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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?

-----

Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
deep_333, How many speakers have you compared in your home - particularly ones costing 10x-20x - against the Moab and Adante?

BTW, it seems you have not ever heard the Moab, so your opinion on that I consider based on hearsay. 
deep_333
1,432 posts
 
@douglas_schroeder , i have owned the Wilson Watt Puppy, $$$$ Von Schweikerts, Revels, JBLs, TADs and maggies over the years.

My physician shed his $$$$$ Wilsons for the Tekton Moab last year. I have heard it plenty of times at his place and got severely jaw dropped. I just don't have a A/B test for it at my place with my gear. If i had an ounce of space left in my house, i would get that speaker without blinking twice.

Current speakers are the Adante floorstanders, Maggie 20.7 and the TADs. Currently, I have the Adantes paired with GR Research DIY subs and the Luxman C900u+M900u stack.  Yes, 30 k of amplification for a speaker i bought for 3k (absurd indeed). It sounds even better than every kind of gear i had paired with Andrew's 80k retail TAD Reference  (in certain ways) when i had it at my place. 

The Adante eats the Revels and Wilsons i've had for breakfast easy...

Now, repeat after me Doug,
"You can have a cranially challenged creature spend loads and loads of money on R&D for a very long time. He will still come up with a piece of sht.
But, you can give a genius like Andrew Jones or Eric Alexander very little money and he will come up with a genius grade speaker"

Say these statements 20 times...

Good.

glupson
7,842 posts
 
"But, you can give a genius like Andrew Jones or Eric Alexander very little money and he will come up with a genius grade speaker"

I have heard inexpensive well-regarded Pioneer speakers designed by Andrew Jones. They were not worth $200-300 asking price to me.

As far as Tekton goes, we already have two Tekton Moab threads which is about two threads more than they deserve. They may have their clientele that is enamored with them, but "genius grade speakers" is taking that infatuation a little too far.
deep_333
1,432 posts
 
@glupson, i can only imagine which genius designed your speaker! (Tee hee)
fleschler
2,012 posts
 
$$$$ Von Schweikerts are inferior to Moabs?  Sure, go believe that.  Not for me.  I've heard the best VSs in huge rooms sound exquisite on my types of music LP and CD, orchestral classical and jazz, from any seat in the house.   The Moabs are probably on par with my Legacy Signature IIIs and Focuses, different but very good.  Unfortunately, I'm looking for a speaker that has a wide listening area.  The Double Impacts were on par with most electrostats in that regard with one person speaker sitting centered only.  Resolution was on par with 30 year old, well designed speakers.  Good value for the money for a new speaker but not even close to VS speakers.  The Lumenwhite speakers are superior to the Tektons.  Sure the best speakers cost much more, but sometimes one gets what they pay for.
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