Are you hung up?

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To be hung up about people being hung up on the sound/measurement of their system is kind of blinkered thinking, to only imagine that people must be wierd if they don't think like oneself... isn't it?

are you hung up on being hung up about people being hung up on the sound/measurement of their system ?
 
Absolute heaven

Look at it like a project car. You may have something in the garage that you spend your weekends working on, but you still have a newish* car on the drive for actually taking to work.


The audio equivalent is that you have a sizeable music collection and a variety of ways of enjoying it. The fact that as a hobby you mess around with rediculously OTT systems runs in parallel and is not a problem for the music lover.

*By newish I mean less than 20 years old.


+2


Take out 7 different CDs (jazz, blues, classical, folk and whatever) pop them all into the MB-4s and sit back and enjoy a selection a whisky & whiskey with music and muzik.:)
 
To be hung up about people being hung up on the sound/measurement of their system is kind of blinkered thinking, to only imagine that people must be wierd if they don't think like oneself... isn't it?

Taken to the most general, trying to project one's mindset onto others is the fundamental problem, no?

There's room for the -120 dB types as much as the blown out speaker/crackly amp folks. It's (for most of us at least) all for fun and we get our kicks in some fashion.

That said, I have been feeding the troll(s) lately so I should go back to helping technically rather than anything editorial.
 
The cure is a steady diet of live music to maintain perspective. Much of the holy grail of audiophilia nervosa is illusion and fantasy. Symphony orchestras in real halls do not image with pinpoint precision or much at all, no shimmer, no PRAT, veils could be found if you pay attention. The obsessive focus on everything but the music is techno-masturbatory in nature.
 

PRR

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> a steady diet of live music

I am often unimpressed because I was blessed/cursed with a career of 30 years recording live music. Early on I go in the hi-fi shop and the salesdude is raving about this new panel speaker's realism, and plays a trumpet work. I was around trumpets all day. This speaker sounded like several small bits of paper MIDI-programmed with trumpet notes/timbres. At that it may have been one of the more "realistic" speakers in the store, albeit a bit "snazzy" (lightly kazoo-like) re an AR-3 (this was a while ago).

Yes, the "sound field" in a real concert hall is rarely like a home playback. But generally recordings are heavily massaged from conception through layout, conducting, mike placement, mixdown, etc, BECAUSE sound in a small room can't be big-room sound. You can go to a fine restaurant, get a bag of air, and "enjoy" the aromas at home, but it won't be the same.

So most hi-fi comes down to ear-tickle.
 
Agreed.
Not that I have any experience worth noting.
But real, un-amplified acoustic instruments have a presence. If for some ridiculous reason the vocalist and perhaps the guitarist then decides to get a few mikes and amps, it is a very good direct degradation of the experience for me.

If you are talking about Live PA setups, I have heard good setups tuned bad, and cheap setups highly optimalized to perfection. But when big setups get really big, it is not easy making good sound for everyone. I find myself preferring smaller venues.
 
The cure is a steady diet of live music to maintain perspective. Much of the holy grail of audiophilia nervosa is illusion and fantasy. Symphony orchestras in real halls do not image with pinpoint precision or much at all, no shimmer, no PRAT, veils could be found if you pay attention. The obsessive focus on everything but the music is techno-masturbatory in nature.

What is the difference between obsessing about making sure one has a diet of live music to maintain perspective and obsessing about listening to audiophile recordings to maintain one's ability to discern equipment charcteristics?

Sounds similar to me - a idea of what music "should" be and how it "should" sound. Same mindset perhaps but different taste?

"Music" is all encompasing! That includes studio-made music bringing you sounds from your speakers that are hard to create live.

There are also different kinds of live sound. I've had some very close-up live music experiences whilst working in theatres - walking around stage during rehersals, sound checks, "hiding" in the pit waiting for a quick interval turnaround during shows etc etc, all sorts of instruments and styles from Reich to traditional indian set-ups, Flamenco, modern bands....

NONE of those close-up experiences have ever been recreated in their full impact and enjoyment when I've been in the audience for anything! And that includes watching the same shows I had been involved in putting on. My experiences in the audience are often of a sound sonically washed out and made more bland by the distance and reflections and homogenisation in comparison. Which matches what you say yourself - that pin-point imaging for example isn't what one experiences with live music. Sit right infront of a drum kit in an orchestra pit and it IS what you experience... differences in experience dictate one's subsequent expectations .

Only time those sonic experiences have been close to being recreated is with great hifi with close-mic'd studio recordings - ok, also PA to be honest, good PA..

Those close-up sonic experiences are exquisite - my personal view - and has led to me to listening to field recordings, wierd close-up recordings of machines, instruments, animals... all sorts. And then led me to try to get a hifi together that can recreate them too. All very important to my enjoyment.

But also there is music too which I can enjoy in many forms including bad recordings played back on poor systems. Converge the two though and things get more enjoyable!

So I can fully understand the obsession although I dont go down the "assessing gear" route much - it's too boring.
 
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Sorry if I was unclear, no obssessing is required, just enjoying. As to the objective it's quite simple:

Live music - Recorded playback

Real - Reproduction


If you are unfamiliar with the first then obsessing over the second is a pursuit without a reference and chasing phantoms may well occur.
 
You seem to be implying that you expected sane people to be found here in the first place?

This I think was the primary mistake.

Advice? Remove hands from keyboard, sit up from chair, remove any portable technology from your person and place on table, walk to nearest exit and go outside.

And never come back ;-)

I don't get any of this, you seem to be implying.........oh forget it
 
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