To return a bit to the beginning of this thread, I am interested in the difference between music and sound. I enjoyed music as much on the clock radio I was given when I was 13 (in 1960) as at any time since. I now have the gear to enjoy the sound of it as well. I find I listen differently. Perhaps because I am older I simply experience the music as it passes through. Listening when young I would notice the melody at the beginning of a symphony and watch it reappear and change--I listened to the various voices and layers. Perhaps I am too old now to do that; perhaps I am distracted by the better sound or do not need to pay attention to intellectual content when I have more emotional content... When at the dentist's a while back I found myself listening to a familiar baroque concerto and again it was what you might call "just the notes", without the sensual involvement that I have become used to. On reflection, you can enjoy music on the simplest clock radio, but listening to the music in better sound at one level or another, is simply different. Listening with a better soundstage is different. Live music is separate again. I can't go to live music except with an amount of work that makes it too hard to enjoy, so I am not trying to do that, but I miss being in an audience more than I miss listening to the music live.
Last edited:
