Accurate vs Musical

Is Yo-Yo Ma accurate or musical? Some might say both.

He definitely puts me to sleep (in a good way).

It's actually quite straightforward to me.
I would use the term "accurate" as an objective term to describe how well a speaker reproduces the exact waveform as fed to it, without any frequency troughs or peaks or other tonal coloration. Such speakers are sought after as a monitors in recording and movie sound studios, as they allow engineers the best chance to know exactly what is being recorded, rather than a sound any particular listener prefers.

"Musical" is a purely subjective term, and speakers described as such generally color the sound in some way that is pleasing to the ear of certain listeners, and not others.

I recently switched from some older Infinity RS monitors which I'd descibe as pretty accurate, to some B&W's which to my tastes are warmer and richer sounding - to me more "musical".

i think most of us can agree on the term "accuracy". "musical" refers to the sound of instruments.

all stereo systems are inaccurate and all cannot reproduce the timbre of instruments correctly.

what is instructive is to listen to a recording of an instrument that one has access to, such as an acoustic guitar. one can compare the stereo system's reproduction with the sound of the instrument.

if it is possible, record an acoustic guitar and compare the recording to the sound of the instrument--in the same room. such a comparison will provide an indication of a stereo system's musicality. this does not tell the whole story, as there are other instruments, ensembles and orchestras. comparisons with other instruments and ensembles may be impractical. a guitar is a good start.

musicality does not mean pleasing or less resolving than "accuracy". rather it refers to the characteristics of music,namely pitch, timbre and harmonics.

thus, if a stereo system is "musical" it reproduces the pitch, timbre and harmonics of instruments correctly. try accomplishing such a feat with commercially available recordings. have fun.

To me, accurate and musical are one and the same when you are listening to a well recorded cd/album on a decent pair of speakers. However, they are not the same when listening to a poorly recorded piece of music with bloated bass, sibilant vocals, ect. Accurate speakers will portray that music as it was recorded........very A-MUSICAL. A so-called "musical" speaker will make the recording more listenable, at the expense of some detail.

I classify a musical speaker as one which is euphonic, laid back and on the warm side of neutral. Accurate speakers to me are just dead-on neutral sounding, colored only by upstream electronics and cabling, room environment, and source recording.

Since i can't make up my mind which type of speaker i prefer, i am thinking of getting another set of speakers to rotate with my current pair of "musical" Quad 11L's. I love the Quads when i can crank them up, which is not too often in my apartment. They are just a little too polite for me at low volumes but are forgiving of poor recordings. I once had a pair of neutral sounding ads L520 speakers which were more involving at low volume levels. I need to get a set that sounds like those.

So there it is:
To me, accurate speakers are better at low volume and musical speakers are better when you can "crank it up".

ok, now time to duck and hide. i can see the arrows flying!

regards,
Paul

The way I understand musicality is that it also means the emotion of a musical composition that is conveyed to a listener. Be it by a musician, orchestra or a stereo system. Accurate system reproduces not only timbre, pitch and harmonics, but should also convey emotions.
If a certain set up makes you fall asleep, this system could be anything - accurate, musical. What it can also mean is that the recording you were listening to was a lousy performance, unworthy of any attention or the listener could simply be indifferent to the composition.

Given a proper recording and an appropriate performance, a musical set up should grab you, put you on the edge of your seat. Listening to an unfamiliar piece, it should make you wonder what's next.

So in my opinion, musical is also accurate.

Now accurate system can also be hard to listen to if the source recording is of poor quality. This is where the challenge is to strike a balance between accuracy, musicality and your level of tollerance of a particular set up.

As far as musicians, there are ones who are accurate and musical at the same time. There are others who are just accurate. Example of accuracy and musicality would be Heifetz, Oistrakh, Jacqueline duPre, Rostropovich. Example of accuary with much lesser degree of musicality if an above mentioned Yo-Yo Ma(great technique, but most of the time lacking in emotion in comparison to some of the greats).

Just my opinion. The way I see it and hear it.