Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

All general audio posts go here.
User avatar
Dr Bunsen Honeydew
Posts: 30758
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:26 pm
Location: Muppet Labs
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 48 times

Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

More to the point is the pursuit of them, which is what I see as the difference. Or is it just semantics, i.e. the problem is the language used, or does that difference, as I believe, make people lose their way in a desire to improve their music.

OR are a music lover and a hi-fi lover two different things.

For me hi-fi started as basically a good thing, if inherently commercial, but has been corrupted to be a means to rip you off by using and abusing your love of music.

User avatar
Mississippi Blind Child Assburn
Posts: 2174
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:07 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 14 times
Canada

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Mississippi Blind Child Assburn »

Is this point even germaine? (by germaine I mean the "fitting" sense.)

Forgive me, but its like saying is the sky blue.

Of course they are separate.

Being caught-up in the downward spiral of better (audio) and better has nothing to do with love or understanding of music.

And Blind Child is not just singling audiofols: people that burrow themselves into the end of....what is the best pressing of Holst's "The Planets" or...whose the "definitive" CAPTURE of "the Planets".

This is retentativeness.

Sure you can have gear-o-phyles that have tremendous devotion to actual music (look at Fremer for instance) - but I'd wager its rather rare.

A (perhaps non-germaine) example of this behaviour is the bloke gets caught-up in the excitement of fashionable jargon used to impress dabblers, but actually of little significance/interpertation.

You can build-up something using fancy logic and words - alla Brian Eno's fancy musical writing but droll music - , but wot your really doing is rationalizing your strange behaviour.

So sayeth the pwog-anorak.

User avatar
Dr Bunsen Honeydew
Posts: 30758
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:26 pm
Location: Muppet Labs
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 48 times

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

In the bad old days it was a Linn / Naim system and the 20 or so albums that made that home PA listenable, mostly Dire Straits and others Christ Frankland gave his approval to. They were definitely hi-fi people.

User avatar
CN211276
Posts: 6522
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2016 9:29 am
Location: Cardiff
Has thanked: 1401 times
Been thanked: 976 times
EUROPEAN_UNION

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by CN211276 »

I think the people who post most on most of the forums, we know who they are, are more interested in the equipment than music. HFS is different as there is not an obsession with side ways box swapping.
Main System
NVA BMU, P90SA/A80s (latest spec), Cube 1s, TIS, TISC(LS7)
Sonore OpticalRendu, Chord Mscaler & Qutest, Sbooster PSs
Network Acoustics Eno, ifi iPurifier3, AQ JB FMJ, Cisco 2940 & 2960
DH Labs ethernet, BNC & USB cables, Farnells cat 8 ethernet cable

Second System
NVA P20/ A20, Cubettes, LS3, SSP, SC
Sonore MicroRendu, Chord Mojo 2 MCRU PSs, AQ Carbon USB cable & JB FMJ

Headphones
Grado SR325e/Chord Mojo, Beyerdynamic Avetho/AQ DF Colbat

RIP Doc

joe
Posts: 1156
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:48 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by joe »

Let's be honest with ourselves. If we really were more interested in the music than in the hifi, we'd be posting on a music forum.

User avatar
CN211276
Posts: 6522
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2016 9:29 am
Location: Cardiff
Has thanked: 1401 times
Been thanked: 976 times
EUROPEAN_UNION

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by CN211276 »

joe wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:28 am Let's be honest with ourselves. If we really were more interested in the music than in the hifi, we'd be posting on a music forum.
I occasionally post on Steve Hoffman. I used to post on music forums a lot, but the forums soely concerned with the music i like most are no more or virtually dead. I suppose there is little more which can be said about 70s and 80s rock.
Main System
NVA BMU, P90SA/A80s (latest spec), Cube 1s, TIS, TISC(LS7)
Sonore OpticalRendu, Chord Mscaler & Qutest, Sbooster PSs
Network Acoustics Eno, ifi iPurifier3, AQ JB FMJ, Cisco 2940 & 2960
DH Labs ethernet, BNC & USB cables, Farnells cat 8 ethernet cable

Second System
NVA P20/ A20, Cubettes, LS3, SSP, SC
Sonore MicroRendu, Chord Mojo 2 MCRU PSs, AQ Carbon USB cable & JB FMJ

Headphones
Grado SR325e/Chord Mojo, Beyerdynamic Avetho/AQ DF Colbat

RIP Doc

User avatar
Dr Bunsen Honeydew
Posts: 30758
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:26 pm
Location: Muppet Labs
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 48 times

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

I really do not understand your point Joe. This is an equipment forum as well as a large music section.

Welder
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 4:34 pm
Location: Catalonia, Spain
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Welder »

I stopped thinking I had a Hi Fi many years ago. What I’ve got is a stereo system that reproduces signals from various sources.
I like a lot of classical music but I can’t listen to it on my stereo. Seriously, how can two speakers even hope to produce the wall of sound from multiple points that you can both hear and feel when sitting an an auditorium in front of a full orchestra with any realism.
So, I like music but my hobby is sound reproduction equipment. I like building stuff, I like the thought of trying to accurately reproduce what is on the source material. I feel like an amateur forger trying to reproduce a masterpiece; usually with disappointing results.
I don’t go to ‘popular’ music shows any more, but I will go and see classical performances.
My stereo system with the aid of the recording engineers produce a much more acceptable sonic performance than any live pop concert I’ve been to.
Music and sound reproduction are separate pursuits imo. Problems arise imo when you get the two confused and believe your stereo is reproducing music. There is no music on a record, CD, Tape, or file; there are signals that attempt to reproduce what may, or may not have been music at some other time and place.
Single spur balanced Mains. Self built music server with 3 seperate linear PSU, Intel i5, 16 GB RAM no hard drive (various Linux OS). Benchmark Dac2 HGC, single ended XLR interconnects/Belkin cable. Exposure 21RC Pre, Super 18 Power (recap & modified). Modded World Audio HD83 HP amp. Hand built Monitors with external crossovers , Volt 250 bass & ABR, Scanspeak 13M8621 Mid & Scanspeak D2905/9300 Hi. HD595 & Beyer 880 (600 ohm) cans.

Lurcher300b
Posts: 933
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 1:58 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 16 times

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by Lurcher300b »

Other than creating a strawman, I don’t know why its not possible to do both. It is possible to have more than one interest especially if they are linked. Just because one is easier to talk about kit on the internet doesn’t mean for certain that that one is more important. Go and read some of the guitar player forums, you will see the same apparent split between talking about guitars and playing music.
but wot your really doing is rationalizing your strange behaviour.
Well, maybe, but sometimes self awareness is useful.

User avatar
savvypaul
Posts: 8635
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:14 pm
Location: Durham
Has thanked: 1657 times
Been thanked: 2978 times
Contact:
Great Britain

Re: Have Music and Hi-Fi become two different things.

Unread post by savvypaul »

Having been to a few shows and dealer bake-offs this last couple of years, I find it hard to believe that much of the dem music being played by manufacturers would push anyone's buttons at home. A room with £250k speakers refused to play any 'rock'. Some rooms subtly discourage, sometimes point-blank refuse, to play anything other than their own chosen recordings; once I see only a small selection of 'audiophile pressings' in a dem room, my heart sinks. I don't see people getting lost in music at such dems, rather they look bored and nervous lest they can't 'tell the difference' or describe the 'features' of the sound.

You can get a lot of enjoyment from a car stereo or a small office system, even a portable radio. We have music on all day at work, on various bits of kit, and there's plenty of singing and air guitar going on. The argument often put forward is that you are not listening 'critically' in such scenarios. It strikes me, then, that the best hifi systems allow you the same feeling of unconscious enjoyment when you are laid on your sofa 'only' listening to music. A good hifi system ensures that you want to listen to as much of your music, as often as possible.

We measure frequency response and distortion when we should be counting how many hairs are standing up on our arms and the back of our necks. I can see the intellectual pleasure in specs, and even listening to sound rather than music, I suppose, but it is not of ultimate interest to me as a music 'consumer'. Music is about emotion...which is why this is a subjective hobby above all else.

I'm not sure whether that answers the Op's question, or not... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I am in the hi-fi trade
Status: Manufacturer
Company Name: NVA Hi-Fi
https://nvahifi.co.uk/

Post Reply