The Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, were unrelated. Their name came when a fan shouted, "That was righteous, brothers!", and would often greet them with "Hey righteous brothers, how you doin'?".
Their music had soul. It touched us at an emotional level—as did Mozart, Gershwin, Lennon, Martens, Cash.
It's hard to put your finger on what elements in music reach deep within us to elicit emotional or intellectual energy. We know it when it grabs us.
We don't require a high-end audio system to touch the soul of music. A song played in the car can grab you as firmly as a live performance.
And yet the best systems I know of have a magic to them that seems to enhance beyond words music's emotion.
I think of high-end's magic not as a requirement for connecting with music's emotion but as an aid, a seasoning, a spice.
There are few pleasures better in life than connecting with music's soul.
A high-end system gets us closer.
