From: lrb@alex.ctrg.rri.uwo.ca (Lance R. Bailey)
Subject: Re: Who can tell hign-end without music
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Keywords: n
Organization: Robarts Research Institute, London Canada.
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 13:04:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.062247.11792@news2.cis.umn.edu> park@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Chongsun Park) writes:
>Hi, netters.
>I have subscribed this group for about one year. But I never find
>any news or opinions about music itself. What is the DEFINITION of
>HIGH-END? Is it for only electronics? Does it depens on specifications
>only? (i.e. ttotal harmonic distortion is less than 0.003%   etc.)

when i listen, i take off my glasses, for me it helps me concentrate, a
trick i picked up years ago -- do the same thing for sermens.  for _others_
i suppose it stops them reading specs.  put them them away.  what high end
is, the highest degreee of musical fidelity (Hi-Fi).  that is, the truest to
the original sound.  so you wnant the violin to sound like the violin, the
trumpet to sound like the trumpet and the human voice..  well, you get the
idea.  What I want in a high end system is to FORGET that i am listening to
a replica of a musical experience, to close my eyes and be taken there.

One day, played an "environments" record over the martin logans and spooked
the cat -- WILD life!  the next day, whilst i was at work, she went in and
*destroyed* the preamp control.  now, that is reality at work (we now have a
lock on that door :)

If you have a fixed idea of the sound of live music, then buy equipment, which
most closely approximates that sound. Unfortunatly that means large amounts
of money, but it is worth it.

>I think that is why there is no dominant
>speaker system in the world which occupies more than 20 percents of the
>market.   ... Who can tell these speaker systems are better than others?
> I think that it is similar to say that trumpet is better than horn. 
>
>I am expecting news like Celestion 700 is best for Violin or
>                         Martin Logan is best for Strings etc.
whenever i rate equipment in my articles in Positive Feedback, I try to 
state what music suits, or does not suit the equipment. You are right, 
all equiopment fares better on a certain style of music. Sillys like me like
ALL music (save for disco and hip-hop (disco for the 90's ] and have a 
heck of a time finding components. 

In one case I choose speakers that did not do well in a certain aspect of
imaging (a penchant of mine). In the front room I have a pair of quad esl
which from the kitchen sound marvelous, and the string music to which i listen 
when puttering around in the kitchen is very well reproduced. BUT, I know
that the quads do not image to the level i demand, so when a clever bit
comes on the piece, i do not run to the front room and sit in the best 
spot to savour the music. When I used to do that for the CLS, I burnt
supper. Now I am happier (and better fed) listening to the the tonality
of the music instead of the environment.

so my advice is twofold, buy the equipment which best approximates the
sound of live music. And, buy equipment which fits the manner in 
which you listen to music.
-- 
Lance R. Bailey  System/Network Manager         Robarts Research Institute
     NeXT/email: zaphod@ctrg.rri.uwo.ca    box: Clinical Trials Resources Group
            fax: +1 519 663 3789                P.O. Box 5015, 100 Perth Dr.
            vox: +1 519 663 3787 x4108          London, Canada N6A 5K8
In a recent study, sex replaced smoking as the leading cause of statistics.
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end