High Performance Audio - The End?


Steve Guttenberg recently posted on his audiophiliac channel what might be an iconoclastic video.

Steve attempts to crystallise the somewhat nebulous feeling that climbing the ladder to the high-end might be a counter productive endeavour. 

This will be seen in many high- end quarters as heretical talk, possibly even blasphemous.
Steve might even risk bring excommunicated. However, there can be no denying that the vast quantity of popular music that we listen to is not particularly well recorded.

Steve's point, and it's one I've seen mentioned many times previously at shows and demos, is that better more revealing systems will often only serve to make most recordings sound worse. 

There is no doubt that this does happen, but the exact point will depend upon the listeners preference. Let's say for example that it might happen a lot earlier for fans of punk, rap, techno and pop.

Does this call into question almost everything we are trying to ultimately attain?

Could this be audio's equivalent of Martin Luther's 1517 posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg?

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Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318
cd318


As for those ultra high resolution systems that can somehow still remain forgiving with poor recordings, well, I’m still looking.

Obviously it’s going to be your own personal call should you find such a system. We can’t know just what you may deem "ultra high resolution" and what you personally will find "forgiving."

But that said, when I think of high resolution and forgiving in the sense of most tracks and genre tends to sound great, I think of the Joseph Audio speakers, which have just that reputation among many listeners, myself included. They manage to combine both a modern "wow" level of clarity and detail, but delivered with such grain-free purity in the highs that it allows the ears to relax. And they combine that clarity with a richness, warmth and low end punch that makes them really satisfying across all sorts of musical genres. IMO.

I use the JA Perspectives but also some other speakers (including Thiel 2.7s). I personally find my system allows almost all tracks to sound satisfying. Of course the character of the different recordings varies quite a lot, but I almost never feel disappointed. The system manages to extract a sense of liveliness and beauty out of most recordings. (And I listen to tons of modern music too, including modern pop, EDM, electronica, the occasional country, whatever...)

It sounds, though, like you are mostly satisfied with your Tannoys?

When he says few know this transformative truth, he's talking about me, who knows it. You, it seems, do not


^^^ Right on cue: that's a wonderful example of the poo-poo I was referencing .
As anyone here would have noticed by now, millercarbon isn't one to  miss a chance to lord it over other audiophiles.

Self appointed Lord

look into a Cello preamp if you want to “ fix “ a nasty recording but wire it next to the listening chair. Certainly a new generation of cello like featured preamps are in development with killer remote functionality... my REF5se will just have to do.... for now


deep_333, How many speakers have you compared in your home - particularly ones costing 10x-20x - against the Moab and Adante?

BTW, it seems you have not ever heard the Moab, so your opinion on that I consider based on hearsay. 
@douglas_schroeder , i have owned the Wilson Watt Puppy, $$$$ Von Schweikerts, Revels, JBLs, TADs and maggies over the years.

My physician shed his $$$$$ Wilsons for the Tekton Moab last year. I have heard it plenty of times at his place and got severely jaw dropped. I just don't have a A/B test for it at my place with my gear. If i had an ounce of space left in my house, i would get that speaker without blinking twice.

Current speakers are the Adante floorstanders, Maggie 20.7 and the TADs. Currently, I have the Adantes paired with GR Research DIY subs and the Luxman C900u+M900u stack.  Yes, 30 k of amplification for a speaker i bought for 3k (absurd indeed). It sounds even better than every kind of gear i had paired with Andrew's 80k retail TAD Reference  (in certain ways) when i had it at my place. 

The Adante eats the Revels and Wilsons i've had for breakfast easy...

Now, repeat after me Doug,
"You can have a cranially challenged creature spend loads and loads of money on R&D for a very long time. He will still come up with a piece of sht.
But, you can give a genius like Andrew Jones or Eric Alexander very little money and he will come up with a genius grade speaker"

Say these statements 20 times...

Good.