I had a really enjoyable phone conversation with one of our better known fellow head-fier's tonight.We talked a bit about a lot of things but the one topic that stuck with me is simply enjoying the music that we play.I have recently been guilty of going far overboard in my quest for ultimate fidelity in my audio systems.this quest has robbed me of much of the enjoyment of the music that I love so much.I have moved so much equipment through my systems that I have no idea what sounds like what and where actual improvements have taken place.This is not good.My main system sounds great but I find that I don't even listen to it much.Most of my listening is done in my car followed closely by my portable gear.I find myself enjoying music most when I am relaxed and not worrying about if I have the very best sound available.When I listen to my main system in my listening room I constantly pick over stupid details.I am a music lover first and the audio obsession has clouded my passion for music.I have decided that I will make no changes to my current main system configuration for the remainder of this year.I think this will allow me to enjoy the music instead of obsessing over sonics,gear and constant synergy problems.Right now my main system sounds better than it ever has and I am going to enjoy it as it is.I am not knocking critical listening,but I think when we listen critically we are really listening to the equipment and not the music.If you think the latest cable or amp will help you enjoy music more,then that's great,but I would love for us all to listen to music more.I think my new favorite forum is gonna be the music forum.I'm not bailing on the other forums but I really need to get back to where I am most comfortable and that is wrapped in the music.

I think I have the opposite problem, and yet with the same results. I hear a new piece of equipment, and I go through that "first kiss" euphoria all over again, just get totally into enjoying the music, and forget to listen to what, exactly, is different about this piece of gear. I mean, I do get it, eventually, in the long run, but it makes for a very bad reviewer (I.E., me).

People wonder how magazines can write review after review of nothing but positive adspeak, doing nothing but rambling endlessly about how good a piece of equipment is. I don't wonder. That would be me.

Dear Tuberoller.

Hundred % with you !! At the end of any line, music is all that matters !!

Best from

Ari

Tuberoller, you are absolutely right. Officially I see work with the equipment as means to an end, enhanced musical experience. Sometimes I find myself too much indulged in the audiophile activity of critical listening, whats right and wrong with this system, what could I do to get it better. Reasonable considering that I lately have made a number of major and minor upgrades. There has always been something burning in during the last year. It must end. I only need a power cable for the phono preamp and maybe a power conditioner. Then my main speaker system is finished. Unhappily, there is more to do on the headphone side, I want this to be as good as the main system.
I am already so satisfied with the main system that I don't care as much as earlier. Just now I am more involved in listening and searching for new albums than audio components. But it would be healthy not even considering a new component for at least a year. Hope I am soon there.
There is a considerable difference between critical audiophile listening and the musical experience. Last week I made some tests of the Auric Illuminator CD treatment. I listened on some tracks on a CD, then treated it an repeated the last track. The result was that I became so involved in the music that I often listen to the end of the CD and then repeated the whole CD. This is a good sign.
I want a system that is good enough for concentrated, relaxed and involved listening to the music. A good system is not enough, you also have to get into the right mood yourself. Not always easy in our world of demands, competition and everyday problems.

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Tuberoller,

I am knocking critical listening. Vehemently. I am convinced this approach is the root of all evil. Well, almost.

I think that our criteria for choosing components determine the sound of our systems. Seems like stating the obvious, doesn’t it? But think about it: If we listen for isolated effects, like soundstage, instrument separation, bass extension, air, detail, resolution, whatever, if we apply the established hi-fi criteria, then we are not listening to music. At best, we are listening to sound. But what is our goal when we build our systems? Isn’t it the reproduction of music? Shouldn’t we judge how well a system reproduces music and its emotion? How enjoyable it is? How well it captures the soul of the music, the magic of an interpretation?

I feel high fidelity has long lost sight of its goal, and what once was nothing more than a means to an end has become the focus of our attention, and the focus of manufacturers as well. The marketplace, manufacturers, media and consumers, they all have some very strange ideas about the sound of real-life music. This frame of reference has long lost its meaning in the hi-fi scene. People may be able to compare dozens of speakers or amps or CDPs in regard to their dynamics or resolution or frequency extension, but when is the last time that hey have been exposed to the real thing, real-life acoustic music? Some of us have never been and generally, we don’t care all that much. We worry about upgrading from a Class B to a Class A component, we worry about status. Who cares that the Class B component might have far superior musical accuracy. I bet 90 percent of us don’t really care about the bottom line, they don't care about what ought to be the only important thing: musicality. We have long lost our way in what has become the self-referential world of high fidelity, where properties like musicality and accuracy shall be eternally separated, where magic is described in numbers and where no one notices anymore just how Orwellian a term like euphonic distortion really sounds.

I experience a pendulum effect, go through cycles, whatever, with listening. Sometimes I listen critically, sometimes I just enjoy the music. I am not convinced, though, that "enjoying the music" and listening critically are mutually exclusive.

When I'm listening for soundstrange, for clarity or balanced frequency response, trying to decide if I like this amp better than that, etc., it's because I believe that I will enjoy the music more when it has better soundstage, clarity, etc. Perhaps the relationship between critical listening and enjoying the music is what we shouldn't lose sight of.

I came home this morning and listened to a few records without moving around any basstraps,switching phonostages,checking turntable adjsutments......I had a really good listen and the music came through just fine.When I say listen critically,I mean listening for faults or shortcomings in the music reproduction,either system faults or recording faults.I wonder how many reviewers actually listen to music and enjoy it.i remember meeting a magazine reviewer who told me he never listens to music in his car because it will train his ears to accept improper stereo imaging.That is rediculous.This guy could never have a good time listening to music with that attitude.taking an anylitical approach to music listening is goofy and if I'm listening for stuff like recording quality I'm missing the point entirely.I'm the type of guy who will buy new music and rip open the package right in the car and listen while driving home,that's the way I like it.

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Dusty: I have the exact same problem. Whenever I get a new piece of gear, it seems like EVERYTHING is perfect, awesome, etc. I'm a little bit different, though, because I say "wow," The bass is just THAT much lower/better/etc. But it all boils down to the same. . .

Well Said Tuberoller.

... although I've found that the more "critically" I listen, the less difference I hear. So the solution for me is to sit back, relax, and enjoy a CD through Component A, then slowly ("aww, do I have to?") get up, swap to component B, wash, rinse,repeat...

tuberoller- great point, I have found myself guilty of this recently too. in this age of "upgraditis" we live in, it is much too easy to go on the internet, read a review of a piece of equipment and then think to yourself "boy I can justify spending 1000.00 on a cd player because so and so said it was this good" I believe I may just make the same resolution as you. no more upgrade until next year (after my new mg head arrives) but I already ordered that.




tomcat also makes a great point, I agree with it 100%.

Hehehe, I just have a mosfet amp with a record player. The signal doesn't get much more pure than that. Who knows? Maybe 1000$ amps sound better... I really don't care, because I love my setup how it is. It plays wonderfull music

I mean...I probabally enjoy my cheap car stereo just as much as my 1000$ hifi system.

Come to think of it...i'm getting quite a bit of pleasure from my cheapo computer speakers right now.

since i have no room for speakers, i don't own any. i have none hooked up, so if i want to listen to an album and be able to move around.. i have to use the tv's speakers!

sure it doesn't sound all that great, but it's music which is better than silence (depends on what cd is playing, of course ).

also, the stock stereo system in my car is nothing amazing. i got the subwoofer package and boy does it suck. the most loose and wooly bass i have ever heard, so i generally keep the bass setting at -5 (i'm a flat e.q. man), just to try and keep it under control. however, if i have a couple friends in the car and we feel like goofing off, we'll crank up the bass and thump around.. is it the best repoduction quality of music on the planet? hell no. is it fun? yes it is. ever share a special moment with someone you care very much about and a song/album was playing in the background? i have and now i have a few albums that have a lot of sentimental value to them.. but do you think, when we were listening to the album, that i was thinking "damn, i wish i was in my listening room right now" while we listened? hell no. the moment was there and it didn't need superior sound quality to be special.

enjoy the music. sometimes there are things more important than sound.

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ME TOO
I don't have any high end audio equipment. I got good stuff but not the best. I just want to listen to music. As long as it doesn't sound like a Loyds mono $4 radio it's good enough for the moment. I get the most enjoyment from my Panasonic CT570 with my Total Airhead and either Koss KSC/35 or Beyer 250 headphones, while I'm sitting on the back porch relaxing to what ever music I'm in the mood for at that time. This is a good system, though it's not a tube amp or HD600's it still sounds just fine to me.

MPD

for me (and perhaps others?) its more complicated than obsessing over music vs. listening to music. of course i can't say much because i've spent almost all my time enjoying and very little nitpicking... just when theres hum... then i'd freak out...

but ever since i developed abstract thought i seem to require some sort of obsession just to keep me going. unfortunately more often than not this has involved some sort of computer activity (its shameful i know) so with audio i can combine everything in my world into one, and right now i have to admit i feel blessed because of it. i've been a huge listener for... well only a few years when i think about it, but at my age there isnt much more... and go through periods of obsessive music collecting, which is a lot of fun. I am also an engineering student, and at times my obsessions have perhaps gotten a bit in the way of that (admittedly counterstrike is a hell of a lot of fun, but i'm glad i'm off it)

my point is that now i can listen blissfully to new and old music, and to fill my obsession i can and have started to research and study and build my own amps and figure out how it all works, which is also an incredible way to bring my education into my life and start to understand why i'm after it. all the while the euphoria i get from listening is steadily increasing from new componants.

but of course i havn't even nearly hit the point where i'd have to add the word synergy into my vocabulary, but i encourage everyone to think of a productive route to channel their obsessions towards (instead of fight them off), and i'll try to keep mine up for now.

that reminds me, i have to start playing my instraments again (easy to get into the habbit of not playing, once you don't have to) and picking one up is a great way to get more into music. (i just bought a flute a couple months ago, and need to get practicing playing along with matt elke in the david grisman quintet is some of the most fun to be had)