Harvey Rosenberg, of New York Audio Labs fame, addressed our audio club years ago. He talked quite a bit about the significance of music to mankind from the beginning of time to modern times....from communicating with the Gods, to mating rituals, to just relaxing after work. Then he went on to talk about how we each have a unique sensitivity to the fidelity level of music playback systems and recorded music in general. Sort of a "miminum requirements" level that it takes before we can actually experience music playback in a similarly way that we experience actual music. Some can achieve that level with an am car radio....others need panel speakers and elaborate playback systems to be convinced. Most audio buffs seek an uncommon fidelity level to be satisfied, which is what sets us apart from someone happy listening to music on their phone.
My system reached that critical level years ago, and has even improved a fair amount since then, but let’s face it.....some recordings suck, and no matter how good your system is, a poorly recorded track isn’t gonna cut it. The vast majority of the time I get sucked into the performance when listening, but every once in a while, I get up and change the album because it was more of an annoyance than a pleasure....no system will cure that.
My system reached that critical level years ago, and has even improved a fair amount since then, but let’s face it.....some recordings suck, and no matter how good your system is, a poorly recorded track isn’t gonna cut it. The vast majority of the time I get sucked into the performance when listening, but every once in a while, I get up and change the album because it was more of an annoyance than a pleasure....no system will cure that.