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.
Drummer here, and this has had a major influence on my system choices for sure. I know what the base drum and cymbals should sounds like, sound pressure level, tone, sustain of the cymbals etc…
3 years ago I spent the day in LA auditioning various higher end systems, and was left depressed that every system I listed to had either no base, very little base and certainly no realistic sound pressure levels. I was listening to systems ranging between 60 to 150k. The last audio store I went to was Legacy audio, and immediately fell in love with the Focus XDs using the WAVLET. Price for system with dedicated streamer around 30k. I could not be happier.
@billstevenson You make some very good points about musicians vs. pure audiophiles. Speaking from my musician side, i do have a very good understanding as to what i want my system to sound like, and do not suffer from 'audiophile nervosa'...yet.
In my youth I went to Berkley then played in the Navy Band, then went to college and became an engineer. I still have a set of drums and a piano in my music room along with a six figure sound system. I consider myself neither a practicing musician nor a true audiophile although in retirement I spend hours a day immersed in music. For a span of about 10 years while in college and after I worked in HE audio retail and was a TT setup man among other things. I offer the following qualified observations with the caveat that it is not possible to categorize either musicians or audiophiles. In general musicians who sit in sections, such as in bands or orchestras tend to like immersive listening sound experiences. Multi-channel systems, dipolar speakers like Maggies or electrostatics for example. Rock people like loud, so horns are popular, big amps and so on. The piano, bass and drums players tend to be the most likely to listen critically, which of course makes sense if you think about their role when playing ensemble at least in a small group improvisational setting. In a general sense it has been my observation that musician/audiophiles tend to take more time selecting their kit and then settling in with it. Another way of putting it is musicians tend not as prone to audiophile nervosa. So there are a few thoughts on this old topic.
The musicians of which I speak have certainly been exposed to fancier systems. More importantly they know what music really sounds like, because they regularly attend concerts and of course perform them. They just don’t feel the need for a HE system. YT off their phone works fine for them.
This thread is so old that I hadn’t realized that I had essentially made the same post 4 years ago
In 1980 I was able to spend some time at Ted Nugent's house in central MI. I was 18. He had a slate fireplace hearth that went wall to wall- elevated about 8" off the floor level as was the style in 1960s houses in that area. On that hearth he had about 10 guitars on stands. His Birdland, a few Les Paul hollow bodies, and some I didn't know enough about to recall correctly. What caught my eye was his stereo system: An SAE rack about 5' tall. All black. All SAE. I don't recall the speakers.
In his Bronco he had Maxell UD XL II tapes- all of himself. I asked him about that and he said he plays them to "practice in my head".
Im a musician and an audiophile. Im lucky I have a wife and family because otherwise I’d spend much much more chasing the dragon. When I listen to my stereo I want to feel like Im watching a live performance. That’s what im going for.
The musicians I know listen to the notes, the composition and the performance... it is a focus on the fundamental's of the music... how well it is reproduced is not in their focus. I had a friend of mine who is a professional touring musician and he could easily tell it was his Martin guitar in his recordings... I took that as a win. He sat on the floor and got lost in the music and its performance.
. . . and I guess I have to appreciate the irony of someone using the possessive pronoun, "your," to tell "Carl" that he "is not that smart." As I just typed, @foggyus91 or @texas jerry or @any other alias you may be using, keep up the good work.
Can you expound on the Hammond reference, texas-jerry? Does that have anything to do with a DM you once sent me back in the days you were @jerryg123? Which is one that was evidently so off color that the mods deleted it shortly after I posted the contents to a thread?
Ages ago I remember reading an article that interviewed a few prominent recording artists at that time, what their home systems were. The only artist’s answer that I remember was Kenny Logins. He stated that his home system was decidedly average sound quality for the reason that when he took home recordings he was working on, he wanted to hear what his average fan was hearing regarding sound quality. What perfect sense that made to me then, and now.
I guess the key idea in that example is that the subject is “recording artist” not musicians in general. I wonder what recording engineers have in their homes. Perhaps they’re tired of listening at work and just want to watch old Honeymooners reruns when they’re done for the day. Having worked in the live performance biz for many years, I’ve noticed that live sound engineers almost to a person have mediocre to very sub par home gear. They just couldn’t care less.
I think that it might depend a lot upon what level the musician is on when it comes to making music. For example, I can see where a true working musician who is spending a lot of her or his time in the studio and touring might not have the amount of time on his or her hands in order to be listening analytically and being concerned about hearing the subtle nuances in recordings that someone who is a musician as a hobby might.
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....
Maybe you should do something about your current economic state.
Yes, where should I begin... how my wealth affected by a million things outside of my control. For most people, being poor is not a choice. Other than robbing old ladies and banks, it's not possible to move up the ladder, not a matter of working harder or doing anything different.
@mahler123 Do you not think that the very same musicians would have been a whole lot happier listening to music on a great system, if they had known about that opportunity and had the option to avail themselves of it?
This may come as a surprise to a few here, but i know several musicians who are now concerned about the cabling that their gear utilizes. I noticed in the studio, when i was playing, that a specific brand and type of cable was important to me, it really did improve my tone. Lot of pros also are after the best tone, ( i was one of them) and will now go to extra lengths to minimize digital artifacts etc.,
@immatthewjI heard a few interviews with him, and he is a sweet and humble dude. Can't say that about Stevie Nicks. But that's just my superficial knowledge.
@gano, back in the '90s I kind of remember reading an interview with Buck Owens in Stereophile, and he had said that he listened to a very basic rack system.
many of my neighbors are musicians - at various levels, some play at big events in town. None of them care about hifi, aside from having some device that plays music. Most of them, at best, have active speakers. I can understand that connecting with music does not require fancy equipment,.
I'm an ex pro studio musician. My experience is that most musicians have little to no idea that high end audio even exists. Most who do know, are also very put off by the prices that a lot of the gear demands. But, I know of a few other ex-pros and current pros who have decent systems. Not systems that are mega high end, but systems that tend to be more middle of the line, but also sound quite musical.
@frogman“tonally
bleached out”. Great description that I use often. “Gray”. Can’t stand
that type of sound. Instrumental sounds have a lot of natural color.
I borrowed that off @prof. He has written some excellent posts here and is usually very precise when it comes to describing timbre and tonal colour reproduction.
Even after nearly 40 years of listening to various systems I still think that instrumental colour is one of the most difficult things for any of them to reproduce.
So many of them nowadays just cannot get close. Or even seem to try.
As much as it pains me to have to give Apple any credit I cannot fault the iPad 2 on the grounds of failing to reproduce timbre and instrumental colour.
There's an app on there that features some 60 musical instruments that my kids would sometimes play with.
The tonality would be almost uncanny, and that tiny speaker could certainly put many a full size one to shame.
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