How do you judge your system's neutrality?

You all realize, just changing the volume knob up or down a notch changes everything. True neutrality means you have to play it back at the same volume, or loudness as it was recorded. That information is missing from the album so it is anybody's guess. But when my wife tells me to turn it down, I tell her that I must listen to it at the original sound level because any difference in sound level is distortion. She makes me turn it down anyway.

I know, why not hire your favorite band to play in your living room? Then you can A/B them with your stereo.

Learsfool - I agree that this has been a thought-provoking discussion. I also agree that distortions are not necessarily bad. Reading papers by Nelson Pass, listening to his amplifiers, and owning two of them, I am convinced by his view that whether or not distortion is bad depends upon the KIND of distortion it is. While I'm on the subject of things we agree about, let me add: I too think that the term 'neutral' can be misused as a euphemism for systems that are analytical and lifeless. I, like you, am not moved by those systems. I try to listen with my heart, not my brain (though this is a struggle for any audiophile).

As far as begging the question in my original post: A question-begging argument is one in which the conclusion (the proposition to be proved) is assumed, implicitly or explicitly, in one of the premises (the propositions allegedly doing the proving). It's also known as circular reasoning.

The charge of question begging applies to 'arguments' in the strict sense of the word, namely: An argument is a set of propositions, containing a conclusion and one or premises, in which the premises ENTAIL the conclusion. Entailment is a logical relation between two propositions A and B, such that, if A is true, B must also be true. Arguments are judged by the standard of soundness, where soundness is both a matter of (a) validity, i.e. logic; and (b) truth. Hence, to criticize an argument is to say that either (a) the reasoning is invalid, or (b) one or more of the premises are untrue. If you criticize an argument as question begging, then you are saying that its reasoning is circular, and therefore invalid.

In light of this, I can see why you might think my original post was question begging, if you interpret the following three claims as an argument, in the sense above:

(1) Individual pieces of music sound more unique.
(2) Your music collection sounds more diverse.
(3) Your system is more neutral.

But it was NOT my intention for those claims to be interpreted as an argument, in the sense above. Items (1) and (2) were NOT intended to be the premises of an argument, nor was item (3) intended to be the conclusion of an argument. In addition, I do NOT believe that items (1) and (2) entail item (3). A formal argument is only one possible relation among a set of propositions, and it was not my goal in the original post. So what was my goal?

TO OPERATIONALIZE THE CONCEPT OF 'NEUTRALITY.'

In an earlier post, I wrote:

Operationalizing a term is a matter of identifying some observable conditions that reliably indicate the presence of a characteristic and determine its value (i.e. how much of it is there is)...I proposed a more actionable way to operationalize the term 'neutral,' in terms of (1) the sonic uniqueness of individual pieces of music; and (2) the sonic diversity your collection of music.

From this, I hope it is clear what my intentions were in the original post - Not to create a formal argument in which items (1) and (2) entailed item (3), but rather to propose a way to operationalize the concept of 'neutrality.' Or to put it in the language of my last post, to identify two INDICES OF NEUTRALITY. That is how I view items (1) and (2) - they are indices of neutrality, i.e., characteristics that covary with neutrality. Identifying the indices of neutrality and operationalizing the concept of 'neutrality,' are therefore, two ways of saying the same thing.

Of course, you are free to challenge my proposal that items (1) and (2) are indices of neutrality. One poster did so earlier in this thread when he wrote:

If one were to wear yellow glasses while skiing during an overcast day, visual improvement in the snow's light and dark shadow detail would be apparent. Those same glasses on a bright day would not be beneficial...
The improvements in your system may have actually increased the level of contrast above and beyond the original instruments of the musician.

Here, Hamburg is challenging the idea that items (1) and (2) are indices of neutrality. I thought this to be one of the more effective and relevant challenges to my original post, but no one seemed to run with it.

In any case, I hope this helps with the ongoing effort to clarify my views on what has turned out to be a complex set of issues.

This simile of a filtering ski goggle is interesting, as is the water analogy. Perhaps audio components are analogous to brightness and contrast controls on a TV. With such controls it is possible to vary saturation and to whiten or darken the visual palette. Visual "neutrality" lies near the middle of the range of both controls. Perhaps the stereotypical SET has over-saturated contrast, while SS amp is under-saturated with brightness turned up. However to develop useful indices of audio neutrality, one should probabably avoid reasoning by analogy and describe aural phenomena directly. But this is more difficult(and perhaps less interesting)than analogies.

If you really are looking for neutrality then get a Frequency Spectrum Analyzer and a pink noise generator. Set up the calibrated microphone, or even better get a binaural head and set it up in your listening position. Then you can adjust your system and the room with dampeners to achieve a flat frequency response. See if you like those results. I did that back in the early 90's (I was doing a lot of NVH research in Automotive at that time) and the system sounded dead-lifeless. Seeking neutrality is a dead end road.

When you get your system tuned to a point that you just smile and start tapping your feet, then you have found the magic. Meters and cables can only go so far.

Tonywinse wrote:

If you really are looking for neutrality then get a Frequency Spectrum Analyzer and a pink noise generator. Set up the calibrated microphone, or even better get a binaural head and set it up in your listening position. Then you can adjust your system and the room with dampeners to achieve a flat frequency response. See if you like those results. I did that back in the early 90's (I was doing a lot of NVH research in Automotive at that time) and the system sounded dead-lifeless. Seeking neutrality is a dead end road.

This test of the value of neutrality is not testing 'neutrality' in the sense it has been used in this thread. In your example, neutrality is: FLAT FREQUENCY RESPONSE AT THE LISTENING POSITION. When you achieved this in your test and you heard disappointing results, you concluded that neutrality is not a thing to be valued. But the term 'neutrality' has not been used in this thread to mean flat frequency response at the listening position. It has been used to mean: FREEDOM FROM COLORATION.

One of the previous posters in this thread suggested that neutrality, in the sense of freedom from coloration, is REDUCIBLE to flat frequency response. I don't share this view, since it ignores the transient and harmonic characteristics of components/systems.

In the context of your example, a more valid test of neutrality would be: Am I hearing at my listening position what the rerecording engineer heard at his listening position IN THE FINAL MIX? To the extent that I am, my system is neutral. I very seriously doubt that that would turn out to be the same as flat frequency response.