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Enjoying the music.

post #1 of 52
4/23/10 at 1:51pm
Thread Starter 
As we should all know, music itself is the most important part of this hobby, not the gear that reproduces it. But, unfortunately, I've grown to the point of not being able to enjoy music if the sound isn't close to neutral and analytical. If the sound isn't like that I find myself staring at the music and focusing on the flaws of the reproduction instead of enjoying the music itself.

I don't get this problem with any of my main audio setup. It hit me yesterday when I was out with friends and we were just having fun. One of my friends doesn't have much interest in high end audio so he uses a very poor speaker setup. So he started playing music and it happened to be a song that I loved. I just couldn't enjoy it.

Does this happen to you guys?
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post #2 of 52
4/23/10 at 3:03pm
No, I can enjoy the music I like on pretty much any speaker setup and any iems or headphones.


Although I can't stand to listen to anything on ibuds or very similar earbuds. They give me a headache within 30 seconds.
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post #3 of 52
4/23/10 at 3:31pm
When this happens to me while listening on a lifeless stereo I find myself thinking about what I'm able to hear on my system....The "close to live performance" The Timbre, the imaging of each instrument and finally the voice that I hear in my system and that's a damn good feeling......Then I find myself just enjoying the friendship with who I'm with..I don't knock anyones system, but I will comment on what they're playin'!! Like "what the hell is that crap",etc.etc. Is that what you asking Sonic 748i
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post #4 of 52
4/23/10 at 3:43pm
Believe it or not, I enjoy listening to Michel Camilo through my bass combo more than through my speakers or headphone system. That bass combo has only one 8" driver, with no tweeters, and the high range is 'quite' limited. But man, I feel like in a real gig, with sound pressure from Anthony Jackson's bass, powerful drums attack etc. It is MUCH more moving and involving, although of course I hear much less with this kind of 'setup', and it is not that good for any analytical listening I guess enjoyment sometimes is totally independent of the quality of reproduction.
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post #5 of 52
4/23/10 at 3:53pm
I can still very much enjoy music from suboptimal systems. No problem whatsoever. It's just that I prefer when it sounds great. When I got into photography, I was very much into the equipment and it distracted my interest in the art of photography. Some of the greatest photographers never had great equipment at their disposal. It's the same for music and myself. Head-fi has succeeded in making me more than a bit pre-occupied with the equipment and the technical aspects of sound reproduction. However, I've realized that I've reached the limits in my 'technically good sound' to 'enjoying the music' ratio. If I upgrade, it will not be to enjoy my music more. I'm very happy with what I have now where that's concerned.
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post #6 of 52
4/23/10 at 4:02pm
I am certainly more aware of poor quality sound reproduction now than when I started in the hobby. That said, I only get annoyed at egregiously bad sound (e.g. loud volume causing distortion), or when the circumstances (usually ambient crowd noise) renders all but a part of the music unrecognizable (usually the thump of the bass).

Less than optimal does not bother me at all. The audio in my car blows but I sometimes have to sit in my driveway until the end of the song.
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post #7 of 52
4/23/10 at 6:26pm
for me,it depends on how bad is the system I am listening to. i can still enjoy music if it plays on a normal sounding system,even from the TV sometimes when watching clips on mtv and such, because the music is something of its own. my brain recieves the notes of the songs,analyses them and saying whather he likes the music or not...temporarly ignoring the sound quality involoved.
when I listen to my home system,my brain goes into another mode which the sound is an integrate part of the music,50-50.

but though i still can enjoy music on a rather poor sounding system, I will always think about how is the sound...maybe before i became an audiophile I didn't think of that but ever since I became an audiophile i can't not to think about it.
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post #8 of 52
4/23/10 at 10:35pm
Sonic 748i , I just finished Jon Iverson article in stereophile about "THE HOLY TRINITY" He's talking about your M.Q.E. and how it changes throughout ones' life.. MQE stands for 1)MUSIC 2)Quality audio reproduction 3)Ease of access to music....So that is kind of what you're talking about....He states when he was young his MQE was 90/0/10 and when he became older and aware of "good sounding Equip. his No. changed to 25/65/10 and so on! I find that's a pretty strange, but true way of gauging the importance of The Music, The sound from our systems, and the ease at how we play our music....I'd say my MQE is about 70/85/5, I like to hear what tunes I love and I really like "How" my system reproduces those tunes but I don't care about the "Ease" of playin' or getting my tunes....I guess because I Love vinyl playback, and we all know that can be a pain in the butt, and worth every groove...What's some of your/Guys' MQE???
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post #9 of 52
4/24/10 at 11:45am
I'm a big Django Reinhart and ancient jazz fan,
so I've had to get past the sound quality thing ...
... heck half those old recordings are mono.

I suggest taking a crappy boom box,
any two Muddy Waters CDs,
a coffee cup filled with ice and Ten High,
and a cheap stinky cigar out to your back porch
for a relaxing hour and a half.


You're welcome.


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post #10 of 52
4/24/10 at 12:03pm
+1 about the Muddy Waters recordings. No equipment on earth can salvage that kind of quality, but the **** quality of it kind of speaks about the times and the story behind the music he played, in my opinion.
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post #11 of 52
4/24/10 at 12:26pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 9pintube View Post
Sonic 748i , I just finished Jon Iverson article in stereophile about "THE HOLY TRINITY" He's talking about your M.Q.E. and how it changes throughout ones' life.. MQE stands for 1)MUSIC 2)Quality audio reproduction 3)Ease of access to music....So that is kind of what you're talking about....He states when he was young his MQE was 90/0/10 and when he became older and aware of "good sounding Equip. his No. changed to 25/65/10 and so on! I find that's a pretty strange, but true way of gauging the importance of The Music, The sound from our systems, and the ease at how we play our music....I'd say my MQE is about 70/85/5, I like to hear what tunes I love and I really like "How" my system reproduces those tunes but I don't care about the "Ease" of playin' or getting my tunes....I guess because I Love vinyl playback, and we all know that can be a pain in the butt, and worth every groove...What's some of your/Guys' MQE???
Thanks for posting this, I guess I relate to him a lot.
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post #12 of 52
4/24/10 at 1:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens View Post
I'm a big Django Reinhart and ancient jazz fan,
so I've had to get past the sound quality thing ...
... heck half those old recordings are mono.

I suggest taking a crappy boom box,
any two Muddy Waters CDs,
a coffee cup filled with ice and Ten High,
and a cheap stinky cigar out to your back porch
for a relaxing hour and a half.


You're welcome.
Man, that sounds so appealing. Django fan myself.

I'm in the same boat listening to Robert Johnson. I enjoy the hell out of it, and there's no audio system that can help those recordings.
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post #13 of 52
4/24/10 at 1:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 9pintube View Post
Sonic 748i , I just finished Jon Iverson article in stereophile about "THE HOLY TRINITY" He's talking about your M.Q.E. and how it changes throughout ones' life.. MQE stands for 1)MUSIC 2)Quality audio reproduction 3)Ease of access to music....So that is kind of what you're talking about....He states when he was young his MQE was 90/0/10 and when he became older and aware of "good sounding Equip. his No. changed to 25/65/10 and so on! I find that's a pretty strange, but true way of gauging the importance of The Music, The sound from our systems, and the ease at how we play our music....I'd say my MQE is about 70/85/5, I like to hear what tunes I love and I really like "How" my system reproduces those tunes but I don't care about the "Ease" of playin' or getting my tunes....I guess because I Love vinyl playback, and we all know that can be a pain in the butt, and worth every groove...What's some of your/Guys' MQE???
Perhaps he should have explained to you it's a percentile hahaha... Your numbers shouldn't add up to more than 100.

I'd say my current MQE is 70/15/15. Well, it's hard to really say... I have such wide taste in music, maybe it wouldn't seem like I care that much what I'm listening to... But it's still the most important thing to me, because I'd rather have a lot of music to listen to on mediocre equipment than the opposite. Ease of use... You could be forcing me to listen in a single room and I'd use it everyday. Just thankfully I have a PMP and it's not the middle ages So I think my numbers represent that okay. I can listen to bad recordings on mediocre reproduction equipment and I'd be happy with it. It could even be really crummy and grainy equipment. The only thing it couldn't be is someone blasting it on their dumb iPhone's speaker output because then it's just nails on a chalkboard. So it doesn't have zero importance, but it only has to be mildly grainy to be acceptable. And like I said, it could be completely impractical and not portable at all and I'd still enjoy it. It just couldn't make me cut my fingers everytime I wanted to change albums or something bizarre.
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post #14 of 52
4/24/10 at 3:23pm
chef, Thanks for your thoughts, but I never did believe in percentiles!!!Music and equipment go on and on and on!!!
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post #15 of 52
4/24/10 at 3:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic 748i View Post
As we should all know, music itself is the most important part of this hobby, not the gear that reproduces it......
Then hifi is not your hobby.

My hobby is hifi and along the way I get to listen to loads of music. Since there is no such thing as perfect reproduction, apart for the individual who is truly happy with their set up for all of their music, which means there has been a compromise, there is always room for a different listening experience and more experimenting with hifi.
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