What Does High-End Audio Mean To You?

[MylesBAstor]

Andre's post (#9) here (https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/t...9-rip-aj-conti) nicely segue ways into a thread I was thinking of starting.

What does high-end audio mean to you?

Not high-price. High performance. Getting the most out of the equipment one owns no matter the price by whatever means to get closer to the music. Equipment that effectively communicates the music, not just plays notes. For instance, a car radio plays notes (or can give you the all important rhythmic aspects of the music) but an audio system does something else. Something much more special and harder to capture and define.

What thinks you?

[Beaur]

To me it means that a little more care/effort is taken in each step of the process from the recording to the playback. Not everything has to be SOTA but by the same token doesn't have to play to the lowest common denominator. There is generally a cost to that extra effort and people willing to make that effort can be rewarded with an enhanced presentation/appreciation of music they enjoy.

One thing many people tend to miss is that just because that extra effort is not taken doesn't mean someone can't enjoy the music just as much as you do. Being an audiophile does not grant you any privledges with regard to musical enjoyment.

Beau

[MylesBAstor]

Just as different audiophiles get turned on by different pieces of equipment and systems, people appreciate music for different reasons. Music appreciation is a whole 'nuther thing altogether.

[Beaur]

Didn't mean appreciation in the classical sense. I meant the attitudes that my "stereo" is more better than yours so I can hear the coughing in the background of this piece because my system is so resolving. The attitude of mine is better so I enjoy it more.

[fcrowder]

A combination of equipment and software that will occasionally, late at night with the lights off, convince me that I am listening to live music. I only seem to have this happen with fairly simple music, a soloist, a singer, perhaps a trio or quartet, never with large scale or complex works.

[Gusf]

Working with the system until you get it to level where you start "Loving it". Very well said Mr. Conti.

[david k]

Good Friends, Analog, Tubes, Horns!

david

[Beaur]

Add food and libation of choice and we're getting somewhere.

[david k]

Libation is omnipresent!

[Gusf]

The best room treatment ever!

[Joe Pittman]

Ever since I was very young, my earliest memories, I was a singer and loved music. With the best high-end equipment available today I enjoy listening to music even more. For me, listening to music is a destination activity.

I had a couple of interesting life changing experiences regarding music when I was very young. The first was in grade school where I was taught by nuns. It seamed that one of the missions of the nuns was to pound the arts into you among other things. I remember a nun putting me into a room by myself and forcing me to listen to Enrico Caruso records over and over (can't remember if this was a punishment). The interesting thing was that I eventually "got it" and ended up loving it. Ever since that "aha" moment, I have had a deep emotional connection with music. Ultimate hi-fi gives me a more intense experience, like great drugs.

The second experience I had was singing in the Seattle Boys choir in the opera Carmen. The scale and grandeur was overwhelming. Ever since then I love high power music, whether it be rock, jazz or classical.

Later in life I was able to do live recordings for the Bellevue Chamber Chorus at Meydenbouer.Center. Unless you have recorded Choral, Classical and Jazz performance live, you will not appreciate the great recordings we have available today. The recording industry deserves a lot of credit for their hard work.

[1morerecord2clean]

High end audio for me means, not necessarily in order,

🎶 the opportunity to listen to a very wide array of music in my collection and finding music I don't know through friends
🎶 the exhilaration of finding finding a new tweak or buying a new component changing my listening experience for the better
🎶 going to shows and meeting Audio friends in and out of the industry and hearing great equipment
🎶 communicating with like minded people thru this site
🎶 an ever changing musical social network near home and hearing their systems
🎶 how you can't recreate the real thing at home compared to the live event and endlessly striving to bring the home event closer to the live.

[Rob]

without getting philosophical, In my book Hi-end audio and HQ audio reproduction are not mutually exclusive. Below is the classic definition of "high-end" that you'll find on the 'net:



high-end
adjective
adjective: high-end

• denoting the most expensive of a range of products.
  

  synonyms:

  top-line, deluxe, best, top of the line, superior, top-notch, top-end, top-tier, high-grade, upscale, upmarket, choice, first-class, first-rate, fancy;

[mep]

Ever since I was very young, my earliest memories, I was a singer and loved music. With the best high-end equipment available today I enjoy listening to music even more. For me, listening to music is a destination activity.

I had a couple of interesting life changing experiences regarding music when I was very young. The first was in grade school where I was taught by nuns. It seamed that one of the missions of the nuns was to pound the arts into you among other things. I remember a nun putting me into a room by myself and forcing me to listen to Enrico Caruso records over and over (can't remember if this was a punishment). The interesting thing was that I eventually "got it" and ended up loving it. Ever since that "aha" moment, I have had a deep emotional connection with music. Ultimate hi-fi gives me a more intense experience, like great drugs.

The second experience I had was singing in the Seattle Boys choir in the opera Carmen. The scale and grandeur was overwhelming. Ever since then I love high power music, whether it be rock, jazz or classical.

Later in life I was able to do live recordings for the Bellevue Chamber Chorus at Meydenbouer.Center. Unless you have recorded Choral, Classical and Jazz performance live, you will not appreciate the great recordings we have available today. The recording industry deserves a lot of credit for their hard work.

My father punished me with Enrici Caruso all the time at home. I now have his entire 2000+ LP opera collection at my house and I'm looking for someone who loves Opera to come to my house and take them off my hands.

As for nuns, your story reminds me of my 6th grade nun, Sister Roly Poly. At the end of every day, she got this small electric organ and placed it on top of her desk and we would sing some religious songs. Of course I rewrote the words to most of them and me and my buds would sing the lyrics I wrote. Every so often Sister Roly Poly would catch on that something was up and she would stop playing her organ and scan the room with a hairy eyeball looking for someone who stood out. My and my boys would all stand there looking angelic until she went back to playing her organ and the process would repeat. We never got caught which was unusual because the penguins were usually pretty good at finding perpetrators and beating the snot out of them.

[david k]

My father punished me with Enrici Caruso all the time at home. I now have his entire 2000+ LP opera collection at my house and I'm looking for someone who loves Opera to come to my house and take them off my hands.

Where do you live Marc?

david

[1morerecord2clean]

So those Caruso LPs. Are they 78s?😜

[mep]

Southern Indiana. About 1 hour and 15 minutes south of Indianapolis.

[david k]

Southern Indiana. About 1 hour and 15 minutes south of Indianapolis.

Let's touch base over the weekend, depending on what they are we might be able to work out something.

david

[bonzo75]

Jeez lucky David

[mep]

PM sent David.

[MylesBAstor]

without getting philosophical, In my book Hi-end audio and HQ audio reproduction are not mutually exclusive. Below is the classic definition of "high-end" that you'll find on the 'net:



high-end
adjective
adjective: high-end

• denoting the most expensive of a range of products.
  

  synonyms:

  top-line, deluxe, best, top of the line, superior, top-notch, top-end, top-tier, high-grade, upscale, upmarket, choice, first-class, first-rate, fancy;

Why does it seem that good sound and good performances are mutually exclusive? We are constantly told that albums are constantly engineered to sound the best of boom boxes, etc. Why? Good sounding releases sound good on either high-end audio systems or boom boxes. Not vice versa.

[atmasphere]

Boom boxes are 95% of all listening.

The reason that 'audiophile' recordings have such dreadful performances is that the intention was to make a good recording. Intention is everything in the world of high end audio, it is intention and intention alone that determines what is 'high end' and what is not. It certainly is not price!

If you want a good performance and good recording, you have to work with the people who can do the good performance and find a way to record them without getting in trouble with the label that has the recording contract. You'll probably have to deal with the musician's union too. It gets tricky!

[Rust]

You would know about recording, I have a copy of Thunderbolt Pagoda.

[Nattt]

To me, high-end audio is an attitude towards the creation of sound reproduction equipment that embodies sound engineering principles coupled with a sensitivity towards how the equipment actually sounds.