How do you know if your system sounds like the sound room where it was recorded or how it sounded live? I think a sound system alters the sound in order to hear what sounds most pleasing to your ear. The next step is how much are you willing to spend or how much will your spouse allow you to spend.
I think it is fun to do things in stages and to improve the sound. This gives you something to look forward to. Problem is, the equipment depreciates rapidly.
Many young people have no choice but to start somewhere, but they are at least starting.
What amazes me is to look at real estate listings and not see a single home with a pair of speakers in any room of their house. For example they might have a $5,000 piece of furniture with a wide screen TV and they are listening to their TV speakers. I would estimate 70% of viewing a movie is based on sound. People living in a $800,000 house listening to their TV speakers. Yikes! |
Reality? that's live music.
A stereo can get you only so much. If you have a nicely recorded, produced and manufactured live album, you can get a good rendition of it.
The sickness of the audiophile (which unfortunately is me) is the willingness to continue to pay more and more for less and less perceived improvement in SQ. The poorest to the wealthiest audiophiles have the same sickness, just some will pay a lot more, and get a little more.
Anytime I change anything in my system and it sounds better to me, I get a rush. That's the addictive drug of the hobby. Nothing else. |
rvpiano, listening to the sound is not dysfunctional. It is what we audiophiles do. Can I listen to the sound and enjoy the music at the same time? You bet. Does the sound ever keep me from enjoying the music? Never, unless it is bad music and there is more of that than ever. I have to say that good sound lets me enjoy the music more. What I think is dysfunctional is letting frustration with the sound quality ruin your enjoyment of the music. There have been plenty of times I have been less than happy with the sound of my system but that never stopped me from listening to music.
What the music sounded like when it was recorded is not the point. It is what it sounds like when it is played back. If you can close your eyes and imagine you at a live event you are in business. That is my definition of the absolute sound. |
Epistemology 101: the coffee table may be a figment of my imagination, or it may be a bunch of subatomic particles or even electromagnetic waves, but it sure hurts when I knock my shin against it. |
"Music (i.e. art) is nor reality. It is freedom from reality.". |
Mijostyn,
I, of course, realize that obsessing over the sound to the detriment of the music is not to be wished for. But DYSFUNCTIONAL???
That word has such pejorative implications, it should not be glibly used. Compulsive, yes. And many of us are infused with that curse. It’s almost the nature of the hobby.
But I find the term dysfunctional way too strong and ultimately insulting. |
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rvpiano, why on earth are you so sensitive to a word? It means, functioning badly. It is not meant to be insulting in any way shape or form.
Just a short 75 years ago we were blowing up people with A bombs. Now there's an insult. An insult is an expression or word you hurl at an individual. Then you slap him in the face and challenge him to a dual. We are such cool creatures, anyway. Please, get yourself a gin and tonic, don't forget the lime and chill out. |
Mijostyn,
Your historical references are as irrelevant as your opinion. |
@larry5729
"How do you know if your system sounds like the sound room where it was recorded or how it sounded live? I think a sound system alters the sound in order to hear what sounds most pleasing to your ear. The next step is how much are you willing to spend or how much will your spouse allow you to spend"
I agree but this is not hi-fi orthodoxy! .
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Seems that unless you were there to witness and hear the actual recoding being made, reality is largely undefinable. Everyone is aware of the differences in source quality. A lousy production sounds lousy at any price IMO, a better lousy, but lousy nonetheless. |
I don't think most want the most close to live sound. I think most audiophiles have a preference. How far are you willing to go to achieve this goal? Most tend to push the boundaries further and further and that expands the costs. |
In any audio show about 1 in 100 listening rooms reproduces music completely realistically. It is a rare event and most people never hear it. Many think they do. Most vendors don't know how to get there strangely enough. It's better to talk with the engineers if you can. When you get "there" with your system, you will find all systems that produce realistic sound, sound alike. You cannot get more real than real. It is a hoot actually, and one heck of a lot of work.
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Mijostyn.
Just for the record,
I prefer lemon in my martinis. |
There is one simple trick to dramatically improving your system for about $1.00 Enjoy a small amount of THC prior to sitting down to listen for an hour or two. Those who do know I speak the truth. Those who haven't..... |
"There is one simple trick to dramatically improving your system for about $1.00 Enjoy a small amount of THC prior to sitting down to listen for an hour or two. Those who do know I speak the truth. Those who haven't....."
I'm in...Now where can I find those 1 dollar THC hits in 2021? |
At +/- 24% THC, about a dollars worth of cannabis in the bowl is all you need these days. ha ha
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The performances jump out of the groves with my new cartridge today. Does it sound real?
No, it will always be an electronic recreation.
Do I care? NO |
rvpiano, your response had me think up a good one. "When life give's you lemons make martinis"! |
As far as live performances, most often, I have no desire to re-create a live performance in my home. My old ears no longer tolerate 85-110db of loud and most of the pop and rock concerts I went to over the years, while engaging and enjoyable, they were loud and great acoustics was seldom their strong point. Most live jazz performances and orchestral, not quite so loud (85-90 db, as apposes to 110+ db) and the added enjoyment of listening to real instruments - strings, horns and percussions; still to loud for me to listen to at that level for several hours every night. I have no desire to spend a night enjoying my favorite music only to have my ears numb for the next three days.
As far as comparing the performance of one’s system at home to the experience of listening to a great live performance in the studio, by and large the studio experience (except for the education) would be a bit of a let down. Most of the work in the studio is mixing, editing, dubbing, recording and re-takes. Quite often, all the performers, instrumentalists and back up vocalists aren’t even in the studio at the same time, performing together, as a group. Rather than a great one take live studio performance, it is most often a consortium and a culmination to create a masterful rendition of how the performers and recording engineers believe the performance should sound. Wether or not the end result sounds exactly as they intended on your system at home is speculative at best. The important thing is that your system makes it sound right to you.
What I enjoy now and appreciate, in my home, is a good recording that imparts the timber, texture, emotion and fullness of a live performance and the ability of my system to present that to me with all those qualities on an imaginary stage beyond my speakers, at a volume my old ears can handle.....Jim
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rvpiano
to answer your original query- Reality that places Me closest to the live event.
Happy Listening! |
