds of good records but his system was like bad transistor radio. He had means but was not interested in better system at all. Music, for him was 99.9% and sound 0.1% of the pleasure. He was most likely missing half of instruments of orchestral music, he listened to - either by limited frequency response or very poor resolution. He was a music lover. Am I a music lover or just only an audio freak?
What about you?
128x128kijanki
I will take the 300 and great sound--do I get dedicated lines on the island?? can listen to a different song every day for 300 days and after 3 mos on the island when I go crazy I won't remember what I listened to anyway--all kidding aside I have music that sounds great in the car but not so great on the big system--ie poorly recorded etc but is really good music--so if you like music it is good anywhere but it can be so much better on a nice system--that is why we are all here!!
I went on a 6 day vacation to Mexico shortly after Christmas with an ipod chock full of 6800 songs. My only previous experiences with this veritable, yet limited music library, was during work-outs or grass-cutting. My intention was to provide distraction from the lengthy plane ride. What I discovered was how much I enjoyed the music. I listened each and every night, on the beach, and of course, on the flight back. It was the music. I went as far as to tell my family I had inadvertently vanquished my obssessvie tendencies towards vinyl playback.

I had a similar conversation with Arnie Nudell and Paul McGowan at the 1996 Vail Jazz Party. With strong paraphrase on their evaluatuion, they contended music may best be appreciated only through a high resolution system. With the support of a woman comfortable in expressing her opinion I was able to return the focus to the music and the joy there derived.

And, although the audio quality of an ipod may exceed that of a boom box it's offerings are little compared to my home system. I hold the dis-belief that I might ever pick sound over substance.
Well said, Ras422. Those are my thoughts as well. I look at it like this, I was way into music when all I had was my parents old stereo fom the 50's. The sound quality wasn't even close to the system I have now, but that doesn't mean I didn't love the music any less. Any upgrades that I made over the years were just icing on the cake.
For me I'm a music lover and an audio freak. Loving music is what turned me into an audio freak. For that deserted island, I would choose to have the perfect stereo with 300 favorite recordings, thank you. A perfect stereo is much too hard to come by.

Just thought about it again. It's the "perfect stereo?" After spending thousands of dollars building the opposite of the "perfect stereo," I would never pass on the "perfect stereo." That's a no-brainer for me. 300 favorite recordings will have to do.
I love music, that's why I have a stereo at all.

But, I realize that music exists so that I can test my stereo, and continually try to make it better.

I wonder what a new DAC would sound like, and how 2 smaller subs would compare to one big one, oh yeah, I've always wanted to try a linear tracking arm, that TransFi Terminator 3 looks good, you know I love my VPI Classic, but I grew up near where they make Sota tables, so maybe I should try one of those...........

Oh yeah, I like music too.