Confronting your own realities...

[Tim]

I think there is something seriously wrong with people who find emotional satisfaction in recorded music.

Well there is clearly something seriously wrong with me then

John, doesn't any sort of music move you to tears at times?

[Marco]

= Bossy!

Lol, perhaps in some ways, but I've always been more considerate than bossy.

I'm just a very confident and secure-minded person, who isn't easily led or influenced by the actions of others. I've always done my own thing

Marco.

[Welder]

Indeed - a most depressing post, John - and one which contains sentiments completely at odds with both my own values and also those at the heart of the AoS ethos.

As for peer groups, I'm completely immune to them in my adult life. Like I've said before, I've always been more of a leader than a follower!

Marco.

I’m not quite sure why you should find my post depressing Marco.
It’s not as if I don’t like music. I play three to four times a week with others, go to hear live music once a week on average, go dancing when i can which is a very important part of music in our and every other culture.
I would if I could cope with the reproduction shortfalls listen to classical music at home but I find just listening to a recording a bit hollow and unsatisfactory when it comes to classical music in particular.
So I’ve been honest and written that my main interest in Hi Fi is the mechanism of sound reproduction; I can’t see what’s depressing or even anti AoS ethos with that. I can hardly be held at fault for finding it difficult to make an emotional connection with a recording surly?
I’ve been interested in audio since working with military communications equipment when I was an engineer and it’s developed from there. naturally enough this has given me a slightly objective view; not much point in telling a pilot it sounds nice to my ears if he cant understand a word you’ve transmitted.

Music should imo be a live social experience. It’s only fairly recently that music became something that gets listened to by a solitary individual on special equipment. When I go to visit my relatives in Spain and Italy, one of the great things is most of them also play instruments and meet at each others houses or in their local villages and play, sometimes to an audience of strangers sometimes just to friends.
I love music; I’m just not quite so enamoured of this Hi Fi, at home in a special room, mainly solitary business. I’m not sure that makes me any weirder than the solitary man in a room making an emotional connection with a recording and a lot of expensive equipment tbh.

It’s interesting how we all see ourselves.

[Welder]

Well there is clearly something seriously wrong with me then

John, doesn't any sort of music move you to tears at times?

Not the stuff I listen to on my stereo Tim.
At home I mostly listen to pop and funk; I like the pop and at my level of musical accomplishment I can get away with parping along in a band playing funk.
I like a beat mate, happy dancing music if you will.

Take me to a live performance of Verdi's requiem somewhere and you may see a small tear trickle down my cheek.

[jon1]

Not the stuff I listen to on my stereo Tim.
At home I mostly listen to pop and funk; I like the pop and at my level of musical accomplishment I can get away with parping along in a band playing funk.
I like a beat mate, happy dancing music if you will.

Take me to a live performance of Verdi's requiem somewhere and you may see a small tear trickle down my cheek.

Like any trance john?


jon

[Welder]

I don't even know how to respond to that except to say that my approach is different.

As much of my conversation at the show was about music as was about the hardware.

As for playing music as background, I don't do that. I put music on to listen to, not perform any other task in parallel with. If I can't concentrate on it, I have a quiet house.

Music inherently links to the emotions: it's art after all. I can't really separate the enjoyment of listening from the emotions it generates within me.

So those posts you made about listening to music while you're driving to and from work are to be completely disregarded then Martin?

[Joe]

There's one simple test. Do you like The Beatles? Anyone who answers 'no' is clearly only pretending to enjoy music. There's clearly something seriously wrong with such people.

Me, I'm happy to admit to feeling emotionally connected to music via whatever medium's available; even a transistor radio will do if the music is right (plus, that's how I discovered much of my favourite music in the first place). I don't list all the various bobbins in my system, because I find that sort of minutiae fairly dull, and I don't have anything customised, 'breathed upon' or tweaked. I have two systems; one valve-based, one solid state, so I'm not dogmatic about that issue either.

[WOStantonCS100]

If the house caught fire, I would grab the wife and kids and tell them to grab an armful of vinyl on the way out (not too sure how that would go down) while I rescue a NAS drive. The music's important, the kit's not.

That's a great way to boil down what's really important. For indeed, getting the family out of the house would be first. Afterwards, if there was time, I would get as much vinyl out of the house as possible... not, any of the gear. That would be the least of my concerns.

[realysm42]

How did I choose my current system? I did a bit of research online and picked all the award winning equipment.

How did I pick my previous amp to the one I own now? I walked into Richer sounds, looked for the one with most channels and watts and bought it.

I'd say I'm pretty open minded, I do have some preconceptions about things, if I was proven wrong, I'd be upset for about two minutes (I like knowing it all) and then be happy to have learnt and use my new knowledge to futher my enjoyment.

Oh and I've only read the first three pages of this thread, but I don't think there's any right or wrong with people enjoying the more techinical side of the hobby, if they're more about sound reproduction than music, I wouldn't judge them, it's whatever makes you happy.

[MartinT]

So those posts you made about listening to music while you're driving to and from work are to be completely disregarded then Martin?

No, although I did wonder whether you'd pick me up on that. Even in the car, if I play music it's loud and I'm listening to it as much as is possible while driving. Yes I know that's performing another task, but on my daily commute my mind pretty much does it on automatic and I can really appreciate music to a good degree. I treat it a bit like Spotify - getting to know music better in order to decide what to play at home.

When I'm not in the mood I put Radio 4 on instead, rather than quiet music.