Rap music on high-end speakers

One of the worst things about Hi-Fi is the limited genre of music that most audiophiles promote. I find that I can't walk into a Hi-Fi shop without some dealer mentioning the same old 20 to 30 year old rock recording that was recently remastered. Especially if they find out you don't listen to just clssical music.

The truth is a lot of audiophiles are completely out of touch with new music. Be it Rap, Trip Hop, Post-Rock, Electronica, legendary independant record label bands or even techno remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan- you won't find new music being auditioned by a dealer in a hi fi shop.

What you can find is music that has a much better recording than performance. Or music that you have heard a million times. I love Kind of Blue, Dark side of the Moon and good recordings the Bach's Brandenburg symphonies but c'mon!

There is so much new music out there that is incredible. There is a ton of older undiscovered music that was influential on the mainstream bands. Anyone listen to the new Neu! re-releases? And yes it is something to sit in the dark and really dissect the musical lines, feel the composition and how your system is reproducing them. Why are people so uncomfortable doing this with new music?

Good performances are always enhanced by good equipment. Isn't that the point of this hobby?

-Karl

Sean, your post summarizes many excellent points including the need to be honest in order to have a discussion.

It also reminds me of a point I wanted to make. Many people out there have minimal exposure to some genres of music be it upbringing (culture), location (city or farm) or the all important resource- interaction with friends who are music lovers. If you rely on exposure to music from the popular media (or hifi shops) you are likely to have opinions like Sean stated:

"As to why people would have the ideas that they do about "rap", "hip-hop", etc..., take a look around. Most of the time that you hear this music or see the participants, the sound is HORRIBLE while the listeners and creators try to portray themselves as being "ghetto gangsters"."

Sean you need to look around a bit more.

It may be true that lots of rap is listened to on "Big woofers in untuned boxes and Piezo tweeters." So is a lot of classic rock. This may represent exactly what the listener wants out of the music or what they can afford to spend.

I am lucky to be involved with a group of people across the US who post music to a private server along with a brief description of the album. Every week I get an email from the system administrator listing the new music posted that week. This is what the internet is all about! It has increased my exposure to rare recordings, different styles of music new and old. A great example of a new way to get exposed to music without listening to commercial radio or music television. There are probably a bunch of Audiogoners who do this too.

MP3 isn't hifi but the recordings I enjoy are eventually purchased in the CD or vinyl formats and enjoyed on that other thing I spend too much time sitting in front of.

Sean and Raguirre. Well said.

Seek out good music, there is some in every genre even if its not coming at you loudly as a car rolls down the street.. It's that same insane "ghetto" music that created Louis Armstrong and Kraftwerk.

Audiogon is a fringe group of people. Audiophile= Fringe. Try explaining a 500$ interconect to a non-audiophile. Further subspecializing... Audiophiles with web access and interest = Audiogoner. All with a wide diversity of opinions about music. Amazing.

Try Vandersteen's.