Yeah absolutely. And most simply don’t. They say the do but they don’t and in my experience, exposure and experience doesn’t change it for most people.
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but is it rubbish - music enjoyment isn’t really, for the vast majority, about needing to listen to it in pristine quality definition… sure, most if not all of us on this forum would prefer the added benefit of quality reproduction - but it isn’t necessary to enjoy most music… its an added extra… thats gets us closer to the recording - greater insight etc - ie these are all additive embelishments.
I would say sonic poems, and abstract sound texture works are possibly the only genres which require an accurate replay system - as with those genres it would otherwise be like reading a book where all the words are blurry and you can’t read what is on the page… but arguably these are not musical works anyway.
I suggest if you end up fretting about how well the music is replaying for you to enjoy it you have probably lost the connection with that music in the first place… i say the vast majority have it about right…
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I think you’ve totally misunderstood my post. I’m not talking about people who aren’t interested in hifi. I’m talking about people who just have no real interest in music. They really exist and make up a massive proportion of the population.
Twenty years ago they’d be the people who had between zero and five albums collected over 20 years and were happy to catch a bit of local commercial radio for background music. Today these people catch a bit of casual streaming on a noisy train commute and that’s it. They all say they like music but the evidence is to the contrary. I’d say, without exaggeration, 90% of the people I know fall into this group of people.
Music sales has always been pop to younger demographic and the rest to the 10% of people who actually really love music and make an effort to consume it throughout their life.
Whether that remainder goes down the hifi route is another matter entirely. Plenty of musicians can’t be bothered with hifi at all that I know.
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Well sir, in which case you are correct - I did mis understand your post… I do suggest however most humans are interested in music in one form or another - it seems to be a human quality that is a common trait across cultures and peoples…
I guess we should not conflate interest and relevance of music with the consumerisation or commoditisation of music recordings - which started with the mass retail of sheet music in the 19th century in Europe
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Also, I think, there is the amazing ability we have to construct music from very poor quality equipment. For instance, there were the tests (or rather demonstrations) done by Edison (he was not really a scientist) where he played music from one of his gramophone players, and the same music sung by a proper singer (both opera, if I remember correctly, and I think that the same piece was performed). The audience seemed to think that they could not tell the difference.
Likewise it is quite easy to hear and identify the instruments of an orchestra even when played through a cheap transistor radio with a little 2.5" speaker - from kettle drums through to piccolos. That bit of wetness between the ears is capable of astounding feats.
If, for some reason, I could no longer have my decent hifi, I would not give up listening to music.
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Steve Jobs was reputed to be an audiophile, but there is one thing for the masses and one for everybody else . Suspect he kept his mass market business away from his personal tastes
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I’m not sure I agree. It wasn’t that long ago since I did most of my listening on “consumer” audio systems and I thought it was alright. Not amazing but I wouldn’t say it sucked.
And nowadays, consumer audio is getting so much better. A friend’s £30 Bluetooth speaker I heard the other day sounds pretty awesome.
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Well, I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.
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Consumer audio sure is a lot better than it used to be.
I have an iPhone XR with a library of 128 AAC music and it sounds pretty good with my Jabbra Elite Active 65t bluetooth headphones. Not HiFi but good enough for when I’m at the gym or hiking the trails. And my Beats over ear blue tooth sound pretty good too.
Let’s not forget Naim are a consumer audio replay product manufacturer … nothing more, nothing less. They are formally classified as “ 26400 - Manufacture of consumer electronics “
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I think people vary wildly in their ability here. I will be totally honest and admit to needing the hifi. I had an all Linn system in my teens and my music collection grew. Then I emigrated to another country and got rid of all my worldly possessions. I sort of got into home cinema but at a fairly entry level side. For the next 13 years, my hifi was a series of portable audio players and an Onkyo micro system on my desk. At the time, I thought it was doing the job. But the quantity and quality of the music I purchased in that 13 years simply fell off a cliff.
When I got back into hifi, I bought loads of music and also wondered what I was thinking in respect to some of my wilderness years purchases. Even now, where I have a main system backed by a stack of Classic boxes and a UQ2 in the office, I often find I can enjoy music as much on the UQ2 but only after I have cracked it and used the main system to digest and “get” it. Once the door of comprehension for a piece has been opened, I can enjoy it in many places but personally, I admit to needing help from the main hifi to get there.
Not saying everyone or even most people are like that. But that is my personal experience. The main hifi is really an essential tool for comprehending new music for me. I probably just don’t have a sophisticated ear and just need the help it provides.
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interesting
I do remember you saying a while back that you never bought an Lp12 preferring CD replay
Did you enjoy vinyl on other sources ?
I didn’t no. What really cinched it for me was a DAT player we had in the shop. I took the output from a system with a maxed out LP12 and did a test to see what gets “lost” in digital. But the funny thing was, the output of vinyl, recorded to digital and then played back sounded exactly like vinyl. All the warm colouration and immediacy people love about vinyl can be encoded faithfully for digital reconstruction. That was the day I learned vinyl reconstruction sounds the way it does because it has to. Whereas digital sources often sound the way they do because they can.
Reel 2 reel is the only analog source that blew me away.
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I absolutely agree with this from an eq point of view… however there is a lot more in the replay chain apart from tonal balance… and stereo vinyl is particularly whacky with some of its distortions across the frequency range and digital with its reconstruction filter artefacts … however this doesn’t seem to matter for those that like vinyl, which to me demonstrates pristine quality audio replay is probably not that important … it’s more about how it sounds…
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Sorry to resurrect an almost-dead thread, but with all the new free time locked in my house, I’m catching up on lots of previously-missed forum activity. I wanted to say that I really loved this comment.
Perhaps another way of saying it, would be in reference to the ultimate music source: live. I’ve often found that a piece of music I’m lukewarm on, is incredible in a live setting. I get it. I see the musicians interact. The piano and violin in dialog, etc… Then, when I go back to my home setup and play the same piece. I enjoy it much more than I did previously. I “get it” as you said, and the enjoyment can now be had on a lesser system.
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Well put. I can relate.
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