Real or Surreal. Do you throw accuracy out the window for "better" sound?
I visited a friend recently who has an estimated $150,000 system. At first listen it sounded wonderful, airy, hyper detailed, with an excellent well delineated image, an audiophile's dream. Then we put on a jazz quartet album I am extremely familiar with, an excellent recording from the analog days. There was something wrong. On closing my eyes it stood out immediately. The cymbals were way out in front of everything. The drummer would have needed at least 10 foot arms to get to them. I had him put on a female vocalist I know and sure enough there was sibilance with her voice, same with violins. These are all signs that the systems frequency response is sloped upwards as the frequency rises resulting in more air and detail. This is a system that sounds right at low volumes except my friend listens with gusto. This is like someone who watches TV with the color controls all the way up.
I have always tried to recreate the live performance. Admittedly, this might not result in the most attractive sound. Most systems are seriously compromised in terms of bass power and output. Maybe this is a way of compensating.
There is no right or wrong. This is purely a matter of preference accuracy be damn. What would you rather, real or surreal?
I often throw away stereotypes on better sound for bigger money and it works very well. Hey, you never know It might be those high-end wires that do cost a lot and do make a difference you've just experienced. Same pattern only with a LOT larger magnitude is around medications... You might think that it was made out of bunch of magic and expensive substance that will help ya, but at the end, you've only spent a fortune without much desirable outcome. |
Buying with the money to buy will not replace acoustics knowledge... I own a system with headphone and speakers under 1000 bucks... 😊 With no major defects...Upgrading will cost me 10,000 bucks but it is unnecessary because i already enjoy immersiveness and good timbre...On my headphone and even with my speakers... My system is better than what you described... My system show me ALL but did not tell me what to hear... As Hilde45 put it well... Amazing how there is no linear relation between price and sound... Nothing replace acoustics knowledge because if you dont understand the 5 factors interplay describing TIMBRE or the many factors related to spatial dimensions of the soundfield how can you create them by learning how to control them in some way for yourself ? By buying costly components ?🤨 We create,ourself or not, our sound experience with any basically good synergetical components RIGHTFULLY EMBEDDED IN OUR ROOM/HOUSE...This is related to basic knowledge and synergy ONLY ,not price tag AT ALL ... By the way did you know why i did not recommend my low cost speakers and headphone choices to eveyone ? It is because they are optimal ONLY after many modifications and the rightful embeddings ... I recommend studying, reading, embeddings controls, experiments with creative and fun imagination based on ACOUSTICS not only room acoustic here... I never recommended my brand name gear pieces as solutions as many did... I recommended acoustics learning and experiments... I modified my speakers after i studied crosstalk effects reading in acoustics and Helmholtz resonators ...Same for my headphone and other acoustics concepts ... Without modifications they are not so good at all even if i bought them because of the users reviews unanimously good almost... We must dare to read about all acoustics concepts to understand what we perceive when we hear a sound... If not we will go on the upgraditis wheel and marketing hype... There is a MINIMAL acoustic satisfaction threshold, when you get it, music became immersive so much that you forget sounds and marginal and most useless upgrades... You can economise much money but you cannot economise time study and experiments sorry...It is why most people pay with money instead of thinking and paying with time ... Most have not my time leisure in retirement... I will never had did it before my retirement ... Then i understand people... But the truth must be said...😊 Investing time can be fun and it is way more rewarding than most upgrading... |
The concept of "accuracy" is misleading completely here... Accuracy in electrical engineering is not accuracy in digital engineering nor accuracy in music experience nor accuracy in physical acoustics nor accuracy in psycho-acoustics perspective... And accuracy for audiophiles is not any of these different accuracy concepts, it is most of the time gear choices related though not musically and acoustically related first and last .. It is why we must study fundamental basic acoustics and psycho-acoustics concepts to understand what we spoke about speaking of "accuracy"... Accuracy is most of the time a design marketing keyword used most of the time coming from electrical engineering measured specs or from digital audio engineering coming from Fourier analysis... An audio system well embedded must sound NATURAL not "accurate"...Musical not "detailed"... And all this it is not grounded on our tastes for some gear component or branded name so much as grounded in acoustics knowledge and controlled factors in a general sense of the word including psycho-acoustics when we learn how to embed an audio system nevermind his price ... |
Yes. What you are listening to is recorded music.
@mapman +1 Well said! |
The essence of music is conveyed via emotional component of it not via its mathematical constructs. But the mathematical constructs are necessary to make music happen at all. Most of the recordings that I listen to are quite bad. If I can somehow make them sound a little better I will do it. But I would not be doing too much of a "remastering engineering" either. I'll try to find a balance. Live music is not hyper detailed, it is just detailed. |
