HiFi or Music

I think the test is when you've been away for a few days and then put the main system back on.......and wow.

I listen to music, through the hifi!

Of course, I  hear the hifi, in the way it presents the music, but my aim all along has been to minimise that effect, so I hear the music as  if I was listening to it being played live ...though in practice that can only be the best approximation I can achieve, closest to what my memory is of it live if I have experience it live, otherwise what my mind tells me to expect it to sound like. (And that latter point is particularly relevant when it comes to some studio recordings that have beed assembed rather than live recordings.)

So when I audition a new piece of hifi kit, I am asking myself if it is making the music sound better to me - either more life-like, or more satisfying presented.

(But never whether in makes my foottap, or makes me want to ‘boogie’!)

As others have said, I can enjoy music on lesser systems, even very much so,  though with some music a poor system can seriously challenge that (e.g. no bass when the bass is a prime component, or worse, high distortion - I’d rather have silence!). And it is hard to say that I enjoy music more on a better system  - I think I actually enjoy music the same now as I did when I had my very first system getting on for 50 years ago, but something about the music sounding better is more satisfying -if I was to try to put my finger on it that is what I think better systems can achieve.

The system is packed away while new flooring goes down and I’m off work ill with only a Sonos play3 for company - and loving listening to a ton of music. Having low expectations is probably a big factor in that enjoyment.

Sounsfaber posted:

 

. As I said most people that play an instrument will get what I’m saying.   pRat plays a very large part of the musical engagement, just like when one is jamming with a friend. Every box naim make has it.

Some can just afford more expensive. They think it’s hifi but at the end of the day it’s the music.

There are different aspects to listening to music.

From numbers of things that have been said in various threads on this forum it is evident to me that at least some musicians listen to music very differently from me, e.g  deconstructing the music to understand something about it, or studying someone’s playing technique or a different interpretation of a piece of music. Such listeners seem to relish clarity and detail but maybe little else.

Other people just want to hear the current tune of the day in whatever context that is (e.g current chart music), whether  to sing along, or because that is a common conversation topic in thecircles in which they move, or because they are i to ‘celebrity’ culture. For them, almost anthing seems acceptable, quality wise, however tinny or distorted etc - and often today’s favourite, best music ever, is completely forgotten in a year’s time.

Others want their toes to tap, or to start jiggling about with the beat, and for those dominance of the beat is important, even if little else - perhaps boomboxes at home to mimic nightclubs suit them best.

Yet others want the complete picture, the msuic unsullied in its fullest glory - for thise, the higher the fi the better.

...And of course, other people may effectively be more than one of the above, so either dualling or combining their approach to and desire for music playing system.

That's the reason why I love the Naim sound; it renders OP's question pointless.

Dan.S posted:

That's the reason why I love the Naim sound, it renders OP's question pointless.

Not always I'm testing an 82/SC against an 82/HC at the moment and at it's worst the 82/SC can be bit hifi whilst the 82/HC is all music.

I've felt for a long while that if you're thinking about hifi while you're listening to music, then it's not working properly for you.  That said, I think it's possible to be fond of both music and hifi.  I can waffle on endlessly about hifi, but would never be compelled to do so while listening to one, unless it's annoying me and with failings distracting from the event its trying to convey. 

I'm prone to getting completely lost in music, it's one of the reasons I don't listen much while working, I can't get anything done as it just sweeps me away too much.  Sometimes when an album finishes I literally burst out in tearful laughter. I think it's a moment of instant reflection after the event that causes this, and it splits into two, the performance of the artists and how engaging and enjoyable it was, to the extent I'd thought of nothing else for around an hour, but also it's the idea that what just occurred emerged from some boxes in my house.  Sometimes I take a moment and pace around, and I'm thinking,  'Wow, how does such a vivid and enjoyable performance come out of this stuff?'  I don't know the answer, but I love the fact that it's possible almost as much as the music itself.   But not quite.

For me hifi first then the music.

for a start. Having an above average standard system has enabled me to enjoy music that I would not have ever dreamed of enjoying.

From the beginning my dad had a great system that I was privy to, but that was something that "they" did and not what " I" did of course.

later using a portable tape recordable receiver, it was my lot to record those songs from the radio top 40 that took my fancy. Music; no just a noise that resembled music.

on the nursery slopes of hifi kit, cheap turntables and rotary mixers enabled me to access a whole range of music that just couldn't be available unless I had the appropriate hifi.

Same with today's situation. Without the right hifi you can not realise the potential that music has to offer.

None of the supposedly exclusive answers is true from my point of view. I just don’t get the either/or scenario.

Pretty much like TJ wrote above, the better my system gets, the more music becomes accessible for me. Besides that, what is the purpose of say 30 Miles Davis records, if I only play the same 6 or 7 ones?

For me one feeds the other....music makes me want to power up (actually it’s left on all the time) my ‘hi fi’, then my hi fi makes me want to listen to my music....tonight’s listening, T Monk, Miles D, Bowie, Richard Hawley and Elvis C.....

Music. Definitely music.

.....as long as it’s Tin Pan Alley, Keith Don’t Go or Stimela.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Not sure how you can listen to your Hi-Fi unless you listening to the transformer hum etc.

To be fair, [@mention:1566878603876589], a lot of the records I listen to do actually sound like transformer hum...

I think I prefer dynamo hum or rather “Dynah Mo Hum”.