Audiophiles mostly aren’t music fans
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In my case, an audiophile, I’m in love with music and the better it sounds the more emotional and deeply satisfying the experience. The problem with good gear is its high resolution. When that gear isn’t set up really well, what one component resolves, another might loose. All it takes is a bad connector, bad mains supply, poorly constructed cable, poor room with lots of reflections or furniture to cause imbalances and diffraction. Poor vibratIon control, noisy power supplies, poor network etc. What then happens is that highly resolved detail like timbre, venue acoustics, ambient ‘air’ in the soundstage is lost, reabsorbed into other sounds so instead of say a voice with lots of ambience, you get a harsh sounding voice as the HF ambience contribution is heard as part of the voice.
You’ll notice that whenever you replace a component that has greater resolution, you’ll also notice a corresponding reduction in harshness, hardness or digital ‘edge’
You’ll notice that whenever you replace a component that has greater resolution, you’ll also notice a corresponding reduction in harshness, hardness or digital ‘edge’
For a cartridge I would suggest a Garrot brothers MM.
Bell wire from WE, ideally waxed non tinned copper.
Put the TT on a wall shelf.
All of the above should destroy most modern systems and leave you change to boot(UK=as well).
Kind regards,music first,G.
Bell wire from WE, ideally waxed non tinned copper.
Put the TT on a wall shelf.
All of the above should destroy most modern systems and leave you change to boot(UK=as well).
Kind regards,music first,G.
Im
Not trolling at all. Just my impressions From years listening to music for hours each day. And performing and recording worldwide.
I had a Lafayette receiver once it cost like $25 on eBay ,..,and it was more musical sounding than the stupid classe amp I had .... these things complete lack EQ made no sense.
believe it or not some concentrate on both. Don't get me wrong, I see your point and there are plenty out there that spend more time stroking their gear and their egos ..........
My goal is to always have my record collection worth more than my audio equipment.
You just purchased the wrong audiophile equipment. You went form a relaxed and natural sound with the Advents to a detailed and bright sound with the mordaunt short and classe amp. Honestly the General has is correct, what you should do is buy better quality vintage audiophile equipment.
You just purchased the wrong audiophile equipment. You went form a relaxed and natural sound with the Advents to a detailed and bright sound with the mordaunt short and classe amp. Honestly the General has is correct, what you should do is buy better quality vintage audiophile equipment.
Not this old stereotype again.
First of all, this is a false dichotomy.
I know plenty of audiophiles (I'm one of them), with very high end systems , and all of us, are music first audiophiles.
Does that mean that, there are certain times, when we spend a few hours, just listening to the sound? Sure. Maybe listen to those "audiophile approved" recordings? Sure, why not?
Correct.
But lets say, there are a certain percentage of audiophiles that care more about the sound than the music...
Why should you care if that is how they enjoy the hobby?
As are the majority of audiophiles.
The vast majority of my music collection is comprised of standard commercial releases. I have no problems listening to them on my audiophile system.
They still sound better to me than on a inferior system, warts and all.
It is my contention that you are an audiophile. You own a system that allows you to hear your music the way you want it to sound.
Again, not all audiophiles want extreme detail revealing systems. There are plenty of you that want your systems to be forgiving.
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My system in post grad was four large Advent speakers, two up front and two in the rear controlled by Advent Soundspace digital surround control. Sony TA 5650 VFET amp up front. Dyna PAS3 preamp and one of those old 'rumblemaster' AR turntables. Kewl.
It was great, and I'd have kept the speakers longer if the Advent foam surrounds hadn't gone kaputsky and I had no knowledge how to fix them. This stuff was the only thing I had in my car with some clothes when I came back to California, with books and records shipped in boxes.
It was great, and I'd have kept the speakers longer if the Advent foam surrounds hadn't gone kaputsky and I had no knowledge how to fix them. This stuff was the only thing I had in my car with some clothes when I came back to California, with books and records shipped in boxes.
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A neighbor brought over an actual musician to listen to my system over a year ago. They are both in one of the local audio societies. The musician was a band leader and played trumpet and brass. His wife is a professional violinist and performs with symphonies around the bay and travels, too, to perform.
I was pretty nervous, scared and thought: “Well, this is it, this guy will identify every sucky, fake, non-musical, pretentious, unreal iota of my crazy system and burn it to ashes.”
When he left, he said he was envious of the system and really liked it. I was a bit shocked at the praise, expecting something else or at best lukewarm acceptance. Audiophiles might like another audiophile’s system, but musicians are a whole other matter in terms of their different priorities.
I wouldn’t be surprised if musicians did not like some audiophile systems. Plus audiophiles amongst themselves all like different things.
Joe Zawinul of Weather Report fame reportedly didn't own or listen to speaker audio systems at home. If he wanted to hear something, he occasionally used headphones. If he wanted music, he would listen to live music from other musicians or play himself.
I was pretty nervous, scared and thought: “Well, this is it, this guy will identify every sucky, fake, non-musical, pretentious, unreal iota of my crazy system and burn it to ashes.”
When he left, he said he was envious of the system and really liked it. I was a bit shocked at the praise, expecting something else or at best lukewarm acceptance. Audiophiles might like another audiophile’s system, but musicians are a whole other matter in terms of their different priorities.
I wouldn’t be surprised if musicians did not like some audiophile systems. Plus audiophiles amongst themselves all like different things.
Joe Zawinul of Weather Report fame reportedly didn't own or listen to speaker audio systems at home. If he wanted to hear something, he occasionally used headphones. If he wanted music, he would listen to live music from other musicians or play himself.
With all due respect for those that do this and IMHO, one indication that an audiophile favors gear over music is the individual that listens to the same old group of records, cd's or whatever music time and time again. I know I did this many years ago and have now ceased this behavior.
Gordon, I think now that you've reached 'senior status' it's more like you forgot where you put your music !
Just bustin' your stones a wee bit !!
Great topic, thanks for posting. As others have said, you probably had the wrong equipment if most recordings sounded awful. But perhaps part of the problem is also musical genre. With pop and rock, the failure rate of recording quality is much higher than with jazz and classical, even though nowhere near 85 %. I do agree with you that a system with no EQ and a "purist" attitude makes no sense, especially in the bass. While my new Octave preamp has an excellent tone control, I mainly use the volume knob on my subwoofers to adjust my bass between recordings, especially rock. There are just too many recordings that sound anemic in the bass at standard setting, and some sound too fat. In this context, having a monitor/subwoofer combo is advantageous since the sub covers more than just the deep bass, and volume adjustment there has more effect than when subs supplement so-called full-range speakers.
On my system the vast majority (85-90 %) of classical recordings sound good to great, with really just a minority sounding mediocre or worse. With bass adjustment for rock/pop, I can even get a majority of recordings in those genres to sound good, and many are sounding excellent.
Having said all that, I agree that many audiophiles are in for the sound and the gear, and less for the music.
Even though primarily I am a music lover and always have been, I have at times also been guilty of that. For 20 years, while I did not change much in my system, I have used my system only to listen to music. Since 2013 I had been more on an upgrade path, and there were indeed periods where I put on most of the music because I wanted to listen to the sound, either because I loved it and was addicted to it, or because I was listening for problems. I will readily admit to that, and I don't think an audiophile who denies such periods in his journey is truthful with himself or others.
Now though, after acquisition of my new preamp and some other adjustments, things really fell into place, and I have reverted almost entirely to listening to music for the music's sake. Most recently, many times I even have forgotten to admire the performance of my system over simply being captivated by the music. Sure, there are still moments where I listen to my system just to revel in how it sounds, and choose specific records for that, but such moments become more and more rare.
What is more, I really enjoy *music* considerably more than I have ever done before in my life. As others have said, the emotional experience is just greater, with all the subtleties and visceral impact that a great system provides. Moreover, my system allows me to intellectually discern individual strands in complex classical music much easier and with less effort, which in turn enhances the emotional experience as well. Without studying the score, I can simply hear much more of the music, just as the composer must have intended. After all, in a good seat in the concert hall the separation of strands is also much clearer than in most home reproduction. Not just do I love old favorites even more, I can appreciate new difficult music faster and better. Lately I have been on a listening spree of just such music. As a music lover, I could not be happier about the situation I am now in, and there are no gear upgrades planned for quite a while.
My last system had that going on -- some music I liked did not like that system so I didn't play it. My current system does not and I play anything and everything, even YouTube videos. All my records are listenable but the great recordings are truly great. I have an old Marantz 2235B that works great and is fun, but its not in the same league.
I think you just are mistaken in your conclusion. Audiophiles are music lovers first and foremost. Just because you didn't like the way the music sounded on your system, doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with how music sounds on others' systems. Sounds like snobbery to me to say that those who love music are only those who don't have great gear.
It's the music first. ...Music we love first. ...Then the notes follow; the Opera singer and the Tango player/dancer.
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