Do you think the genre of the music you're listening to affects your perception of how good the audio itself sounds? Like, you listen to pop music from the '70's where the songs are about simple, country living, then you listen to the current brand of pop with synthesized beats, all electronic based "music" and rhythms. Two very different sounds to be sure, but do you think the former sounds better on an older system simply because of what the genre and topic is? Do you think the latter would sound bad on the same type of system?
There are a lot of variables at play but overall, yes, the genre can make a big difference. Some systems just do better on certain styles of music.
A friend has a big, expensive system that I'd describe as dry sounding. For whatever reasons it sounds pretty nice with classical music and that's his preference. It's boring as all get out on jazz and it absolutely can't do justice to rock. He put on Pink Floyd The Wall a while back and it amazed me how removed I felt from the music. It was loud and it did a bunch of audiophile things pretty well but it was just impossible to connect with the music. Can't say I've ever been bored while listening to that album before.
I remember listening to that album on an old set of JBL's about 40 years ago. Those speakers were anything but flat, and a recording of a female singer would have you running from the room screaming. But those speakers played The Wall as if they had no other mission in life. Astounding.
Another friend claims that if the recording was made in the tube era it should be played back on tubes. 50's and 60's jazz comes to mind.
One of my old systems was amazing on jazz but didn't have the power and drive to do justice to rock. But you'd melt listening to it play jazz.
If my taste in music was mostly rock, edm, or other styles that tend to get played pretty loud it'd be likely the system would be different. The speakers would likely remain but the amp would likely be far more powerful simply to match the needs of the genre.
Rusty Messages: 1205 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
I must be pretty lucky. I seem to get satisfaction with the wide variety of genres in my collection. They play real nice to me. From spare jazz instrumentals to amp'ed up rock, way down south to big city blues. A major portion of that reliability comes from using my big ole theater 4 Pi's I built years ago. I think your speakers are THE most important part of the system.
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