Does it have to sound good for you to like it?

We take turns meeting at each member’s home, allowing each member to host and present/share their music, food, wine/drinks and good company. Most of the members have various consumer-level listening stations: AV receivers, Bluetooth soundbars and even the TV!

@audiodidact That’s awesome, and I’m very jealous — thanks for sharing that. Out of morbid curiosity, have any of the guys with “lesser” systems shown any interest in building a better stereo system after hearing what yours is capable of? Think I know the answer but just wanted to ask. 🫣

i think it misleading to suggest that love of music and love of sound quality are antagonistic. I don’t deny myself enjoyment of any music. If I love it, I listen to it. But, I do limit the recordings I listen to in my main listening room to well produced recordings. I know I’m not alone among members here in having spent a lot of time and money to build a resolving system that as faithfully as possible presents what is stored on the source medium. I doubt I’m alone in having built my system not simply to enjoy the sound of sound, as Mr Parsons suggests. I built it to enjoy music I love. When the source is wonderful, my main system enhances the pleasure of listening to well recorded music: my listening room is filled with the beautiful sounds of beautiful recordings of beautiful music! But, if the source is noisy, its presentation is noisy, and I fatigue fairly quickly. Not always, but mostly I avoid those recordings on my main rig. Not to worry, I have a second system perfect for those sources. It is neither highly resolving nor capable of wide and deep staging. The presentation is distant, As such, it is perfect for the poorly recorded music I love. I can happily dance the night away in that room with nary a thought to sound quality. What’s more, I feel confident better recordings of some personal faves would only diminish my listening pleasure. Some music is intended to be offensively noisy and I like it like that. The music is all I need to be transported. But, listening to a great recording on my main rig is more than transporting. It’s transfixing. It’s a different listening experience. And, I like that, too.

Let’s not forget how we perceive...

If a "lesser quality" track or record is played in between good recording, it will be bothersome for most. I read one comment about a boot leg. I got one from back in the day recorded via some Shure Ear Plug type of microphone 30 rows out from a Europe concert and it really captured the stadium with "all that" it was a great listen but playing this following a studio track and it became awkward.

I would argue, if you come with an empty (or open) mind and listen to a great performance even on a lesser quality recording it is more enjoyable. I think we often stereotype what we are listening for (ha! pun of the day)...

We take turns meeting at each member’s home, allowing each member to host and present/share their music, food, wine/drinks and good company. Most of the members have various consumer-level listening stations: AV receivers, Bluetooth soundbars and even the TV!

@audiodidact  , this KIND OF (remember, I did type "kind of") reminds me of when I was in the Air Force in the late '70s through early '80s.  Most of us had rack systems and some had better systems than that, and when I lived in the barracks (which I assume was a lot like a college dorm) a bunch of us would get together in someone's room and we'd play LPs and 8 tracks and drink beer.  Then in the early '80s my rack system and I moved off base to an apartment with a couple of other guys and people would come over and we'd drink beer and use cannabis products and whatever else might be around at the time and play LPs and 8 tracks or one of the local FM rock stations and turn on the TV with the sound down.  A friend of mine had what we considered at the time a pretty good system--Bose 901s and some huge Japanese watts in front of them. He had a great LP collection, and I remember an outdoor keg party he had at the little house where he was living and I got to play DJ and it was a great party and I had a blast picking the tunes and spinning the LPs..

In retrospect, I am positive the sound was not very good back then, but I also remember having a lot of pure fun with the MUSIC.  Way more pure fun than I have now with far superior gear and SQ.  But that was a long time ago, long before I had ever heard of critical listening, and if I wasn't listening the way I am listening now-a-days, I probably wouldn't be listening to anything, except maybe the radio in my pickup when I was driving some place.

Huh?