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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
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,055 posts
 
Coming to expect (pursue) "high resolution" first above other considerations, only to discover that it reveals other flaws in the system has nothing to do with the high end and, in and of itself, can only represent intermediate levels of system building experience or accomplishment. Sooner or later, the rest of the high-end traits will have to be attained if high resolution is not to have its obvious drawbacks.

Was it the way "high resolution", as an industry buzzword, was originally marketed to people just getting started that caused the problem, or were the uninitiated, unconsciously desperate to save money, all-too-willing to delude themselves into thinking it to be the holy-grail shortcut from the start??

Hardly matters, does it.

Exploitation city either way...
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Steve Guttenberg worked at Sound By Singer in NYC, touting four and five-figure components. I only visited that store once back in the '80s to buy the latest copy of The Absolute Sound. Since I only wanted the magazine he treated me like a peon. I was the only customer at that moment. I saw and commented on a nice pair of Sound Lab RS-1 ESLs - but no invitation to stay and listen to them!
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
The more zeros in the price tag, the more orgasmic the feeling upon ownership! Maybe Dr.Freud can comment on this?
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
That's the attitude here at Definitive. Their extra sensory abilities alert them to Goolag, Microserf and Amoralzoners, and if you're not readily identifiable as someone susceptible to authoritative techno jargon with a Street of Dreams McMansion to fill with overpriced Wilson, AT and D'Agostino good luck getting their attention.

I wonder, was Steve into goofy shirts and glasses at Singer? Or was that something he cooked up for the YT?
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
No, he was dressed casually, as was I. Wish I could have had at least a brief listen to the Sound Lab  RS-1's! Maybe if I walked in wearing a Brioni suit ...
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