Resolution and musicality are often set in tension, but they don’t have to be opposites.
Resolution refers to how much detail a system can reveal—the ability to hear every strand in the fabric of a recording. Musicality refers to how naturally and emotionally those details come together. A system with resolution but no musicality feels analytical. One with musicality but no resolution feels vague. The magic lies in balancing the two.
Resolution comes from low distortion, high bandwidth, and careful preservation of low-level information. It lets you hear the room around a recording, the subtle interplay of instruments, the breath of a singer. But if the system emphasizes detail at the expense of flow, it can draw attention to sound rather than music. You hear parts, not the whole.
Musicality, by contrast, is about ease and coherence. It’s the sense that the music flows naturally, that nothing is forced or exaggerated. A system with musicality lets you relax into listening, absorbed by the performance rather than distracted by its mechanics. But if that ease comes from masking information, it can drift toward blandness.
The best systems—and the most rewarding listening—happen when resolution serves musicality. You hear everything, but it all belongs together, woven into the emotional arc of the performance. That’s when hi-fi transcends technology and becomes art.
