Are you an audiophile or a music lover?

[PYP]

No I didn't, guess I'll have to buy the 24/192 or subscribe to Qobuz.

there seems to be a "try for free" option for Qobuz: https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/music/streaming/offers At the higher resolution, you still might not like the album I suggested, but you might like one of the other 239,000.

 

[hopkins]

The OP's question may not find a satisfactory answer to the extent that we switch between focusing on the music and the system. I find it hard, if not impossible, to do both at the same time. Once you stop listening to the system, then you can really enjoy the music (which does not mean you won't enjoy it even more with a good system).

The same can be said of recording quality (or concert hall acoustics). Some of the best music I've heard has very poor recording quality by modern "audiophile" standards. You simply have to set aside the critical assessment of the recording quality to enjoy the music.

There is a point at which the recording quality is so bad that you cannot hear the music, but that is pretty rare!

 

[godofwealth]

Here’s an interesting article in the Washington Post on someone who spent his entire life building his dream audio system costing in the millions of dollars, not to mention the huge time it took to build the components and his family’s time. How would you characterize him?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/

 

[antigrunge]

Et -et, not Aut-aut. That OP dichotomy simply doesn‘t exist. Music lovers that don‘t care for sound are simply an oxymoron. On second thought the opposite may not be true…

 

[PYP]

Here’s an interesting article in the Washington Post on someone who spent his entire life building his dream audio system costing in the millions of dollars, not to mention the huge time it took to build the components and his family’s time. How would you characterize him?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/

for those who prefer a video:

 

[Al M.]

for those who prefer a video:

Says, this content is not available.

 

[R Johnson]

An amazing amount of effort, time and money that Ken Fritz invested.

It's so sad that ALS robbed him of many years of enjoying the music. But I think he enjoyed every minute of building his dream system.

 

[Sunra]

As we begin a new year (Happy 2024, WBF!), it might be an opportune moment to refresh ourselves and ask ourselves some really important and basic questions. Think of this as a New Year’s resolution for WBF members.

So, the question is: are you an audiophile or a music lover? Perhaps a bit of both (or as we mathematically inclined geeks would put, you are a “convex combination” of attributes that define an audiophile or a music lover). So, what defines an audiophile? What defines a music lover? Are these fundamentally incompatible? Perhaps not, judging from the many hundreds of posts on WBF, people really dig music, but they also love to horse trade with their equipment, seeking to extract every nuance of music from their grooves, tapes, and streaming bits. So, let’s define these terms.

An audiophile is someone who:

1. Spends far more on his/her system than on their music collection.
2. Spends far more time listening to their system than listening to live music.
3. Spends far more time listening to other people playing music than creating music themselves (like playing a piano).
4. Thinks that increasing the bit rate or depth of a digital recording improves its sound.
5. Thinks that stereo or multichannel audio is fundamentally better than mono.
6. Thinks that recordings made in the digital era, or on DSD, or DXD, are fundamentally better than recordings made 60-70 years ago.
7 Doesn’t listen to any music recorded before 1960.
8. Only listens to music sitting in his/her listening room centered between the speakers.
9. Cares about obscure audiophile terms like soundstage, depth, height, transparency, blah blah.
10. Wants to hear the subway trains roll under Kingsway Hall on their favorite recordings (Harry Pearson, hope you can hear me still!).

OK, with that out of the way, let’s turn to a music lover. A music lover is someone who:
1. Is perfectly happy listening to a boombox or an FM radio station or gasp, even shortwave radio (as I did many decades ago as an undergrad!).
2. Has no clue whether a recording is in mono or stereo, or whether it is recorded as an MP3 or DSD 512.
3. Goes regularly to live performances (opera, symphonies, chamber, jazz, popular music, folk, country, …).
4. Can‘t for a moment sit still in a chair listening to music, but must bounce around in the groove, digging the music.
5. Cares two hoots about soundstage, transparency, height blah blah.
6. Has their dealer set up their system, and never touches it again!
7. Tends to hang on to their equipment for 50+ years, only replacing it when it absolutely fails and even then grudgingly.
8, Actually can read music scores, and tends to get bogged down in the minutiae of whether the composer wrote something in C minor or C major.
9. Argues vociferously whether the best conductor was Toscanini or the best singer was Caruso, both of whom recorded their albums in mono on 78 rpm discs.
10. Has no clue at all what high end audio is, until they accidentally hear a high end system, and then WOW!

OK, WBF. What are you? An audiophile or a music lover?

For me the gear is a means to an end. I do appreciate good sound, but will sacrifice quality sound for the performance. Underscoring m preference for music is that I spend considerable time attending and enjoying live music.

 

[Alrainbow]

Most definitely music lover , while I love my systems I mostly play jam Wi-Fi boom boxes or earbuds
Even if in nyc and playing my big System I rarely sit in the seats
most times some 25 or so back at my desk working
Kind of like a live band is playing over there thing.
If I do sit down properly I then become an audio engineer and deconstruct my music
this leads to what I feel I need to fix or try something
life is short at this point in my life so boom box
A little EQ and my toes tap and start head popping
With little hair.

 

[Another Johnson]

My view is that you can’t really evaluate the gear without understanding the music.

I have found that some reproduced music is very difficult to “like” on some systems. But this can change as the system improves. I’ve found myself enjoying many “difficult to love” performances I’d previously dismissed on less capable systems. The first clue is that live performances of the subject music were previously far more enjoyable in live performances I’d attended, compared to the recordings of said music. My experience is that the closer a system gets to sounding real, the more heretofore difficult to enjoy reproduced music sounds like it’s worth listening to.

 

[A-Line]

I'm a music lover, but not by the OP's definition.
I've assembled 2 separate systems for that purpose. Not particularly interested in equipment discussions.

 

[Rensselaer]

I must be another outlier as I do not fit in any of the either/or categories thus far. I am drawn to the aural sensations I get from musical instruments (including voice, even the song of a blackbird).

I remember a concert in Florence that I attended in the small stone chapel that Dante used to go to. The music was Mozart’s horn concerto, the musical instruments were two violins, a clarinet, an oboe and a bassoon. I am especially drawn to the tone texture of these instruments and, as the deep resonation from that bassoon filled every inch of that chapel, I whispered to my wife that “this” kicks the s### out of my hi fi.

I think live instruments sound best, I don’t however, like to go to concerts. Too many people coughing and sputtering in an enclosed space, tightly packed and very uncomfortable seats, or standing outside next to one speaker tower (or the portable toilets) in hot sun or pouring rain (yes, I am sure there is a term in psychology for me). So, for me, the home hi fi system that gives me the most life-like tones that I can afford.

What music do I buy? When I was a young man, friends would play records on their systems when you visited. This was not as simple and “nice” as it seems, for whenever you invited friends to listen to your records you were being judged on your choice of music (how cool the group was, not how good the recording sounded). So, many of my LPs are the usual from that period (The Doors, Jethro Tull, The Yardbirds, CS&N, Santana, Dylan, etc., and note that I am not the only one as many of these titles have been re-released as 45RPM ultra… from the master tape, etc., analogue LPs by specialty producers.

To hear those records as I remember the sound then, I have moulded my listening system into an old school style and sound. Pure analogue (vinyl) only, valve amplification (SET’s actually) and old horn speakers (with paper cones).

Over the years however, I have found pleasure in music styles that was unknown to me in my youth. My record collection contains (in addition to the rock and pop of the 60’s) a lot of older jazz recordings, world music (especially bossa nova) and a slowly growing classical section. As to listening, of primary importance is the tones produced, but I can not listen to music I do not care for so…

I can read music a little and play piano, guitar and ukulele a little as well. Which category do you see me in?

 

[mtemur]

I think live instruments sound best, I don’t however, like to go to concerts. Too many people coughing and sputtering in an enclosed space, tightly packed and very uncomfortable seats, or standing outside next to one speaker tower (or the portable toilets) in hot sun or pouring rain (yes, I am sure there is a term in psychology for me).

The term is “old”, sorry, no offense. I grew up in a very crowded area but now I’m avoiding going to highly populated places and prefer quiet places in walking distance.

 

[davidavdavid]

Need this be a zero-sum game? Can one love music and admire the gear upon which it is reproduced? I would posit that there are three conditions:

1 Music Lover
2 Audiophile
3 Gear Head

Being a "proper" audiophile can be expressed in Euclidean geometric terms, having one foot equally in both planes, music AND gear.

 

[steve59]

Music is as necessary as the food and water we consume, hifi is a luxury we get to reward ourselves with, like any other hobby.

 

[brad225]

Case in point. I’m listening right now to an old mono jazz album by the incredible Jimmy Giuffre recorded in 1954, 70 years ago! If you can enjoy stuff like this, you’re on the road to becoming a true music lover!

View attachment 123054

Wonderful recording. I listened to most of the album. I was already a music lover though.

It must be special as after each track I played separately, Roon Radio would say it could not find any like it to play.
Those of you that have Qobuz give it a listen. I don't think you will be disappointed.