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Are you hearing  the instruments or the music?

 

I find that as my system is warming up, it sounds pretty good. The instruments sound as I would expect instruments to sound. The imaging is great and the bass is distinct, clear, and powerful. I appreciate the accurate and extended dynamics. But over time, like an hour or so, I find myself not listening to instruments, but rather to music. I slip into it unconsciously. It would likely be faster with class AB amps.

This is the end goal of audio. Just being able to listen to music. Horns, planars, dynamics, tubes, transistors, etc. are all capable of accomplishing this, just in different flavors. For some, a JBL Bluetooth speaker gets them to their “music place” and so there is clearly a personal and idiosyncratic aspect to this. But it supports the notion that all a system has to do is get you there. 

This is also how I know if a change makes a difference. Does it do no harm or does it add or detract from the sense of music? Going from Takatsukis to Western Electrics was more music, not as much instrument. Some might say analytical versus warm, but that’s not what’s important. And for some, analytical might be their music.

If your system delivers instruments well but does not carry you to music land, at least occasionally because some recordings are better at this than others, you might consider changing something. 

tcutter

Showing 1 response by hilde45

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,429 posts
 

As I understand it, the process of psychological accommodation plays a role in transforming the raw sound of an audio system into the experience of music. Our cognitive processes start with bottom-up processing (we detect pitch, loudness, timbre, rhythm, and intensity); that is, acoustic information. 

Soon, though, we fit these into pre-existing schemas, such as melodies, harmonies, rhythms, genre, emotional patterns, etc. We do what is sometimes called "top-down processing." We're guided by the schemas and start predicting (often subconsciously) what might come next. When these predictions are met, it contributes to a sense of coherence and pleasure — "musical experience."

That's at least how I understand it -- a continuous interplay of bottom-up processing (detecting raw sound) and top-down processing (applying and accommodating schemas) leads from the "sound of a system" into a meaningful musical experience. 

My understanding, also, is that most decent systems can accomplish this as it is part of what the listener's brain does.

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