Describe the "new HiFi sound"?

lots of silly banter about the words here, as i read the responses...

i think what @decooney is asking about is whether newer, higher end speakers tend to portray the sound of the music they are playing differently than older top-line speakers... am sure he will correct me if i am wrong on this

the answer is pretty clear for anyone who has kept up with new stuff, gone to shows/showrooms, heard the hotshot newer stuff from the big boys

more detail up front (refined as it may be), more ability to play loud cleanly, less cabinet resonances, more ’accuracy’ so to speak, but imo arguably at the expense of musicality

as such. more of a tendency to pull the musical pieceparts apart, disaggregated, as opposed to giving a more holistic sense of the performance

Harry Pearson appraised audio equipment by its ability to approximate the sound heard from the best seat in the best concert hall, presumably under conditions of optimal temperature and humidity.

The "new" sound is something entirely different. It aims not to simulate live concert performance, but to do aurally what molecular gastronomy does gustatorily: to create, via sophisticated technology, sensory experiences NOT to be found outside the laboratory. Visual media, of course, achieved this first, in all those movies I have no wish ever to see. ("I hold most dear my sight; yet would I choose / to hear no more the music of your voice? Or could I bear the thought that I might lose / the touch of you? I could not make a choice.")  

*S* I’ve noticed a preference in the way I’ll tweak the eq ’off flat’...and 8k > 14k is about right.  *tizz 'n sizzle*  Feel it on ones' skin. ;)

Partially due to aged ears and synapse to match, it’s just ’how’ I prefer it; esp. with ’older muzac’ that still bemuses’...

@nonoise , and very much that. *5s’*

It sounds better...because it is, and it’s being reproduced (on average...a broad one, but...) Better, overall.

A win... *G*

@jjss49 ... perfect synopsis of this is to compare the old school spendor classic 100/sp100/r2 sound vs their modern sound d9 or d7 series

..."am sure he will correct me if i am wrong on this"

 

Nope, not wrong at all, no correction necessary. Spot on. And, I thought your example is a good one.

Reading responses here in this thread, perhaps I tend to prefer a "natural" and "neutral" presentation from a system - one that does not sound forced or call any particular attention to itself. 

The somewhat recent integration of subwoofers and sub arrays into many systems, including my own has significantly changed the "sound" of those systems. Consequently, my musical tastes have evolved to maximize this.