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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
russhealy
5 posts
 
Perhaps this is a bit like Frances Fukuyama claiming history ended when the Cold War ended, ensuring liberal democracy a long history devoid of any alternate system of governance.
daros71's avatar
daros71
118 posts
 
The hifi busines should split in two areas:
Area 1) Music recorded from real sources in real spaces.
Area 2) Syntetized or strongly manipulated music.

Area 1 offers audio gear which follows the rules of "realism".
Area 2 offers audio gear which follows the rules of abstraction, subjectivity and so on.

In this way we finally stop expecting to produce abstract images using a Nikon camera or to produce 100% photorealistic images using watercolors, or even worst, to produce both using the same device.

This would enourmusly benefit both worlds.
timinphoenix
17 posts
 
I noticed this many times. It's kind of ironic, but your loathsome NTSC video signals of years ago adhered to some fairly strict standards; IRE units, color temps, many things all very technical. Two inch helical scan quad head video tape recorders the size of your stove and very expensive. Engineers on staff to care and feed them. Some of that continues with HDTV, perhaps as fussy or worse on the production side, Joe Kane and SMPTE and all.

Any idiot could go into a studio and record music.........and you notice in an afternoon of listening. Bass, treble, gains, all over the place.
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@daros71 

I largely agree with your post, except to say that even the 'realistic' school of audio recording and reproduction is still painting a watercolor more than taking a realistic image of the event

how do you fit a live band, jazz ensemble, much less an orchestra into a home listening room?

we are talking downscaled and artificial facsimiles here... and our minds do the rest
jhills
615 posts
 
I enjoy Steve's reviews and for the most part, his personal take on things regarding audio. I pretty much agree with him on this.

When it comes down to it, we as audiophiles/audio enthusiasts are not all in the same box. While some aspire to a system that will fill a large room with the scope and volume of a live, large scale orchestral or rock performance, some may only want a system that will do justice to a small scale, live acoustic performance or have a considerably smaller space to fill. In any case, it sometimes takes years of investigation, trial and error to put together a system that all works together and does what we personally want it to do. Then, when we think we have it all dialed in and figured out and are most happy with what we have - circumstances, likes or opportunities change and here we go again :-)
Jim
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