[FullRangeMan]

I'm guessing you don't get out much, FRM.  Top 40 and the rest of those craven pursuits have their fans on AC, and I'd bet 80-90% of AC members have dabbled or grown through those stages in life and come out just fine.

The rest are Bose owners.   

Hum I know it, here now they call it ''diversity''.
In the time our President was a decent man from the Army, this was called rioting.

[thunderbrick]

I prefer to think we can make any musical choices we want, good OR bad.

[mix4fix]

That was a jab at the politically correct portion of this country, saying everything is "racist" when it isn't.

However, the stereo-typing of Country music is incorrect. When, Country music made it's equivalent to the "Baby Got Back" song, then the stereo-type went out the door. Again, I'll be the first to say that modern Country sucks when compared to the classics, but even I find SOMETHING to like.

[GT Audio Works]

I prefer to think we can make any musical choices we want, good OR bad.

Its our inalienable right to ruin out hearing any way we want to !! 

 Funny thing...I went to a show a few years back and wandered into the TAD room, I forget the speaker...expensive no doubt.
Anyway Andrew Jones had some demo track of metal music. Before he put it on I was ready to condemn it.
I was very surprised to hear how well the speakers reproduced it. Pre conceived notions are a detriment to this hobby.

[Rclark]

Bro, if you start a thread against Heavy Metal and others satanic music styles I will support you, but audiophile music!!

Lol. Good luck funding music that doesn't have some aspect that can be called "satanic", even classical. What an old world thing to say.

I hope you aren't just listening to christ approved music, what a waste of a system.

That said, I listen to a streaming service (the horror!), and I find the audio quality superb. So much so I sold my super fancy CD player and have over 1000 discs long ago gathering dust. No joke! My battery powered  Optocoupler too, long since dismantled.

[rajacat]

That said, I listen to a streaming service (the horror!), and I find the audio quality superb. So much so I sold my super fancy CD player and have over 1000 discs long ago gathering dust. No joke! My battery powered  Optocoupler too, long since dismantled.

Does your streaming service stream in lossless?

[Diamond Dog]

... Pre conceived notions are a detriment to this hobby.

Sometimes they seem to be a prerequisite to this hobby...

D.D.

[Larkston Zinaspic]

Pre conceived notions are a detriment to this hobby.

The statement above certainly bears repeating, although I've noticed that audio is often an excuse for those who need to defend their rigid beliefs, where opinion is often declared as 'fact,' and the circular arguments never really go away. Itza vicious cycle.

[oskar]

Yeah, but can she sing?   

like a bird!

[AJinFLA]

I say play for those in the room

Hi guys, what would you eight gentlemen like to hear?
01) "Don't care"
02) "Whatever you choose"
03) "Dire Straits"
04) "Diana Krall"
05) "Anything will do"
06) "No Diana Krall"
07) "Pink Floyd"
08) ...No answer

Ok, thanks.
This is the Klazz Brothers, it's acoustic with very little compression....

cheers,

AJ

[opnly bafld]

There is no such thing as "audiophile music" to rebel against.  I guarantee that no musician ever writes and records music with the intent of making "audiophile music".
That said, there is a very wide range of recording quality amongst all music genres; while certainly I would not like to have a system which only sounds good with the best recordings, OTOH, a system which prettifies really bad recordings is going to have a lot of coloration of its own, and will not do justice to good recordings at all.
While I agree that one should listen to the music they love (for pleasure listening) it makes a lot of sense to have a set of reference recordings (and these need not be "perfect") used to consistently evaluate equipment.  The reference tracks should be wide ranging enough that as a set they can show the full range of qualities of a system.  It would be pointless to use recordings with no dynamics, no highs, no lows, no soundstage, and no low level details, to evaluate a system.
I do dislike hearing the exact same tracks all the time at shows, but even worse is when someone comes in the room and asks the vendor to play a track, and said track is utterly unlistenable because of poor recording quality-there are some recordings which will never sound good and it is not the job of a high end system to cover up egregious recording flaws.

Well said barrows, basically what I would have spent too much time typing. 

Thanks,
Lin

[mix4fix]

I would like to clarify the term audiophile music...Audiophile labels like Chesky or Mapleshade are bona fide audiophile music, recorded with playback quality in mind first , as far as artistic merit, let the listener be the judge....Then there is music adopted by audiophiles which becomes audiophile music. This music sounds good on a good system, achieves cult status and becomes reissues on Mofi and the like.  Though it may never have crossed the producer and engineers mind that it would end up that way.
Eagles Hotel California and Patricia Barbers Café Blue come to mind.  Yes...Please stop bringing these discs to shows !! 
Don't forget Diana makes my skin Krall as well.  (yes I listen to her, but not in public)

Things like the Eagles are NOT audiophile because they get played on the radio.

The truth of the matter is labeling a particular genre is futile, individual taste rules...Heavy metal makes me run screaming from the room, but hey if you want to hear Megadeath on a $50k system rock on dude !!!

The point is people DO listen to Megadeth (or whatever Metal music), they DO listen to Armin Van Buuren (or whatever form of "techno" music), they DO listen to Miranda Lambert (or whatever Country music), they DO listen to Pink (or whatever Pop music), they DO listen to Nirvana (or whatever form of Alternative music), etc.

[GT Audio Works]

Things like the Eagles are NOT audiophile because they get played on the radio.

As I previously stated songs like Hotel California are adopted by audiophiles, making it audiophile music...I have heard it played for demo material more times than I care to remember...also the fact that it is released on 24k gold disks at  24-bit/192kHz resolution on audiophile labels like  MoFi or Japanese pressings also makes it so. 
In the end it really doesn't matter...this thread, just stirs people up since it may put down their particular taste in music.
                   Greg

[FullRangeMan]

IMO audiophile music are ordinary music recorded in hi quality conditions as DSD or 24/192.

[emac]

Even as an electronic music fan who gets tired of listening to same music at shows, I don't feel the need to rebel against audiophile music.  To me, audiophile music is any music that has 2 qualities.  First, it must evoke an emotional response to its owner.  Thus, it needs to be good music.  Secondly, audiophile music must recorded well enough for the listener to be able to determine differences in sound on different systems.  This is where a lot of mainstream music falls flat.  For example, I would never play Metallica's Death Magnetic CD at a show.  It's so compressed that I can't make out much in terms of differences between my systems.  However, the Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic doesn't suffer from the same problems and could be played by a metal-loving audiophile. 

The audiophile community has settled upon certain artists and types of music as being generally acceptable (i.e. meeting both of these criteria) by most of the people who come to shows.  I don't have a problem with that, even though I personally don't care of the music.  I can still make out the general type of sound of the system, even if it isn't music I usually listen to.  And if it's equipment I really want to try out, I bring some of my music to audition.  And generally I choose music that my wife also appreciates, and I've found that she's a good barometer.  If she thinks that it's good music, then most other people do as well.

[mix4fix]

As I previously stated songs like Hotel California are adopted by audiophiles, making it audiophile music...I have heard it played for demo material more times than I care to remember...also the fact that it is released on 24k gold disks at  24-bit/192kHz resolution on audiophile labels like  MoFi or Japanese pressings also makes it so. 
In the end it really doesn't matter...this thread, just stirs people up since it may put down their particular taste in music.
                   Greg

Just because they clean it up, it doesn't make it audiophile music. It's still gets played commercially and they still sell out arenas/stadiums with their stack of Peaveys (or whatever brand of P.A. they use).

[vinyl_lady]

Just because they clean it up, it doesn't make it audiophile music. It's still gets played commercially and they still sell out arenas/stadiums with their stack of Peaveys (or whatever brand of P.A. they use).

We have very different definitions of "audiophile music." To me, whether it gets played commercially or the band sells out arenas is irrelevant. For me the questions are is it well recorded and is it something I want to listen to more than once, perhaps over and over. Is Sgt. Peppers audiophile music? Listen to the MoFi UHQR vinyl and it will blow your socks off. Pink Floyd's DSOTM? Neil Young? There are few artists who care as much about recording quality as Neil Young. Listen to his Live at Massey Hall album from his Archive Series. All acoustical and recorded in 1971. There are lots more examples of very popular artists/bands who produce well recorded music that could easily fit into my definition of "audiophile music."

[*Scotty*]

Speaking for myself, for the most part I can only evaluate a system at a show as a unified whole and I can tell something about the gross characteristics of speakers when music I am familiar with is played. I can learn a little bit more about a system if the recording quality is good, but I really don't try to find small differences between components in a system under show conditions. If the system sounds irritating irrespective of the genre or recording quality I move on. Boredom is usually not a factor because seldom is more than one complete song from an album heard in its entirety.
 I can suffer through one song of almost any genre if I am interested in the system. If the system looks interesting and I can't take the music, I can always come back later. I go to shows primarily for entertainment, I don't make buying decisions based on what I hear at shows.
Scotty

[mix4fix]

I go to shows primarily for entertainment, I don't make buying decisions based on what I hear at shows.
Scotty

Shows should be entertaining.

At least myself, I remember what I listen to (and make a list of what I like that could be a future purchase). I also remember when a vendor isn't being "cool" in my book.

[charmerci]

I haven't been to a show yet but I think I'd be there to listen to the systems, not the music. I listen to the music at home at my discretion and listen to whatever I want. That's what homes/headphones are for. Another AC member and I listen to the same recordings over and over and over..... because we're interested on how the system sounds and the differences between different components.

Face it. We are AC members because how the music sounds IS important to us - yes, even while being music lovers. Maybe we're not super rigid in our desire to listen to only "perfect" sound but it is important to us otherwise we simply wouldn't be here at all. I know there is great music out there from the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's but I very rarely buy/listen to it just because the quality of sound is not good (plus, there's still so much great music coming later that there's enough to keep me occupied.)

So I think I'd be OK in hearing the same old stuff played over and over.