How Revealing Should a System Be?

I agree - I think as you explore higher-end systems, you start to realize the limitations of the vast number of recordings. The notion that they used to sound great to you isn't that they sound good on a poorer system, it's just that you didn't used to think about it so much. If you had, you'd have been disappointed on any system.

You have to find a way to put the genie back in the bottle - my recommendation is to visit allmusic.com and surf the site for great music, and the next time you consider a multi-thousand $$ upgrade, but a ton of music instead. Maybe you can get the genie back in the bottle, maybe not.

I think this is why musicians don't get so hung up on high-end systems - the recordings are relatively poor, don't sound that much like the real thing, and they're able to focus on what the musicians are doing to make the sound they're hearing, regardless of the recording quality. In other words, they're listening directly past the recording and playback quality, and hearing the music.

allmusic.com
You go there too! I like that site for research into artist.

tough call. i just upgraded my speakers and found out thati needed a amp upgrade,which then turned into speaker cable upgrade. imo, it is much more difficult to "dial in" more revealing components to make the system sing.

i would strongly suggest to seek the help of a experienced salesman at a local audio store that is someone who you trust and is familair with your taste and your gear.

if synergy is not happening- then the whole thing sounds like crap. if synergy does happen...wow !!!!

my conclusion - it is a double edged sword.

i have good luck with dialing in a short period of time. but this is turned out to be a little more complicated than expected.

sometimes very small things bring about very noticable changes ( like cable risers- without them, you would swear you were listening to a different pair of speaker cables...btw, signal cable has some that look cool, work, and are reasonably priced).

so approach with caution and if you go that way - expect to spend more time and $$ to get things to flow.

hope that helps,

mike

Very good question. Idealistically, a system should be as revealing as whatever the microphones pick up. Or at the very least, whatever musical info has been stamped on the disc.

However, the problem lies in the fact that almost every system we ever hear fails miserably in one or more of the numerous categories that make up the musical presentation of what one might consider a musical, tonally rich, warm, blooming, full, robust, detailed, transparent, open and airy, dynamic, and involving musical experience.

Therefore, simply making a system more revealing(which already exhibits one or more serious shortcomings), tips the scales that much further in same direction for which the system has already set it's course. That is when the ear starts to bleed or when the listener starts to wince at certain passages.

Some to many inherently know when something should sound real but instead sounds more like fingernails on a chalkboard. And when we start to hear passages that come across more like fingernails on a chalkboard and we know it shouldn't sound that way is exactly when listener fatigue sets in.

On the other hand, when a system is extremely well-balanced from the top to bottom most octave, a system can never be too revealing. At this level of system, only the very, very worst recordings are intolerable. But then again, they always were.

Additionally, with this same well-balanced system all the other so called poor or mediocre recordings (which are many) that on most systems sound rather lifeless, flat, and 2-dimensional, will instead sound nearly as tonally rich, 3-dimensional, bloomy, warm, full, robust, detailed, transparent, open and airy, dynamic, and involving as your favorite reference level recordings.

So I suppose the answer to your question is two-fold:

1. For those whose systems are significantly lacking in one or more major categories, it simply will not take much to become too revealing. It easily becomes too much of a good thing.

2. For those whose systems are well-balanced and maintained as such, there is no such thing as too revealing and therefore, there is no end in sight as every upgrade in the right direction is considered a major sonic upgrade with benefits typically across the frequency spectrum. Thus maintaining that balance.

Of course, personal preference is such that for some, a system is always deemed to be too revealing.

Many times it's because they've been told that true high-fidelity is meant to sound soft, veiled, etc..

But other times the foundations of their system configuration is already out of whack but are forever dealing with the affects rather than the cause.

-IMO

Nine out of Ten audiophiles agree that a system should be 100 percent revealing and 100 percent musical. Obviously this is impossible and the perception is that as the system becomes more revealing it also becomes less musical and vice-versa. So, a system that is 100 percent revealing will only be about 50 percent musical; whereas, a system that is 100 percent musical will only be 50 percent revealing. My best advice (after years of research) is to split the difference and shoot for 75 percent revealing to 75 percent musical. But whether or not you will recognize when you've achieved this balance is uncertain and completely subjective for each individual. So there you have it, in black and white. By the way, could someone please enlighten me as to how high is up??? :)