Good Hi-Fi Expands Your Music Tastes - Discuss

[The Shadow]

It seems we have a bit of a dichotomy here.
We have on the one hand music that shows off your system and plain good music that we want other people to know about. Hence the 2 threads currently running. In the first post on "Tunes that show off the sound of valves" I was at pains to point out that none of the tracks I chose were of audiophile quality just really good stuff.

I believe both approaches are equally valid and in fact the better your system the more these two ideas converge until at some ideal point there is only the music.

Two pairs of friends I have known for over thirty years never understood why I was into hi-fi. They were happy enough with their Japanese stacking lifestyle systems. Their argument was and I quote:
"Why on earth would I want to spend thousands on a hi-fi so it can show up all the scratches and fizzes on my records like yours does?" Ouch!

My friend Anne to my wife Melanie
How do you put up with that lot in here? If he were mine I'd get him a shed

Gill to Melanie
It's just boy's toys...expensive and all

I had given up years ago trying to convince them of the error of their ways until I got the valves involved that is.

Now they love to come round and listen to music. They bring their CDs, LPs
and bottles of wine and we have some great times. They get it now.

We listen to everything from classical to northern soul. My musical tastes are expanding at an exponential rate and Apple rub their hands in glee everytime I log on to the iTunes Music Store. I don't care if their stuff is only 128kbs AAC.

Case in point. Last night NickG mentioned Big & Rich and Nickel Creek on the other thread. 10 minutes later I had downloaded a couple of tracks from each artist, added them to a compilation CD I was making whilst browsing this forum and was listening 20 mins later. And you're right Nick; it's fun stuff and great to listen to. I've learned something and added two new artists to my list for further investigation.

So what's it all about? My own opinion is that all of us on here have seen through the hype, dropped out of the hi-fi arms race and have discovered what it is possible to achieve without spending a fortune. And as a direct consequence have rediscovered the long neglected roots of the hi-fi movement.
That's what it's all about. That's what it has taken to bring us this close to the music. We have an awareness of something that few mainstream people have experienced. We should treasure this as a community
The fact that we make our own gear and use century old technology to bring us nearer the music makes it all the more worthwhile.
The male jewellry thing is left to the 72" plasma TV brigade.

May the thermionic glow never be extinguished.

Steve.

[Black Stuart]

Well said Steve,

Black Stuart

[llantech]

Its an age thing realy

Like women as we grow older,
When I was 16 I liked my women fashionable and in the age range 14 to 16,
As I reached 20, - blond fashionable and aged 17 to 24,
Then by the time I was 30 I found well dressed and good figure and good sense of humour important age range 18 to 40

Now Im mid 50 my range of women are desirable in stlye and age is becoming Huge

Music is much the same at 1st it had to be fashionable and Pop,including ballads, rock and roll and even humerous
then diversified into raw, underground and Blues
Next add Jazz
then the classics started to appeal very much Holst, Bach, Stravinsky.

Now its down to those albums which show the Bands, Orchestra, or voices talents off well, I believe all our muscians have at least one great Album or Single in them.

But underlying all this It was good equipment that helped me to enjoy exploring and finding new things

[Rob042]

I'm not to sure that good hifi expands your musical taste.
Just before moving over to valves I had a good system ( to my ears - cyrus 1 amps x2 {mono blocked} mission 752 speakers, meridian 208} and was playing with cables.
At the time a couple of non-hifi friends would send me cd's they thought I would like/get into/ should be listening to.
At least 50% of these cd's left me cold even though they may have been from bands I had heard/seen before or had heard at my friends places and liked.
Then moving over to valves, things got worse!
It wasnt until I got myself/wallet into diy completly has the situation start to change.
Am I building a more even system or has my hearing got worse

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by Rob042

It wasn't until I got myself/wallet into diy completely that the situation started to change.

Apologies for my editing Rob.

I sort of fell straight into DIY really. I was happy enough with my Icon Stereo 40ie EL34 push-pull 40W integrated but was in desperate need of something to occupy my mind when I was off work 9 months, hence the spate of valve amp building that followed.

It's only since I entered the twilight world of low powered Single-Ended Triodes that I really started to expand my tastes. Put simply Valves and SETs in particular sound like music to me.
To put another famous quote into a far better context

"All else is gaslight"


Steve

[BOONDI]

I think that the problem is that when you start out in HIFI, you tend to build a system that plays the musical style that you like at that moment particularly well. When something new comes along, your system may not favour it's style. Then you hear it on a system balanced to suit and you realise that your system needs or wants something. This goes on and on, chasing your tail until you hit on the fact that a ballanced system sound is what you need. Then you start reading HF world and start to hang out in BB's like this one.........

It would seem that not all new developments in HIFI are actually worthy of the moniker "PROGRESS"

Valves V Transistors......

Transistors are cheap and portable and thats about it.......

Valves have almost 100 years of R and D behind them, and it shows.

As to Wheather a good system encourages listening to a wider range of program material, or a balanced system does, I think that a balanced system will win hands down every time.

I say this because I have heard systems that were built out of kit rescued from tips and skips that blew away 3-4 k worth of the "Best my money could buy...." and this coupled with the " If I buy these components because they all have a 5* rating so I cant go wrong...Even if I dont actually audition them first" type of attitude have been the death knell for many a persons love of music......

Y.M.M.V......

[Ray P]

My taste in music has certainly broadened over the years; I think that as I have advanced in years I have become wiser and more open-minded and that has allowed me to consider listening to things that I would previously dismissed. I think this would have happened regardless of finding real hi-fi - that has been the icing on the cake.

As a teeenager I had really quite narrow and bigotted musical views, especially about anything that I didn't see as being invented by 'my generation. Of course, I hadn't actually had any real experience of the stuff I dismissed so readily. It is quite amusing to see the same traits in my teenage nephews today, especially in the context of the music of 'their generation'.

[JerryT]

I find some music unlistenable on the 'old fashioned portable' radio, but really quite fascinating on the main system. The differences must lie in effective separation of lines with stereo, with the ability to hear inner parts more clearly and with the more even and extended frequency response. I'm sure it can't be that I'm growing older - can it??

Jerry