what doesn't matter?

In the space between performer/recording and listener/perception there seems to be any number of elements that some think matter. Based on your own investment of hours and dosh, what in your estimation doesn't matter a fig?

 

what anyone else thinks,or say they can hear,or indeed what their opinion is,on anything

oh and Elton John

 

now there are some performers that get in the way of a good song ...

 

Philosophical. Think Saab nailed it! :MILD:

 

I'd go with saab's assesment.

 

Anything beyond enjoying the music, doesn't matter

 

... now this really is minimilist hifi talk!

 

another

saab dead on.

also - opinions on hi fi forums.

:MILD:

 

the long answer ..

What doesn't matter in hifi is partly defined by what does matter. Which, to me, is that the hifi in question enables me to enjoy as wide a range of music for as long as I want to listen.

This underlying essential point was brought home to me by the worst piece of hifi (stretching the term a bit) I've ever owned - a Sony direct drive turntable. Yes, it had some nice convenient features (auto stop/start; fine adjustment of speed with strobe to help) and looked 'nice' in a shiny silver sort of way, but it drained music of life, energy and just about everything that matters. It avoided fatiguing harshness, another no-no for me, but in retrospect harshness might have been the lesser of two evils. I stopped buying new records almost completely for several years, and did most of my listening via radio.

So, what does matter? - musical enjoyment. What doesn't matter? - anything else.

 

.. I was wondering what the source of the 'edge' was in postings here (Joe apart), and came across
https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=7431&page=3&pp=15

which is an interesting posting that I'd missed.

also, on reflection, it could have been my dumb/smart-arsed question!

 

That posting was before I joined, interesting stuff as you say. The point of course is that although musical enjoyment is 'what matters', one person's musically enjoyable system might be another's unlistenable nightmare. To use my favourite analogy, hifi discussions often resemble an expert in different types of whisky trying to persuade a person who can't stand whisky in any form that a single malt is 'better' than a supermarket blend.

 

"Musical enjoyment", my behind. You can enjoy music on any old boom-box; this is not what hi-fi is about.

 

So what does matter; hearing the conductor tapping his baton on the podium? Are you suggesting that musical enjoyment does not form a major part of what hifi is about?

 

No it isn't. People build up a big music collection and knowledge before ever buying a silly hi-fi. In fact, most never bother with a silly hi-fi.

The suggestion, ever present on hi-fi forums, that "it's all about the music" is disingenuous nonsense.

 

Surface noise, pops and the odd click etc. I have lost count of the number of non-audioish people who come over and express surprise that I still have my old "Vinyls" and then say "but CD won't scratch and there's no pops and that".
Otherwise everything matters, I have to agree with The Devil on this. Music is one thing and good music is enjoyable on a mono radio. "Hifi" is something else and should deliver something akin to what's on the record or it's not "HiFi". I suppose it's like, Transport = Smart Car...Driving = 911.

 

Well, yes. I had a sizeable music collection before I had any sort of hifi; but I enjoy a wider range of music now that I have a hifi. Why do you bother with a silly hifi, if not as a means to enjoy more music?

 

It has been my experience that the bigger the hifi the smaller the record collection. (And penis)

 

Agree totally.

 

Are you in the habit of measuring penises?

 

See where you're coming from with that one Devil, since I've got my PC based system together from parts I've had "in the cupboard" so to speak, my main system doesn't get a look in. I'm beginning to enjoy music for music sake again now, and with it all being on my PC and iTunes selecting the next track, I'm now listening to tracks from albums that I'd long since dismissed as musical "fluff".

My new MP3 based system is very pleasing on the ear (in fact now I've gone 24Bit it gives my Micromega a serious run for it's money even with MP3) and I'm really enjoying music again, not just listening to the system it also removes indecision about what to listen to - I'm having a ball at the moment :boogie: