Accuracy vs. musicality


I imagine if you have an unlimited budget you can have both ultimate accuracy and musicality.
For those of us whose budget is somewhat limited, we usually have to make a choice.
I very recently obtained  speakers (which I prefer not to name so as to avoid debate.  Some of you do know them.) These speakers were criticized by an Agoner for not being accurate.
Now, I heard the speakers he liked better and they we’re fine, and maybe more “etched,” but they did not convey the musical message as well to me.  Indeed I compared many such speakers recommended by members (there was little love for mine) and I found them not to have the sound I hear in a concert hall. They did not communicate to me as well.
So, what’s more important: precise accuracy or musicality?
rvpiano

Showing 1 response by niodari

Who knows the definitions of "accuracy" and "musicality"?

Do you wish to be imposed by someone's ideas on what the accuracy means? And musicality is your personal matter, what you consider or not musical. Depends also on the music you listen. If you listen to badly recorded heavy metal, for instance, I think there is no issue of musicality, roughly, it should be just loud enough. If you listen to acoustic jazz, then you may compare the sound of your system with that at a live jazz concert. Then I think the musicality and the accuracy should somehow coincide, as you cannot call an inaccurate sound of some instrument musical.  Tube amplifies, for instance, normally have much higher harmonic distortion than solid state ones, but I think they are musical and mostly accurate for my ear. I think good speakers must be firstly accurate, and if they reproduce the sound as it was recorded  (given that it was recorded well) then you automatically get musicality. Listen to a well recorded human voice / vocal and you will have some idea on how musical and accurate your system sounds.