Saving you a lot of money

[fpitas]

Not really. Your nearest college or music school offers tons of live recitals, usually free. And for a little money, chamber music and even orchestral concerts are all over the place.

That's true, although I'm thinking of music someone under 30 might listen to willingly.

 

[ahofer]

That's true, although I'm thinking of music someone under 30 might listen to willingly.

If you look closely, you'll see that most of the performers in those links are under 30, but point taken.

 

[fpitas]

If you look closely, you'll see that most of the performers in those links are under 30, but point taken.

Yes, I've known a few. But they are the exception

 

[Emuc64]

He says "unamplified live music".

I understand. I read into it thinking that if the point was to expose an individual from whatever music they're listening to on Airpods to real instruments, I think it makes sense with certain types of music for a 1 to 1 comparison. But if they're listening to the latest album that's been produced in a studio, I'm arguing that a "live version" of that song is an alternative version, but not the same as the artist/sound producers' intent.

If the point is to expose an individual to real instruments vs reproduced sound coming from speakers, so they know what a drum set sounds like IRL vs headphones. Okay.

 

[ahofer]

Yes, I've known a few. But they are the exception

I'm 59. My wife and I go to Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and Geffen Hall concerts all the time. In those venues we feel like kids, in comparison to the rest of the audience.

At Juilliard concerts, we are the oldies.

 

[Yuhasz01]

Interesting remarks by Peter Aczel. I agree with most everything, except the last bit about kids needing to listen to live music; it should have an asterisk. It's probably true for orchestra & classical music vs recorded counterparts.

However, tastes vary. I'd argue most music listened to and produced today are in studios using lots of technology, targeted towards sound from speakers. I don't think live shows from today's artists would be any better or closer to what's intended by the artist than what's released. If younger or older people like produced music, they have the same audio journey to pursue better speakers and gear as anyone else - a live comparison isn't needed, IMO.

Live music provides a critical reference point for any listening , for any genre of music.

 

[Angsty]

I haven't heard a lot of unamplified live music. It's tough unless you frequent coffee shops, for example.

Jazz clubs. I was in one last night. Not all are unamplified, many are. For instrumentation, that is. Almost all voices in the clubs are amplified.

 

[Cuckoo Studio]

We are in an era where we can get the best and most cost-effective playback devices, but are only able to accept music platforms pushing the poor quality music to us. The development of MIDI technology and the increase of bedroom musicians have brought about a freer market and more colorful expression of imagination, but at the same time erased the dignity of the golden recording standard that once existed in recording studios. With the competition of loudness and coloring, a lot of music has become noisier and more casual. However, the recording studio standard still exists. Perhaps the number of excellent music has not decreased, only that the amount of poor quality music has increased, making up the majority in proportion.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

Everything in life is so arranged that you have to be old and wise in order to allow yourself to talk about platitudes that no one thinks about before an old age (wisdom does not always come with old age, alas).
Everything is correct and obvious.
Except one.
For truly passionate people, saving money on a hobby is not the goal.
Let them have fun, don't disturb them.

 

[ferrellms]

Everyone who loves audio should read this just once in his life


Peter Aczel(RIP)


What I have learned after six decades in audio (call it my journalistic legacy):

Pretty much right on. He is right in the emphasis on speakers as the important part. He is prescient as to speaker directionality and active electronics (DSP?) as possible breakthroughs.

He would appreciate active and digitally eqed cardioid speakers which remove so much of the room coloration and hassle as well as extraneous costs of amps/cables.

 

[Timcognito]

Sorry, speakers are second place behind recording techniques. " garbage in = garbage out"
2) The principal determinants of sound quality in a recording produced in the last 60 years or so are the recording venue and the microphones, not the downstream technology.

 

[Koeitje]

He forgot room acoustics.

Loudspeakers with good directivity deal with worse rooms better than other loudspeakers. The room matters, but it all starts with the loudspeaker.

 

[Timcognito]

but it all starts with the loudspeaker

Correction, it all starts with the recording

 

[Joffy1780]

Correction, it all starts with the recording

Correction, it all starts with the performance.

 

[Koeitje]

Correction, it all starts with the recording

Electronic music isn't recorded. So it starts with the artist. Both fot electronic and other music.

 

[polmuaddib]

Sorry, speakers are second place behind recording techniques. " garbage in = garbage out"
2) The principal determinants of sound quality in a recording produced in the last 60 years or so are the recording venue and the microphones, not the downstream technology.

Sorry, but you are referring to Production part of Audio. When you talk about Hifi loudspeakers, equipment and room acoustics, it is the Reproduction part, where you can’t change the source. It is finished.
Garbage in = garbage out is a term used which encompasses performance, recording, mixing, mastering and all of that.
Not the HiFi part we are talking about.

 

[ahofer]

It all starts with a kid banging two blocks together.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Six decades as an audiophile - that could be me

Loudspeakers, microphones, even pickups, all of these things are poorly mapped by ASR measurements in terms of the real listening experience they provide. You still have to use your own ears for that.

 

[ahofer]

Six decades as an audiophile - that could be me

Loudspeakers, microphones, even pickups, all of these things are poorly mapped by ASR measurements in terms of the real listening experience they provide. You still have to use your own ears for that.

I'm not sure what you are asserting here. The behavior of all these instruments is pretty comprehensively measurable, the problem is they are used in different acoustic spaces and operated with different objectives, competence, expectations and biases. It's the latter part that makes the 'listening experience' less predictable, not our understanding of equipment behavior.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I'm not sure what you are asserting here. The behavior of all these instruments is pretty comprehensively measurable, the problem is they are used in different acoustic spaces and operated with different objectives, competence, expectations and biases. It's the latter part that makes the 'listening experience' less predictable, not our understanding of equipment behavior.

Yes, pretty comprehensively, I can agree so far.