Questions about Resolving Systems

Hi Jay73!  Can you hear the singer's breating?  Can you hear when the guitar is sightly out of tune. When the Halleluah Chorus really gets going, can you still hear the harpsichord. Do you play an instrument? If so, do recordings of that instrument sound real to you? On closely miked vocals, can you hear the tongue moving in the mouth? On Jennifer Warnes (Famous Blue Raincoat album) "Josn of Arc," how clear is the harmony recording of her voice when she's dubbing in the harmony part? Overall clarity is what you're looking (listening?) for. Got it? Happy listening!

Forgiving or Resolving?

I tend to agree with the analysis given in the PS Audio website on this topic. Opposite of resolving is forgiving. If your system lean towards forgiving, then everything sounds good, but nothing sounds great. If your system is highly resolving, then the extremes between bad and great are magnified.

https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/pauls-posts/forgiving-resolving

In my case, I had to make some compromises due to limitations in my source materials. I have Thiel 3.6 speakers, considered highly resolving and revealing. So I use tube gear (pre-amp, DAC, phono pre-amp) up stream to tame down the beast at the end of the chain. I believe some of us do this as a compromise so that we can enjoy most of our CDs, LPs, cassettes, etc. 

...and they certainly resolve any issues you've with a bank balance.... ;) 🙄

@kota1   you nailed it!  I had an Esoteric N05XD Streaming DAC and it was resolving in the extreme black backgound.  Frankly it didn't sound realistic. It was too quiet beyond anything I have heard in the real world. 

JH

OP --- what makes a resolving system?

An audio system sounds the most life like with everything mentioned above. It sounds like this video. https://youtu.be/XaBy9CcGoTE?t=51

Alex/Wavetouch