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.
@bdp24 I've always considered the human voice to be a musical instrument and thought others did as well. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-human-instrument/ https://everydaysinger.com/musical-debate-singing-instrument/ https://www.storyarts.org/articles/voice.html
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Another way to say it is that instruments are in the cognitive domain but music is in the affective domain. If you start dancing, that would be the psychomotor domain. https://academicaffairs.sonoma.edu/sites/academicaffairs/files/blooms_all_domains.pdf |
Timbre, as defined by that font of all knowledge, Wikipedia: "In music, timbre, also known as tone color or tone quality, is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical instruments. It also enables listeners to distinguish different instruments in the same category. In simple terms, timbre is what makes a particular musical instrument or human voice have a different sound from another, even when they play or sing the same note." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre) Our response to an instrument's timbre can be both a cognitive and an affective phenomenon. If the timbre of a clarinet results in your perceiving it is a clarinet, it is cognitive because you know it is a clarinet. If you revel in the sounds the clarinet is making, I would say it is affective because of the way it makes you feel. I don't believe it is either/or. In the case of the former, you are hearing the instrument. In the latter, you are hearing the music. |
