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Do you listen to your AR speakers or to the music?


Steve F

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When Stanley Turrentine spins off a gut-wrenching run, dripping with feeling and emotion, on his solo on Impressions from the album Sugar,.

Offtopic:

Never heard his music but Sugar does sound great.

Which album do would you recommend me to start listing to?

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Pic of album cover attached (circa 1971, same timeframe as the Classic AR's). This is one of the records that, for me, represents the pinnacle of Creed Taylor's jazz label from the late 60's and early 70's. Truly an all-star line-up: Mr. T plays tenor sax, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, George Benson on guitar, and Ron Carter on bass, along with Lonnie Smith, Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham and Airto featured on various tracks. The song mentioned, Impressions, is a very fine John Coltrane composition from his 1963 album of the same name.

Do indeed seek out this Turrentine album if this type of music appeals to you, and the Coltrane recording is none too shabby either.

post-112624-0-11952700-1438625683_thumb. post-112624-0-59432100-1438626699_thumb.

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I am most interested in the music. However, well recorded music brings out the best in a speaker and for me it's natural that I prefer listening to those - vinyl or CD. That is not to say that I don't listen to music that I like because the recording isn't up to snuff. I do. But, in the end, well made recordings of music that I like to listen to spend more time on my decks.

der

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I am most interested in the music. However, well recorded music brings out the best in a speaker and for me it's natural that I prefer listening to those - vinyl or CD. That is not to say that I don't listen to music that I like because the recording isn't up to snuff. I do. But, in the end, well made recordings of music that I like to listen to spend more time on my decks.

der

+1

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Pic of album cover attached (circa 1971, same timeframe as the Classic AR's). This is one of the records that, for me, represents the pinnacle of Creed Taylor's jazz label from the late 60's and early 70's. Truly an all-star line-up: Mr. T plays tenor sax, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, George Benson on guitar, and Ron Carter on bass, along with Lonnie Smith, Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham and Airto featured on various tracks. The song mentioned, Impressions, is a very fine John Coltrane composition from his 1963 album of the same name.

Do indeed seek out this Turrentine album if this type of music appeals to you, and the Coltrane recording is none too shabby either.

attachicon.gifSugar_(Stanley_Turrentine_album).jpg attachicon.gifImpressions_cover.jpg

Great collection of Turrentine on Tidal.

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The better the recording, the less I'm listening to the speakers.

I listen mostly to orchestral classical music.

Probably the toughest venue for a sound system to reproduce accurately.

After buying and selling an embarrassing number of speakers, the AR3a put me in the center of the hall, 10 rows back.

That's where "I" want to be.

At night, in my den, with the lights low, quiet with no distractions, cell phone off, and a great recording - I'm there.

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I will say this though, one of the reasons I like and played Brothers in Arms so much is because of the SQ. Dont get me wrong, I love the music and Knopflers work, but it just sounds good.

Agreed David . . . Brothers in Arms is one of the best engineered rock albums of all time. It's the first thing I play when testing a pair of rebuilt speakers (almost always AR's!).

I'm a recording engineer, so I have a tendency to listen for recorded quality first (like a thief who only sees people's pockets). I do like to remind myself every so often what my system is capable of, so I'll go with the demo stuff, if I like the music. I listen primarily to classical, especially large scale orchestral stuff - something the AR's have always excelled at reproducing. So I suppose it's a little of both. But once that veil of "you are listening to a recording" is stripped away, with my system tweaked, room tuned, listening to a finely engineered recording on my ARs, then I'm transported. I'm in that proverbial 10th row seat - lost in the music. It is bliss.

Rich W

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Agreed David . . . Brothers in Arms is one of the best engineered rock albums of all time. It's the first thing I play when testing a pair of rebuilt speakers (almost always AR's!).

I'm a recording engineer, so I have a tendency to listen for recorded quality first (like a thief who only sees people's pockets). I do like to remind myself every so often what my system is capable of, so I'll go with the demo stuff, if I like the music. I listen primarily to classical, especially large scale orchestral stuff - something the AR's have always excelled at reproducing. So I suppose it's a little of both. But once that veil of "you are listening to a recording" is stripped away, with my system tweaked, room tuned, listening to a finely engineered recording on my ARs, then I'm transported. I'm in that proverbial 10th row seat - lost in the music. It is bliss.

Rich W

Good stuff Rich. I am sure being a recording engineer with music is about the same with me and golf courses (as a golf course architect). You kinda do that quick assessment and then just put it aside and try to enjoy the experience.

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Okay, another album to get -- Brothers in Arms ... not playing much classical at the moment although I did put on some Mozart this evening ... schedule problems ... SteveF may talk me into buying some AR-9's yet although I'm enjoying my AR rainbow towers, the 9's could probably replace the lot of them ... I suspect I'm pushing the limit on that, perhaps room for a couple more 4x's ... ;)

Roger

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Can I separate the emotions I’m feeling as being from just the actual sound of the speakers, just the beauty of the music, or just the emotions and memories that the entire experience evokes?

Nope. It’s everything, all at once, on all levels. But it’s definitely more than just the music itself.

Steve F.

I very much enjoyed Steve's response here. I will add that "the mind's ear" thing is a huge part for me as well. Certain moments in time, for example the first time I experienced the speakers disappearing. These types of things are hard to duplicate but worthy of the quest.

On another note, Brother's In Arms is a fabulous album for sure, but Love Over Gold is even better (IMO) and is a go to album for me if "showing off" the system, or whenever the mood strikes.

Geoff

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I 'm not interested in recording quality, the biggest part of my favourite recordings are from mid '50s and '60, so to me is very important playing music with a vintage system , to re-create original sound as in the time these recordings were made. But yes, I'm more satisfied listenig to my AR speakers rather then live music.

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  • 8 months later...
On 29/07/2015 at 6:02 PM, ar_pro said:

 

I'd much rather listen to Da Doo Ron Ron on a loud jukebox, than on an AR-9, and never on a panel speaker. :lol:

I remember reading this thread with interest last year.  I am now assembling the all request playlist for a 50th year reunion and I concur: the above statement is so true.  Some of these recordings are awful and from my normal listening position make me think something is wrong with my system.  It is much better to turn up the volume and listen in the next room. 

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I listen to music - but sometimes the speakers (AR-9s with refurbished crossovers - and some mods to same) just shock me with their stunning ability to communicate.  I have heard and owned many other speakers - including Magnepans - but I enjoy my music best with the AR "sound".  Perhaps it was because I grew up listening to AR-2ax and AR-10pi.  Golden sound from back in the day.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at 1:48 PM, Steve F said:

Here’s an interesting question for us AR-ophiles: Do you choose the music you play based on its musical merits or based on “how good” it will make your system/speakers sound? I’m talking about when you listen by yourself, not when you’re demo’ing or “showing off” your system to someone else.

Being perfectly honest, I find it’s a mixture of the two. Most of the time, I start off by simply playing the music I like. I know which recordings are good and which are not, so my mindset and expectations going in are completely different on the ‘good music/bad recording’ albums vs. the ‘good music/good recording’ albums.

But there are some albums that I know are particularly great recordings and they’ll really highlight a particular aspect of the speakers’ performance. These albums may be very good musically as well, but there are times, in all honesty, that I’ll play them just for the enjoyment of the sonics. And just as often, I’ll be playing an album without any specific audio expectation and my AR9’s will surprise me with some terrific speaker-related attribute, when all I was expecting and wanting was the enjoyment from the music itself.

There are also albums that I like very much musically—a lot of mid-‘60’s Columbia recordings of Miles and Dave Brubeck, for example—that I don’t want to hear from a sonic standpoint on my AR9/Parasound system, so I just play them in my car on the factory-standard system with its 5-inch speakers. So non-descript from an audio standpoint that the music stands totally on its own.

It’s tough to completely separate the love of the music from the love of the equipment. After all, we all chose our own systems, component by component, so when it really sounds great, on some level we take some measure of pride and feel some sense of accomplishment for having chosen and assembled our totally-unique, individual systems. The dividing lines between music/equipment/selection are very tough to draw with absolute certainty—at least for me—and it’s part of what makes this such a fascinating and always-surprising hobby.

Steve F.

Hi I just picked up a pair of ar 2ax I pick out my favorite music just to see how great the speakers make it sound so far no disappointment's these speakers make everything sound great I had a pair of Bose 601 s1 they where my 2 pair no disrespect to Bose but I love the ar's listen to the music and the speakers will do the rest Bob C

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  • 1 month later...

AR speakers?  What AR speakers?  I listen with my eyes closed.  Are you telling me the musicians are not really in my room?

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