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Headphones Changed my Music Taste - Page 2

post #16 of 30
4/13/09 at 9:48am
I wouldn't say that my tastes in terms of content have changed, but headphones have made me much pickier about recording quality. Noisiness, muddiness, excessive compression, sibilance/brightness, or lack of soundstage are all sufficient reason to eliminate a CD from my collection.
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post #17 of 30
4/13/09 at 1:15pm
It's quite sad to get rid of a CD you liked because the recording is bad. It kind of defeats the purpose of this hobby, doesn't it? That said, I've done it before, but only with those really atrocious recordings. Pity when that happens.
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post #18 of 30
4/13/09 at 4:16pm
For the most part, I manage not to buy CDs with poor sound quality to begin with. I do occasionally get one by mistake, though. (The worst offenders seem to be new releases by bands I have liked previously.)
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post #19 of 30
4/13/09 at 6:25pm
I really think it's important to remember that quality audio equipment should exist - first and foremost - to increase the enjoyment that you get from the music that you love.

Once you start letting sound quality strictly dictate the music that you buy and listen to, you've lost sight of the point behind music - IMHO.
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post #20 of 30
4/13/09 at 6:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by asmox View Post
I really think it's important to remember that quality audio equipment should exist - first and foremost - to increase the enjoyment that you get from the music that you love.

Once you start letting sound quality strictly dictate the music that you buy and listen to, you've lost sight of the point behind music - IMHO.
On the other hand, our thirst for great music quality also (dictate)introduce you to new types of music. it goes both ways but i can really see your point. i use to be a listener exclusive to hip hop and r&b alone but with better gear i learn to appreciate rock and acoustic jazz. not in my wildest dreams did i imagine that my musical taste would expand like it did since headfi. for me there is no genre anymore good music is good music. with that being said i wont be listening to a 2pac or big album on the modest setup im currently building. i still enjoy them when im on the go though. you know different events=different music. yes i saw the word "stricly", i just wanted to point out the the other side of the issue. no harm intended.


cheers

btw.... i just read the entire thread. it seems the many of us became enthralled with acoustic jazz and female vocal. they are just so soothing to me.
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post #21 of 30
4/13/09 at 6:59pm
John Coltrane had a lousy stereo.

Some people like gear, some people like music, and some people like both.
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post #22 of 30
4/13/09 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lutwey View Post
On the other hand, our thirst for great music quality also (dictate)introduce you to new types of music. it goes both ways but i can really see your point. i use to be a listener exclusive to hip hop and r&b alone but with better gear i learn to appreciate rock and acoustic jazz. not in my wildest dreams did i imagine that my musical taste would expand like it did since headfi. for me there is no genre anymore good music is good music. with that being said i wont be listening to a 2pac or big album on the modest setup im currently building. i still enjoy them when im on the go though. you know different events=different music. yes i saw the word "stricly", i just wanted to point out the the other side of the issue. no harm intended.
There's a difference between taste expanding and taste changing. There's also a difference between different music for different events and straight up permanently throwing an album out of your collection because it no longer matches up to some arbitrarily defined sound engineering requirements.

My tastes have expanded considerably over the years. I love albums that sound good and I can appreciate them all the more because my gear can get them to sound the way they were meant to sound. However, at the end of the day, "How does this album sound?" is at the bottom of my list when deciding whether or not to listen to something.

I have albums that, technically, sound like total trash - I would never dream of throwing them away because, in the end, all of my amplifiers, headphones, and speakers would amount to a whole lot of nothing if the music in my collection did nothing more than glorify their capabilities.
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post #23 of 30
4/13/09 at 9:13pm
I have had the same change. originally i had some pair of sony earbuds, once i got my Shure se210 (got these before joining the forum) my tastes changed from heavy punk rock and metal to ska, which is like jass+rock. once i got my Audio-Technica ath-m50's my taste changed to--for a very short period of time--emo for some unknown reason, then to classical (after they burned in alot).
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post #24 of 30
4/14/09 at 5:38am
Thread Starter 
Interesting repliles folks,

I would say that when the gear is more important than the music or the quality of the recording is more important you've lost touch. I have never thrown out an album at least not intentionally.

I enjoy more music than i ever did since joining head fi but i do have one regret. Back in the 70's as a small boy my mother let me play with her records. These were hundreds of singles and albums dating back all the way through the 60's including orignal beatles and stones vinyl. She let me draw on them with a crayon and throw them round the garden like frisbees! I wish she or I had had the restraint or sense to keep them safe I would love to have them now.

BTW i still use apple buds for my ipod
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post #25 of 30
4/14/09 at 6:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherwood View Post
John Coltrane had a lousy stereo.

Some people like gear, some people like music, and some people like both.
Most of my musician friends aren't into (this kind of) audio equipment at all. They're happy with their iBuds and cheap speakers, etc. When they want good audio reproduction, they just play something themselves. Or get a bunch of guys together to jam. I guess that's audio production, really. But there we are. There are artists, and there are appreciators. I'm happy to be an appreciator.
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post #26 of 30
4/14/09 at 7:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by asmox View Post
I really think it's important to remember that quality audio equipment should exist - first and foremost - to increase the enjoyment that you get from the music that you love.

Once you start letting sound quality strictly dictate the music that you buy and listen to, you've lost sight of the point behind music - IMHO.
Exactly. Well said, thank you for that.
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post #27 of 30
4/14/09 at 7:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherwood View Post
John Coltrane had a lousy stereo.

Some people like gear, some people like music, and some people like both.
Very true. The most hardcore music geeks I know have consumer grade or mid-fi systems. They appreciate nice gear (they all love the RS-1, but are divided on the rest. Go figure.) but usually won't pay for it and are perfectly happy with their setups.

To the OP, look into adding a turntable to your rig. They sound great, but you'll also find plenty of used records in a variety of genres. If you buy with an open mind, you'll discover even more music you never knew you loved.
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post #28 of 30
4/14/09 at 9:10am
Sound quality is far from being my only (or most important) factor when choosing what to listen to. It is, however, a factor.
There are many, many things that I appreciate about music, but SQ has to be a given. If a CD sounds terrible, I cannot get past that to enjoy the content.
In no way can any of this be seen as "choosing the music just to show off the system".
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post #29 of 30
8/16/09 at 10:49pm
I'd be interested to hear how better gear has changed others' taste in music.

In high school, I listened to pop (saw Billy Joel 3 times but Van Halen only once ), but also was very into classical music performance; nearly became a music major (fortunately I didn't). Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush in college. Then came the dead years when I worked too much to know anything. Then 90s gangsta rap, accompanied by the Beasties, Beck and Ben Folds Five. Then. . . folk, acoustic, alt-country.

Now that I've discovered my ears again, I'm still into my folk and alt-country, but I'm also rediscovering the classical that I left behind in high school. Even discovering a little jazz as long as there is some tonality to it. Looking up at my shelf, in addition to my old stuff, I've got Nine Inch Nails, Muddy Waters (Folk Singer), Elvis Costello's North, Patricia Barber, Linda Ronstadt, Brian Bromberg, Glenn Gould, the Mackerras Beethoven set, the Bernstein Mahler set, Steely Dan (what movie was it? "If I ever start listening to Steely Dan, slice my throat with an Al Jarreau records), and the wonderful Curzon Mozart on Esoteric that's in my ears right now. Never would have happened without the headphones.

Anybody else experience anything like this?
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post #30 of 30
8/16/09 at 11:09pm
If anything, excellent playback equipment has heightened my appreciation of jazz, and left everything else preferentially unaffected.

A bit of background, I am a trained jazz saxophonist. Played all through college, got paid, the whole thing. I ended up burning out because I couldn't wait to get away from jazz -- it's never been a style of music I loved, but it's where the jobs are at for a sax player.

Having basically hung the horn up for the last 5 years, I've come to a place where I can listen to jazz again and enjoy it, and I credit that both to a little distance from jazz every day and to the playback equipment. Jazz yields rewards from enhanced resolution that many other genres I enjoy do not. I imagine jazz is not alone in this regard, but it is of what I enjoy.
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