Tír Na HiFi

At the risk of being kicked out of this Forum, I feel that I must pose the question: How important is your systems' sound quality and does the sound quality have a 'major element' in your enjoyment of music?

I have thought about this a lot since the Cloney Audio Show in the Burlington. Most people here did not like the Sooloos system or [seemingly] the Meridian powered speakers. Yet I did and listened to them for a reasonable time [mostly on my own to be honest]. When I was a child [long long ago...] we had a valve radio and listened to whatever music Radio Eireann broadcast on Medium Wave. I sounded fine to us as we did not know that it was possible to get any better sound. Playing music [accordeon, tin whistle, drums and guitar] was a big part of our growing up, I heard many fine trad Irish musicians in our house so I was continually exposed to the sound of real instruments even though I did not at the time think this was anything special. Of course I appreciated their skills but sound wise a concert flute played in the kitchen sounded like a concert flute.... Years later we got a cassette tape player, mono, with a single speaker of approx 4" dia. We learned a lot of tunes that were taped at sessions or bought as pre-recorded cassettes. The sound quality [???] did not come into it at all. We listened and we heard.

I have a reasonable hi-fi system and when listening I can hear nuances that were unheard on the cassette player or on the radio but the music is more or less the same. Or at least enough of it is to make it recognisable as music. Hence the question, is high sound quality (absolutely) required to enjoy music? I think not but am interested in reading what you guys think, so .........

For me personally I do get annoyed if the quality is too low. I do listen to old recordings of mainly jazz, blues and folk, that are probably considered to be very poor. But if they are great music I will still listen, but maybe not in listening session, but more as background music to work, chores or play with the kids. I was listening to Workin' by Miles Davis just earlier and found the quality of the recording too annoying. Relxin' by Miles Davis on the other hand is a great mono recording that sounds great on my system. So for me both can be enjoyed but for extended listening sessions the quality has to be fairly good.

(When it comes to the music quality, I tried to get through some of Il Divo as their concert was on Sky Arts in surround, and I had to give up after 15 min.... ;) )

I think there is a danger that with a very good system, sometimes one might be inclined to study the music rather than listen to it if you get catch my drift. Not sayin that everyone does this but I think its still a factor nonetheless.

If the system is well balanced with a nice even presentation, it will draw you into the performance and immerse you in it. A few of us experienced this on Saturday with Ciaran's system. It's as high end as you can get but it draws you into the music and nothing is over emphasised. You know the system has detail retrival and accuracy in spades but everything sounds just right.

A really well balanced system will open a window on the music, like peeling off layers of an onion letting you into the performance more. So for me, yes sound quality is pretty important. Any upgrades I've made I tend to notice the differences more in Classical or Jazz music which tend have a lot of nuances in the music.

For music that I already know and love, sound quality doesn't matter too much once it's beyond a certain level of tolerability. Best example I can give is that when I'm driving across the country, I'll listen to a good song on a Dublin radio station even after it's started to break up a bit. I now associate Longford with half-heard Don't Fear the Reaper.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's no way I'll explore new music without at least having decent sound (I don't mean high-end hifi here, just decent sound.) The better the hifi, the wider my tastes have become, because I can hear more to enjoy. Of course, some music has fallen by the wayside here, as you realise just how crap it really is!

The one caveat is that if I *expect* good sound and I don't get it, I'm not interested. I rarely listen to the big rig at home any more because, as I've alluded to here before, I'm not happy with the sound of it. The irony of this compared to the above "Longford experience" is not lost on me...

Actually, I'm going to add one more thing, if I'm going to listen to music exclusively (as opposed to while I'm doing something else) then sound quality is very important indeed.

Having just returned from a few days in London to the relative calm of the sticks, I'd make the following observation: I found myself surrounded virtually continuously by 'music' over the few days: in buses, shops, taxis, leaking from headphones etc etc.: In my host's car, living room, kitchen, bedroom............relentless.!!
So, with regards to sound quality I realise that for me I like to get to the refuge of my own place where there is NO 'background' music......what a relief. The pleasure of the silence, clicking on the amp and sitting down to some DELIBERATE listening at as high quality as I can get........aahhh, now that's pleasure!!!