Whether to do anything about the limitations of our ears

op

two points to raise in reply to your op above, in the spirit of discussion...

1. achieving a flat, in phase response, at the prime listening position in a room/system setup is a laudable goal, if for no other reason than for the listener to judge/realize that some deviation from this ideal may make the music as presented seem more ’beautiful’ or ’real’ subjectively -- i have not tried to dabble in this pursuit myself, but at least regarding frequency response, this is what a lot of the room correction tech in modern gear attempts to enable

2. on a subjective basis, when it comes to voicing of hifi components (and most prominently speakers), there is some agreement that numerous successful but aging designers are releasing newer products that have greater/too much treble energy (as they personally are experiencing a reduction in their ability to hear higher and mid treble frequencies, but have yet to admit that, and still insist on personally voicing their gear) -- folks such as richard vandersteen, mike/jason at schiit, frank van alstine, and david belles have all been ’accused’ of this...

having owned Vandy 3a-sig, 5a and 7 mk2 spanning some 20 years, i can assure you RV’s speakers are super flat in room. BTW Earthworks mics, good as they are are NOT good enough for Vandy production quality control against the reference each speaker is produced…

Not sure a super flat in room response from 20hz-20khz is what most people like. Good DRC applied properly will give you a flat response over your speakers frequency range and your preferred listening curve.

I recent years  I have developed a hearing "defect"  becoming very sensitive to sibilance. I changed a beautiful pair of speakers because they were too bright yet most others I have tried sound too dull. Each person will hear sound differently to you, possibly very differently. I have thus listened to speakers people tell me are great, but they sound awful to me. In the end I found a brand ( I have two pairs in separate systems) that do not sound sibilant, to me they are great speakers, reviews vary but generally are good to very good for them, Audio Physic (Yara Classic 2, and Sitara 25). I visit a number of hifi stores who frequently tell me x will sound better, they never do, to me, they have too much sibilance. Your ears are your ears no-one can tell you what you will hear or what you will prefer.

Thanks to all who have posted.

onhwy61
I was remarking the U47 (as an example) is very flat compared to speakers and phono carts.  So I don't need to know that other mikes are even flatter!!  You just help make my point.

Miller, rude as usual, and you are off-point.  I've got plenty between the ears thanks.  I was not replying to your post, I was picking up a point from it.  That's why it's in a new thread.

Tomic601
You are off-point.


Other posters demonstrate a strong preference for adjusting the the presentation to cope with human ear limitations at the ends of the audible range, they say to make the programme more to their personal liking.

This is interesting since the experience will be unlike listening to live music.  So many audiophiles don't want 'the closest approach to the original sound' after all.  Does this change everything?  This issue is the reason for my OP.