For many years I've been fascinated with what makes some home music systems so musically satisfying, and others not so much.

It seems almost humorously non-controversial now, but back a decade ago or so when I started writing about my belief that a home music system's ability to realistically portray the fundamental aspects of live music, like timbre, tone color, melody, harmony, rhythm, beat, dynamics, loudness, tempo, etc., was more important than a home music system's ability to emphasize non-musical artifacts of the recording process, like transparency, resolution, soundstage, soundspace, and imaging, for example, it created an uproar, and the hate mail poured in!

Like Louis Armstrong points out when he sings, "It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing,"  a home music system that does the audiophile sonics thing well, but doesn't play music very well, has failed its musical prime-directive.

Ideally, a home music system should do both in a way that enhances the home music listening experience to the maximum extent possible.

To that end I have recommended Dr. Robert Greenberg's superb Understanding the Fundamentals of Music course to my fellow hi-fi enthusiasts to help us become more familiar with what makes up the musical foundation, so we would all have a more informed basis to determine how well our home music systems are performing.

I manage and/or oversee science projects & programs as my day job, and as a scientist I am very curious about how things work, and I like to look below the surface of things and ask myself, "Why?"

That carries over into my love of music and hi-fi as well, which brings me back to my opening statement of why are some home music systems musically satisfying, and others not so much?

While true, it is probably too simplistic to just say if that if a home music system realistically portrays the fundamental aspects of live music, then it will provide a satisfying home listening experience.

After all, what does that really mean? Why does a home music system that more realistically portrays the fundamental aspects of live music provide a more satisfying home listening experience?

To help answer some aspects of this question I turn to researchers investigating the neurobiology of how music affects the brain and emotions, one of which, Dr. Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University, has a very accessible course called Music and the Brain, that is very much worth your time as a music lover.

Geeky sort of guy that I am, I like to download these courses to my iPhone so I can listen to them as I commute back & forth to the laboratory, which turns my commuting time into an exciting time of learning and discovery.

I think you and I should listen to Dr. Patel's course at least a couple of times and let the implications of the research findings on music, the brain, and emotions, sink in, as it will help us understand what performance elements of our home music system's performance will maximize the emotional impact and our enjoyment of the music listening experience.

The more we as music lovers, hi-fi enthusiasts, and audio designers, understand 'the how' of the way that various aspects of music affect our enjoyment of it, the better we will be able to assemble, voice, and designs home music systems that are musically satisfying, and not only that, but as Dr. Patel points out in his course, listening to music on your stereo can actually improve your health and well-being. Do we have a great hobby or what!

Brain scans help researchers understand the neurobiology of music, and they have found that different aspects of music cognition can be mapped to different parts of the brain, and that listening to music is a past-time that engages the entire brain.

One question I find very interesting is, "What aspects of music provide the greatest emotional stimulation of the brain?"

As you might expect, the answer is more complex than a mere bullet list of musical elements that maximize emotional stimulation, as it has to do with what parts of the brain actually responds to various aspects of music, and whether it is related to instinctive brain mechanisms that are hard-wired into our neurobiology, or related to the experiential or learned mechanisms of music (more about these satisfying aspects of music in future posts).

For example, Dr. Patel describes how instinctive brain mechanisms, like brain stem reflexes, are emotionally aroused by fast tempos, lots of acoustic roughness, and sudden percussive events.

This is an automatic brain response that we can't control, it is hardwired into our neurobiology, and suggests that home music systems that stimulate brain stem reflexes more easily will emotionally arouse you more than home music systems that don't.

This suggests that home music systems that are able to more realistically reproduce tempos, acoustic roughness (timbral textures), and sudden percussive events (loudness & dynamics) will be more emotionally stimulating.

This implies that a home music system that can't play realistically loud at a live-like volume levels, realistically produce timbral textures of instruments & voices, or communicate musical tempos realistically, will not be able to stimulate you emotionally as much as one that can.

There is another instinctive brain mechanism called rhythmic entrainment, and it refers to the way our bodies rhythmically respond to the beat in music, as evidenced by tapping a foot to music, or being stimulated to clap or dance.

Responding to beat is something that is hardwired into our neurobiology, our brains perceive beat as pleasurable, and home music systems that more realistically portray beat will engage us more than home music systems that don't.

The third instinctive brain mechanism is called emotional contagion, and describes how when we mirror the emotions expressed in music we start to feel the same emotion.

For example, Dr. Patel points out the similarities between speech & music that convey emotion, and how those similarities evoke an emotional response in music.

"Happy-sound speech tends to be relatively fast, with medium to high loudness; has a high average pitch and a wide pitch range, a brighter sound quality, and crisp articulation; and emphasizes upward pitch movements. Sad-sounding speech is slow, quieter, and lower in average pitch with a narrow pitch range, a darker sound quality, and duller articulation, and it emphasizes downward pitch movements."

Dr. Patel points out the research of Juslin & Laukka that showed a high-correlation between speech & music cues that indicates that the same cues that are in happy and sad speech patterns will be perceived as happy or sad when they exist in music.

So music that is fast with medium to high loudness, has a high average pitch and wide pitch range, a brighter sound quality, and crisp articulation, with an emphasis on upward pitch movements, will be perceived as sounding 'happy' by the listener.

Conversely, music that is slow, quieter, and lower in pitch, with a narrow pitch range, darker sound quality, duller articulation, and emphasizing downward pitch movements, will be perceived as 'sad' by the listener.

Emotional contagion occurs when we perceive the emotion expressed by the music, we have physiological responses to that emotion, and then we feel that same emotion.

There is much that neurobiologists are learning about how we respond to the different aspects of music through brain scans and other experimental methods, and I believe that we as music lovers, hi-fi enthusiasts, and audio designers, can begin to incorporate some of this knowledge to apply to the art & science of creating a musically satisfying home music system.

There is probably a thousand times the three brief examples of how the brain, music, and emotions interact in Dr. Patel's course that deserve consideration, and I will be thinking about this and what it means for home music listening over the coming years.

Just from the first two examples, it suggests to me that a home music system that can play loud when needed, is dynamically realistic, can realistically portray timbral textures, tempo, and beat, will be more emotionally engaging and musically satisfying than a home music system that can't do those things as well.

The third example of emotional contagion is more complex, involving varying volumes, tempos, pitches, overtones, variations in tone color, articulation of subtle cues, and gradations in dynamics, all in combination, to produce an emotional response.

A home music system that can more successfully tie all those attributes together will be more musically satisfying than one that can't.

Lots to think about here, and thanks for indulging me while I go full nerd for a bit. I encourage you to go through Dr. Patel's course, give it some thought, and engage in dialogue with me about the aspects that overlap with increasing our enjoyment of the home listening experience. I think we could all learn a lot and benefit from it.

Ok, now it's time to get back to listening to the music!

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