High End and Classical Music

Interesting questions. I listen principally to classical music, sing in a fairly good and ambitious church choir as well as a harmony quintet (takes 5 of us to sing 4-part harmony!) from time to time and play folk guitar. My system, which I've accumulated over years, is based around Jadis electronics, which may lack the last word in transparency and microscopic detail but are remarkably true to the music and the sound of the concert hall, which is what I'm looking for in my system. Yes, some equipment out there (like mine) is better suited for classical than rock, some better for small ensembles than large, romantic orchestral music, but I think that Mes' excellent post has it right. If you are happy with your system, and you seem to have assembled some fine components that I know do well with classical music, enjoy the music rather than worrying about whether there's something better out there (heck, there always is, that's rule no. 1 in this hobby). Good luck!

I guess I'm the black sheep, I listen to Rock & Heavy Metal, yes that's Heavy Metal. But tis true that most good recordings are in the classical jazz genre. However, there is quite a few outstanding rock recordings, ie Alice & Chains(unplugged), Roger Waters(recent live release) Pearl Jam but unfortunately many sound terrible. It's like a crap shoot every time I buy a CD. Good question. I know I get tired of reading all the reviews in Stereophile etc. and it seems that all the reviewers listen to classical music. Long live Rock anyone else agree?

"The more one loves music, the more music one loves"

I am 90% classical.

My wife and I listen to classical of all periods, Heavy Metal, Middle Eastern (My wife also belly dances)and Art Techno. I agree with the general drift of the comments above. You're lucky if your favorite music is Baroque and early music since it is less costly to approach realism with an audiophile system. I listen to a lot of early music but my wife and my greatest love is late romantic music(which is psychologically fairly close to a fair amount of Metal). We've been to over 1000 professional performances and trying to reproduce the Mahler 8th,Turandot or Bruckner in your living room when you know what it sounds like live is a VERY expensive proposition. But a system that can is also jaw dropping on Metallica, Judas Priest etc. My one suggestion if you like your system is to spend some money on room treatment. Some ASC tube traps will really bring out the nuances of Baroque intonation that are probably being obscured by your listening room interactions.