Music first or sound first?

@patrickdowns I am OK with looking at expensive gear now. I used to feel jealous or envious because I knew I could never afford it (anything over a $1000) but now I enjoy it like I read car magazines. Technology will trickle down and I will be able to enjoy some aspects of expensive gear and so it's mostly fun to read and watch reviews. I am fairly certain I wouldn't enjoy music more if I had more $$$ to spend on gear, or at least not in any way proportional to the cost. 

It's definitely sound first for me. Good sound always makes a song more enjoyable and I'm not afraid to use external gear to help me shape a song to the way that I want it to sound. 

Music makes me feel something or it’s just sound. It can be perfect sound, amazing sound and surreally real sound. A car starting, a hammer dropping - just noise. A heart beating, a wish, a lost love, a triumphant victory. That’s music. That the system communicates it well is paramount.

There is no “first”, or a “major - minor” binary choice. The music appreciation is a direct function of the necessary system IMO. 

sure ,..you  can technically listen to the best “ music” on a “system” composed of a POS build and worse POS+ audio, performance Airbuds from a crap smartphone. 

Rather, you can actually enjoy the music played on a high-end system 

TAKEAWAY

The two factors are irrevocably equally stapled together…full stop. 

contrastv