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My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers

The one word that bugs me the most in all of the audiophile world is "revealing." 

It's plenty descriptive but it's also biased.  What I mean is that speakers that are revealing are also usually quite colored. They don't unveil a recording, they focus your attention by suppressing some tones and enhancing others. The reviewer who suddenly discovers hearing things he has never heard before and now goes through his entire library has fallen for this trap hook line and sinker.

This is not always true, as some speakers are revealing by ignoring the room.  They can remain tonally neutral but give you a headphone like experience.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the others.  I  wish we had a better word for it.

Mind you, I believe you should buy speakers based on your personal preferences.  Revealing, warm, neutral, whatever.  I'm just saying this word is deceptive, as if there were no down side when there is. 

Best,

Erik
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,898 posts
 
Sounds like a lot of audiophiles are frustrated having not achieved success in getting that revealing speaker


FTR:  I'm not at all frustrated with my sound system.  I'm frustrated at the use of the word "revealing" used in reviews and impressions.

I am very much frustrated with my room though, so I am planning a cross-country move to fix it. :)

Best,

E
steve59's avatar
steve59
1,863 posts
 
had my share of revealing speakers and had musical speakers and some companies give you both but then you need an arc welder to drive them or wife says Not in my house. D&D are onto something, but Jim Salk (I think)said In a recent post on asr that while his active speaker got great feedback at a show there was like no interest in it, audiophiles want separates. I probably butchered the quote but thats what I got out of it. 
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
 I'm not at all frustrated with my sound system.  
@erik_squires 

are you implying they are perfect? 
rixthetrick's avatar
rixthetrick
1,060 posts
 
@tk21 -
At any rate, I'd expect a "revealing" system to make subtle details audible at normal listening levels, in addition to having a nearly flat frequency response, with little blurring/smearing due to phase and timing issues.

So, instruments and vocals sound natural and realistic;
the soundstage/image is believable;
subtle details are neither masked nor exaggerated.
That pretty much sums up what I thought the term revealing meant in regards to audio too.

Of course it can reproduce the signal fed to it, to reveal a poor recording, loads of distortion, and other negative things as equally as a good sounding system.
jaulbrich's avatar
jaulbrich
22 posts
 
Dazzlingmd is the post that makes the most sense.  I have no idea why everyone jumped on the original post as if it were gospel.  My first thought was, "is eric making fun by explaining the opposite of the definition?"  I have both albums that Dazzlingmd described, and many other examples, and what he says is true.  Not only with my current two revealing systems, but with all the many systems I have owned in the past.  BTW, isn't funny how we all say we want our system to be as close to a live performance as possible, when at least half of the many shows I have seen have crappie sound?
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