It is a very good question mglik and one I have thought about a lot and first wrote about going back to the early 90’s. It is nowhere near easy with synth, but neither is it all that simple even with all minimalist recorded and classical acoustic instruments. Not even solo human voice. All these no matter how carefully recorded are altered and colored all kinds of ways by the recording venue itself. There really is no Rosetta Stone, no silver bullet, nothing we can grab hold of. Probably because there is nothing there to begin with, but that is another subject for another time.
All we can do is listen to a lot of different stuff, and the more the better, and try and look for patterns. We can’t say what is "bright" or "harsh" or "lush" or anything based on any one recording, other than relative to another, because we can never know for sure if it is indeed the recording. With records we cannot even know that much, because it may well indeed be the individual pressing copy and nothing to do with the recording! We must at all times keep an open mind.
There is something that is missing here....
Of course if we compared audio system to other audio systems," We can’t say nothing absolute based on any one recording, other than relative to one another, because we can never know for sure if it is indeed IN the "original" recording or not. We then speak about our own system and taste, and sure we want it more "bright" or more "lush" or less "harsh"...
Of course....
But for a musician and for an acoustician, there is no "bright" "harsh or "lush" vocabulary FIRST AND MOSTLY inherited from audio gear market and from audiophiles...
Acoustic use concept like "timbre" experience and perception, and if we dont know how a specific "original" recording of a piano is supposed to sound,all audio system being different, we already know how natural voice and piano are supposed to sound...It is the reason why the best way to fine tune a system acoustically is with non amplified natural instrument...
I fine tuned in the past 2 years all my room listening piano and voices...Because i feel how they sound naturally better than a moog synthetizer...They give me more natural and way more subtle "cues" about my system S.Q. anyway than electrical guitar...This does not means that we cannot use electrified instrument to fine tune our system.... Yes we can, and we must, BUT NOT TO BEGIN WITH AT ALL in the first steps...It will be an error...
The so called "inexistant" meter exist it is the natural timbre experience in acoustic...We dont pretend here to retrieve the "original" recorded event at all, it will be an illusion, we claim only that a natural and optimal RECREATION (not reproduction) of it through our own audio system/room acoustic is possible...In spite of all limitations coming from each audio system /room acoustic for sure... We must create a synergy where our room complement our specific audio system....We cannot REPRODUCE the original recording... We can only recreate it in our room....
Then when we used electrical, and mechanical and acoustical controls of our gear we dont fine tuned ANYTHING to be more "bright" or more "lush", FIRST AND MOSTLY, INSTEAD we fine tune the audio system to mimic more a natural "timbre" of instrument or a natural voice which we know of already to begin with...We dont fine tune to retrieve the "original" recording event through a specific "vinyl" or digital file, this would be a deceptive illusion...We fine tune to recreate a natural timbre for our ears in our room...It is the best we can do....
Remember that no audio system sound the same in different room with his content and geometry, it is because of that that acoustic is very important and a room must be dedicated to a specific audio system when it is possible...
After being audiophile and after picking the right gear for us and our room we must become acoustician to fine tune them all right....And the vocabulary of audio market is not the acoustician or musician vocabulary....
Any music lover must take 2 hats on his head: audiophile hat and acoustician hat.... Otherwise frustration without end even with costly gear....
Before upgrading anything we must embed it rightfully....
It is my experience....
