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what system musicians prefer? Do they care?

I have never aspired to be a musician, although I am very artistic.  I am bad at singing and never enjoyed dabbling at playing an instrument. But I enjoy listening to music tremendously and I always wondered if being a musician would improve my experience as a listener. It seems to me that musicians (good ones) would have a lot more expertise in sound, what is good quality sound, a good system, a high fidelity speaker.... but I have never seen any proof. Am I just imagining it? Are good musicians mediocre listeners? Are they not obsessed with good sound? Any musicians out there to comment?
One example I know is the  Cambridge Soundworks Mick Fleetwood Speaker System, which I finally purchased last year, I knew my collection would not be complete without it. It's evidence of great talents crossing paths: a  genious speaker designer Henry Kloss, and Mick Fleetwood, one of the greatest drummers of the century (and  the previous one). But I don't see musicians weighing in on what are good systems are, how much is it worth spending and what to focus on. It's much more like rich douchebags bragging about the price of their systems on these forums. 
gano

Showing 6 responses by mahgister

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 

My friend who was a trombonist in a classical orchestra was cynical about many musicians takes on musical matter and  despise audiophiles as maniac...

i think there is in the musicians crowd the same amount of interest and disinterest for audiophilia in %...

Also it takes much money to create a very good system... i estimate a high end system well chosen with synergy and an acoustical dedicated rooom  around 15,000 bucks using my knowledge... ( most audiophile here will laugh at my low bound in price but knowledge matter more than snobism)

If not it takes me a lot of time to learn how to make the best with a low cost one around 1000 bucks  most people had not the time to figure this out nor the interest....

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 
There is nothing like being able to pull out one of the many hundreds of recordings I did as an engineer and listen to the honesty of what I originally heard represented in its natural glory ! No thundering bass, because it doesn’t exist in the real world unless you are talking about a pipe organ. Only an amplified instrument can provide it. No stand-up bass fiddle can push out that much sound without the help of a hefty amp and speaker. It’s a fact. Not to say that the resulting sound isn’t enjoyable, but it’s not natural. Now that every instrument seems to have its own clip-on microphone it is not really the listener’s fault that the natural sound of every instrument has been compromised to a degree of unintelligibility ! Such is state of much music today. Don’t count me in !
Very interesting....

It is the reason why some audiophile unable to control their acoustic crave for subwoofers and dont give a dam about musical timbre...

They listen sound effects and not music....

Someone called my system because i dont connect the only woofer i had a battery radio sound system...

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 
Perhaps you can clarify the point you’re making. Music is sound. What you are describing as performance values (Articulation, pitch manipulation, tempo, instrument usage, and dynamic choices) are sound, often very subtle uses of sound. In my experience, subtleties in music are heard better on a quality music system and are hidden by noise or are just not reproduced on a crappy system.

So I guess I’m not clear on how music (performance values) can be separated from sound and how a better sounding system doesn’t reproduce performance values better than a crappy system
Music survive sound....

It is a spiritual event before being a sound event....

I apologize, i cannot resist to answer...

A badly recording of Furtwangler Bruckner symphonies may exceed in value most new interpretation and one of the greatest musical events in my life anyway was on bad recordings...






mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 
Interesting thanks....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 
Even if musician listen attentively " musical interpretation " and filter out "sound"; even if audiophile filter out "musical interpretation and listen attentively the "sound";

There is a common basic  ground: the playing dynamic of a pitch timbre acoustical instrument, which is at the same time music and sound....Or a particular singing voice...
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,782 posts
 
Thanks to the 2 great last posters...

I will only add that i am not a musician but a classical music lover of jazz and Indian and Iranian music...

They are 2 types of audiophiles for me in relation to the gear:

Those who search for the best acoustical rendition of timbre hues....

Those who will buy anything that will increase bass and details and sound pressure excitment....

Those who want that their gear sound like a musical instrument and those who want a live concert excitment....

Someone already said that without an array of subwoofers an audio system is " a transistor radio"...sic... 😊

In a word people listen sound pressure or details or listen music....

The classical musicians i encountered in my life were interested ONLY by timbre impression....

My only discovery in audio is that it takes only relatively good gear, not necessarily costly at all, to create a very good experience of timbre at the condition to study acoustic and applying it....

For sure there is a number of audiophile BETWEEN these 2 categories, but the majority is in these 2 categories.... I may be wrong but it is my experience...
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