Onhwy61, Good try, as far as it goes, at explaining why low-fi systems sound more musical than many (or even most) high-end systems. Apart from the tacit admission that low-fi systems do in fact appear to have better timing/musicality, you miss the fact that by cheap systems I include also cheap "audiophile" systems, which also, overall, manage to convey the timing/rhythm/musicality of music far more often than high-end systems do, without all the distortions you list. Which is why we probably end up in this obssession. As well, many high-end systems feature mini-monitors which have no bass to speak of, and yet still manage to lose the musicality/dissect the music. Through my years of various audiophile components and systems, I was always astounded at the direct musical communication which comes from my sister's Rotel receiver/Optimus LX5 system, which I set up(!), which is overall quite sophisticated (that superb ribbon tweeter), yet which communicates the music directly and without effort, making everything sound good. I always left her house with doubts. I know this is a very common experience for all of us (c'mon, admit it), and when we return home we convince ourselves on the basis of more air, better imaging, more detail, and so forth...and then we head out to the stereo store to see what we can improve. I think the plain fact of the matter is what I stated: designers with clipboards and textbooks and no real gift. Perhaps there is an unknown ingredient X which gets washed out with improved power suply regulation and so on, or perhaps it is simply the relationship I set forth earlier: amount of information is inversely proportional to musicality, overall (which is kind of like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, come to think of it...).
It may sound corny, but we have to learn to listen with our hearts instead of our heads, and demand the same from audio designers, or else Pack your Bags, Scum! Now, having inherited high-end speakers, I am faced with spending thousands of dollars to gain - maybe - that musicality I had when I retired from the game with a pair of Sound Dynamic speakers and a pair of Wave 8s driven by a Pioneer preamp. I did the tour of the shops, considering expensive Tannoys, the Reference 3As, Energy Veritas, all of which sounded impressive....and then I had the idea to see what the new Athena Technologies incarnation of the Sound Dynamics were like, specifically the AS-F2s at $600. They were hooked up to a Harmon Kardon receiver, the guy turned them on (I wasn't expecting anything), and when they sarted to sing, my soul started to sing. And I immediately heard that ingredient X which put a huge smile on my face. I foresee a lot of audio fun in the near future. I don't known what it is (certainly timing is a part), but I think damn the high-end neutral speakers (I'm going to sell them), I'm buying the AS-F2s tomorrow, I think (they're enormous, however), and I bet they'll sound terrific with my new Wave 20s. You see, I am upgrading! But I can't stop thinking about how good that HK sounded as well. I lifted it to see what kind of transformer there was inside, and it weighed a ton. Damn it sounded good, is there someone with talent working at HK? Hmmmmm.....I'm at my sister's right now, and I can't believe how good her system sounds right now, as she happily plays music for hours without thinking anything but "this is a good album!", playing Santana right now, I think I gotta buy this one....
