When did you most enjoy the music?


I think this may be geared towards the over-60 crowd, which seems to make up a good portion of our membership.  I was thinking the other day - There is no doubt that, since I got into high end audio I am getting better, more realistic sound.  With the right recordings, instruments sound real and I think I have my system well tuned to my tastes.  But I was thinking back on when I really enjoyed the actual music the most and I came up with these - When I was in my late teens and sitting in a friend's room with a pair of JBL 100s sitting on the floor and against the wall, driven by a Kenwood or similar receiver listening to Hendrix, the Fudge, the Band and all that stuff.  Maybe in a bar with a Seeburg jukebox blasting Sexual Healing or Give It Up - 1968 driving down to the Newport Jazz Festival in a Rambler with 1 8 track tape and listening to Born on the Bayou 100 times over and digging it every time it came around again.  We all parrot the same crap now - that our systems are transparent and disappear, but do they?  The system disappeared in that Rambler because you paid absolutely no mind to the gear that was playing.  Just digging the music.  Didn't have to sit in the sweet spot or anything.  Maybe it's something that can't be recaptured, as it is with a lot of things of youth.  So be it.  And you may feel the opposite.  And no, I wouldn't want to go back to JBLs on the floor anymore because my priorities have changed.  Then was then and now is now. 
chayro
Oh, forgot to answer :)

I enjoy music much more now than I ever have.

When I was young, I was a pretty lustful creature. I like to think that lustful pursuit of "whatever" has been replaced with a more measured "love" based experience of life.

I think life experience has added relevance to the music I listen to. And as I have gotten older, I am far more open to music that I would have dismissed in my youth. If it wasn't "angry young guy music", it didn't register.

On any given night, my "playlist" can shift from the B52's, to Lenny Breau, Mr. Bungle, Janos Starker, Ben Webster etc.

That would never have happened in my youth :)


@millercarbon
 There really is nothing in "music" then that requires sound.

Get that!  We do not go to the party, we are the party, it goes where we go. Keep the inner child alive, it's hungry and needs feeding...enjoy the music...


As much as I dig my current rig, I really enjoyed the music listening on my Marantz receiver, Garrard 301 turntable, and Superscope speakers. A pretty rudimentary set up, I know, but it sounded great, and the blue light from the Marantz in my dark bedroom at night was magical.
My Marantz 2020 with blue lights and Advent speakers. with a pioneer turntable and Shure cartridge listening to the Doobie Brothers "Listen to the Music" at full clipping volume.
Yeah, over 60....but when I put that album on today, I'm 17 again.
Fun thread.
I used to learn guitar parts for club playing by lifting the arm on my Philips turntable to figure out "Barracuda" on vinyl by Heart...among a hundred others. The internet has given young musicians a leg up...that I now use. I still have the Philips in storage, along with my Pioneer SX-450 I bought at 16 from University Stereo.