Are you a music lover or an audiophile?

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Fiftyfifty

Fiftyfifty

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A fellow FM recently made a remark that audiophiles and music lovers differ in their choice of music and artistes. Made me realise how I had veered away from many artistes that I once loved, but had pushed into the bottom shelf in my quest for better SQ.

Is my desire for my setup to sound good making me lose out on listening to great musicians, be it Faiyaz Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali, KL Saigal, early Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Jack Teagarden, even more modern artistes like the Beatles (never well recorded), Cream, Tull in favour of, with due respect, Chesky records and Patricia Barber? Or Yo yo Ma in preference to Jacqueline du Pre? Do you really prefer Jacintha to Julie London, both wanting more 'Black Coffee'? Do you enjoy the sound of Jacintha's breath more than the nuances of Julie's voice?

Is there a dilemma or none? If yes, how do you resolve it? I attempt to resolve it by having 2 setups, mainly for analogue sources.

Love to hear from others.

Cheers!
 
I only listen to music I like. Primarily old Bollywood, a bit of new Bollywood, a little Indian classical, fusion and classic rock. I don’t own any audiophile mastered lps. All my testing of any component is done only with music I listen to.

And I would take Julie London any day over Jacintha
 
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I seem to disregard the audio quality when listening to my favorite artists, no matter how bad the recording. Somewhere music takes more precedence than audio quality inside my head. Consider me more of a music lover than audiophile.
 
As you build system with careful musing,
Do enjoy new artists and unknown music.

While trying to make your system lifelike,
no need to discard good old music you like.

As for old music you like, system is insignificant,
for system you like new music is a stimulant.

systems and music is a combination of two,
is just like having a cake and eating it too.

:)
 
Hiten said:
As you build system with careful musing,
Do enjoy new artists and unknown music.

While trying to make your system lifelike,
no need to discard good old music you like.

As for old music you like, system is insignificant,
for system you like new music is a stimulant.

systems and music is a combination of two,
is just like having a cake and eating it too.

:)
Click to expand...

Kya baat hai !
 
Fiftyfifty said:
A fellow FM recently made a remark that audiophiles and music lovers differ in their choice of music and artistes. Made me realise how I had veered away from many artistes that I once loved, but had pushed into the bottom shelf in my quest for better SQ.

Is my desire for my setup to sound good making me lose out on listening to great musicians, be it Faiyaz Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali, KL Saigal, early Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Jack Teagarden, even more modern artistes like the Beatles (never well recorded), Cream, Tull in favour of, with due respect, Chesky records and Patricia Barber? Or Yo yo Ma in preference to Jacqueline du Pre? Do you really prefer Jacintha to Julie London, both wanting more 'Black Coffee'? Do you enjoy the sound of Jacintha's breath more than the nuances of Julie's voice?

Is there a dilemma or none? If yes, how do you resolve it? I attempt to resolve it by having 2 setups, mainly for analogue sources.

Love to hear from others.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

This is such a relevant topic! Hope more folks will share their thoughts and experiences.
 
Great topic!
My music tastes are eclectic, ranging from Blues, Jazz, World to Bollywood, EDM & Ilayaraja.
I have listened to & auditioned some very high end gear, most of them tends to be brutal with normal recordings. EDM & modern tracks are mostly ear bleeding (even through Tidal masters & FLACS).
After these experiences my firm decision has been to stop the chase after transparency/"musician in the room" & look for/match gear that sound great with most kinds of music that appeals to me. After all, what's the point of having a very expensive setup though which I can only play - very few well mastered recordings.
That means, I will any-day disregard the Stereophile Class A ratings & go for a Mcintosh instead of a Passlabs. or similar.
 
Hiten said:
As you build system with careful musing,
Do enjoy new artists and unknown music.

While trying to make your system lifelike,
no need to discard good old music you like.

As for old music you like, system is insignificant,
for system you like new music is a stimulant.

systems and music is a combination of two,
is just like having a cake and eating it too.

:)
Click to expand...

Hiten, after a very long time :)
I had once asked you to do a compilation of all your verses which have graced these pages.
I wish you would.

Music comes first. So a two (or three if the PC is included :)) setup solution does work for me as well.
I listen to all ages of Indian music, classical and Bollywood. Off YouTube, net downloads.
A lesser setup, even my PC with cheap Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers, is always easier on the ears in such cases.
 
Naturelover said:
Hiten, after a very long time :)
I had once asked you to do a compilation of all your verses which have graced these pages.
I wish you would.
Click to expand...
Thanks. But it will be too pretentious. I am just making the conversation interesting.
best regards.
 
I think the dilemma is because of not all music is well recorded, and even if one has good system it can not create that last bit of improvement/enjoyment for wide variety of music. For example. Indian classical vocal has limited frequency range so a set amplifier + wide band driver would give you that 'extra' improvement/enjoyment. but will not be suitable for loud rock music. Where as a quality multiway speaker system with powerful amplifier (usually class A/B) will be best for rock music but for limited band music it has to go to amp crossover distortion and speaker crossover separation for multi driver. So it may sound different. I wish all homes has multiple source, amp and speaker systems.
As for original post of Fiftyfifty; it has been so many decades a recorded music and equipments to reproduce it has been invented. We have progressed so much. Some new music recording may be so well recorded it deserves a listen and a good system. What is a better way then to find new artists, music and probably audio quality that makes your system "paisa vasool"
Ofcourse Music is the priority. and system of ones choosing makes it enjoyable. What ever the music it may be. Its all the part of the hobby.
Regards.
 
Fiftyfifty said:
A fellow FM recently made a remark that audiophiles and music lovers differ in their choice of music and artistes. Made me realise how I had veered away from many artistes that I once loved, but had pushed into the bottom shelf in my quest for better SQ.

Is my desire for my setup to sound good making me lose out on listening to great musicians, be it Faiyaz Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali, KL Saigal, early Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Jack Teagarden, even more modern artistes like the Beatles (never well recorded), Cream, Tull in favour of, with due respect, Chesky records and Patricia Barber? Or Yo yo Ma in preference to Jacqueline du Pre? Do you really prefer Jacintha to Julie London, both wanting more 'Black Coffee'? Do you enjoy the sound of Jacintha's breath more than the nuances of Julie's voice?

Is there a dilemma or none? If yes, how do you resolve it? I attempt to resolve it by having 2 setups, mainly for analogue sources.

Love to hear from others.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I gave this thing a thought and I find myself in the similar situation but with no regret. With a nice system and more importantly availability of content, taste of my selection has expanded greatly BUT the time to listen to music has remained same. And, that may be the reason why you feel that some of the artistes you liked and I trust you still like them, have moved towards lower part of list of your taste.

And then everyone has one's own way of thinking as to what one likes. For me, I like the music that has nice rhythm and lyrics, I am good. And as for recording, I love when I get to hear the truth (what Fidelity means in the word High Fidelity). I do not expect recording of Bobby to sound like Marasim of Jagjit Singh.

I can go on and on but I can assure you that there is nothing wrong; it is a battle between What and How and every one of us has a different balance between them.

Sorry for all this blabbering..this is what happens when you wake up in the morning and see a topic like this that you can't resist to comment.
 
I am a music lover but an audio addic!!

When I buy an album, and I am still buying many, I try as much as possible to listen (thank you Apple and Amazon Music) and then buy. Like my recent purchase from Discogs that is on heavy rotation.

Mixcloud

m.mixcloud.com m.mixcloud.com

My music system should be able to let good recordings shine. On the other hand, if I need to listen to an old not good recording or new compressed recording, I will listen as long as it is great music. Like today, I heard Solomon play the late Beethoven Sonatas. Happy to switch off audiophilia and let the music wash over.

So when I go to S’ place with his great Luxman ans PMC, it is 15 minutes of audio wandering and then “music music music” (put another nickel in). Please listen to the Ahmad Jamal version of it.

My best audio experiences are with people who don’t jump tracks a, but select an album and play it through. That would be an audio evening well spent.

I tell my non audio buddies that my music system should cost more than my car. The car takes me to Lower Parel (say) and the music system takes me to heaven!! And in both, enjoying the ride and just not getting to the destination is pointless.
 
I am of the very firm belief that tastes in music change. At-least mine have changed over the past 2-3 decades. In my 20's I used to listen to acid rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hard rock (MTV's headbangers ball was my favorite then, especially Metallica's "Enter Sandman"- which if you listened to at 60-70 db was like elevator music but came alive at 80-90db on the TV no-less, so I hooked my cable TV to my audio system which had cerwin vega speakers to be able to bang my head better), in my 30's I moved to mellower music, in my 40's I am firmly entrenched with jazz (all types classic, golden age,post- modern etc). So at-least for me to try and match my system to what I used to love and what I love now would be an exercise in futility to say the least (not to mention loss of hearing and various other domestic issues), so I am trying to match my system to what music I prefer/enjoy listening to now and what equipment can maximize this, rather than trying to optimize my system to what I preferred. However if one still prefers the music they listened to when they were younger then by all means, optimize your setup for that, but saying one is an equipment lover and not a music lover, if they want to listen to well recorded music whether past or present, is perhaps a mis-characterization. I would just like to refer to it as - I am both a music lover and an audiophile, I don't think one is exclusive of the other.
Cheers,
Sid
 
Its a journey to attaining eargasm. What is one's status quo depends on the stage of journey. Most of the comments to this thread are from FMs having spent a good long time in this hobby. Its usually first the music and artists, then the gear as a whole and how it looks. Followed by dissection of which is the most important component, etc.
I have been listening to music for a long time. More for pleasure than critical listening. But post 2013, I was focussed on gear and sound that I moved through 3 major systems in 4 years. Each with diff approach to audio.
An opportunity presented to get away and it has been 2 years since without an audiophile setup.
Music still happens. On an all in one kind of unit. I continue to follow new gear, read reviews and hope to set one up. But I am in no hurry. Until then I let reference memory takeover when a track is playing and imagine how it sounded (for known and familiar music) or how would it have sounded ( for new and unexplored) on a given setup.
Guess there is always both music and audiophile seeker in us as Sid mentioned.
Cheers
 
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