Confronting your own realities...

[Welder]

So, not quite so straightforward after all.
Yet, when I write I require a higher standard than stereo reproduction can give to feel emotionally connected to a performance it seems I’m odd in some way.
Well, we all have different standards.

My stereo is fine for what I listen to which isn’t going to go down in history as great music and tbh really doesn’t require any great concentration to appreciate. A few repetitive chords, a bit of distortion and a beat is hardly a challenge to the average brain to process.

Of course, anyone is entitled to write "well listen to some decent music then", but I rather enjoy the crap I listen to partly because it doesn’t require any intellectual effort, or intense concentration to appreciate.

If others find that the average popular music track stretches their ability to assimilate the information to the extent that they have to sit still in front of their stereo to fully appreciate it then what can I tell you.

The thread was about confronting realities.

[Dominic Harper]

I like listening to music and I enjoy listening to various equipment. I have heard a lot of music that has moved me emotionally. I do sit in the middle of the floor sometimes if I feel I have heard a piece of music far better with a piece of different equipment. I am a bit of an oddball and if I cannot get the full range of some music I have listened to in the past, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be able to hear the difference. I also think that there is something quite endearing about putting a piece of vinyl on. I think that it is about both the system used and the music you listen to. I say if you like the band or artist, sit back and listen. Once you have had a good listen, then have a tinker. This is just my humble opinion of course

Natalie

[Macca]

I have pals who are musicians and their point of view is pretty similar to John Welder's - to them music is an active partcipation thing - either they are playing a gig or attending a gig, they have music systems but nothing fancy and they are mainly for background music. Sitting in a room listening to someone elses's recording - it just doesn't do it for them.

As far as listening to music whilst driving - a friend of mine had to stop doing that becasue it made him drive too fast aand he got a ticket. He is a bit of a boffin so he took to listening to recordings of particle physics lectures instead. He had to stop this as well when he nearly had an accident - he was
concentrating so hard to understand the lecture it was affecting his ability to drive.

Now he just listens to talking books _ I think he's been through Lord of the Rings fifteen times

[WOStantonCS100]

I've been a musician for 30 years. Even in semi-retirement, some how I'm still playing, at least, once a week. Performance is great. Being a spectator at, hopefully, a great venue where the guy next to you isn't drunk, is also great. Likewise, sitting in one's listening room, ingesting and losing oneself in a piece of prerecorded music played back through great sounding gear is also great and many times, all around, more aurally pleasing than a live performance for both the performer and the attendee. We're comparing apples and oranges. They aren't the same; nor, should they be judged likewise. None can be guaranteed to be a "better" experience than the other. There are different objectives involved.

[Welder]

I would agree with the aurally more pleasing bit.

The OP however was generally about why people are really interested in Hi Fi.
I seem to have caused some consternation by writing that my real interest in Hi Fi is more to do with the mechanism of stereo recording replay than music.

I do music in other ways. Hi Fi is a hobby I could easily live without. Music is something different.

This doesn't mean I cant appreciate listening to a recording on a decent playback system.
It then got onto emotional involvement, and like I tried to illustrate with the picture of wife and offspring analogy, I don't get off emotionally on recordings, or pictures; there is no feedback loop, any emotion with regard to pictures and recordings is what the listener or viewer projects.

[WOStantonCS100]

I would agree with the aurally more pleasing bit.

You know what I'm talking about, obviously.

The OP however was generally about why people are really interested in Hi Fi.
I seem to have caused some consternation by writing that my real interest in Hi Fi is more to do with the mechanism of stereo recording replay than music.

I can totally understand that.

I do music in other ways. Hi Fi is a hobby I could easily live without. Music is something different.

I can understand that, too. I can live without great gear, although I hope I don't ever have to, been there done that. But, what I can't do without is the music.

This doesn't mean I cant appreciate listening to a recording on a decent playback system.
It then got onto emotional involvement, and like I tried to illustrate with the picture of wife and offspring analogy, I don't get off emotionally on recordings, or pictures; there is no feedback loop, any emotion with regard to pictures and recordings is what the listener or viewer projects.

I understand that, too, with the caveat that so many composer's from the great classical composers to Jimi Hendrix often created music in solitude. I'm not dismissing the "jam session" or "collaborative writing session"; but, much music is birthed from a singular experience which also has no feedback loop other than with the composer him/herself, yet as with the person who ingests music alone in their listening room, there is still emotion present perhaps even a more genuine kind of emotion because it is not influenced by the emotion of others. In a sense, it's a truer outpouring for the composer and/or response from the listener.

[Welder]

I'll have to think about that last bit Biff.

[Macca]

I'll have to think about that last bit Biff.

Yes, that was pretty deep Biff

[Welder]

Before I forget and appear even ruder than I actually am.

John (Jon1)
I’m not sure what trance music is tbh. I’m not particularly selective about what I will or wont listen to. One of the plus points of AoS is I’ve discovered music that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Best pick yer best trance an I’ll let you know.

Martin (realysm 42)
I have stated a few times here on AoS that it is the quality of audio reproduction that interests me regarding Hi Fi. One might have thought this was a laudable pursuit on an audiophile forum.

Joe.
Yep, I like the Beatles. I think I’ve got most of their output. Am I saved?

Macca.
Let me know when you've worked that one out mate.

[Darren]

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.

I don't much care for the Beatles. My Dad was always a Stones Man and brought me up the same way.