Music vs. Equipment (Poll)

I fell in love with a lot of music on rubbish systems. And I'm talking a transistor radio was an upgrade. So it goes without saying what my choice is.

That said, a decent system, whatever you define that to be, just opens up a whole new world.

 

If I'm going to hear a great song poorly reproduced I'd rather not hear it at all.

 

I've spend a lot of time listening to music I love on low rent playback gear, and I enjoy it -- to this day I can sit in the kitchen and stream some crappy upload from YouTube to my laptop speaker and get a thrill from the music.

I probably wouldn't much enjoy listening to any music I don't like, regardless of the playback system. But, in truth, there's not that much music I really hate or couldn't stand to hear. I rarely find any music "awful," even music I don't care for. And if the recording quality was particularly stellar or interesting, hearing it on a great stereo can also be a pleasure of its own sort, more a sonic pleasure than a music one.

Harder for me is really badly recorded music or like a low-fi recording of disjointed snippets, like the Benedetti Charlie Parker recordings. I'm not sure I want to listen to that on any kind of system. It's not that the music is uninteresting per se, but the listening experience is a grind.

 

I can’t figure out for what possible reason would I be listening to what I consider to be an “awful” album in the first place ?

If I guess if I were being paid to do it it wouldn’t matter which, I’d just listen, take the money and run.

 

It's all about the music. I don't care how I can hear it, as long as I can hear it.

 

I can adjust down pretty far. I have a smallish JBL Bluetooth speaker that I bring with me on vacation. But when I think. Back to those tiny transistor radios I had in the early 60s, maybe not. Besides, they were for listening to baseball games.

 

I don't listen to, IMHO, "crappy music"...Period! With that, you''ll know how my vote went!

Ted

 

I selected dream system, because as soon as I could do so, I would buy the great album and play it on the dream system.

 

If it is an album I like being played, no matter what system its being played on I still will enjoy the tunes.

 

The poll is rigged.

 

Call the Cyber Ninjas!

 

We lost power a few weeks ago for an entire evening and I broke out my trusty 25 year old Magnavox transistor radio. It has a single speaker in it. I put on our local PBS jazz station for a couple of hours. Was glad to have it! Also listened to some baseball! Always keep some fresh "D" size batteries around!

 

Without great music, there is no reason to have a great system.

 

These days, I'd resort to something like the $25 Anker Soundcore stereo BT speaker in a power outage. I use one in my camping van streaming from my phone to very pleasing effect. I like it enough that I have two or three of them scattered about.

Anker SoundCore Bluetooth Speaker Is Just $25 on Amazon - Gear Patrol

 

First of all, if I were to chose my mega dollar dream system, it would not be Oswald Mills. I heard a smaller pair (Monarch) than the ones in the picture, and was not overly impressed.

Second, the problem with the transistor radio choice is, so much of the music I listen to, has quite a bit of music happening outside of the very narrow passband that a transistor radio is capable of reproducing. So, an argument could be made, that I am not really listening to the music I love through the radio, since I am only hearing a such a narrow slice of it.

You could have even gone lower in quality than a transistor radio. I mean, seriously, you might as well have had the second option be; the only way one could listen to the music you love, would be to have it all transcribed onto wax cylinders, play them on a hand cranked dictaphone, using a steel needle, and a cone speaker made out of hand rolled notebook paper.

I guess I would opt for the radio, but I would probably end up listening to music less.

Maybe I would just opt for owning a bunch of movies with music I like, just so I can listen on the not so bad TV speakers. 2001 has music by Ligeti, Being John Malkovich has Bartok, Children of Men has King Crimson, Killing Fields has Mike Oldfield, Birdy has Peter Gabriel, Inferno has Keith Emerson, Fantasia has Stravinsky, all those great Dario Argento horror movies have soundtracks by Italian prog band Goblin...

 

I would listen to an awful album on a dream system anytime but ONLY if the awful album is recorded/mastered superbly! If the awful album sounds awful on any system, you can shove it in your ....

 

Maybe something about this forum provokes the question?

 

So am I supposed to call the radio station and request that they play the quality lp so I can listen to it on my transistor radio?
At least the crap option has less hassles.

 

I rolled into SF in like 1982 and stuck around there til '87. I've been told I wouldn't recognize it.

 

They are dirt cheap on e-bay!

 

Just tune into King Biscuit!

 

Same here, and I think that goes for a lot of us.

 

I was just assuming no phones/chargers etc. All you get is a transistor radio per the question. Obviously blue tooth speakers have replaced them for sure. That unit you linked looks cool and cheap!

 

Thus the point of the question/poll!

 

I cannot fathom the mentality that would choose “I hate this music, but the sound quality is good, at least…”

I also cannot understand why or how I would listen to a full album on a transistor radio.