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

cd31808-22-2020 12:24pm

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barts Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 687 posts 08-23-2020 at 03:35pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete My remedy for hearing a crappy recording in high def is to put the Andrew Sisters on the Victrola (yes, original 1917) and listen to "Take the A Train". When that's finished I put Manhattan Transfer "Take the A Train" on the main rig and it never fails to kick my butt down the block. Ain't technology great.
jjss49 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,612 posts 08-23-2020 at 03:57pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete pretty much everybody has an angle, a schtick to play the angle youtubers want views, so they put up click bait and say stimulating/controversial things high end audio salespeople seek big fish, won’t waste time with tire kickers and peons even if folks have good intentions (or no mal-intentions), the profit move overrides and the behavior, actions and attitudes follow suit (not to mention other biases towards sloth, self aggrandisement, etc etc) way of the world folks... capitalist society... human nature... need to eat, so need to hunt and kill - some get angry, disillusioned, jaded in the process, life is hard for most some other folks are lucky, plenty of money gotten somehow, so kick back, enjoy, observe, try to be neutral, without agenda -- but even some in this position are out for themselves (...more is better, greed is good, keep score on money in bank... etc etc) but most aren’t in that position - especially in ’passion driven’ industries like fashion, cars, music, watches, movies, tv - these are populated mostly by hungry folks trying to scrape by to the next week, much less build a nest egg
onhwy61 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 5,150 posts 08-23-2020 at 04:37pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Well mixed and mastered music on a competent system sounds better than poorly recorded music on a summit-fi system. That could actually be true, but good music on a mediocre system is better than less good music on a great system.
ivan_nosnibor Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 1,047 posts 08-23-2020 at 04:48pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @jjss49 I think I might buy all that. However nicely presented or laid out at corporate level it looks, by the time you get down to street level it's generally more of ceaseless knife fight, everybody looking for their advantage. But, that's capitalism. ...and I know I would hate to have to wait in line for my daily allotment of 'art' from the state. ;)
mapman Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 21,905 posts 08-23-2020 at 05:08pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I watched the video and practically, I think he nailed it pretty well. The example of pop music on Magnepans is a classic example of wrong speaker for a particular kind of recording. Been there, done that. But that is not strictly a case of too high performance for the genre. The issue is also lack of performance regarding large scale dynamics with planars. You will hear the music but probably seldom feel it.