Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Was there once a connection between mainstream hi-fi and Music appreciation? Thinking way back, my friends and I were only interested in the Music, and we cared very little about the sound, really, and less about delivery systems. Even back then, there were magazines featuring hi-fi equipment, mostly specs and grandiose promises of spectacular sound effects. Some magazines finally published features on equipment and recordings, too, and there were even a few audio critics who critiqued the sound quality of the recordings. Eventually, there were magazines that compared sound from hi-fi equipment to memories of recordings made by the writers, or even the sound(s) of live music, as they recalled.  I am not sure when the “reviewers” began focusing on sound and sound effects, per se, in lieu of fidelity to recordings or music aesthetics, but it’s been this way for a long time now, and one wonders, where does all this leave Music, in relation to hi-fi? Is it really possible to sell hi-fi basically without Music? If yes, what does that say about the “hi-fi market”, including whatever once “tied hi-fi to music”? If no, what does that say about any future for hi-fi, itself, since Music dropped off their radar many moons ago? Is there even a “market” for Music-based hi-fi, if by “Music” we mean evolved appreciation of Music?  Most important to “us”, is there hi-fi gear and are there systems that are developed to serve “advanced Musical aesthetics”? Honestly, I don’t know; but I don’t think so. For those wondering, what now, Romy said recently (grudgingly), that Level 1 sound and the gear involved with it *might* be applied to foster Music appreciation, IF the developer sensed, understood and used gear that served their Musical endeavors. Of course (but of course…), this is the sort of hi-fi we are talking about here, and it’s important to note that this necessary relationship can work without knowing the brands of the gear involved in accomplishing this process. So, feel free to plug in your own gear choices here, as you will. This is not to say, at least in purely practical terms, that gear is widely interchangeable. Actually, far from it, and this is especially true when the mixing and matching is random, which is to say, not based on the developer’s aesthetic choices. On point, gear choices do matter; but they only matter around here if they are purposeful, based on personal Music appreciation and ones system as it facilitates that situation. At this point in time, way down the long hi-fi highway, I don’t see people who build or sell hi-fi gear using evolved Music appreciation as bases for design choices or marketing, and this includes “underground” gear I’ve heard of. And I have to say, it sure looks like what remains of the hi-fi market is not really concerned with Music, at least as I understand it. Basically, "the hi-fi crowd” doesn’t give a damn about relationships between electro-mechanical hi-fi, available Music media, sound, and aesthetically rooted Music. Absent those connections, “hi-fi” very certainly becomes “something else”, and for our intents and purposes, it’s “gone”, at least the industry as we would have it will be gone.>>

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Paul S>>

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site