2. speakers
  3. 159485-102681

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?

-----

Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
As much as some of us like to flatter ourselves as Super Experienced, the wisdom we have built over the years tends to be most relevant to ourselves and our tastes (and perhaps for those that share that taste). It’s not discovering The Secret Key Of Satisfaction for others.


You are right speaking of taste and choices of gear....

But there exist simple practical facts which can tranform the experience with any gear....

How to embed a piece of electronic equipment in a relatively controlled mechanical, electrical and acoustical dimensions ?

This is all i learn along my way.... Others will suggest better ways to me that those one i created for myself, but these 3 embeddings are key and NOT secondary problems ....

For any choice of gear you are right....

Nevermind the gear, or forget upgrading before embedding anything right....

This is what i learn and say.... Very few really know this transformative truth and experience and experiments on all forums....They all speak of their last or future upgrades....Without knowing.....
prof
3,452 posts
 
mahgister

?????

It would help communication  if you weren’t writing in riddles. :)


millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Well, lets see. Mahgister acknowledged your point of different people having different preferences. He goes on to say this can be achieved with tweaks (embeddings) that are mechanical, electrical, and acoustic. His thesis is that these are key and not secondary problems. 

Then, to be clear, he reiterates that for any one component you are right, and people choose by preference. But then says never mind the gear, embeddings matter more, do them first.

When he says few know this transformative truth, he's talking about me, who knows it. You, it seems, do not. Well he did say there are few of us.


twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,313 posts
 
@prof   You need to have experienced true enlightenment first (bodhi or satori, in all seven factors) before you can hope to begin to understand the three embeddings.  And as we all know, the absolutely most important things come in groups of three.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
All right....BUT....

Except embeddings are necessary dimensions linked to the  3 fields where the gear is interconnected : vibration /resonance, general noise floor, and acoustic.....

These necessary dimensions are not " tweaks".....

A bunch of tweaks is not and never will be  a method of listenings experiments to improve the controls over these 3 dimensions where any gear is immersed or embedded....


"tweaks" is a word for ready made brand costly device that are sold like secondary means to help the audio system....

It is not necessary to buy any tweaks.... It is necessary to listen and use ours ears....

:)
More to discover