After suffering the slings and arrows of relatives’ braying about how I’m just "listening to the equipment" I began to catalogue all of the things that I listen to besides the music and equipment: noise; vinyl quality; vocal quality and timbre; acoustic instrument resonance even to the extent of trying to identify the piano by its sound; sound of the hall; effectiveness of the mic setup; conductor’s control and interpretation; my room’s acoustics; there must be many more. If all of the above perform optimally you’ve got some "SOUND" to evaluate, whether it’s music or equipment. You could run it through an old NAD integrated with a pair of almost any modern speakers or phones and you’ve got excellent sound!
SQ vs. Music
What percentage of the time do you you listen to your set JUST for the SQ and what percentage do you listen to your set JUST for the music?
I know the obvious answer is you do both, but can you honestly answer the question?
I know the obvious answer is you do both, but can you honestly answer the question?