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?
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. |
I have tried a variety of gear over the years and have mostly kept the stuff that I enjoy listening to. My predominate criteria have been tone and dynamics, and I have been fortunate to acquire gear that is also quiet, smooth, and generally accurate-sounding compared to live music I listen to. I have no illusion that I am listening to anything but recorded music played back on a home system but the rich tonal quality and generally powerful dynamic response both go a long way toward my enjoyment. I pay almost no attention to measurements, audiophile-type analyses, or comparisons with idealized references. |
@erik_squires Have you named your Oscilloscope yet and which name you've chosen, boy's name, girls name or neutral? If you have chosen the name, are you looking for picking the last or second name? |
