Crossover Capacitors for Accuton Tweeters - Solen -> ClarityCap -> Jupiter -> Duelund

This thread took an interesting turn... always good to hear everyone's opinions.

Dear @brownsfan  : """  What is wrong with enjoying distortions? """

in reality are not the distortion it self but the kind of those distortions and its higher or lower levels.

Distortions levels is what defines/makes differences in the quality level performance of any room/audio system.

All room/audio systems have inherent distortion levels, so always exist trade-offs and in each one of us systems we already choosed our self " best " trade-offs that put us nearer to our targets. Nothing is perfect.

"""  those venues with which I have experience don't even deliver a consistent voice  ""

agree. Everything in a venue could change each one of us perceptions of what we are listening, even attended in the same seat position. Things are that the  people that attend to the venue  the same day as us is not not only exactly the same number/popullation but their seated distribution is not always the same and certainly not always people go with the same kind/fabric of clothes and all those has influence in what we listening there. But even musician/players are not seated exactly the same each session after sessions and many times they don't have the same day by day " mood "
. Even room temperature could be not the same and temperature has its own influence in the instruments voice.
Normally the venues has an overall "signature "  that depending on those and other surrounded characteristics shows some kind of little " deviations " from the overall venue signature.

How can we enjoy MUSIC and not DISTORTIONS?  well we can't avoid several kind of room/system distortions and the best we can approach is to put at minimum those distortions and to achieve that we have to be aware/identify those distortions and this is extremely difficult and as difficult too is to be sure from where is developed that distortion.

Nothing is easy in audio when we are looking for " heaven " and this is what makes audio so interesting other that ENJOY THE MUSIC.

R.

@rauliruegas I may not be following your line of reasoning correctly.  If I am missing your point, I apologize.   Consider the music of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page.   These two individuals, by almost unanimous consent, are two of the greatest guitarists of all time.  It is my understanding that they both deliberately introduced distortion into their guitar work.  It was a part of their creative expression.  Distortion was/is an integral part of their art, and without it, the music cannot convey the intended message.  Or consider Nelson Pass, who developed a 2nd harmonic distortion generator for those who wanted to introduce a bit of SET flavor into their solid state system.  My point is that not all distortion is subjectively objectionable.   My previous mention of the great violinist Isaac Stern delivering a live performance that emulated the death cry of a tortured cat, which I hope never to hear the like of again, provides an example where a perfectly undistorted absolute reference recording would not be subjectively desirable.  

Recently, someone mentioned that it is generally not good for a listening room to be ruler flat.  Rooms that don't have a bit of high frequency roll off can be perceived as too bright.  Consider another scenario.  Typically, one's ability to hear the highest frequencies is diminished as one ages.  For such an individual, might it not be advantageous for such a person to have a system or room that provides an offset for that hearing loss?

I'm not saying there is no value in measuring a room's frequency response and decay times.   Those measurements can most certainly be a guide as one attempts to optimize a room.  But the final arbiter must be one's ears.   I'm not saying there is no value in taking objective measurements of hardware.  Those measurements can be invaluable in assembling a system that works well together.  But the measurements cannot tell you how a particular piece will sound.  Again, the ear must be the final arbiter. 

Most of the folks around here are well informed listeners.  They frequent live venues and have a pretty good idea what a recording of acoustic music should sound like.  They also know when a system, a system component, and yes, a particular capacitor delivers that special level of engagement, which may well not measure as well as another choice that may objectively measure better.  

Enjoy the music indeed.  Don't worry about the distortions until your ears or your emotions tell you that you need to worry. 

Yes but, I don't want to add additional distortions to Jim or Jimmy's guitar just the ones they add.

TISH

Dear @brownsfan  : I agree with almost all your post that's not " against " mine. What happened ( I think. ) is that due that english language is not my native language many times I can't explain things as need it.

Yes, not all distortions are really bad ones and exist every where including in live events.

I was aware about J.Hendrix but not Page. Yes I was aware too on N.Pass designs  whom and due that several high end customers were/are accustomed to tube electronics he choosed for something that can give a quasi-tube signature, that's was too why when in Threshold always used bipolar transistors in Pass he choosed FET/Mosfets.

Yes, it's true that through age always exist a degradation on the sound perceived sensitivity but we have to remember that we hear/listen trhough whole body not only the ears and that the brain knows and develops those harmonics that for whatever reason were not " listened ".

Yes, final arbither must be our " body ".

Don't worry about distortions ?, well I try to to take actions in my room/systems to put at minimum. I know that today I'm enjoying my listening sessions better that 5 or 10 years ago and I'm sure that you are enjoying the same as many other gentlemans.

All of us are growing up " day by day " as our room/system too. Our hobby is all about MUSIC.

Btw, I agree with @racamuti  statement on those distortions:

"""  Yes but, I don't want to add additional distortions to Jim or Jimmy's guitar just the ones they add. """

because we have to add to the distortion developed through the recording proccess and our system play process.

R.