How do you judge your system's neutrality?

Who knows what hi-fi/ audiophile mean anymore. There are some crazy claims out there.

Ideally speakers would have superflat response curves from 20-20k, electronics would have no distortion and the noise floor would be at -infinity. That would be a perfect "system", however many things fall into play here.

No passive speaker is perfectly flat. No one's hearing is perfect. No electronics are distortion free. Of course a little bit of "issues" hear and there do not take away from enjoyment for most of us necessarily.

I view modern hi-fi to almost the point of being like ice cream, everyone has their preferred flavor, and there is no best flavor. I feel most audiophiles are not going for a perfect replication of the original signal, instead they are going for their preferred flavor. I imagine if a perfect replication were built many people would prefer more colored solutions. It is human nature, we all have preferences and like different flavors.

A good example is the MM vs MC discussion. If you just look at the SNR of those two options, you would see that MC is much worse. I believe the SNR of MC is similar to a 9 bit recording and MM is 11 bit. If you were given an option to buy a digital player than was 9 bit or 11 bit you wouldn't buy either because they stink, but many people are buying TT's and vinyl. Personally I really like the sound of my MC and it maybe because that high noise floor is like a warm blanket, but whatever it is it is not accurate.

Having said that, there still is a nice engineering pursuit that will never be satisfied in making that perfect "system". The engineering is probably already there that is much more accurate than our ears can detect and better than anyone needs but we all like a little different spice in our food.

TBG - it was not my niece that told me about the background ambiance.
It was reading the Regon Audio website page
http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html
you might want to read this first as he develops the point further and better than I have in this thread.
Simply put the bacground ambiance and cues are highlighted and accentuated more than the original mastertape recording. Drawn against the discussion I had with my niece - these little cues and extra ambiance is what I am coining the phrase 'hyper-fi' in the way I explain 3D above.

This thread is too long to re-read, but here's a new addition to the audiophile tool box that will bring one's system closer to "neutrality" (whatever that means): DEQX. Read the various threads on A'gon that speaks to and about DEQX and see why. If interested, look at the DEQX web site too.

IMO and IME, the DEQX PreMATE has squeezed about all there is out of my Paradigm Sig 8 (v3) speakers and achieved a modicum of "neutrality" that was not otherwise possible. Not just because of deficiencies with my speakers, but also because of anomalies caused by room ... an all too often overlooked "component part" of one's system.

Although in the end, one must rely on their ears, FWIW, after correction, my speakers are pretty flat out to 30K HZ and closer to being time coherent. How do I know?? The DEQX set up entailed using a high quality mic which measured my speakers in-room response.

The neighborhood dogs are in doggy heaven.

As Ronald Regan used to say, "trust ... but verify." And that's why I boldly write this post. My system sounds better and measures that what too.

Cheers,

BIF

If a system is completely neutral it will sound exactly like the real event.
I don't think this will ever happen.

Even if your system is neutral, how do you know the recording is a faithful capture of a real event?