Sound v Music

[richidoo]

It's not the sound... it's the music!

We all fell in love with music using less than ideal playback equipment.

Music Quality trumps Sound Quality

[mdconnelly]

If only the purchase of new equipment, wire and/or tweaks could improve the quality of the music itself. 

Here's an interesting question... what percentage of the music you own have you listened to more than once?   For me, I'm sure it's a lot worse than it should be.

[rollo]

If only the purchase of new equipment, wire and/or tweaks could improve the quality of the music itself. 

Here's an interesting question... what percentage of the music you own have you listened to more than once?   For me, I'm sure it's a lot worse than it should be.

   I say it does improve the quality but not content. Great music is great music period.
     Any decent quality reproduction system can provide emotional impact. Some just more than others.
     Yes we all have rocked out in our cars, boom box and so on. Yes we got emotional impact. However to what degree. As an example take a recording with lots of top end energy with vocals. In the car listening to such i can sing along or rock the head back and forth. Then the crisp metallic sound of those cymbals or the exaggerated sibilance kicks in. Then my emotional impact diminishes. Why ?? We are spoiled by better sonic reproduction.
    If I never heard an audiophile system then no contest. Like eating Mommas food not much tastes as good.
    Sound will never trump musical content agreed. However great sound will enhance any great music.
     I want both. For me live recordings over studio mix any day of the week.
    Probably listen to 75% of the Cds over again.


charles
     

[Nick B]

Yes, it's the music....always. As to the % of music I've listened to more than once, it's somewhat low. I haven't played vinyl in at least 5-6 years, so 400+ albums are sitting there gathering dust. Vinyl will rise again in 2014! (I hope  )

[Carlman]

Here's an interesting question... what percentage of the music you own have you listened to more than once?   For me, I'm sure it's a lot worse than it should be.

I've listened to the same few albums for about a year now...
Radiohead King of Limbs - Most musically significant album I've heard in many years.
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live albums (Luther College and Radio City Music Hall)
Some various songs off other Radiohead albums, like Kid A, In Rainbows.  Kid A is my new drug.

Too much Radiohead isn't good.. there is a lot of energetic manipulation happening.  DM w/ Tim Reynolds is good fun and lightens things up.  But some tracks are a little hard/harshly recorded.. most are great though.

-C

[dflee]

I guess it depends on who is doing the interpreting. My wife says some of the stuff I listen to isn't music. Is noise considered sound? If so then I listen to both (according to my better half).

Don

ps: ain't a single album in my house not listened to numerous times

[tmazz]

Been very busy lately with moving into my new house and the upcoming wedding, so I just saw this thread. But it rings a note with two  recent incidents in recent days.

My bride to be has been involve in the performing arts (mostly dance, but some theater also) for most of her life. While she loves music and tolerates my nervosa, she never really understood it. One night not too long ago she asked me flat out "Why do you need all of this stuff just to listen to music?" So I turned the question around into an area that I thought she might have a more personal experience with.
I asked her "Why couldn't they  just  use an iPod driving some big speakers to provide the music in a Broadway show? Why do you need to pay 30 or 40 musicians to play at each performance?"
Without hesitation she responded "Because there is a level of emotional involvement one gets with a live performance that rarely occurs when you are listening to a recording."
To which I responded "And that emotional involvement is exactly what we are trying to recreate with all of this equipment."
Now she understands......, she still isn't too thrilled with the idea of my equipment dominating her living room, but at least she understands why I do it.

But I think this speaks to Rich's original point. Good music can be appreciated on any type of device for the artwork that it is. You don't need good sound to appreciate good music (and likewise no matter how good the sound, sub standard music (or performances) cannot be saved, many "audiophile" record labels learned that one the hard way. lol)

However, listening to a well recorded, good performance, of good music, on a good system can lead to a listener connection to that music that is hard tpo replicate on a clock radio.

[tmazz]

As for the second question posted in this thread, having to move has really caused me to take a serious look at the result of all my vinyl jonesin' and evaluate what exactly I do listen too and what is worth taking along when I move. And as a result I am selling off probably 80% of my vinyl collection. (Not to worry the remaining 20% will still amount to a rather sizable collection.) We all have bought lots of recordings that we listened to once or twice and for whatever reason shifted them to the bottom of the pile. Over the years I amassed much of my collection by sifting through garage sales and thrift shops paying $1 or less for a large portion of my collection. At that price I took many chances on records I didn't know much about or performances I wasn't familiar with. Many of them I enjoyed listening to once, but they did not rise to the top of the pile  for any of a variety of reasons. But the one listen was worth the price I paid for them so the purchase was still worthwhile to me. But more importantly many of those one shot records opened my eyes to a new artist or type of music or something else that I would not have known about without getting that record. So it was all part of the widening of my musical horizons and well worth the effort. So just playing a record or CD once my not in and of itself be a bad thing.
Of course never getting rid of any of those one shot record is another issue, which over time can cause other problems, which is what I am having to deal with now. 

Along those lines, if there is anyone in the Long Island area who would like to do a little vinyl shopping in my mancave just drop me a PM and we can set something up.

[BobM]

Yeah Tom, it's the  "it's only $1 so why not give it a shot" syndrom. Even if you already own it it becomes the "perhaps this copy is cleaner" syndrom.

I have 2 piles outside of my "organized" collevtion of vinyl. One is a pile of records I didn;t like and will never play again. The second is a pile of records that were decent enough to say I will play them again but not good enough to slot into my rack (of limited space).

Unfortunately, both piles get picked through with the same level of infrequency, so I guess it really should just be one big pile in the end.

[tmazz]

Yeah Tom, it's the  "it's only $1 so why not give it a shot" syndrom. Even if you already own it it becomes the "perhaps this copy is cleaner" syndrom.

I have 2 piles outside of my "organized" collevtion of vinyl. One is a pile of records I didn;t like and will never play again. The second is a pile of records that were decent enough to say I will play them again but not good enough to slot into my rack (of limited space).

Unfortunately, both piles get picked through with the same level of infrequency, so I guess it really should just be one big pile in the end.

Don't I know it. My situation was those piles ended up morphing into first one, then tgwo and finally three more floor to ceiling racks. One of the problems is that while most used record shops have dollar racks in most cases they are a one way street and they don't want to take "dollar type records back in trade, even if you give them back to the store for nothing. And is just does against every last bit of our audiophile DNA to throw out records and CDs, so they just keep piling up.

Perhaps our local audiophile groups should have an annual record swap day where everybody brings down their unwanted dollar records so we can all explore each other's "treasures", not from the point of tryig to make a buck, but just to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

[Carlman]

I am down to 2 or 3 milk crates of records.  Some weird stuff I inherited from an older friend of the family.. and some good stuff I bought on my own...

My wife doesn't want the record collection or TT anywhere near our 2 year old... and I half agree.  So, that leaves it in the sound room.. where I have no interest in vinyl.  I hear all the flaws perfectly.  There are so many variables and so much noise with a vinyl system it gets in the way of me actually enjoying music.  It's fussy.  I've heard it sound very good and it sounds like vinyl.  I acknowledge its sound but in the end I just want the music to get produced in a way that makes sense to me.

I think of vinyl as something good for a little study or office... where you're nearby and can flip/change records as you see fit.  There is a coziness to it.  It's musical and fun.  I would love to have all of my favorite 70's albums on vinyl... and have it hooked up to some big box speakers with 12" paper woofers.

The vinyl experience I'm describing is different than the way I listen to music normally.  It's casual but engaging.  Whereas I listen formally with engagement and at different levels of engagement.  The way I listen is very deep and in order to get to that depth with vinyl, I'd have to spend 10,k+ to be satisfied to the level I achieve with digital playback now.  And there's no reason for me to do that because most music I listen to (formally) isn't on vinyl.  The casual stuff is, though... Like John Fogerty, Ambrosia, Neil Young, Free, Bread, Kenny Loggins, etc... I have all that on my Pandora station playing all the time.  I get my fix of low fidelity listening to that.

I totally understand if all your favorite music is on vinyl, it'd be a good idea to get the best vinyl rig you can.  That's where I always struggle.. I can't find much music I love on vinyl.  When the day comes, I'll get more serious about it.  Until then, I'll keep my ears open for new music... I think new music is about to get good again.  I'll be ready for it with my fancy digital playback.

-C