How many of you are *REALLY* music lovers?

[MO!]

Originally posted by nsherin
I can now honestly say that I have a setup that I look forward to coming home to at the end of the day and just sitting back and enjoying the music! IMHO, that's what it should be about at the end of the day - pointless having a system that may be superb in detail, timing, bass, accurracy etc., if you can't stand listening to it after 5 minutes.

True But often things like "detail, timing, bass, accurracy etc" help to make a system listenable and MOre enjoyable IMO.

I'd agree that it's all too easy to get too involved in the technicalities of hifi and how kit should sound.

as shown by how the speakers on the same unit as the turntable?

 

[nsherin]

MO, good points - was trying to make the point of becoming obsessive over things. Could have phrased that one better

Agreee there - speakers are in a crap position, but due to the size of my room, not much I can really do about that. Don't have space for stands.

 

[garyi]

I have around 60 cds and 60 records.

 

[mr cat]

Originally posted by MO!
True But often things like "detail, timing, bass, accurracy etc" help to make a system listenable and MOre enjoyable IMO.



as shown by how the speakers on the same unit as the turntable?

check out that carriage clock too....

 

[wadia-miester]

Clive, stick to interfering with equines mate, you know you enjoy it more

 

[7_V]

Excellent Fox. Sounds like you're on the right track.

 

[Alex S]

Your listening room is far too musical even if your music isn't, fox. You need to chop that beast of a room in half and lower the ceiling. But first you need to move the house to Cymru Close.

 

[Dev]

Originally posted by 7_V
... Give me the gentle fizzing of pseudo-random white noise anytime.

Ah, welcome to the world of tinnitus

 

[7_V]

Originally posted by Dev
Ah, welcome to the world of tinnitus

Nah, actually, the pseudo-random white noise comes from my measurement software. My tinnitus is clear as a bell.

 

[sideshowbob]

Fox, good to see you here. If you're not fond of Zorn's Masada cos they've got tunes, check out his Electric Masada group (they haven't recorded yet, but no doubt will soon; they've been playing live quite a lot). Awe-inspiring and barking mad, like the best bits of Naked City and Painkiller with added skronk and a bit of groovy organ thrown in. Cool (and loud) as feck.

btw, Are you going to the TG holiday camp next year? Info here: http://www.mute.com/tg/retg.html

-- Ian

 

[Dev]

Originally posted by 7_V
Nah, actually, the pseudo-random white noise comes from my measurement software. My tinnitus is clear as a bell.

So even your tinnitus is hifi standard , I'm just unlucky .

 

[domfjbrown]

Re: I hate music

Originally posted by fox
then there's good old Cabaret Voltaire who in their very early days would record with a mono cassette recorder placed in a gig at a sheffield working men's club -- complete with fights)

FOR REAL!? Cool - where can I get hold of this - sounds suitably mad enough for me to be curious about...

Originally posted by fox
Robot Versus rabbit - whose mighty fine CD "Trading the Witch For the Devil" is on Mandragoria Records and reviewed on the Mana Forum

Robot versus rabbit!? What a cool name - might have to check them out just on the name alone - it worked for Soundgarden... :MILD:

I know you're being ironic (or are you!?) about your ethos behind your rig, but if you're not - my mate Paddy and you would get on like a house on fire - his main phrase is "distortion until deafness" - although his very cheap Richer Sounds rig actually isn't that bad. Oh - he's a viylist too, but he never cleans his records or stylus - eek!

 

[Lt Cdr Data]

That's a bit venemous penance, dunno what paul has done to derserve that...we all have different ideas and opinions...

its a legitimate question....I find it bizarre that we focus SO much on the means..ie the equipment, rather than the end, simply listening and enjoying to music.

Does it really correlate that the more we spend on our rigs, the more enjoyment we get out of our music. I am not always convinced.

I don't think there is any other pursuit, possibly wine, maybe which is so snobbish as this...winos chew over wine analysing its every nuance and taste, pulling it apart,
sure if you spend £6+ on a bottle, it usually does get markedly better to a point,
having said that, I would far rather buy a £7-£10 chilean red than a £30 french chateux. It would be far better at a much cheaper price. But I wouldn't mind a taste of a petrus or something really esteemed.


But that is taste, and things taste a multitude of things, whearas with sound, it can still be plesant if its a cheap nad.

We don't analyse the colours when we are watching tv, some saddo mags are doing this with dvd ratings, you don't look at actors costume on the stage and say, I think it would be better if the red was a little more vibrant, the costume dept isn't quite putting all the detail into its military logos...or something like that you get the point.

Yet in hifi we just often listen for the leading edges, and forget to just sit down and enjoy music

 

[7_V]

Originally posted by fox
... a Dusseldorf Psychedelic Industrial Goth band usual lineup of guitar, drums, bass and a percussionist who's sole job it seems is to destroy bits of machinery with angle grinders backed up with a jackhammer being thrown into a skip of glass... (Very Neubauten circa burning down the ICA stage) Its a Binaural recording on separate DAT recorders and mixed together so its all jarringly out of phase.

And you say you're not a music lover.

 

[lowrider]

I think we are mixing things a bit here...

Hifi is an hobby, and like all other hobbies it is usually obsessive, music love can or cannot be the spark that started it, for some it could be just another toy, or show-off... :JPS:

Loving music doesn't mean having tones of discs, or vice-versa, I used to come home from school and close myself in my parents living-room listening to my favourite radio station for hours, instead of studying :shame: , I bought my first stereo in Saudi Arabia, just to listen, every night, to a few cassettes, Dire Straits, Bob Dylon, Mariane Faithfull, Pink Floyd and a few more... :boogie:

Later in Canada I got into the hifi hobby, along with classical music hobby, I built a nice system and a nice collection of CDs...

Now I am in the AV hobby, so I do post in a bit of forums, nothing wrong with it, that doesn't mean a thing about me loving music or not, just gives me the chance of enjoying it more... :gould:

 

[PBirkett]

Originally posted by Lt Cdr Data
I don't think there is any other pursuit, possibly wine, maybe which is so snobbish as this...winos chew over wine analysing its every nuance and taste, pulling it apart,
sure if you spend £6+ on a bottle, it usually does get markedly better to a point,
having said that, I would far rather buy a £10 chilean red than a £30 french chateux. But I wouldn't mind a taste of a petrus or something really esteemed.


But that is taste, and things taste a multitude of things, whearas with sound, it can still be plesant if its a cheap nad.

We don't analyse the colours when we are watching tv, some saddo mags are doing this with dvd ratings, you don't look at actors costume on the stage and say, I think it would be better if the red was a little more vibrant, the costume dept isn't quite putting all the detail into its military logos...or something like that you get the point.

Yet in hifi we just often listen for the leading edges, and forget to just sit down and enjoy music

I have to say I agree with what you are saying completely, and this is how someone who isnt in to hifi perceives this behavior. It is easy to lose site and just listen to the music.

As strange as this may sound, but sometimes I really do wonder about whether having better systems just makes you analyse the sound more, and thus losing sight into why we get into it in the first place.

When i had cheap crap, I didnt analyse at all. I just enjoyed it.

Quite often now, I analyse it, and I feel like it'll take some practice and discipline to get myself out of it, and also, this over analytical approach to listening is what causes upgraditis IMO.

 

[garyi]

Paul you are listening to compressed music on a computer through heaphones, it won't get much worse, by your rekoning you should be the worlds greatest lover of music.

 

[Lt Cdr Data]

I know its a hobby, and do excuse it on those grounds, but the behaviour can be a bit odd and obsessive.

Most onlookers would be aghast at the strange behaviour of some of us! they would just sit down and listen to the music.

I know naim is good, but it does strike me as odd that ' I have to have the best or I can't enjoy my music' 'I have to have this amp, this zero feedback amp if I don't, the rest are crap,
'I can only enjoy if I have a cds3, nap 500, nbls'
...that kind of thing.....I feel sorry for some poor wives who have to put up with not having a good holiday as the man has spent 1000s on his kit....

 

[PBirkett]

Originally posted by garyi
Paul you are listening to compressed music on a computer

With a soundcard that has a very good onboard DAC rivalling any budget CD player and probably even better ones too.

Compressed music that I cannot tell apart from the original.

through heaphones

Hardly my fault I have to make compromises. But I do have speakers. And FYI, my headphones are considered to be in the very top tier of dynamic headphones, and are likely superior to your speakers in many ways.

it won't get much worse, by your rekoning you should be the worlds greatest lover of music.

How the hell would you know how my music sounds? You are writing it off and yet you've never heard my system.

I really am fucking sick of being sneered at by people who think they are so knowledgable just because they have thrown thousands at their hifi system.

So please, can anyone who has not heard my system, please **** off with these stupid comments.

 

[Joolsburger]

Snobs are the very worst kind of people. Not only do they vocalise the rather dimwitted thoughts they have, but they also believe that everyone else agrees.

I'd rather have P's computer set up than emotional problems like yours.