Audiophile VS Musiphile - Your Thoughts?

[ARQuint]

13 hours ago, crenca said:

"TOO. DAMN. LOUD."

 

 

This is not restricted merely to the contemporary live performance either.  A couple of months ago my wife and I attended a dress/tux "gala" fundraiser for my daughters school at $250 a plate minimum.  This means the crowd is older, successful, etc.  Quartet playing, glasses clinking, fine conversation....but the 'wedding DJ' with cheap  PA  (guaranteed 10% distortion!) is lurking in the background.  Sure enough just at the end of desert it fires up.  90% of the crowd just look at each other with numb expressions - how can we talk or even hear ourselves think?  Sure, a few get up and bump and grind it, but that vast majority are obligated to suffer.  Well not me, I insisted we leave.  My wife bitches a bit but admits it was intolerable...

 

I'm proud of myself for thinking of, and acting on, the following approach—and I attribute the idea to my devotion to multichannel music.

 

A few years ago, my daughter had her wedding reception in a way cool warehouse space in NYC. For the party, she had a friend who would DJ but was happy to let me supply the sound system. Instead of two of those tripod-mounted Pro Sound monstrosities, I rented four—and had them positioned at the four corners of the dance floor, facing inward. They were played at a volume that was invigorating to the dancers but not conversation-obliterating out in the room. Everyone was happy, especially the guy who paid for it.

 

I can't be the only person to have thought of this, but I've never seen it at anybody else's wedding, bar mitzvah, or prison-release party.

 

It's the same thing with multichannel playback in a typical domestic listening space: Because you have all those additional drivers moving all that additional air, plus a natural representation of space, it's not necessary to listen as loud to get an emotional connection to the music.

 

Andrew Quint

 

Senior Writer

The Absolute Sound