The Sound or Music

WE (EVERYONE who hangs out here) are audio freaks!
Clearly we cherish sound over substance, or, we would also have transistor radio sounding stereos too.( or, perhaps hundred dollar stereos..)
And I am bold enough to call anyone who claims otherwise a liar.(or, self deluded)
Some of us are worse off than others. Some need to constantly chase the elusive dream, others can pretty much live with what they have.

I don't cherish sound over substance. I like good sound, but I love good music. If I had to chose between all my music or my systems. The choice would be a no brainer. The music would win. Fortunately, it's never an either or choice.

Elizabeth, no offense but I think you should speak for yourself. Without good music, I would never have wanted a good system to hear it on. Personally, I would rather hear the music such that it moves me and I really feel it, rather than simply being able to identify the song, as with a poor system.

I would listen to music on a crappy boom box if that's all I had. It's difficult for me to imagine life without music. I prefer listening to music on a nice hifi, but I've learned that just because a component or system is "high end" doesn't make it "musical".

Thank you Elizabeth - I feel a little better.

Jamiek, Hellofidelity - Imagine that you have choice of two versions of the same orchestral performance:

- exceptional performance recorded 50 years ago with
really bad sound and a lot of noise.
- recently released, not as great but recorded beautifully.

What would you choose? Said relative of mine would not hesitate selecting first one while I would always select the second. I'm perhaps audio freak but am not as bold as Elizabeth to admit it.

Onhwy61 - In example above it might be trade-off between 10% performance difference for 90% sound improvement. Is it still sound over substance?
Whole experience is important to me - substance AND sound.