I know exactly where I'm headed, and I definitely don't feel confused or mislead. I'm by far like neil ever since the day I ran into Headwize. At first, there was definitely a stage of confusion and money plunking, because I was like a kid in a candy store...I just had to try out everything, and see what tasted the best to me. Now that I've reached the peak of what I could possibly afford to taste, it's time to settle down and enjoy what I've bought. And to do that, I need
lotsa CDs. Which is exactly where most of my money and time has been going lately. I believe good equipment tends to lead to more music...and more music in turn justifies good equipment.
I understand quite well the idea about enjoying the music vs. enjoying the equipment. But I think we'd all be lying to ourselves if part of the joy we get when we get a new piece of equipment didn't come from how well something was built, or how nice it looks. Or heck, even just how much it costed. I admit fully that part of my joy comes from the visuals and aesthetics of a product.
Quote:
I don't know what great equipment is. I only know what good music and sound are, for my tastes. If the equipment brings that, I guess I'm happy. But the equipment is now constantly interfering with my musical pleasure and enjoyment. I "get" the point of the music when I'm in the car; I often "miss" it when I'm using "great equipment". So this brings me back to the kid with the record player. |
I disagree with this. I believe I'm not truly delving into the "soul" of the music, without proper equipment, regardless of whether the soul is good (good recording) or evil (bad recording). In a way, that radio let's you simply view the outter shell of the music, in the same way as if you'd met a nice girl for a first time. She looks pretty, you start digging her...just like you dig that song right off the bat cause of its tunes, or whatever it is that hits you. But then, with a full blown setup, you start truly revealing what that girl's (the recording) soul is like. You get to see if it's good or evil. You
understand it more. And ultimately, you
appreciate it more.
It's pretty simple, I've observed this myself even. A recording, when played on a radio, let's me hear the music. But I'm totally missing things such as natural physical harmonics, soundstage, the true nature of each instrument (we leave the headphone world and enter the speaker world at this point). Something as simple as the bass is missing even. This is something that is fully present in a live presentation, so to say it's quite acceptable to have those things missing ultimately wouldn't be acceptable to me. These are all things that contribute to what a person would call the
soul of the music. You not only hear the music, you
feel it. And that, in my opinion, is music for you.
All I've got to say in the end though is, the equipment I've gotten definitely puts a much bigger smile on my face when I listen to music nowdays, than how I felt about music just a year ago.