This question has been asked many times, and it is a profound one. If you are a 'hobbyist' or 'gear hound' you very well might be a materialist. Music is spiritual, and the matter associated with it (the laws of physics for example) is usurped into its inner meaning if it is indeed understood to be spiritual. If not, then it is just stuff. Art ain't that simple, and audio is about the delivery and appreciation of an artform: beauty is the goal.
Therefore, IMO, the issue is how we view our quest for the sublime, not the trails blazed along the way. If our view is an act of wonder and awe, then that is the experience we get. If it is just a hobby, then that is what we get.
I place my vote for the transcendental act of sound allowing me to glimpse that which is beyond my mind's capacities. However I have sympathy for the hobbyist to an alarming extent.
Cheers,
Dave
Therefore, IMO, the issue is how we view our quest for the sublime, not the trails blazed along the way. If our view is an act of wonder and awe, then that is the experience we get. If it is just a hobby, then that is what we get.
I place my vote for the transcendental act of sound allowing me to glimpse that which is beyond my mind's capacities. However I have sympathy for the hobbyist to an alarming extent.
Cheers,
Dave