Panorama,
I hope that you believe me when I say that I really admire your speaker choice. I also hope that everyone sees that there is no right and wrong here but that personal preference is most important. After all, you are the one who has to pay for and live with the choice in the end.
Daveyf,
I think the point about the horn player's speaker is a good one but think that this was probably another example of where the product was so loaded to one side of the medium that it sounded really dynamic, present and live on drums but lacked the relaxed and ambient qualities to make it enjoyable on recorded music. This and the opposite of course are evident throughout the music industry.
You have made a valid point about the sound of real instruments and one thing that we have not talked about is how the instrument interacts with the room. These reflections or reinforcements are also picked up by the sensitive ear and most recordings of instruments are close miked or sparsely miked in a room or studio. I know from personal experience that it takes an extremely gifted recording engineer to bring out these natural qualities. I think David Chesky is an example of one that is driven to resolving this type of information and his last CD shows this in spades. Dave plays on the CD and recorded the piece knowing what it sounded like in the recording venue. He listened to his disk at least a half a dozen times in our suite at the CES at felt that our system was the most life like at the show. Sorry for the small plug but it goes along with our conversation. He also mentioned that there were a lot of other excellent rooms that were doing other things incredibly well.
I think that a really interesting thing for you and others to watch would be the people coming and going from our suite at an audio show. The reactions are really quite amazing. Some get it immediately and fall in love hard. Others think it nice and some just don't like it...period. The reaction to the more immediate perspective is what I comment on here. I used to think that there was no accounting for taste ;-P but now realise that we all like to sit in different locations in the concert hall. So, pick your spot and go for it.
Regards,
Bobby
I hope that you believe me when I say that I really admire your speaker choice. I also hope that everyone sees that there is no right and wrong here but that personal preference is most important. After all, you are the one who has to pay for and live with the choice in the end.
Daveyf,
I think the point about the horn player's speaker is a good one but think that this was probably another example of where the product was so loaded to one side of the medium that it sounded really dynamic, present and live on drums but lacked the relaxed and ambient qualities to make it enjoyable on recorded music. This and the opposite of course are evident throughout the music industry.
You have made a valid point about the sound of real instruments and one thing that we have not talked about is how the instrument interacts with the room. These reflections or reinforcements are also picked up by the sensitive ear and most recordings of instruments are close miked or sparsely miked in a room or studio. I know from personal experience that it takes an extremely gifted recording engineer to bring out these natural qualities. I think David Chesky is an example of one that is driven to resolving this type of information and his last CD shows this in spades. Dave plays on the CD and recorded the piece knowing what it sounded like in the recording venue. He listened to his disk at least a half a dozen times in our suite at the CES at felt that our system was the most life like at the show. Sorry for the small plug but it goes along with our conversation. He also mentioned that there were a lot of other excellent rooms that were doing other things incredibly well.
I think that a really interesting thing for you and others to watch would be the people coming and going from our suite at an audio show. The reactions are really quite amazing. Some get it immediately and fall in love hard. Others think it nice and some just don't like it...period. The reaction to the more immediate perspective is what I comment on here. I used to think that there was no accounting for taste ;-P but now realise that we all like to sit in different locations in the concert hall. So, pick your spot and go for it.
Regards,
Bobby