How do you judge your system's neutrality?

"My original post was intended... to operationalize the term 'neutral.'"

"Neutrality by definition is 'without difference'."

"...by comparison to other systems using the same source material." (Emphasize "same source")

Apart from the usual judgments regarding faithfulness to source, if neutrality is defined as a lack of difference, then neutrality requires that analog and digital sources converge. Otherwise we would have separate definitions of neutrality. Elimination of differences between analog & digital sources does not of itself prove neutrality. However, elimination of differences between the two may be considered a reasonable condition for neutrality.

To "operationalize" neutrality(at least regarding selection of source equipment), one should listen closely for differences between the formats and strive through upgrades toward convergence.

since all components are inaccurate, one cannot achieve perfections. coloration will always be present. perhspas a better term to use is a flat frequency response. get a spectral analyzer, pink or white noise and measure deviations from a flat frequency response. such an approach is objective. the other ideas are completely subjective and since perception differs, there will be disagreement. stick to objective terms which can be measured when dealing with accuracy, neutrality and transparency.

i must admit i am in the subjective camp. if i like the sound or if it doesn't drive me out of the room i'm happy. subjective analysis is a highly personal endeavor and meaningful to one listener.

how about thinking of the lower amount of distotion in the system from source through speakers the better it will be true to the material on the cd -record tape etc--neutrality is very hard to concieve of in this medium where each component adds or subtracts from the source material--another thing to be defined :)

Fascinating posts, guys, deserving of a more serious response. I agree with blindjim that transparency is a much better term for what we are talking about here. Music is not, and never should be "neutral." As a professional musician, the term has always been hilarious to me when applied in this context. No musician wants to sound "neutral," that's for sure!

And Vandermeulen, no good engineer would start from some strange idea of "neutral," either. One of the reasons recording studios are so dead is because then the engineer can make the recording sound however he wants easier ("coloration?"). No real performing space is "neutral" - the room's acoustics always have a huge effect on the musician's sounds (natural coloration, if you will). If an orchestra is on tour, for instance, playing the same piece several nights in several different venues, there are constant adjustments made to account for the different acoustics. This is one problem with the concept of "the absolute sound." Which hall is supposed to be the example of this? There are a great many different answers to your final question - what is the music supposed to sound like? No two engineers or musicians will agree exactly, nor should they.

So to get back to the OP's point, then, I don't believe that "neutrality" should be a reference point. The reference point should be what you want the music to sound like, which for most of us is as close to "live" as we can get (and this will take the sort of study that Vandermeulen was talking about, to decide what you think it should sound like). I agree with blindjim, there is no such thing as "absolute neutrality" or transparency in a piece of audio equipment - there is always going to be some designer bias, whether he/she is even conscious of it or not - the equipment will sound how the designer wants it to.

Because concensus will be difficult to achive with many ways audiophilia can be understood, explained, etc, the only true way is with experience. Period. Experience will help you define you own dictionary. Then, each one's dictionary will in some ways resemble others, or differ. Someone who has had more opportunities to listen to different equipment will have a more defined sense of neutrality. As with everything else in life, experience is more important in attaining an understanding than a carefully sculpted word. After all, does life imitate art (human creativity)? Or does art imitate life?