MannyE
Exterminate!
NOw I want a white Russian.
How Demanding A Listener Are You?
- Thread starter musichal
- Start date
NOw I want a white Russian.
I greatly enjoy a good sounding system. The better it sounds the more I like it. When something is not quite right it bugs the hell out of me...
quiet
Addicted Member
One method of reverse engineering.
UncleBingo
Super Member
I would say it's best described as a two-axis graph illustrating an X; System Quality on one axis, Musical quality on the other.
Good music on a great system being the best (top right corner of the graph)
Bad music on a terrible system being the worst (bottom left corner of the graph)
In short, bad music on a good system gets about the same level of appreciation as good music on a really bad system (I am willing to suffer the consequences of sabotaging the playback).
The center of the chart is a virtual no-man's land of intolerable mediocrity. Air Supply on a shelf-system.
Immediately surrounding this central zone is the guilty-pleasure aureola of nostalgic enthrallment. This zone has a limited ability to be understood subjectively, but the phenomena has deep roots in the objective realm: i.e: "Frampton Comes Alive" played on an 8 track from a 70's Camaro or Mustang Mach One may produce waves of pleasure and simultaneous embarrassment ( "I love this, but I hope no one I know sees me enjoying it"); Foreigner "Feels Like The First Time" played back on a Sony Walkman cassette player ( "This sounds great, but I hope I'm not making an obvious groove-face").
So yeah... I'm real picky until the music sucks, unless it's my sucky music, because then it's great. Even if it isn't.
Good music on a great system being the best (top right corner of the graph)
Bad music on a terrible system being the worst (bottom left corner of the graph)
In short, bad music on a good system gets about the same level of appreciation as good music on a really bad system (I am willing to suffer the consequences of sabotaging the playback).
The center of the chart is a virtual no-man's land of intolerable mediocrity. Air Supply on a shelf-system.
Immediately surrounding this central zone is the guilty-pleasure aureola of nostalgic enthrallment. This zone has a limited ability to be understood subjectively, but the phenomena has deep roots in the objective realm: i.e: "Frampton Comes Alive" played on an 8 track from a 70's Camaro or Mustang Mach One may produce waves of pleasure and simultaneous embarrassment ( "I love this, but I hope no one I know sees me enjoying it"); Foreigner "Feels Like The First Time" played back on a Sony Walkman cassette player ( "This sounds great, but I hope I'm not making an obvious groove-face").
So yeah... I'm real picky until the music sucks, unless it's my sucky music, because then it's great. Even if it isn't.
Last edited:
Mystic
We're all born mad
Hal,
When it comes to "musical reproduction gear" (i.e., that junk referred to as "systems" around this joint), I am a very forgiving "listener".
Conversely, I am extremely picky when it comes to the actual music, i.e., choosing the material I'll listen to more than once. I'll give (almost) anything @ least "one try", but there's a helluva lotta musical material in that pile re: I've hear it once and never again. Now, when I hear material I genuinely like, and not merley "appreciate", I can listen to it again and again and for years without ever experiencing so-called "fatigue".