In my efforts to let you know about all things audio and music, I want to tell you about a trend that is emerging in high-fidelity audio, the 'all-music' trend, and I hope that it will be a game-changer. 

Public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

In two of my other favorite pastimes - bicycling and motorcycling - similar trends have emerged. In bicycling, this trend has been referred to as the 'all-road' trend, and in motorcycling this trend has been referred to as the 'adventure-travel' trend. 

In bicycling, there have traditionally been 'road bikes' like you see in the stage races like the great Tour de France, for example, 'cyclocross' off-road race bikes, 'mountain' bikes, 'city' bikes, etc., but through the efforts of  Jan Heine who founded and publishes Bicycle Quarterly, a new category of bicycle is emerging (or perhaps re-emerging is a better way to say it), the 'all-road' bicycle.

The all-road bicycle actually goes back to 1938 when René Herse built bicycles that could be ridden and raced on any surface, paved roads, gravel roads, back-country roads, and were made famous by the randonneurs that raced the grueling Paris-Brest-Paris, for example. 

My all-road bicycle.

These all-road bicycles are a joy to ride, and their flexible high-performance nature tends to surprise and delight cyclists who don't want to be limited by the narrowly defined performance bicycles that force riders into a single-use paradigm. 

The 'adventure-travel' trend in motorcycling has embraced a similar idea, where manufactures are building motorcycles that encourage explorations on all road surfaces, rather than being specifically tailored for high-performance on pavement (racing inspired sport bikes), or dirt (motocross and enduro bikes).

Actually, the adventure-travel motorcycle has roots that go back a long way too, with early examples of this genre appearing over 40 years ago from BMW, for example, and now commemorated in new offerings like the BMW R 1250 GS “40 Years GS” Edition, that commemorates the classic BMW R 100 GS of yesteryear.  

Other motorcycle manufacturers have been quick to notice this increasing interest in the all-road trend of motorcycling, and now all major manufacturers offer an all-road motorcycle, and some are particularly high-performance like the 2021 KTM 890 Adventure R Rally model. 

In audio, the 'all-music' trend is in the initial phase of gaining momentum as more manufacturers are recognizing that the 'audiophile' paradigm lacks appeal for the majority of music listeners who desire a high-fidelity audio system. 

I get messages on an almost daily basis from readers and manufacturers from around the world on the 'all-music' topic. 

So what exactly is this 'all-music' trend that is gaining momentum in audio?

As with bicycling and motorcycling, the 'all-music' trend is about high-performance / high-fidelity audio offerings that are particularly capable in their ability to play all music genres from all of the eras of our recorded music canon. 

Humanity's entire recorded music canon - from the very first recording to the most recent one - is of enormous historic importance to the musical arts specifically, and to world culture and civilization broadly. Music is part of who we are at a very fundamental level.

It can be an immensely gratifying experience to become more familiar with all of the parts of our musical history and legacy, as a well-rounded person who appreciates music, history, and the rich cultural achievements contributed by our fellow citizens on Planet Earth. 

Very generally speaking, the history of the music recording arts can be divided into the acoustic era (1860 to 1925), the electrical era (1925 to 1945), the magnetic era (1945 to 1975), and the digital era (1975 to the present).

While many of the albums marketed to audiophiles for their sound quality are from the magnetic era, there are a lot of important musical performances from the acoustic and electric eras of recordings that make for truly enjoyable listening, and that you’ll want to hear as a well-rounded music lover. 

Caruso on the Nimbus Records 'Prima Voce' transfers from 78s.

It turns out that not all audio equipment is designed to be able to play back those early recordings in a satisfying way.

If, for example, an audio equipment design is optimized to play back only the best recordings from the magnetic recording era, it shouldn’t be too surprising that particular equipment will crash and burn when playing back recordings from the acoustic and electrical eras of recording. 

Alfred Cortot - Victor Recordings of 1919-1926.

As with bicycling and motorcycling, all-music designs proliferated early in audio, but for the most part faded away as audio became increasingly specialized for narrowly defined listening interests.

When talking with industry insiders, they say much of high-performance audio diverged from the all-music path in the 1980s - 1990s by pursuing designs where performance from the audio equipment was developed primarily using only the best 'reference' recordings. 

The lasting effect of this has been devastating, and what audio insiders say has given rise to an 'era of amusicality in audio' in modern times.

This 'era of amusicality in audio' in modern times is part of the reason that vintage audio has become so popular, as much of vintage audio was designed when it was important to be able to play music that spanned the historic recording eras, and as a result could play all music quite well, regardless of what era it was recorded in. 

Vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers, and vintage McIntosh MX110Z preamplifier.

This 'era of amusicality in audio' trend can be easily witnessed by going to a high-end audio show, where a significant amount of show systems are rather amusical, and don't really sound like music actually sounds. 

Personally, I've almost given up on attending audio shows for that reason. The fidelity of many of the show systems is very poor, resulting in an unnatural and synthetic sound quality during the playback of music, delivering an amusical result to listeners except from the very best recordings.

Often those who are demoing show systems have a very narrow selection of 'reference' recordings that puts their audio systems in the best possible light, so they play those reference recordings over and over, and live in fear of someone actually requesting to play great music performances that will highlight the voicing flaws in their demo systems. 

All is not lost however, as audio show organizers are becoming more aware of this as an issue, and are telling me they are endeavoring to provide more balanced fare in the future that will appeal to a broader group of music listeners and musicians.  That's an exciting development, and I'll be telling you more about that as audio shows advance in their ability to be more inclusive. 

Here's the rub on the reference recordings of the 1%: those reference recordings that represent the best of the recording arts have great sound quality, but they only represent less than 1% of our recorded music canon, and many of the great musical performances in history are not represented (i.e. 99% of our recorded music canon).

Optimizing playback for less than 1% of our recorded music canon has contributed to the rise of the 'era of amusicality in audio'.

Musicians - and music lovers generally - are particularly conscious of this rise in amusicality, as it became apparent that the quality of the musical performances were not the focus of listening to music, but rather sound quality of a recording became the focus.  

A quick illustration of this is the difference you read about when writers are talking about 'the best' record albums in audiophile publications versus music publications. 

Music publications are more interested in great performances of music, with less regard for sound quality, and audio publications tend to be more interested in sound quality, and less so in the quality of the music performances. 

Here's a little exercise in illumination for you: Pick out a couple of your favorite genres of music, go to a music publication and look at their list of the best performances of music in those genres. Then go to an audio publication and look at their 'best of' list. Not much overlap, is there?

My friend David Gitlen, a jazz guitarist of many years, and I were chatting on this topic recently. As a musician, the focus is on how well an audio system plays music, and the idea of focusing solely on sound quality is a secondary concern, although if audio equipment plays music well and has a high-level of sound quality, that is a bonus.

To a musician much of high-end audio seems absurd, as who would want to spend a lot of money buying expensive equipment that is amusical and limits your ability to enjoyably listen to all of the great performances of music in history? 

There are some companies that have been selling 'all-music' equipment - that plays all music from all recording eras very well - for decades, like Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note (UK), for example, who is also quite vocal about his discontent regarding the current state of the audio industry.

Audio Note (UK) AN-S4/L step-up transformer, with Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player (left) with Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier.

There's Nelson Pass, whose Pass Labs and First Watt solid-state designs play 'all-music' very well, and which I've written about here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback.

Pass Labs XP-12 pre with Pass Labs XP-17 phono.

Also there's Triode Lab, whose 45 EVO integrated amplifier - designed by a musician for people who love music - that plays all-music very well, and who I'll be introducing you to in a feature review at Positive Feedback (article coming soon!). 

The Triode Lab 45 EVO integrated SET amplifier.

There's other audio equipment manufacturers in the 'All-Music' category, of course, and I'll be telling you more about them as I have time to write about them.

I hope that as time goes on this 'all-music' trend in audio will gain momentum with more manufacturers, ushering us into a new Golden Age of listening to all-music in high-fidelity, where audio offerings are particularly capable in their ability to play all music genres from all of the eras of our recorded music canon in enjoyable high-fidelity.

Mezzo-soprano Sophia Preobrazhenskaya (1904-1966). Issaya Braudo, piano and organ. Leningrad Philharmonic orchestra, conductor Gemal Dalgat.

Personally, I have been having a lot of fun listening to the great music performances from the acoustic and electric eras of recording lately.

It turns out that 'all-music' audio equipment that offers high-fidelity in playing back great performances of music from early recording eras, can also provide stunning playback of music from the best of the magnetic recording eras as well, opening up all of our recorded music canon to audio enthusiasts desiring to explore music outside of those few albums that are offered to audiophiles for their sound quality.  

Wonderful Sounds of Female Vocals on Analogue Productions.

The reverse is not true, however, where audio equipment that is narrowly focused on - and optimized for - playing back the best recordings of the magnetic recording era, make listening to those important recordings of great musical performances from earlier recording eras an exercise in amusical frustration. 

A few questions can be posed about this emerging trend of all-music listening:

• How do we as audio enthusiasts and music lovers articulate these differences in performance that we hear in audio equipment designed to allow us to listen to all music from all periods in high-fidelity?
• What is the difference in the approach to designing audio equipment that is voiced to allow us to listen to all music from all periods in high-fidelity?

I'll be discussing those aspects of audio vocabulary and audio design approaches in more detail future posts, as well as continuing to mention great musical performances, both in my series on 78 record transfers of great musical performances from the past, and in talking about the music that musicians listen to, as with my exploration of jazz guitarist albums recommended to me by jazz guitarist David Gitlen.

John Pisano's Guitar Night.

I'll also be telling you more in the future about record labels who specialize in important musical performances from the past, like Marston Records in the USA, for example, who offer the best of recordings from the very beginning of the recording eras, so you can broaden your musical horizons beyond typical audiophile offerings.  

If, like me, you find this 'all-music' trend in audio encouraging - by enabling listeners to listen to all music genres from all of the eras of our recorded music canon in high-fidelity - then please join me as I continue to explore this emerging trend here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback. 

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!