Introduction
Audiophiles tend to be opinionated people, there are two big arguments that will flare up periodically on the Internet - Accurate vs Musical, and Objective vs Subjective. In this article we’d mainly be talking about the first case.
Accurate and Musical, what do the two words mean to audiophiles? According to the Stereophile Glossary, they are defined as:
Accuracy -
The degree to which the output signal from a component or system is perceived as replicating the sonic qualities of its input signal. An accurate device reproduces what is on the recording, which may or may not be an accurate representation of the original sound.
And Musical -
A personal judgment as to the degree to which reproduced sound resembles live music. Real musical sound is both accurate and euphonic, consonant and dissonant.
Unfortunately people who align themselves to the camps above do not really stick to these definitions. The long version is different people will bend these words in an attempt to fit their arguments. The short version is we simply like an argument!
In this article we’d discuss my take on why these two words are the bane of audiophiles, and the reasons to avoid using them in critical music listening.
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