Yes, I’d say you were not exactly correct, but for a different reason. This exact problem is one I found a solution for after stumbling onto Alan Maher Designs in 2010. I keep going on about AMD, from time to time at least, and nobody may pay me much mind about it I suppose, but I can understand that really since AMD is too new and too out there for anyone to feel they have any kind of real-world frame of reference, and so there is too little advertising or user reports yet for most people to have something to go by or to be able to latch onto that particular concept of reducing electrical noise.
But, I think you are absolutely *correct* in identifying that there is indeed a problem...that there is a rather noticeably large gulf between all but the very most expensive gear (or presumably, at least, since many of us don’t easily visit that economic strata) and the real-world (lack of) performance in regard to what you noted vs the descriptions of "neutral"-sounding gear. But, what I’d tell you, based on my experience for the last 6 years with AMD, is that what I think you’re are bumping into here is really an "electrical noise" problem - not any equipment issue at all and not a recording problem either. If sinking more that $10k into AMD gear (and quite happily) over the last 6 years has taught me anything, it’s that all recordings are perfectly fine (the bad ones make up entirely less than 1% [I listen to CD’s]) and that most every piece of gear is far better than we give it credit for - that is to say that electrical noise crushes the life out of music FAR more than the average audiophile ever suspects...or may feel they have reason to suspect. When you get rid of noise on a large scale, all sorts of longheld sonic problems clear up entirely (the kind that also, likewise, usually get blamed on gear or recording quality), but the problem of neutrality here is certainly one of them. Without the noise problem present (and yes, it is everywhere, trust me), then EQ behaves like a dream, not a bandaid, digital sounds better than reel-to-reel, your gear never dictates what you might ever want to listen to...on and on like that. Every system then can reach it’s potential because all the components can then operate at full spec (or better than spec if the spec in question was arrived at by real-world measurement rather than calculation). That not only extends the bandwidth in the room, but it more importantly flattens it as well. If flattened enough, then neutrality improves tremendously...it has the overall effect, too, of increasing both accuracy And musicality at the same time.
This is a solution to one of those problems that I think it seems the audiophile community at large has yet to catch on to, and yet sometimes, like you point out here, it’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room that is the apparent disconnect between system performance and cost and that it too often seems that working one’s way up the audio food chain only really seems to be asking to repeat the problem. It’s just that I believe that, IME, it is in fact explained by neither recording quality nor gear quality, but indeed can be explained by electrical noise alone...you just need to be able to throw enough of the solution at the problem to reveal to you the true nature of both. As always, I am not affiliated with Alan or AMD in any way, just a satisfied customer.
But, I think you are absolutely *correct* in identifying that there is indeed a problem...that there is a rather noticeably large gulf between all but the very most expensive gear (or presumably, at least, since many of us don’t easily visit that economic strata) and the real-world (lack of) performance in regard to what you noted vs the descriptions of "neutral"-sounding gear. But, what I’d tell you, based on my experience for the last 6 years with AMD, is that what I think you’re are bumping into here is really an "electrical noise" problem - not any equipment issue at all and not a recording problem either. If sinking more that $10k into AMD gear (and quite happily) over the last 6 years has taught me anything, it’s that all recordings are perfectly fine (the bad ones make up entirely less than 1% [I listen to CD’s]) and that most every piece of gear is far better than we give it credit for - that is to say that electrical noise crushes the life out of music FAR more than the average audiophile ever suspects...or may feel they have reason to suspect. When you get rid of noise on a large scale, all sorts of longheld sonic problems clear up entirely (the kind that also, likewise, usually get blamed on gear or recording quality), but the problem of neutrality here is certainly one of them. Without the noise problem present (and yes, it is everywhere, trust me), then EQ behaves like a dream, not a bandaid, digital sounds better than reel-to-reel, your gear never dictates what you might ever want to listen to...on and on like that. Every system then can reach it’s potential because all the components can then operate at full spec (or better than spec if the spec in question was arrived at by real-world measurement rather than calculation). That not only extends the bandwidth in the room, but it more importantly flattens it as well. If flattened enough, then neutrality improves tremendously...it has the overall effect, too, of increasing both accuracy And musicality at the same time.
This is a solution to one of those problems that I think it seems the audiophile community at large has yet to catch on to, and yet sometimes, like you point out here, it’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room that is the apparent disconnect between system performance and cost and that it too often seems that working one’s way up the audio food chain only really seems to be asking to repeat the problem. It’s just that I believe that, IME, it is in fact explained by neither recording quality nor gear quality, but indeed can be explained by electrical noise alone...you just need to be able to throw enough of the solution at the problem to reveal to you the true nature of both. As always, I am not affiliated with Alan or AMD in any way, just a satisfied customer.