Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

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Anesthetise
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Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by Anesthetise »

Recently I've been reading 'Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music' by Cristoph Cox and Daniel Warner. It's a choice of fragments from different books, quite essential about what people should know about conscious listening and modern art. The reason why I have never described myself as an audiophile was quite obvious to me - I never intend my my system to show me the specific instruments, I just wanted pure sound that flows in my room, making the music, whatever it is, as natural and exact as possible. To be honest - I just realised that it's called acousmatic listening, which means listening to the sound itself - the most important thing, while not seeing it's origin.

(more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acousmatic_sound )
When I rummage different audio forums, it's quite strange people' attitude is THAT analytical. 'This amp makes piano sound crap and distorted', 'That DAC is horrible for this and that(...)'. That's one of the reasons I'm still on this forum, as it's idea is to share subjective sound and perception preferences. Electronic music, bass culture, 'techno' is massively underrated and depreciated. People connect it with hair-gelled fags with no taste. I know, everybody has their own preferences, but I dare you - go to a good, underground techy concert. It isn't a listening-only experience anymore - it's full body experience that includes sounds you have never heard, flowing randomly through body, very tangibly. It's no longer a musican(s) in front of you showing their skills. There is no musican. It's just sound you should (and won't be able to) focus at.

I still enjoy music as in XIX century meaning. I go to 'normal' concerts from time to time. Going to a classical concert or a theatre, sitting in a rich decorated venue with smartly dressed people nearby makes it special. But it's completely not spontaneous, there's a distance between the performer and the listener. A specific barrier that's much harder to cross for us than with music created on the influence of digital reproduction. What is the difference between Stradivari's violin, and violin made of things found on garbage dump? Is the sound of the second one worse in any way? Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
analogue: pioneer pl71, 2x technics 1210 mk5, shure m44g, goldring 1042, mastersounds radius 4v, mastersounds fx unit, strymon el capistain, half a tone of records
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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by jammy395 »

It isn't a listening-only experience anymore - it's full body experience that includes sounds you have never heard, flowing randomly through body, very tangibly. It's no longer a musican(s) in front of you showing their skills. There is no musican. It's just sound you should (and won't be able to) focus at. (Quote Anesthetise)

Yep...I know where yer commin from, Us of the older generation (Old Git's) had, i am sure similar experiences, but this could have been down to the the amount of
Weed, Acid, Mushrooms, Coke, Or other drug of choice....... that used to abound in the good old day,s........... :lol: :hand:

It is in short - called - OUT OF YER SKULL............ :clap: :whistle:

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by Anesthetise »

Hahaha, do you really think it's past thing :drool: ?
For me, the influence of music is so strong, that drugs are unnecessary. We produce our own hormones that makes it feel special - endorphines, dopamine, serotonine, etc. But let's get back on topic :D
analogue: pioneer pl71, 2x technics 1210 mk5, shure m44g, goldring 1042, mastersounds radius 4v, mastersounds fx unit, strymon el capistain, half a tone of records
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amplification: p50sa seiden modded, a80s, royd rr1, goodmans magnum

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by jammy395 »

Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening? (Quote Anesthetise)

Well, im pretty sure 9 out of 10 audiophiles havent got a Scooby Doo wtf Acousmatic listening is......? (Thank's for sharing that with us)....Let alone be scared of it...!!!
But (Now that i know) i do not feel that being unaware of this wee gem for so long has in any way detracted from the pleasure i get from listening to music.
Sometime's it would seem ignorance is indeed bliss......... :whistle:

Keep it simple - Kill ugly wires.......... :think: :lol:

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Anestetise , despite your final question , it is difficult to ascertain what you are asking and Im sorry but the Wikipedia entry does not help. The wiki page is in my opinion typical pseudo academic goobblegook written by somebody who doesn’t understand the subject. Accordingly having read it I have only a cursory understanding of the concept ..

Ive said it before but if an expert cannot talk about their subject in a manner which could be understood by my granny [ were she not dead] then they don’t understand it themselves . Dave Braislford at british cycling calls it 1st principle thinking as opposed to cut and paste thinking

The basic concept of Acousmatic seems to be an ignorance of the source of the sound , because it can not be seen due to the fact it must be hidden .There doesn’t seem to be any purpose to this except to make the listening experience one that reduced sounds to the field of hearing alone!!!. And to be frank that sentance is meaningless bollocks

Im not sure how the concept of Acousmatic translates to hi-fi . As irrevocably you are hearing the music from speakers and you cannot see the instruments . Hifi would therefore seem to be inherently acousmatic and you don’t need a screen.

You do of course personalise your definition which if i can paraphrase appears to be a focus on an immediate sound with visceral impact which gives you an whole body experience [?] It would seem therefore you require your hifi to give you an experience analogous to walking round the hacienda in the 1990’s having just consumed several tablets of MDMA .

If that is the case then yes most audiophiles will be scared of acousmatic listening , and alas for me your definition sounds intolerable . If I require a visceral wall of sound experience in which i am immersed in the sound and I and it become one, then I will visit the appropriate place and that is not my hifi .

However , by all accounts such a sound can be found in Wrexham emanating from a dj turntable and a pair of Tannoys . :lol: :lol:
Last edited by Daniel Quinn on Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by jammy395 »

You most certainly have a way with word's Dan - That was of (in a round about way) course what I was trying to covey......... :snooty: :lol:

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by Anesthetise »

Daniel Quinn wrote: Ive said it before but if an expert cannot talk about their subject in a manner which could be understood by my granny [ were she not dead] then they don’t understand it themselves . Dave Braislford at british cycling calls it 1st principle thinking as opposed to cut and paste thinking
Well, it's quite obvious. Hearing music is different for everyone, and this has been said here on forum many times. From what I've seen, most people tend to look for equipment that resembles the sound of specific instruments as exact as possible, while ignoring probably the most important thing - system's musicality. That's what makes me curious about what are they looking for, because it's impossible to create a system that reproducts them perfectly. People want musicans standing in front of them - that's what concerts are for. It's no more looking for music, it's looking for home orchestra * :lol: Let's drop the drugs topic, as I didn't really intend to be expressed in that way. Music is actually better than ANY drug because you can turn it on and off whenever you want, and it does not blow your mind when you're psychically weak. The fact some music can put in trance, be hypnotysing, or 'from a different realm' does not make it equal to mdma or shrooms experience. Why do people even connect it with drugs :shock: I guess the acousmatic applies to subjectivists' forum, as they ignore the traditional must-be-like-original and put must-be-very-musical at the 1st place.

I dropped Tannoys in favor of Royds, they are much more musical. They are small, not effective @ only 83dB, but they make goosebumps pop up when I'm listening to music with female voice and put in semi-trance when I listen to a set that includes tribal drums. Or both :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-t5nsmqH9Q

That's my view on it. I'm not saying acousmatic listening is the only true way of listening music. I am only trying to understand why people limit theirselves, as it's been 100 years after people realised music isn't something formal. 100 years after noise effects has been introduced as something wanted in music, over 500 years since disonances were considered as diabolus in musica in European culture. It's an art!


* Or wait... does that make me an objectivist?
analogue: pioneer pl71, 2x technics 1210 mk5, shure m44g, goldring 1042, mastersounds radius 4v, mastersounds fx unit, strymon el capistain, half a tone of records
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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by jammy395 »

Anesthetise - Please excuse but.......I just dont get it ............................................................................................. :think: :evil:
Exactly what is it yer trying to say........ :think: :think: :think:
You like yer music.........Give us a brake let us enjoy ours............ :clap:
Young uns now a days............
put yer cans on n chill oot........mon.

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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by Anesthetise »

This thread isn't about certain music... It's about listening. This is my opinion and you are free to disagree with it! It's something that fascinates me and I'd like to know what people think of such POV, or if someone here has similar experiences. How do others perceive music. Is it something more than just sitting on your chair and listening? The name of this thread is kind of a provocation, not to piss you off, but to make people think and describe their view in more psychological or emotional way.

Why do you see hate everywhere? :evil:
analogue: pioneer pl71, 2x technics 1210 mk5, shure m44g, goldring 1042, mastersounds radius 4v, mastersounds fx unit, strymon el capistain, half a tone of records
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Re: Are audiophiles scared of acousmatic listening?

Unread post by slinger »

So, basically, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole to quote an old saying. Is that right? If so then that's also one definition of another word we often hear on this forum, and that word is synergy. If we accept that certain pieces of disparate equipment can form a synergistic relationship then perhaps it's not a step too far to assume that listening to the "result" of a bunch of instruments combined is preferable to trying to pick out the nuances of each and every instrument and then attempting to reconstruct that result in our heads.
Please feel free to tell me I haven't understood one word of what you were saying. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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