My Brother the Music Lover

[Brian A]

My brother has admired my system for over 15 years. He has inquired frequently about what it takes to get "that sound." He is a huge consumer of music: always listening, always thinking, always discovering new music. As awful as his system was, he really never did anything about it. I've given him a few hand-me-downs, such as my Musical Fidelity V-DAC. No effect.

 

About a year ago, he stated uncategorically, his old system had to go. He actually began shopping intensively. When I visited him, we toured audio shops and auditioned various systems. He developed an informed opinion about what he liked and didn't like.

 

Late last year, he bought his system, set it up, and went back to enjoying music just like he had before he bought his system without any concern for whether his system was optimized. He is happy.

 

... Very strange behavior.

[Teresa]

Thanks for the story Brian. Sounds like your brother is a happy music lover to me, however I am curious what he his replacement system is that pleases him so much.

 

From your story I gathered he did shop around and pick what he liked. I have learned from experience we all don't like the same things. While I have enjoyed many tweaks and use an external DAC, neither is a requirement to enjoy music. The love of music is IMHO.

[realhifi]

My brother has admired my system for over 15 years. He has inquired frequently about what it takes to get "that sound." He is a huge consumer of music: always listening, always thinking, always discovering new music. As awful as his system was, he really never did anything about it. I've given him a few hand-me-downs, such as my Musical Fidelity V-DAC. No effect.

 

About a year ago, he stated uncategorically, his old system had to go. He actually began shopping intensively. When I visited him, we toured audio shops and auditioned various systems. He developed an informed opinion about what he liked and didn't like.

 

Late last year, he bought his system, set it up, and went back to enjoying music just like he had before he bought his system without any concern for whether his system was optimized. He is happy.

 

... Very strange behavior.

 

I've run into some folks like that myself. Once they upgrade they are all set and don't give a thought to improving things, they just listen to music. The nerve!

[wkhanna]

Get him to a doctor quickly, there is obviously something seriously wrong with your poor bother!

[Brian A]

... curious what he his replacement system is ...

It's stuff I never heard of. I believe his speakers are Totem Hawks. Although I never looked, I am certain his cables are whatever he had before, which is probably lamp cord.

 

He has the system set up to 80% of what it is probably capable of, but he is happy and I'll be darned if I say anything.

[Melvin]

Brian, your story really put a smile on my face. Makes one wonder if us obsessive audophools are any happier. Sometimes I wish I could go back to a "pre-audiophile" state of mind .. if only!

[Biku Toru]

... Very strange behavior.

 

I enjoy reading this forum, all the new technological development…, people having sometimes strange to me problems and obsession to hear that 0.002% difference between, let's say dacs.

But at heart I'm probably more like your brother. I got my system that is not $$$, sounds great to me and my wife. No listening fatigue if I listen to lossless, spotify even at "extreme" starts giving me a headache after about two hours. This strange phenomenon of human brain responding to compressed music or low quality amp/speaker lead me to reading everything "audiophile".

Quite ofter I find myself wandering if I'm in the right place. Interestingly enough there are two different words in Russian - one "audiophile" - a person who loves equipment more than music and the other "meloman" - a person obsessed with music itself.

I think these overlap with each other to a different degree. I'd listen to music on and old radio with all distortions, but given an option of course I'd prefer a decent HiFi

[blownsi]

I am jealous of your brother. My wife is exactly like him. She is obsessed with music but could really less about the format or any real sound quality. Strangely enough though she likes having the physical CDs instead of files. She says that she likes to be able to see her collection. I on the other hand could care less as long as the sound quality is there.

[realhifi]

It's stuff I never heard of. I believe his speakers are Totem Hawks. Although I never looked, I am certain his cables are whatever he had before, which is probably lamp cord.

 

He has the system set up to 80% of what it is probably capable of, but he is happy and I'll be darned if I say anything.

 

Those Hawks are excellent.

[crisnee]

Many world class musicians (according to what I've read) care very little as to the "quality" of their audio systems. They're perfectly happy with so called mid-fi.

 

Chris

[4est]

Bingo! The often are listening to the performance more than the tones.

Many world class musicians (according to what I've read) care very little as to the "quality" of their audio systems. They're perfectly happy with so called mid-fi.

 

Chris

[Audio_ELF]

Many world class musicians (according to what I've read) care very little as to the "quality" of their audio systems. They're perfectly happy with so called mid-fi.

I often read Gramaphone.co.uk and the forum there can give an interesting perspective.

[MikeJazz]

It's stuff I never heard of. I believe his speakers are Totem Hawks. Although I never looked, I am certain his cables are whatever he had before, which is probably lamp cord.

 

He has the system set up to 80% of what it is probably capable of, but he is happy and I'll be darned if I say anything.

 

You never heard of Totem from Canadá?

 

Totem speakers did put some smiles on my faces, working with VTL, and good vinyl players...

You should check Totem, very well crafted.

[MikeJazz]

Many world class musicians (according to what I've read) care very little as to the "quality" of their audio systems. They're perfectly happy with so called mid-fi.

 

Chris

 

They are already used to work with very different sounding places...their brain is probably used to adapt quickly to changing conditions...

[realhifi]

Musicians (my son is one of THEM), are listening to the performance and performers more closely than the "sound" of it. Doesn't make it better, just different.

[crisnee]

Musicians (my son is one of THEM), are listening to the performance and performers more closely than the "sound" of it. Doesn't make it better, just different.

 

Some people say (some audiophile critics for example) that one can't really properly evaluate the performance if one doesn't have the "proper" audiophile equipment to hear the "je ne sais quoi." Doesn't make real sense to me. I even went so far as to test the theory for myself (in a somewhat limited fashion to be sure) and wasn't at all convinced. I am a musician btw.

 

Chris

[Musicophile]

I wouldn't call myself a musician, although I played in several amateur jazz groups at some point and am still playing around with Logic for home recording.

 

Anyhow, it is clear to me that I'd 100x prefer listening to e.g. a poor mono bootleg of a 1950s Oscar Peterson on this:

 

 

than most of e.g. Chesky's amazingly boring audiophile recordings even in double DSD on this:

 

 

Call me crazy...

[realhifi]

I wouldn't call myself a musician, although I played in several amateur jazz groups at some point and am still playing around with Logic for home recording.

 

Anyhow, it is clear to me that I'd 100x prefer listening to e.g. a poor mono bootleg of a 1950s Oscar Peterson on this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10122[/ATTACH]

 

than most of e.g. Chesky's amazingly boring audiophile recordings even in double DSD on this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10123[/ATTACH]

 

Call me crazy...

 

Amen.

[Audio_ELF]

Amen.

I must say I've never been particularly enamoured with Hadel...

[InfernoSTi]

I wouldn't call myself a musician, although I played in several amateur jazz groups at some point and am still playing around with Logic for home recording.

 

Anyhow, it is clear to me that I'd 100x prefer listening to e.g. a poor mono bootleg of a 1950s Oscar Peterson on this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10122[/ATTACH]

 

than most of e.g. Chesky's amazingly boring audiophile recordings even in double DSD on this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10123[/ATTACH]

 

Call me crazy...

 

Agreed on this…but the follow up question is if you could listen to the same recording on either system with either the 24 bit version or the MP3 version, which of those two choices would you make?

 

I have my listening room set up as my music room and my professional musician friends say the room is "flatter that most recording studios" (meaning proper acoustic treatments, both absorption and diffusion, are in place). They love the stereo and talk about it with me all the time. Sure, their home stereos are mostly low and mid fi but they appreciate a nice setup, too.

 

I agree a lot with the point MikeJazz made: they are used to adjusting to different environments and can "hear" past the room or the system into the music to be performed or appreciated. That is different than saying they don't fully appreciate a wonderful music hall over a poor one, or a wonderful sound system over a poor one.

 

Best,

John

[Musicophile]

Agreed on this…but the follow up question is if you could listen to the same recording on either system with either the 24 bit version or the MP3 version, which of those two choices would you make?

I've been buying a lot of 24bit albums recently, as the premium over MP3 is in most cases not a lot.

 

I appreciate good sound, and have chosen by system, which I'd qualify as good mid-fi, with care, and am very please with the output.

[Brian A]

To me, there are particular pieces where the fidelity of the reproduction is an essential part of the performance.

 

Two recordings that jump immediately to mind are a young Paul McCartney singing “Let It Be” on the album “Let It Be … Naked” or Janis Joplin singing the girl-and-guitar demo version of “Me and Bobby McGee” on “18 Essential Songs.”

 

The fidelity allows a communion to happen; they are in my music room with me and I hear the humanity. Without quality reproduction, songs like those don’t have the same impact.

[Audio_ELF]

I appreciate good sound, and have chosen by system, which I'd qualify as good mid-fi, with care, and am very please with the output.

Many will disagree... But I would offer the opinion Exposure and Bowers and Wilkins CM range are definitely HiFi rather than MidFi...

 

Eloise

[Allan F]

I must say I've never been particularly enamoured with Hadel...

 

Hadel? As in

?

 

OTOH, what are your thoughts about George Frideric Handel?

[Musicophile]

Many will disagree... But I would offer the opinion Exposure and Bowers and Wilkins CM range are definitely HiFi rather than MidFi...

 

Eloise

You being English should understand the difference between upper and middle class :-)

 

I just wanted to point out that my entire system was less that what others spend on cables alone.