@whart i like that sentiment. I was always a music first person. All my budget went to discovering something new, finding a hidden gem. As streaming became a reality, I invested that Music budget in better equipment. It’s certainly a luxury to have practically all of recorded music at your touch. It’s now easy to just run through a dozen recordings of a classical piece, seeing how each differ and which recording and performance connect with you. But the audio gear stuff is often a curse focusing on the artistic choices of the producer/ masterer to see if it syncs with your choice of gear. It seems the main topic here and in other audio blogs and magazines, so curious if it’s just me that finds it challenging.
Do you trust your system?
I was constantly upgrading gear, demoing songs, reading reviews, trying to find out why I had the feeling that the song I was playing shouldn’t sound the way it does. Something off or lacking, I luckily found a set of equipment and a room setup that if a song is off, it’s likely recorded that way. I trust my system to do a decent job. I wonder do others get to a point where they are more critical of mastering techniques than something wrong with their equipment? Admittedly, it’s easier to say how a piece of gear or cable made some significant difference, but in what exactly since the music sources are so wildly manipulated by engineers?
Showing 4 responses by dain
@jrw1971 thanks. You got it. I cringe when anyone refers to gear “sounding warm” or whatever, since it doesn’t make sounds. And sorry to say those’ reference recordings’ are manipulated as hell to sound good on any gear! That’s the art here. I guess if you recorded something and played it back, guess what? You’d probably like it, because you trust it. I recall hearing a million dollar system 30 years ago, fed by a professional tape machine recording of Chicago symphony. I guess it sounded good, but I wanted to play James Brown sex machine live. Well. Disappointingly it sounded like crap. Years later I wonder if I’m able to appreciate that system, but the more I hear of the fancy stuff the less it impresses since much music I love isn’t really designed to be heard this way. |
@artemus_5 I asked the question because the puzzle is we talk about equipment, but the only way to judge equipment is to play music. Music is not a fixed concept, it’s an art that may have too many variables to judge. But if you trust your system recreate the music well, then you can enjoy the recording for what it is meant to represent by the artists, not in such an elaborate fashion through gear. As @larsman says, I enjoy music just fine through earbuds, but elaborate stereos are fun too, but challenging. |
@thyname good point. I did get to sit front row at a small club with a blues band. Great fun but I kept thinking it sounded a lot like my home system. A bit louder. Went to another show with PA doing most of the work, not too good. Once was behind the PA. Boy, drums are loud! Unamplified music, tricky since they really have to manage volume and tone. Overall recordings sound best since the artists that make them are really skilled at making all those negatives go away, but it’s not ‘real’ which seems to bug audiophiles who seem to look for some truth. Other systems that friends have are just really different. There is often no real standard, except I always liked the Audio Note room at Axpona. It seemed to have something special to my ears. |