I never saw this post before, but for me definetly yes. Im a rocker at heart, but the fact that other types of music, such as jazz or big band for example have many more intruments involved, has me experiment more, and gives me more of a chance to really hear the full potential of my system. Of course as you get older, you like to experiment more , even if your not an audiophile..Its kind of like food..after a while, you get tired of the same old thing. |
yes. I look forward to listening to my stereo/music when I get home from work. It has enabled me to expand my musical horizons. I used to listen only to rock and classical. Now I listen to jazz,blues,gospel,bluegrass,latin. I still haven't been able to appreciate opera,country,rap,new age,smooth "jazz" however. Enjoy listening. |
I started out musicwise listening to my folks classical stuff...then the first rock album I ever heard was Relayer by YES...so I got into the prog rock early,,,I hated and still despise pop music to this day...
But once I started getting into audio, most of rock (crappily recorded and mixed) turned me off...so I started listening to tons of Jazz-Fusion...thats where the sound quality and chops reside hand in hand...
Then thru sample CD by Chesky and others, I got into the McCoy Tyner stuff, etc...and not in an analytical way,,,it started that way though....Now, I am on the Richard Thompson bandwagon,,,its just incredible to listen to a 4 octave singer and awesome guitar player all in one in a great system,,,
also, thank goodness for all the reissues like King Crimson, Mike Oldfield etc on HDCD, as well as the Japanese mini-LP reissues,,, |
Mine did but changed back after going SET and horn or full range speakers now all the old music sounds great again metal ,punk ,oldies , most Audiophile music is so souless .P/B is depressing .JK |
Change? No.
appreciate and expand? yes. |
Not a change... - may be development. First, I was have to taylor my collection. Some of quite pleasant CDs become almost unlistenable due to bad recoding, however I discovered for myself acoustic music from Naim, expanded my limited experience with classical - for me harsh sound of complicated symphonic music and even string quartets (bad recording on bad equipment) was always the barrier... |
Music has always come first for me. I have been impressed if my system does something as miraculous as make the music I have listened to somehow sound better, but ultimately it is still the performance of the music that has had my interest. More often it is that recordings sound badly recorded, and I think this awareness of recording quality -as much as I can discern it, really defines how my system has effected me. Older recordings sound less than steller.Otherwise, Audio magazines have actually expanded the scope of music I listen to simply because music reviews, interviews, etc, have introduced me to performers I was not yet aware of. |
Not really!
I still listen to LPs that have one too many pops & clicks 'cuz I like the music on it very much & I'm willing to put up with the disturbance.
What audiophilia has done to me is that it has exposed me to more genres of music such as Jazz & Blues. I used to be a classic & soft rock kinda guy.
Audiophilia has also made me seek out my type of music that is well recorded rather than mass-recorded so I end up paying more per CD or per LP rather being satisfied with CDs from, say, Sam Goody or the BMG club. This, I think, is the "curse" of hi-end! |
No. In fact, make that Hell no. |
Its a resounding hell yes in my court . I have the same tastes as Matchstickman in that I was raised on progressive rock. Rush , Yes ELP', ZEP were always spinning as I grew up.When I became serious about the playback chain and my systems became better, rock recordings sounded worse. This concept has been covered numerous times here so I will be brief but its simple really: a high resolution playback system can not be fully realized by poor recordings. Also your appreciation of new forms of recorded music will evolve and expand as you learn to like what you are using to exact the performance of your system. I listen to my rock favorites in my car primarily now and have started liking other bizarre forms of music I would not have given the time of day to in the past . It has exposed me to so many new artists and genres and that growth has been a treasure to me. I continue to learn and be opened minded as that attitude helps me grow which in turn makes life more of a challenge . The clock is ticking and I cant wait to wake up . The minute you think you know it all is the minute you begin hearing the clock. |
I started off listening to my parent's LP's around 1967 or 68. They had a collection of classical, folk, and a few other things that don't twig the mind at the moment. Graduated to top 40 AM. Then in high school I went the prog rock route of some my fellow goners of the same age group. Back in the mid 70's most everybody listened to much the same thing at school. After high school I got my first decent (in retrospect it wasn't as good as I thought at the time) stereo. I was mired in prog rock, hard rock, and skinny tie music. I had one or two classical LP's almost as token representation. Zoom ahead twenty years and now at the age of 43 I still have some of the above excepting top 40, but lots of classical, blues, jazz, punk, heavy metal - really heavy, nu-metal, soft rock -if not too sleepy or whiny. So what does this mean? I've found that having a decent rig gets me listening to more music period! Now that I'm listening to more music I find I want more variety and am willing to give a listen to things I once would have dismissed arbitrarily. I wouldn't have changed this for anything in the world. I can be listening to the Melvins for one disc and then switch to say Mahler the next without blinking an eye and be quite moved by either. It isn't about the quality of the sound but the music itself and you would really believe this if you've ever heard a Melvin's recording. So if I'm listening to more music I can now justify spending more money on a better hi-fi. Of course this really becomes a chicken or egg kind of thing - do you start listening more then buy of buy then start listening more. I suspect a little of both. For me it was a matter of replacing a bunch of twenty odd year old equipment which had served me well with some new stuff for the next twenty years. I'm glad I did. Oh yes, Hell Yes. |
No doubt. For me the reason is clear. There are some forms of music that were orginally intended to be heard live (and for the most part unamplified) such as Jazz, Classical, Opera, etc. When this type of music is played through some mass market garbage stereo it is simply not that involving. It sounds more like background music (speaking generally here) and just doesn't grab me. So much detail is present in those forms of music, but is lost in the translation. When played through something that removes boundaries (so to speak) and gets me closer to the music I find it very, very involving. While I do find more modern forms of music more involving when played through some quality gear, the difference is not as great. |
YES,,,I have listened to a wide variety of music since I was a kid,Im 44 now.Since I finaly bought adecent system about a year ago my taste in music has really opened up to say the least,,mostly started to enjoy chamber music,some world,more jazz,electronica and much more.I hear beauty in music that I didnt hear when I did not have a good system,IM HOOKED |
Well Not changed but definitely Widened...I still get raised eyebrows when I play Eagles, Clapton, Chris Rea or Sade at Audiophile "meetings". Butmust say have discovered Vocals & classical due to it...
Love to listen to Patricia, Rebecca Pidgeon, Natalie Cole,Norah jones etc as well these days :)
But would still go to raptures when listening to Floyd. or Deep purple..they are too finely ingrained in the soul to really go away ! |
Firstly, your tastes change dramatically with age. You no longer want to hear the same stuff over & over again. We all like a natural sound to be herd from our systems. Since high end emphaises the midrange (and so does human hearing) we will lean toward sounds in the 3-6Khz range because it sounds so good on our systems. This includes acoustic, vocals the, sax etc. With better equiptment you also want to expand your personal tastes, the more music you listen to the more use you get out of your system |
