So I'm kind of a music snob. A strong vein of musical prowess runs through my family heritage on both sides, which is something I'm very happy to have inherited. My mom still teaches all forms of music in a variety of venues and has been since before I was born; one of my dad's first memories of borrowing his family's car as a teenager was to go see his favorite opera. My older brother has perfect pitch, and, in addition to once being a child prodigy pianist, still plays a multitude of instruments quite well. My youngest sister is graduating with a music theory & performance degree this May and spends an unreal amount of time practicing and studying music every day -- even during vacations. And although my other sister doesn't play anymore, she still has one of the most sensitive musical ears of anyone I've met. It's all around me!

Unfortunately, I felt that my natural ability was never quite up to par with my personal expectation for flawless performances, so my musical performance career ended when I graduated from high school. Band was a mixed bag of fun and absurdity, and it was time to move on. I (kind of) play guitar; I keep it around just for fun to help me appreciate how complex the music I enjoy actually is.

Since then, I've significantly broadened my musical horizons and seen my taste in music evolve tremendously from my throne as an elitist music appreciator. Listening to good musicians play, create, and/or improvise on well-written music is among my favorite past-times; I'm hard-pressed to think of anything more enjoyable than this activity.

My passion for music merged with my love of electronics in my late teenage years and has swelled nicely since, transforming me into the elitist audiophile I am today. Hell, the etymology of my nickname is a simple combination of two of my favorite brands of electronics: Bryston (high-end) and Marantz (mid-end). In terms of musical reproduction, there's simply nothing like the experience of hearing well-recorded music played back through a high-end system (properly [professionally] calibrated, of course). You won't realize how much you're missing until you've experienced true 3-dimensional imaging from a single pair of speakers for yourself, and unfortunately very very very few people have experienced what I'm talking about for themselves. I'd go so far as to say that none of you reading this blog entry right now have experienced this for yourself, and it's something you can do for free at your local high-end electronics dealer (find them with CEDIA's zip code search). Make sure you bring a well-recorded music CD (original CD, not burned from mp3s) that you're really familiar with when you go. :)

It's actually kind of like poker in this way: most people think they either have (or have heard) a good sound system before because they've never experienced a truly great one themselves to give them an appropriate point of reference. Similarly, most people think they're pretty good at poker but have absolutely no idea how clueless they actually are until they hear the full thought process going through a good player's head during every hand.

The two most important factors found in music I typically enjoy are complexity and musicianship. Combine the two, and I'm in heaven. And although I generally prefer the (progressive) rock sound, classical music can be just as awesome. So although a classical guitar etude wouldn't show up on my list of favorite musical works, I absolutely love this performance: