The vast majority of audiophiles, near as I can tell, what they call neutral is sterile. What they call detailed is etched. What they call top end extension is hyped tilted up and more often than not ringing. On and on, the whole vocabulary is corrupted.
Wasn't always this way. Time was, records and tubes, before solid state and especially before digital, everyone knew and agreed what was what. Minor disagreements at the edges. Always are. But compared to today? There is no comparison.
What happened was we stopped listening and started measuring. Real hard to explain why something sounds better. Real hard to develop the listening skills to even be aware of a lot of what you are capable of hearing, if only you try. Like that with a lot of things. Golf, tennis, racquetball, rock climbing on and on. Skilled activities. You want to learn a skilled activity, you don't just go and do it. You get a coach. You practice, practice, practice.
Anyway, people come along and oh look, the sine wave this ss amp puts out is way more sine-wavy than the one from the tubes. Uh, the tube sounds better. Shut up! This one measures better! You love distortion! You're one a them stinking IM/THD lovers!
But, it sounds better! Okay yeah but not really, its, uh, euphonic! What's euphonic? A word that means sounds better. What I said! Yeah but euphonic sounds dirty. We turn your love into filth with this one twist of a word.
On and on it goes, CD digital measures ruler flat, dynamic range off the charts, S/N lower than low, hey it must be perfect sound forever.
Any of this sounding familiar? Fed us the same damn crap with MP3, now with streaming, on and on, a whole new generation of unskilled listeners falling for it time and time again.
I never heard a Luxman. But I will bet you dollars to donuts you are right, and this is exactly the reason why.
