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John Curl: with respect, but you pissed this musician off (long)

Posted by Rick W on July 30, 2002 at 12:22:59

Your reply to my post on the "improve your cd's for pennies" thread below is unfortunately typical of the thinking of many in the hi-end community regarding musicians' crappy sound systems.
Its true that out of the hundreds of musicians I know, I can think of only three who have good equipment. You choose to explain this with amazingly dumb comments such as - musicians "confuse the music with the SOUND of music". John, since every professional player I know spends their entire life trying to achieve a full and centered SOUND on their instrument and then continually improve that sound and develope the ability to alter the sound in myriad ways to convey emotion, I find your statement beyond absurd. The idea that hi-fi mavens like you are listening to the overall SOUND more critically or with more cognizance than professional musicians is ridiculous. You also said - (for musicians) "reproduction of the whole doesn't seem to be as important , as it is for me". John, just WHAT is the "whole"?

If the "whole" is: reproduction of subway rumblings; the squeak made by one of the 3rd violinists' chair; the 10 inches of space between the 39th and 40th voices of a 50 voice choir; the false addition of treble noise viewed as "air" surrounding the flutes (great symphonic flutists don't have airstreams which miss the tone-hole); greatly exaggerated and unnatural stinging attacks which you guys use the completely amusical word "transient" to describe; being able to discern that the booth used for recording Joni Mitchell had egg crates on the wall rather than foam.........
then you are right - musicians don't really care much about those things when we listen. We DO care about tone, timbre, pitch, the blending of complex harmonic structures and instrumental textures that forms the WHOLE, EVERY nuance in the sounds produced by the instrumentalist or vocalist, natural (un-hyped) rhythmic drive; the artists' interpretation of a known compostion, the emotive response produced by music heard for the first time.

John, you also expressed the tired view that musicians are satisfied with the sound from a clock radio, and don't need a good system to enjoy music. Well, you are half right. Just like everyone else, we CAN enjoy music coming from a clock radio if that is all that is available or convenient at the time. But most musicians don't have good systems simply because they are unaware of what is available from manufacturers they've never even heard of, especially components at the same price points found at Circuit City. This is because the hi-end does nothing but preach to the choir with ads and reviews in mags 99% of people never saw the cover of, let alone read.

I am a professional musician who spent around $8,000 on my system, and I'll be upgrading as funds allow. Do you seriously believe that when my musician friends hear my system they say - "Well, that's o.k., but I'd just as soon listen to my clock radio."?
I've already helped several musicians get good sounding systems at prices they can afford, and I'm sure I'll convert more as time passes. What are you hi-end pros doing to convert more listeners? Insulting musicians with stupid statements?

I'm an audiophile for life. My audiomania started by reading an article in New York Magazine (by David Demby) while waiting to be drilled in my dentists' office. Where is the concerted push by the hi-end to get more such articles, ads and reviews in mainstream media? Before an unitiated potential hi-fi recruit will spend thousands for a Blowtorch, they must be shown that much better sound can be achieved for the same money (or a relatively small amount more) they spent on mass market crap.

John, I haven't heard the Blowtorch, but I'd bet that if I did I'd love it. I have respect and admiration for your abilities. But I have spent the last 45 years learning how to play/compose/perform music, and I'll be damned if I or any other professional musician worth shit needs audio circuit designers or electrical engineers to tell us what is important in the reproduction of music. It wouldn't hurt if you guys payed more attention to our views than you do to those espoused by some musical dwarfs masquerading as audio critics. (No, I don't mean EVERY critic is a musical dwarf) Have you ever gotten a group of professional musicians to come and hear a new product of yours and give you their opinion? Or as your previous reply seemingly indicates, do you think musicians don't know enough about SOUND to have opinions worth considering? WAKE UP!

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