So, yes it's obvious there is a heavy amount of subjectivity in this hobby. But I don't think it is entirely insurmountable subjectivity This ambiguity surrounding what is subjective/objective and how people react to it makes this hobby great for people watching. There's no getting around the possibility that you are imagining something or that you'll find out that you were wrong about something. For those of us that are just hobbyists this isn't usually such a big problem. I think for those in the industry whose livelihood depends on it, it can be a big stressor. You've got those who try to take advantage of it by selling snake oil. What we've got here I think is someone who is very personally invested and who just can't handle the ambiguity so he pretends it isn't there. |
Thanks for your comments- I’ll keep this brief. There are two types of listening: - Analytic-- looking for defects, tone balance, image, special effects, distortions, ... a very long list. This is the style of listening used by studio engineers, stereo store proprietors, reviewers, editors, designers, and most home enthusiasts to ’make better sound’. A left-brain process, with no doubt.
- Subjective-- for enjoyment, for where the music takes you, what it makes you feel, think. Which is important for all of us listed above to be able to do.
After spending much time listening analytically, it can be difficult to switch that off, to kick back and enjoy whatever the music brings us, where it takes us. For listeners most impaired, the British remark, "They have ears of cloth." I wrote my (and others) observation that a musical system makes its mark on a right-brained listener when playing any good music. From the top artists, we have: Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is. Miles Davis
Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe. Douglas Adams
There’s music in the sighing of a reed; there’s music in the gushing of a rill; there’s music in all things, if men had ears. Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. Lord Byron
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. Gustav Mahler
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. Henry David Thoreau
Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same. John Denver
Music - The one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend. Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. Kahil Gabran
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul. Plato
Best regards, Roy |
The adjective "musical" is likely the most hackneyed and abused audiophile buzzword ever. |
You are completely right.
We are users of crazy machinery expected to generate any music on command over there, where we live. We don't want to hear any noise, nor any distortion or test tones. We want the sounds coming out to be musical sounds.
Those artists' views can be guides on what we should expect, to conceptualize where internally music might take us. When the system can do it and when the listener can actually hear that. Two different subjects. Above, I proposed paths through these two difficult subjects.
Roy
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There actually are 2 types of listening…me and everybody else. |
