2 Questions on General Music Preferences


Which would you prefer:

1) Substandard artistic content music that is masterfully recorded and playing on a state of the art system or incredibly wonderful music played on a Walkman in a bathroom?

And a more interesting one...

2) If your only choice for a long period (say, in the car with your significant other) is 5 hours of truly awful music or NO music, which would you prefer?

To start it off properly, I'll answer. First, if there were no high falutin' audio and all recordings sounded like the worst condition 78 rpm record ever heard, I'd still be a music lover. Second, life is too short to listen to Ricky Martin, Britney Spears or Shaun Cassidy. Five hours of that and I'd be ready for the nuthouse! Quite frankly, if the music is bad, I'd rather have silence for 5 hours than to listen to it for 5 minutes. So the real question from the above is... am I REALLY a music lover????
dmk
I love music also, but try not to knock other people's choices. I am certain that many would not enjoy some of my favorite music and visa versa. If the recording quality is good then that is a bonus, but never a deciding factor in choosing source material (unless a choice of quality is available, then I go for it of course).
1. I would prefer "incredibly wonderful music played on a Walkman in a bathroom" to your other choice. That said, what I would really prefer is incredibly wonderful music played on my "big rig". I can see what you're after DMK, but think the choices you offer are unrealistically limited.

2. I too would prefer silence in the car to the artists you mentioned, but those artists listed sell a LOT of music so some must like them, and not only that this music is typically played on mid-fi systems at best. I have a $1500. system in my truck but I still consider it mid-fi because of the poor bass (boomy). But I got good gains in the mids and treble just by going to better speakers and a more powerful amp. Cheers. Craig.
I'm an expert on this 'cause when my kids were 3 and 5 we took a 6 hour drive and listened to Anne Murray sing "There's A Dragon In the Driveway" over and over the whole way.
Silence is golden, but Anne Murray beats bickering.
Kitch's last sentence rules! Otherwise, I would go for the walkman in the first case & silence in the second -- although, as D-K notes, respect for others' musical choices is important.

Cheers!
I am one mind with Greg, walkman in the first, silence in the second case....and I'm afraid, I'd rather bicker than have six hours of the same song.....or rather, after 1 hour of bickering, Spike Jones as comic relief for 10 minutes and then back to bickering.....
Cheers
Thanks for your responses. You may have no idea of this, but there are quite a few audiophiles who have megabuck systems and mostly diagnostic recordings. Perhaps a few audiophile approved music discs to check their soundstage or something. I've found that I do enjoy music more on a better system but I could live quite happily without one as well.

And Kitch, what I've done to clear up the problem you have is to buy a conversion van with a stereo system that can cut off the front speakers where my wife and I sit. The 3 kiddies can listen to Barney or the Backstreet Boys (hey, paint 'em purple and who'd know the diff?) and we have (nearly) blessed silence. It works! Shoot, I can even play Bill Evans quietly on a boombox in the front seat if I want! My wife is deaf in her left ear so I keep her on the passenger side :)
Hear a good orchestra music on good gear, I want to stand up and conduct. Can live with med-hi but will not be so excited. Music love is a must, and a good gear a plus. But some guy never attend great live music or never hear good gear will miss a lot of good music. And that is a waste bcz we do have to admit that some of great music is bcz it matched hi and low perfectly. Try any classical orchestra. If you only hear a bad system and claim it is very good? I doubt it. Don't tell me Bach' organ is good if your speaker has no bass.