What is your reason for hi-fi?

[Joe]

It's a very good question, actually.

I think it's mostly the blue LEDs.

[Marco]

Hi Steve,

I want to be moved by the musicianship of an artist playing, the dynamics, emphasis and shading that carry their passion and ability. A high fidelity recreation gives me access to the subtleties of their performance that imparts this.

The illusion of a real instrument in a believable acoustic is not essential to this as I've been entranced by a performance on a car radio, but the connection is magnified by the level of detail, tonal balance, note decay - all the things we say to describe the suspension of disbelief.

Great post! I totally agree with your sentiments - apart from the bit in bold, which for me is absolutely essential.

I want all of which you describe above, and indeed consider that my system delivers it, but I must be able to suspend disbelief to the extent that I genuinely feel I'm listening to 'real' voices and instruments playing in front of me in a believable musical performance. This takes a system which majors on both scale and subtlety, delivering both, or either, when the music demands.

For me, it's about replicating as close as possible what's actually heard with live music, whether it's the Rammstein rock concert I referred to earlier, or the sassy sound of a busker playing a saxophone in a London underground station...

I want my system to successfully capture the sheer vibrancy, dynamics and 'texture' of the real thing - only then will I be able to suspend disbelief in the way you describe above, and truly achieve that all-important emotional connection with my favourite music.

It is precisely why I own the type of system I do - and for me this experience cannot be genuinely achieved with music heard on a ghetto-blaster or similar low-fi audio device; therefore unlike you, I've never been "entranced by a performance on a car radio". Sure I can enjoy music heard that way, and indeed do almost every day, but only when listening to music on my high-fidelity (those are the key words here) high-resolution system at home, can I truly succeed in suspending the disbelief you describe....

Marco.

[Mike Reed]

It's a very good question, actually.

I think it's mostly the blue LEDs.

Very funny; appeals to my infantile sense of humour.

Unlike MARCO (and I would have thought many others), I haven't a clue what a live performance is like; nor do I care; I haven't attended a concert of any type of music for at least a generation.

Is my perception of music generally or instruments individually vastly different to others? I think not.

One can listen to music through any medium, and enjoy it. What you get with a good hifi system is excitement, in all its forms. Those of a genuinely musical disposition can derive an intense involvement from a well sorted system that is denied by many humbler reproducers of music.

Am investigating the properties of various Italian wines at the moment, but that's well off-topic.

[Marco]

Am investigating the properties of various Italian wines at the moment, but that's well off-topic.

Do tell what your 'investigations' reveal after said properties have been duly investigated

I may 'beast into' a rather nice Brunello myself later this evening with some local Welsh lamb cutlets....

Marco.

[DSJR]

My reason for HiFi?

I was born to it!!!!!! Into the music and the reproduction gear ever since I could toddle.

I'm no longer in this sadly dying industry, so I indulge myself when able with vintage gear that still works well IMO.

As for the music, I can listen to stuff I know well on anything, but if I really want to know what it's about, I'll listen on a reasonable stereo...

[Joe]

Very funny; appeals to my infantile sense of humour.

I started writing something serious, but it sounded really pretentious so i went for the blue LEDs.

I'm also not very familiar with live sound (apart from vocal/choral stuff) and my memory of rock concerts is mainly that they made my ears hurt!

[Ali Tait]

I don't think it's really about recreating the live event in your room,which isn't really possible anyway,it's about making an emotional connection,getting lost inside the music.At least it is for me.

[Marco]

Hi Ali,

I don't think it's really about recreating the live event in your room,which isn't really possible anyway...

Yep, but you can create a pretty reasonable facsimile of it (as I described earlier) with the right room and system - and of course with no annoying neighbours in the vicinity!

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Yebbut it's not just about that for me,and I didn't mean just volume-wise,I meant the emotional connection to the music.That's what I'm looking for.

[twelvebears]

Personally I blame (or should that be thank?) my parents.

Loved them dearly but DEAR GOD THE MUSIC AND THE SYSTEM WAS AWFUL!!

I just remember thinking, 'This music malarky seems very popular. Surely there must be more to it than the shit I'm subjected to?'

That, combined with a need to know 'how stuff works' and a hi-fi repair shop over the road, did the rest.

Personally I just LOVE music, and enjoy a bloody good tune played on anything, even the crappiest car stereo. BUT, and this the key bit, the enjoyment just gets better and better with the quality of the reproduction.

I guess it just makes me feel I'm a bit closer to the same feeling to the people who originally put the recordings together, or were stood in the front row at the concert.