Do you play an instrument/sing?


Personally, I'm a trombonist. Quite a bit of my audition is searching for something such that Joe Alessi sounds just the way he does when I actually see him at Carnegie/Avery-fisher. In other words, PHENOMENAL! Similarly, another part of it consists of listening to some brass heavy orchestral works, such as Mahler 3, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz, Beethoven 5,Brahms 1,2,4, etc, Beethoven 3 (maybe slightly less brass-heavy), etc. Then I listen to some classic rock, just to sound how it deals with yet another part of the music that I listen to, but the initial two parts tend to be the more important.

Are you an instrumentalist/singer, and if so, how does it affect the way you audition equipment and/or listen to music.
midficollege

Showing 1 response by tombowlus

I am a bass player (upright, as well as electric, and everything from classical, to swing, to rock and roll), and I do believe that it has had an impact upon my hi-fi tastes. I am a big fan of accuracy, and I want an upright to sound like an upright, a Gibson to sound like a Gibson, a Fender to sound like a Fender. Sure, I want to hear the bass, but I want it controlled, and not bloated, or over-hyped. But I am also quite keen on upper mids, where the bass spends more of its time than you might think. Really good, really convincing upright bass is a difficult thing to reproduce, so most of my critical listening will include some upright, for sure.

Interestingly, my hi-fi love has seemed to affect my bass gear as well. I am a big fan of the less well know, be more well made equipment from the likes of Euphonic Audio (who started out making ultra-accurate hi-fi speakers) and Accugroove.

Tom.