Thank you, @xenolith for what amounts to your audio system CV! Wonderful. I don't want to introduce a detour to the OP, but "the recreation of the recorded event in our living room" is an idea I understand but it cannot, of course, be taken literally. The sound of an orchestra in your living room would have to be miniaturized; no one wants the Ramones in there, either; heavily produced multi-track recordings are not events but collages, and so what is to be produced by a system? Some kind of rendition-that-is-pleasing but not a "recreation." And EDM or ambient music, same thing. There are some ensembles that a system could be seeking to recreate -- a duo or trio, etc. But most people want their systems to do more than just create a holo-deck version of that limited menu of "recreate-ables." I do think there's something to the concept of "fidelity" -- a clarinet sounds like a clarinet in timbre and tonality and even spaciousness. But that is less than what some take to be implied by "recreation." Cheers!
Second opinions — how have others (including non-audiophiles) helped you?
Have been building a system since December 2020, just about at a place where I can rest for a while. Very enjoyable process of researching, trying, listening. Last phase, room treatments, are just about done.
Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.
I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.
Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.
That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.
I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.
Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.
That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
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- 43 posts total
- 43 posts total