[Townyj]

How can people turn up a stereo system till it distorts and not notice..?? It would drive me crazy in my teenage years.. Some people dont care at all about sound quality... as long as its loud!

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

Also, there are a lot of people who just buy headphones to try and look cool, not for how they sound...skullcandy anyone? 

I appreciate you emphasized the word 'try', but seriously does anyone look cool wearing any headphones ?! I'm not exactly Brad Pitt by default but this is exactly the reason I never take headphones out with me as I'd look like a douche lmao.
 
I'm starting to feel my audiophilia now though when I'm in the high street if someone's wearing headphones I've found myself craining my neck to see what headphones they're using - kind of like when someone yells 'hey steve!' and you know your name's not steve but you crain your neck to look anyways - god dude stop it!! 
 
 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

How can people turn up a stereo system till it distorts and not notice..?? It would drive me crazy in my teenage years.. Some people dont care at all about sound quality... as long as its loud!

Especially in pubs now. Loud music used to be for night clubs, now finding a pub where you hear each other speak is rare and one with a decent music system like hen's teeth.
 

 

[Permagrin]

I appreciate you emphasized the word 'try', but seriously does anyone look cool wearing any headphones ?! I'm not exactly Brad Pitt by default but this is exactly the reason I never take headphones out with me as I'd look like a douche lmao.
 
I'm starting to feel my audiophilia now though when I'm in the high street if someone's wearing headphones I've found myself craining my neck to see what headphones they're using - kind of like when someone yells 'hey steve!' and you know your name's not steve but you crain your neck to look anyways - god dude stop it!! 
 
 

Lol!

Sometimes I try to figure out what phones people are using but it usually takes too long and I don't what people to think I'm a freak or something. So far I haven't seen anything nice that I recognize.

Especially in pubs now. Loud music used to be for night clubs, now finding a pub where you hear each other speak is rare and one with a decent music system like hen's teeth.
 

I freaking loathe that this is the norm now. Why people why? I guess it's a good excuse to take a girl outside though.

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

Especially in pubs now. Loud music used to be for night clubs, now finding a pub where you hear each other speak is rare and one with a decent music system like hen's teeth.

Same with hookah bars.  The hookah bar used to be a quiet place to drink some green tea, smoke your Starbuzz Blue Mist out of a cantaloupe, and chat with your friends.  Now when I go into one, all I hear is UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE at ear-splitting levels.  Sharing a conversation is completely out of the question.

 

[Townyj]

Your right, pubs are way to rowdy when the music is playing loud. Yelling at someone two feet away is really quite annoying. I actually prefer bars over clubs, "Must be getting to that age" The whole reason to choose a bar over a club is to socialise!

 
Quote:

Especially in pubs now. Loud music used to be for night clubs, now finding a pub where you hear each other speak is rare and one with a decent music system like hen's teeth.
 

 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I can count on less than one hand the amount of pubs I have been into that played music at a decent volume on a decent system. They were all pubs/wine bars with jazz music.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

I was speaking to a few people and they all say that sound quality doesn't matter as long as the music is enjoyable. To be entirely honest I am starting to agree with them.

 

[Frankie K]

And that goes back to the beginning of this thread, just like studying and listening to music the same goes for going to a pub/bar and having a few drink's and talking to friend's or someone You've just met. It blend's into the background unless it's a song You truly like.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

The masses learn to like music that is poorly reproduced in pubs, night clubs on car radios etc.

 

[Frankie K]

Quote:

The masses learn to like music that is poorly reproduced in pubs, night clubs on car radios etc.

You know thing's come around in a full circle, maybe just maybe in time they will again. Where they will start to care about the audio quality, music, lyric's and a reasonable and enjoyable listening level, will it happen who know's. So for know We will have to deal with over the top muddied bass, ear piercing loudness and some make no sense lyric's.
 
 

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

I was speaking to a few people and they all say that sound quality doesn't matter as long as the music is enjoyable. To be entirely honest I am starting to agree with them.

Depends on the person I suppose and you and your friends there are entitled to your opinions, but I'd be inclined to disagree with the somewhat ignorant statement your friends said on the grounds that every speaker be it headphone or floorstander can reproduce audio and relay it to your ears of course - and they will have varying degrees of quality based on price and preference - and quality and preference of the music is a factor in what you listen to but not the actual quality of the sound obviously....but it can influence your preference for particular speakers vs others. But the point I'm making here is the one thing your friends seem to have become ignorant of which is crucial to sound quality for both speakers and headphones is such things called soundstage imaging and instrument separation.....can make a world of difference if you can tell and the only way to know what to look for is through experience of quality products at some point vs cheaper stuff. Music goes a long way but there are massive differences in audio quality between speakers for sure. Not meaning to sound like an ass but this is not an opinion.
 
But on the other hand, for all I know you may have bought headphones based solely on what's respected here and not thought about or found a headphone with a sound signature that floats your boat.....

 

[deadlylover]

I suppose I'm also in the 'sound quality doesn't matter' camp.
To me, music is simply another way of expressing emotion/creativity and all that pizazz. Such trivial things like sound quality doesn't really get in the way of my enjoyment of music at all, as it's simply a bridge to the emotion(?) of what the artist or composer felt at the time.
 
Yes, we can argue that accurate reproduction of the sounds that were recorded are important because unfortunately, those sounds were the only things that the composer has left for us. However, does it actually matter? Since music can be viewed as some form of art, everything is still left up to the audience/listener. It's just like paintings or photography really, its not about replicating the subject accurately, it's about capturing that 'moment'. You aren't gonna bash the Mona Lisa for being a pathetic portrait in terms of image quality compared to the spiffy 5 Megapixel camera that's on your mobile phones nowadays are you?
 
Help me out guys, I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or not, but when you guys hear a wicked guitar solo, do you hear "Oh wow the tone and attack of this guitar is portrayed so realistically, it's right there in front of me", because, this is what I hear, "HOLY SMOKES CHECK OUT THE SHEER AWESOMENESS OF THIS BLOKE AND HIS GUITAR, AWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH".
 
Each and every one of us enjoyed music with 'poor' gear back in the day, and I'm sure that's what the artist truly wanted, they don't care if their work was reproduced accurately or not, they just wanted someone else to understand and feel the emotion that he/she tried so hard to portray via their voice/guitar/drums/clicking of fingers/saxomaphone/whatever. It's really quite peculiar how so many different people enjoy different genre's of music, it's almost as if they are simply different mediums in which the artist has chosen to express themselves in. And going along that train of thought, we can say that the actual medium is irrelevant to what the artist wants to express, because, both an exquisite stradivarius violin or a humble bongo can make us feel sadness, despite sounding completely different.
 
I always laugh when I see a comment like "This piece of gear is neutral, and neutral is best, because we all know, neutral let's us hear what the artist truly intended". Uhh I dunno bro, I don't think this girl truly intended to give me a flippin' headache listening to this bright recording. You then get the same guys who say "It's cool yo, we deal with it, since it's what's present in the recording, and the recording is like the holy bible ya know, bow down to the recording". Ahhhhaaaa you silly masochists =P, I'm just joking by the way.
 
So it seems that the destination is the same, so perhaps it doesn't really matter if your gear is neutral/coloured, or if the recording was good/crap. The end result is all the same, as we eventually become one with the Force artist. Can you honestly say that we, so-called music-lovers, are 'better' than the masses? We seem to be the same music-lovers that regularly bash modern mainstream music artists and their poor quality brickwalled recordings, hell, some of us even go as far as to look down on people who actually enjoy the mainstream stuff, saying they have 'bad taste' and what not. Right, we're definitely music-lovers alright. Hold on a minute, 'people'-lovers aren't racist, you know, they love socialising and stuff with everybody, and it seems to me that you lived your life, like a candle in the wind somehow, for some reason I cannot fathom, the mere gift of owning high-end audio equipment gives us the right to be judgmental and somewhat music-racist (couldn't think of a better term, heh).
 
Because really, are you truly in this hobby for the music, or are you in it for hearing 'good sounds'. Now now, it would be very low of me to criticize things that other people enjoy, there's nothing wrong with that at all, well, except if you enjoy murder or rape.... It's absolutely acceptable to love or enjoy the unique presentation of sounds that your audio equipment brings you (I personally <3 my Stax O2's).
 
But to think for one second that any of this equipment really matters in terms of feeling what the artist truly intended, or even, somehow 'enjoy' music MORE than the masses, well, I'd say that perhaps you think too highly of yourself. It's like the self proclaimed music lovers (audiophiles?) have forgotten what music was all about, now isn't that funny ^^.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

I suppose I'm also in the 'sound quality doesn't matter' camp.
To me, music is simply another way of expressing emotion/creativity and all that pizazz. Such trivial things like sound quality doesn't really get in the way of my enjoyment of music at all, as it's simply a bridge to the emotion(?) of what the artist or composer felt at the time.
 
Yes, we can argue that accurate reproduction of the sounds that were recorded are important because unfortunately, those sounds were the only things that the composer has left for us. However, does it actually matter? Since music can be viewed as some form of art, everything is still left up to the audience/listener. It's just like paintings or photography really, its not about replicating the subject accurately, it's about capturing that 'moment'. You aren't gonna bash the Mona Lisa for being a pathetic portrait in terms of image quality compared to the spiffy 5 Megapixel camera that's on your mobile phones nowadays are you?
 
Help me out guys, I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or not, but when you guys hear a wicked guitar solo, do you hear "Oh wow the tone and attack of this guitar is portrayed so realistically, it's right there in front of me", because, this is what I hear, "HOLY SMOKES CHECK OUT THE SHEER AWESOMENESS OF THIS BLOKE AND HIS GUITAR, AWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH".
 
Each and every one of us enjoyed music with 'poor' gear back in the day, and I'm sure that's what the artist truly wanted, they don't care if their work was reproduced accurately or not, they just wanted someone else to understand and feel the emotion that he/she tried so hard to portray via their voice/guitar/drums/clicking of fingers/saxomaphone/whatever. It's really quite peculiar how so many different people enjoy different genre's of music, it's almost as if they are simply different mediums in which the artist has chosen to express themselves in. And going along that train of thought, we can say that the actual medium is irrelevant to what the artist wants to express, because, both an exquisite stradivarius violin or a humble bongo can make us feel sadness, despite sounding completely different.
 
I always laugh when I see a comment like "This piece of gear is neutral, and neutral is best, because we all know, neutral let's us hear what the artist truly intended". Uhh I dunno bro, I don't think this girl truly intended to give me a flippin' headache listening to this bright recording. You then get the same guys who say "It's cool yo, we deal with it, since it's what's present in the recording, and the recording is like the holy bible ya know, bow down to the recording". Ahhhhaaaa you silly masochists =P, I'm just joking by the way.
 
So it seems that the destination is the same, so perhaps it doesn't really matter if your gear is neutral/coloured, or if the recording was good/crap. The end result is all the same, as we eventually become one with the Force artist. Can you honestly say that we, so-called music-lovers, are 'better' than the masses? We seem to be the same music-lovers that regularly bash modern mainstream music artists and their poor quality brickwalled recordings, hell, some of us even go as far as to look down on people who actually enjoy the mainstream stuff, saying they have 'bad taste' and what not. Right, we're definitely music-lovers alright. Hold on a minute, 'people'-lovers aren't racist, you know, they love socialising and stuff with everybody, and it seems to me that you lived your life, like a candle in the wind somehow, for some reason I cannot fathom, the mere gift of owning high-end audio equipment gives us the right to be judgmental and somewhat music-racist (couldn't think of a better term, heh).
 
Because really, are you truly in this hobby for the music, or are you in it for hearing 'good sounds'. Now now, it would be very low of me to criticize things that other people enjoy, there's nothing wrong with that at all, well, except if you enjoy murder or rape.... It's absolutely acceptable to love or enjoy the unique presentation of sounds that your audio equipment brings you (I personally <3 my Stax O2's).
 
But to think for one second that any of this equipment really matters in terms of feeling what the artist truly intended, or even, somehow 'enjoy' music MORE than the masses, well, I'd say that perhaps you think too highly of yourself. It's like the self proclaimed music lovers (audiophiles?) have forgotten what music was all about, now isn't that funny ^^.

Finally someone who gets it. I highly agree. Shouldn't it be for the music and not the gear. I can be just as satisfied (sometimes more satisfied) with cheap headphones/speakers.
 
 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

I suppose I'm also in the 'sound quality doesn't matter' camp.
To me, music is simply another way of expressing emotion/creativity and all that pizazz. Such trivial things like sound quality doesn't really get in the way of my enjoyment of music at all, as it's simply a bridge to the emotion(?) of what the artist or composer felt at the time.
 
Yes, we can argue that accurate reproduction of the sounds that were recorded are important because unfortunately, those sounds were the only things that the composer has left for us. However, does it actually matter? Since music can be viewed as some form of art, everything is still left up to the audience/listener. It's just like paintings or photography really, its not about replicating the subject accurately, it's about capturing that 'moment'. You aren't gonna bash the Mona Lisa for being a pathetic portrait in terms of image quality compared to the spiffy 5 Megapixel camera that's on your mobile phones nowadays are you?
 
Help me out guys, I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or not, but when you guys hear a wicked guitar solo, do you hear "Oh wow the tone and attack of this guitar is portrayed so realistically, it's right there in front of me", because, this is what I hear, "HOLY SMOKES CHECK OUT THE SHEER AWESOMENESS OF THIS BLOKE AND HIS GUITAR, AWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH".
 
Each and every one of us enjoyed music with 'poor' gear back in the day, and I'm sure that's what the artist truly wanted, they don't care if their work was reproduced accurately or not, they just wanted someone else to understand and feel the emotion that he/she tried so hard to portray via their voice/guitar/drums/clicking of fingers/saxomaphone/whatever. It's really quite peculiar how so many different people enjoy different genre's of music, it's almost as if they are simply different mediums in which the artist has chosen to express themselves in. And going along that train of thought, we can say that the actual medium is irrelevant to what the artist wants to express, because, both an exquisite stradivarius violin or a humble bongo can make us feel sadness, despite sounding completely different.
 
I always laugh when I see a comment like "This piece of gear is neutral, and neutral is best, because we all know, neutral let's us hear what the artist truly intended". Uhh I dunno bro, I don't think this girl truly intended to give me a flippin' headache listening to this bright recording. You then get the same guys who say "It's cool yo, we deal with it, since it's what's present in the recording, and the recording is like the holy bible ya know, bow down to the recording". Ahhhhaaaa you silly masochists =P, I'm just joking by the way.
 
So it seems that the destination is the same, so perhaps it doesn't really matter if your gear is neutral/coloured, or if the recording was good/crap. The end result is all the same, as we eventually become one with the Force artist. Can you honestly say that we, so-called music-lovers, are 'better' than the masses? We seem to be the same music-lovers that regularly bash modern mainstream music artists and their poor quality brickwalled recordings, hell, some of us even go as far as to look down on people who actually enjoy the mainstream stuff, saying they have 'bad taste' and what not. Right, we're definitely music-lovers alright. Hold on a minute, 'people'-lovers aren't racist, you know, they love socialising and stuff with everybody, and it seems to me that you lived your life, like a candle in the wind somehow, for some reason I cannot fathom, the mere gift of owning high-end audio equipment gives us the right to be judgmental and somewhat music-racist (couldn't think of a better term, heh).
 
Because really, are you truly in this hobby for the music, or are you in it for hearing 'good sounds'. Now now, it would be very low of me to criticize things that other people enjoy, there's nothing wrong with that at all, well, except if you enjoy murder or rape.... It's absolutely acceptable to love or enjoy the unique presentation of sounds that your audio equipment brings you (I personally <3 my Stax O2's).
 
But to think for one second that any of this equipment really matters in terms of feeling what the artist truly intended, or even, somehow 'enjoy' music MORE than the masses, well, I'd say that perhaps you think too highly of yourself. It's like the self proclaimed music lovers (audiophiles?) have forgotten what music was all about, now isn't that funny ^^.

Better sound reproduction enhances my enjoyment of the music. I know othes who have listened to my kit, felt the same way and gone out and bought better stuff. Neither I nor they have forgotten what music is all about and I also think a lot of audiophiles spout a lot of drivel.
 
I have a TV, a basic one with no added speakers or anything. I enjoy my films. I know of others with mega AV systems to watch their films on. I a not bothered by the additional enhancements an AV set up brings, they are.
 
Both camps should be able to exist without thinking bad of the other.