Expensive tin ears - was: Public Service Announcement:

[Chuck Guzis]

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