My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers


The one word that bugs me the most in all of the audiophile world is "revealing." 

It's plenty descriptive but it's also biased.  What I mean is that speakers that are revealing are also usually quite colored. They don't unveil a recording, they focus your attention by suppressing some tones and enhancing others. The reviewer who suddenly discovers hearing things he has never heard before and now goes through his entire library has fallen for this trap hook line and sinker.

This is not always true, as some speakers are revealing by ignoring the room.  They can remain tonally neutral but give you a headphone like experience.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the others.  I  wish we had a better word for it.

Mind you, I believe you should buy speakers based on your personal preferences.  Revealing, warm, neutral, whatever.  I'm just saying this word is deceptive, as if there were no down side when there is. 

Best,

Erik
erik_squires
@po5 millercarbon has tweaked his system to his likes.  I didn't like his prior speakers at all when I heard them years ago.  My Legacy speakers aren't the most revealing either, but with a superior acoustic room and high end (not SOTA) equipment/cabling and tweaks, I have made them the envy of my friends (and they are sooo inexpensive used).  I know I what I am missing, ambiance that my Signature IIIs have with their rear tweeter that my Focuses have less of.  I also have less gut punch from the Focuses than the smaller woofers of the Sig IIIs.  That's why it's going to cost big bucks to upgrade from the oh so musical sound I currently enjoy to get those characteristics and better resolving/detailed sound while maintaining the musical sound (that I hear when I record choirs, chamber and a large orchestra music at the best venues like Disney Hall, Royce Hall, Gindi, college halls, churches, etc).
I get a real charge out of people/reviewers that call Harbeth speakers neutral. 



Speakers that are revealing just mean a tipped up treble most of the time, what about revealing bass. 
I couldn't disagree more. Seasoned reviewers know the difference between a revealing speaker and one with a tipped up top end or a broad peak in the upper midrange.
Revealing is an amateur term for a dissatisfaction that the user doesn’t quite understand.