After working for about 20 years as a semi-professional drummer (mostly rock/pop), and "retired" about ten years ago, I still love music and have assembled a system which gets me as close as possible to recreating the emotion of a live event. My musical tastes have eveloved quite a bit from my playing days, I listen to jazz and classical mostly, rarely to rock - although rock/pop is the only thing I will listen to in my car. I still value the performance over sound, but, find that when listening at home, a poorly recorded piece gets too much in the way for me to really enjoy the music. Perhaps that is why I have gravitated away from listening to rock at home since great-sounding recordings are too rare. This same music on a less resolving system, however, (like in the car) can be very enjoyable. BTW - I feel that you can't generalize on the musician/audiophile issue. I know other musicians who are avid audiophiles and others who are perfectly happy listening via any means possible. I also know a number of audiophiles who are so much into the equipment that they would listen to anything (junk included) as long as it made their system sound good. Just my thoughts.
Do you play?
I listened to a great recording tonight(miles davis live around the world) and it brought me back to when I played in a band. Yes in my youth that was the thing to do. I grew up in NYC and everybody I knew either sang or played something. This I believe lead me to obtain the best possible gear I could afford to recreate the music I once played. Mind you I'm no Miles Davis-not close- but one can rememeber and wonder. How about you-did you play and if so how has it effected your recreation of music in your home?