That’s what jarred my thought. Does "neutral" mean tame/flat...
That's what it means to me. I like my system to have a little bounce to it. Not inaccurate playback but something with a little excitement.
What Neutral Means in Reviews & Our Discussions? Are We Confusing Tame/Flat For Neutral?
Does tame or flat = neutral? Shouldn’t "neutral" in describing audio sound mean uncolored and accurate to what the artists sounded like to the naked ear at the time of the master recording? Or is neutral, as used in our community, intended to mean a lack of crescendo, or the like?
I realize this may get controversial, so lets be mindful of other’s experiences and insight. I’m going to use Dynaudio as an example. They’re often touted as being amongst the most neutral of speaker lines. Monitor Audio is another example of such reviews. I’ve listened to several middle of the line Dynaudio’s, including many times at my brother’s house, where he has them mated to an EAD Power Master 1000 thru MIT cables. They do sound beautiful, airy, smooth, and even slightly warm to my ear (though the touch of warmth could easily be the MITs and EAD). His common statement supporting how great they are is, the audio recording industry sound engineers prefer them as their monitors. But I’ve read that the reason audio engineers prefer them is because they are smooth and "flat" or "level", enabling the engineers to hear the difference of the nuances which they create as they manipulate sound during the editing process. Apparently lively or musical monitors, many engineers find to be a distractor, with too much information over riding what they want to focus on as they edit the sound.
I’ve enjoyed watching live bands at small venues for over 3 decades. Anything from a pianist, to cover bands, to original artists of anything from rock, blues, jazz, etc. My personal listening preference for home audio is dynamic sound which brings the live event to me ... soundstage, detail, with air, transparency AND depth. I want it all, as close as it can get for each given $. When I’ve listened to Dynaudios, Ive always come away with one feeling ... they’re very nice to listen too; they’re smooth and pleasing, airy ... and tame.
Recently while reading a pro review of the latest Magico S7 (I’ve never heard them), a speaker commonly referenced as amazingly neutral, the reviewer mentioned how, while capable of genuine dynamics, they seem to deliberately supress dynamics to enough of an extent that they favor a more pleasurable easy going listening experience.
That’s what jarred my thought. Does "neutral" mean tame/flat; does it mean accurate without audible peaks in db of one frequency over another, which is not on the recording; or is it something we’ve minced words about and have lost the genuine meaning of in the name of some audio form of political correctness?
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@russ69 @nekoaudio Perfect responses that make my point. Thank you. Both of you, as enthusiasts or audiophiles, speak directly yet eloquently to what you believe 'neutral' to mean. Yet both of you have a different answer. One understanding the use of the term 'neutral' to mean it is flat in sound, deliberately not delivering dynamics to the extent the recording calls for. The other stating 'neutral' means the frequency produced is exactly as the recording intended it, measured in an anechoic chamber to be level to the signal being transmitted into the speaker by the components. Here in lies what I believe is not just my confusion, but that of discussion amongst many of us on the threads, as we and pro-reviewers use and perceive the meaning of the term neutral differently from one another. Thanks for your input. Very curious to see what else gets contributed on this thought.
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You seem to understand, yet you do not accept, that there is no consensus of the meaning, in audio at least, of ’neutral’. This post will not, I suspect, shed any great light on the subject. Neutral is a word which is absolute. It can only be ’neutral’ (check your dictionary) or its not neutral. There is no such thing, grammar wise, as near neutral. How you perhaps, and others, would define ’neutral’ really is nothing more or less than what you believe/want it to be. Bottom line, everything is subjective. Interestingly when discussing your experience with some speakers (and some electronics) you address the power supply and the cables as if this was what was determinative of the sound you heard. You did not address the differences that would be brought to this sound by the amp’s (or other components, as well as the location, which would have contributed). Just possibly those Dynaudios might sing to your hearts content if properly set up and the amp used to drive them was appropriately chosen for your desired result. I think nikoaudio’s opinion of a useful meaning of neutrality is going to be as good as it gets and all that is really needed. We aren’t discussing rocket science and a trip to the moon. :-)
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