@mapman
i missed your pointing out the article first time around, read it now, like it alot... i think it is terrific the journalist interviewed many important industry participants, and by and large i thought their comments were fair and accurate, reflected a great understanding of both the history of hifi and the current marketplace
reality is that unamplified music performances are fairly rare for most music listeners in this age, save for classical and some jazz, so it makes sense that the industry evolves into various versions of ’vivid portrayal’ of manufactured music that is recorded on multi track then mixed in studio...
i have been a big fan of bbc monitors since the outset, and how they strived to reproduce live musical events that the bbc back then would broadcast or record for viewers/listeners... needless to say, that particular objective makes certain tradeoffs to reproducing midband accuracy and rolling off the extremes to capture the ’hall effects’ of live symphonic music heard 'in hall' - of course this standard of reproduction is now obsolete to many... is this good or bad, i don't know... but it good to hear this sort of music even if rarely... it is useful in establishing a reference for clarity, attack with lack of edge, depth and scale of sound
