What is Musicality?


Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai

Showing 1 response by 2chnlben

Musicality - the term, since you asked, is a description of human characteristics (applied to persons not components). Persons of greater musicality however, typically will possess the ability to discern musical nuances (and possibly component nuances) better than persons of lesser musicality (or at least, easier than persons with lesser musicality). This is not to suggest that a person of superior musicality can, should, or will enjoy or appreciate music and equipment any better than persons of lesser musicality. Now this only applies if you want to use the (word) in its proper context. I am not suggesting that when the (word) is used out of context that the "intended hypothesis" is lacking or incorrect. In that case, the wrong word was selected to convey the given hypothesis. That doesn’t mean the hypothesis is invalid…I’m just saying!

Oh, and by the way, using the word in proper context, I am not a person of great musicality. With that said, music is a significant part of my life, I am an audiophile and I appreciate all faucets of the industry. Mozart was a man of great musicality; to a lesser degree so was Michael Jackson. Anyway, “musicality” is not a great word for describing audio components. How about simply using the word, “musical” since I believe that is what people actually mean anyway. Again, I’m just saying…!