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Your reference for "the absolute" sound?

As the magazine referred to, the absolute sound was live music.  For most great music halls the best seats were centered and depending on your preference within the first ten or so rows.  I have never been to a great live performance,  indoors or out, where the music was coming at you from the sides, the back or anywhere rather than in front of you.  But now there are systems with speakers at the sides, rear, rear center and so on.

Is the point of reference for a great stereo system more like a movie theater with "surround" sound?

I do not want to attend a live performance where the singers/players are set up like some of these "music" systems seem to want to do....the vocalist behind me, the trumpet to my left side, the base to my right side...etc. 

"is it live, or is it Memorex" or is it just garbage?  


whatjd
jameswei
883 posts
 
Using live performances as a reference involves evaluating the entire process from microphones to recording equipment to engineering choices to media encoding to my own playback system.

I have no choice but to trust that the engineers had an accurate monitoring system (speakers, amps, etc.) so the assembled track reflects what they heard while putting it together. And presumably, what is on the media is close to what the engineers heard when they assembled the track.

I only have control over what’s in my own playback system. So for purposes of evaluating my own system, I would seek an accurate rendition of whatever is on the media (or stream).
keegiam
731 posts
 
@whatjd

You already have it figured out.  You want to close your eyes and enjoy palpable images of instruments placed in front of you as they would be as if you were there.

You obviously love live music.  Trust your instincts and enjoy the journey.

brayeagle
362 posts
 
The best sound I've heard, and use as a reference, were the live concerts I managed to attend over the years by the VPO in  the Vienna Musikverein.  Wonderful orchestra with magnificent strings,  superb venue. 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,882 posts
 
only the dead, deaf or unemotional can forget the first experience of an Italian V-12 at full howl.....I know I cant forget it....

and my reference jaded as it js by age and chemical memory, some say emotion is the real acoustic event. I have been chasing that on simplified stereo microphones into A2D converters amd high speed tape in a mobile rack for a while now...fun....

have fun
enjoy the music
chase the grail
repeat....
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@whatjd , “When I worked in an audio business and the goal was accurate sound, but I realized that for many consumers their basis for what they wanted their system to sound like was a jukebox. It seems that times may have not changed much since then.”

That’s not true for me - I prefer a neutral sound.
That’s not true for me - I prefer a neutral sound.
That’s not true for me - I prefer a neutral sound.
That’s not true for me - I prefer a neutral sound.

Oh alright then! I admit it, it’s true.
I love that classic jukebox sound. Yes, the punch, the slam and oh those glorious colourful  mids...

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