[bigshot]

If you have a flat, clean system even historical recordings sound better. Tiring sound comes primarily from frequency response imbalances, which can be even more pronounced if the recording has a limited frequency range to start with. If your system is flat down the middle, just about every well mastered and well mixed recording will sound good, even historical recordings.

 

[Sycho]

Seems that audiophiles appreciates the instruments, flow, recording quality, voice, perfect pitch and the beat of the music more than the general public. As for something like lyrics, really depends on what that person is looking for in their music.

 

[Alez]

I'm not really an audiophile, but ever since I started getting into hi-fi I started appreciating my music a lot more. I downloaded all my music again, tagged everything properly and started using foobar. I really started appreciating my music a lot more once I got into high quality audio.

 

[myunclesnephew]

Absolutely not they have a deeper appreciation for sound not music. 

 

[bigshot]

The music forums on audiophile sites would tend to bear out your claim.

 

[myunclesnephew]

Quote:

The music forums on audiophile sites would tend to bear out your claim.

I think an audiophile would bare bad music if sonically its interesting. Music drives the soul not the ears. Take the general public, I think they  would accept anything as long as they can hear the song. An audiophile could care less what song it is, but more so how its received. 

 

[TheAttorney]

Quote:

The music forums on audiophile sites would tend to bear out your claim.

 
I consider this very forum to be a music forum on an audiophile site - and the range of musical appreciation seems pretty wide to me. Yes, there's talk about "reference recordings" as well, but there's also a great deal of talk about the music and artists. Seems like a good balance to me.
 
To answer the OP, I don't know if I have a deeper appreciation of music than the general public (probably not), but I do know that my appreciation of different musical styles and genres has increased as a result of my hobby.  

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

 
I consider this very forum to be a music forum on an audiophile site - and the range of musical appreciation seems pretty wide to me.

 
(Spit take!)
 
Some current threads... "The Beatles are overrated" "Recommend me some uplifting trance" "REAL hip hop recommendations"? That's a wide range of what passes for music appreciation in teenagers I suppose. When was the last time you saw a thread on opera, bluegrass, pre-bop jazz or chamber music?

 

[Migou67]

What I'm sure is that an audiophile will spend much more time listening to music than the general public and watch Head-fi at the same time

 

[slayerming2]

I definitely 100% don't think "audiophiles" have a "much deeper appreciation of music" than the general "public" I think audiophiles have a much deeper appreciation of the sound that music produces, but not necessarily the music itself. For example for the "general public". I tend to listen to classical music mostly and all of my teachers and from what they know about the great violinist of the past and current almost none of them listened to classical music with nothing more than a laptop or from a tv speaker. Heck most of them don't even want headphones cause it'll hurt their hearing. There are plenty of videos of interviews of classical musicians saying how they loved to listen to the scratchy bad audio sound of the great violinist of the past. They don't care about the actual sound quality but the actual music itself.

Than we have audiophiles. Where there are people that complain that when they finally have an stax 009 they can't listen to anything lower and that music isn't enjoyable with lower equipment. Really, just really. I've a humble akg k240 mkii with magni/modi with my laptop that creates pretty decent audio quality. But honestly I'm completely fine with listening to my super crappy iphone speaker, which I'm sure is unthinkable for most people.

Now I know this is an headphone appreciation site, but honestly why would "audiophiles" appreciate music more than the general public? Maybe we enjoy listening to it more. But do most audiophiles even do anything else? Do most audiophiles even bother to analyze, go to live concert, play a instrument and really appreciate music not just listen to it.
Oh well that's just my little rant. Probably a little critical but oh well.

 

[bigshot]

If I had never ever gone to a live classical concert or opera, I wouldn't know what recorded sound was *supposed* to sound like.

 

[slayerming2]

If I had never ever gone to a live classical concert or opera, I wouldn't know what recorded sound was *supposed* to sound like.

I'm sure most of us true music lovers go to live concerts obviously. But I'm just saying there are plenty of "audiophiles" out there that enjoys the tech more than the music. If you don't belong in this category than good for you.

 

[Origin89]

Put it this way - If all I had were a portable cassette player and some old on-ear headphones, I'd still be jamming to some music. All this audiophile stuff is simply a very enjoyable bonus. 

 

[slayerming2]

Put it this way - If all I had were a portable cassette player and some old on-ear headphones, I'd still be jamming to some music. All this audiophile stuff is simply a very enjoyable bonus. 

+1

 

[Finkployd4658]

I would say yes, but I would extend that to musicians and anyone who really LISTENS properly to their music. You don't have to have expensive hi-fi gear to appreciate music, it just makes it sound nicer. So, the "General Public", whoever they are, perhaps don't have as much of an appreciation for meaningful, well written music when compared to musicians, audiophiles, and anyone who "gets" the real meaning of music. However, just because you've got a load of expensive gear, it doesn't mean that you can personally open your head up to the music and let the emotions run through you. So I think its just down to each individual, nothing to do with whether they are audiophiles or not.