19 Oct
2005
19 Oct
'05
12:43 p.m.
On 10/19/2005 at 1:40 PM Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Oh, I know. I love it when people say how they spend
so much time,
effort and money to get the best possible sound quality, and it's the
only way to appreciate music. You tend to find that these people are
only listening to orchestral music, for some reason. I like to point
out that as a musician, I'm interested in the music *sounding good*, not
a perfect reproduction. If I want to hear an orchestra I will go to a
concert. No recording will ever faithfully duplicate it, simply because
the physics involved in producing the sound is different.
This brings to mind an occurrence that happened in the pre-CD audiophile
days. All names are changed to protect the embarrassed.
A friend who'd hit it big time by having a software firm he helped found
purchased by a major competitor celebrated by ordering a platinum flute
from Powell and buying a multi-kilobuck stereo system,
complete with Decca
moving-coil cartridge in the tonearm. He invited some of us
over for
dinner to show off his hardware and put on a Quantz flute concerto as a
demonstration. It was all very nice, and someone asked what the work
played was.
"It's the Quantz flute concerto in G minor" replied Martin. My friend Dave
says, "It can't be--that was in B minor". Martin gets the disc and shows
Dave the label--but Dave is adamant (IIRC, Dave had a fairly low-end stereo
system himself). Martin remembers that he has the sheet music and digs it
out. It evolves after some careful listening that the labels on the disc
were "flipped"--the "B" side label had been put on the "A"
side and
vice-versa. Musically-erudite Martin is very red-faced at the discovery by
Dave who doesn't even know the work in question but who has golden ears.
The quality of the sound system doesn't much matter to me--I'm still using
the University 3-way speakers I picked up sometime in the 60's driven by a
receiver I bought at Costco 15 years ago--it's plenty loud. My speaker
cables are zip cord.
Actually, I'm happy enough listening to a work on my 60's era Sony
10-transistor AM/FM lugaroiund (germanium transistors--great sensitivity
and only 3 "D" cells for power). Matters of haromonic construction, part
interplay and technique (intonation and rhythm) occupy most of my listening
energy, with fidelity not mattering too much--although it's nice to have
stereophonic sound for antiphonal works so the parts can be easily
distinguished.
Color me a sonic Luddite.
Cheers,
Chuck