What define "musicality" ? And what constitute "musicality" in audio ?

I've never understood that specific characteristic but your description helps. Looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

There are some descriptors that make perfect sense to me both intuitively and with experience but some do not. Musicality seems like it could have a lot of 'felt' variables; hard to pin down.

I think when that is the case it is easy for us to misunderstand one another and not even know it.

I think that many descriptors of sound are difficult to explain, but one that is very difficult to explain is "musicality" but when we experience it, relatively for sure, not in an absolute sense, it is like we are less conscious of the sound first and more conscious of the flowing experience of the music we listen to in the now ...Sometimes miraculously, all is right in the audio system, and we swim with the music...No subconscious insatisfaction grab us back...


For each of us if we think about the many different factors that make this experience possible, we, each of us had our opinions,our experiments, our discoveries: cables, particular piece of gear, tweaks, etc... I am very curious about how each of us gain his access to this "musicality" experience... The fact is there is a progression, but one day, suddenly the miracle is somehow there :"musicality"... Why? How? I think that for each of us this experience of wonder is different... I am curious to read the reflexions of others about that...


I am interested to read about "wonders"  in experiencing "musicality" by each of us, it is a long road to experience that, this is not a problem that has only a simple one miraculous solution, it is a long way for most of us...I am interested by  your particular history about that experience...

Musicality I think is one of those terms people use for when the system or component sounds good in a way that you are trying to think of exactly how it sounds good but its hard because your foot starts tapping and your heart starts racing and your mind keeps returning to how goddamn good it sounds so quit bugging me man just go away and oh yeah damn that sounds good!

The Linn turntable people used to call it "pace." I think it goes beyond that.

So many times when I’m listening to music, whether its a full classical orchestra or a jazz trio, I find myself thinking "boy what a tight group." That’s musicality.

Musicality has to do with pace, the expert playing of the musicians, the correct tonality of the instruments, the layering of the instruments, and/or the proper positioning of the players on the sound stage. When it all comes together, that is musicality.

I don’t think musicality has much to do with audiophile terms, like transparency, and such. I’ve heard musicality on the car radio, even to such a degree that I’ve stopped the car, written down the name of the artist, then driven over to the nearest record store to buy the music.

Conversely, I've heard super transparent systems before that are amazing in that one regard. But, after 20 minutes of listening, one is left wondering ... where is the musical involvement? Where is the musical emotion? Why am I bored listening to this system? Where's the exit? 

Like in the famous pornography case, when asked how he would define pornography, the judge said: "I know it when I see it." With musicality, I know it when I hear it.

Frank