High Performance Audio - The End?


Steve Guttenberg recently posted on his audiophiliac channel what might be an iconoclastic video.

Steve attempts to crystallise the somewhat nebulous feeling that climbing the ladder to the high-end might be a counter productive endeavour. 

This will be seen in many high- end quarters as heretical talk, possibly even blasphemous.
Steve might even risk bring excommunicated. However, there can be no denying that the vast quantity of popular music that we listen to is not particularly well recorded.

Steve's point, and it's one I've seen mentioned many times previously at shows and demos, is that better more revealing systems will often only serve to make most recordings sound worse. 

There is no doubt that this does happen, but the exact point will depend upon the listeners preference. Let's say for example that it might happen a lot earlier for fans of punk, rap, techno and pop.

Does this call into question almost everything we are trying to ultimately attain?

Could this be audio's equivalent of Martin Luther's 1517 posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg?

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Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318
properly voiced opinion

which is why consumers who seek and chase ’ultimate resolution’ from their rigs at some point realize it is a massively flawed exercise that doesn’t lead to musical satisfaction

imo too many hifi geeks don’t get to hear real live (unamplified or minimally amplified) music - and thus lack the reference for what natural sounding music sounds like

otoh someone who goes to coachella or hears springsteen in the meadowlands amongst 40,000 people and treats that as their live music reference point -- well then chasing ’real and live sounding’ music from their home hifi may well lead them down this primrose path smiling
Steve has always been the voice or reason, and for that, he's suffered the wrath of a lot of purists and measurement freaks. In the end, it's all about how enjoyable your system sounds.

How can anyone enjoy this hobby when they're fretting about the latest and greatest thing to round the corner?

Just like the horsepower wars with cars, there's now a numbers game with how high rez can you go, with more always being better. All the hoopla with MQA and it turns out to be an anti-piracy scheme. Diamond coated tweeters and bullet proof drivers when there are paper based drivers that can make them blush. 

People near to stop and hear the roses.

All the best,
Nonoise 
Some people actually think the hobby is putting together and tinkering with the components.  Which for them is okay, I guess.