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Do we, as audiophiles, lack an imagination? Why do we so insist our equipment do for us what we can do for ourselves? Many, if not most, professional classical musicians have sound systems we would regard as mid-fi. Beethoven was deaf when he composed his greatest works.
For myself, I enjoy the hobby hardware as much as its function. Means and purpose together enhance my life. My wife still asks "but why do you need all this stuff?" So, why do we?
Follow Ups:
This article superbly explores and exhausts this topic.
...since I love music but never learned to play an instrument.
With a great system I can now hear the best perform in front of me as if they're there.
Musicians seem to be the ones who have the ability to fill in what the system doesn't.
I took a musically intelligent good friend to an audio store in Baltimore back in the late 1960's to listen to KLH Sixes and KLH Fives. I wanted him to hear their fascinating (to me) sonic differences. He found it impossible to make the comparison because he was so distracted by the music (Bach). He still has the Sixes (rebuilt) and the original KLH receiver he bought with them and loves his system. He knows far more about music than I will ever know and probably loves it more. Clearly he can imagine far more than I can. Lucky guy.
Your friend's ability is exactly what I originally posted about and for this I invited informed opinion. I thank you for sharing your experience with us!
Do we, as audiophiles, lack an imagination?
No, "imagination only exist in the mind of the imaginer." Now let me dwindle off into the twilight of my own secret thoughts and finish my imaginary guitar solo! I use to be such a nice boy. I use to cut the grass! FZ
I, too, enjoy the form/function of the gear. Still, it is all about the Music.
... I am standing in front of one of my music systems enjoying myself listening to music... and guess what, I am!
I don't "need" lots of audio components just like I don't "need" most of my possessions. So what?
I enjoy my system and enjoy listening to music. I don't give a tinker's cuss what type of music system professional classical musicians have or anybody else for that matter. Why would I?
I'm in this hobby for me, not anybody else.
Smile
Sox
describing it as a "hobby" has always puzzled me
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
Incur the expense of having first and section sections of any part of the orchestra?
Why not just play in a barn?
If sound quality makes no difference to the performance, then why not just dumb down the entire experience?
I find it fun
my two cents
Women or at least the majority of women have never understood the males fascination with toys. The term "boys and their toys" came from somewhere. Men in general are more mechanically inclined and get much pleasure from being able to figure out and control the gadgets they own. Men make gadgets work for them. After 35 years of marriage, my Wife still needs help the TV remote and yes, she comes to me for assistance :)
Am I supposed to imagine that my mid-fi system sounds better than it actually does? Or is it a mind set that no matter how good it is, it can't simply sound as good as the real thing, so why bother? Or maybe it's simply just a matter of importance.
I can imagine the genius of Beethoven actually hearing through his knowledge and imagination. I can understand how hearing might even corrupt the purity of his imagination. However, I don't see how that pertains to the discernment of quality when it has to do with an audio system.
'cause.
I need it 'cause I can't sing or write or play instruments as well as the
people I listen to do and I can't go hear Charlie Parker, Robert Johnson OR
Janos Starker live anymore.
I like how they sound through my stereo.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
My system has changed little in the past several years and is composed of modestly priced, if carefully chosen, components. I consider it high in musical values and enjoy listening to music without much concern for what I might be missing.
Thinking about this the other day brought to mind a different experience. At a time when my dad and I raised bird dogs, I had a rather nice vintage shotgun. It was a pleasure to use but probably no more effective shooting birds and trap than some more modest guns we had.
Then I made a discovery. I really didn't like killing birds. What I enjoyed was being out in the field on an autumn day, with my dad and our cherished dogs. The fine gun was part of that experience.
Well, Dad is long dead and I now live in an area where there is not much good bird hunting. I don't have a dog, and my old shotgun now enriches my nephew's life.
I think there may be parallels here with our attitude toward audio gear, which some of us might enjoy owning and using at least in part for reasons that have little to do with their functional purpose.
I know well the subjective experience you are describing. I have been involved in audio and serious music listening since I was a teenager. On occasion I have the same intensity of feeling and excitement about this hobby and music I had then, over 50 years ago. Nostalgia, imagination and reality all seem to merge at that special moment!
Some people buy equipment as a way to listen to music and at the other end of the spectrum people buy music to listen to their equipment. I think the vast majority is weighted to one side or the other. Either way/neither way is a right or wrong way. Viva la difference.
I reside in the music loving category and my sole reason for ever buying new/different equipment is that it draws me into the music more. As far as "imagination"...I like the phrase, "a willing suspension of disbelief". My equipment choices make that willingness much easier.
I like the way you put it. I love music, especially American roots-based music, whether jazz, rock, country (some of it anyway), R&B, etc.
Hearing Aretha Franklin sing can give me shivers, even on a cheap car radio. Same with some Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, lots of others.
But I do find it easier to be drawn into the performance and listen for long periods of time on a system that gets closer to the original reality, makes it easier to willingly suspend my disbelief, as you put it.
The best systems are pitchers as well as catchers, IMO. Butt if I could tip the scales somehow, I'd take sound that grabbed me by the balls over sound that is reinforced by willing suspension.
Edits: 07/20/15
Because we can't do it all for ourselves. Because reality acts as the ultimate source, constantly providing new fodder for our imaginations. Because we need to hear real sounds before we can recollect and/or imagine sounds. Because reality refreshes imagination, just as imagination refreshes "reality".Sure, we can imagine almost anything and we can convince ourselves that imaginations are very close to reality, but in fact this is rarely true. Our imaginations might seem to be even better than reality in some ways, but we always come back to reality for another helping of "reality".
Does your wife ever ask you why you chose her over your own hand or an inflatable sex doll? If "imagination" is all that is required...
Edits: 07/18/15 07/18/15 07/18/15
So, given my classical musician example, some are better at this than others. Consequently, they are satisfied with their own "reality" as they see it, or better, hear it!
Some are better at this than others are, I'm sure. But I suspect that most of us would rather be caught off guard by a dose of reality from time to time. I cannot imagine anything more boring than having everything my own way all of the time, as dictated by imagination.
Very good questions and very good observations !
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`Many, if not most, professional classical musicians have sound systems we would regard as mid-fi.`
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That is my observation too , since I know few professional classical /jazz musician which use mid-fi audio equipment , usually not so expensive solid state based gears , but I observed too that they usually prefer so called `euphonic` over `accurate` home audio systems .
And yes, regarding our hobby personally I prefer high resolution / life like sounding audio systems .
Best Regards !
__
"Art which does not have the appearance of art is true art."
- Old Roman saying -
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