Why do audiophiles shun feedback in amplifiers?

Good point.

If I may chime in here on the "tight" bass issue. Atmasphere's description of the string bass is a good one - no orchestral bassist would want to be told that he sounds "tight." I am sorry to say that Kijanki's post in response makes almost no sense from this standpoint. No truly great sounding instrument sounds "tight," though one with a problem, or a bad quality one might. This would be considered a very negative description.

Charles1dad makes a good point: "there are audiophile qualities/expectations that appear to vary from the reality of live acoustic instruments. If some audiophiles were blind folded and heard peter`s bass playing(but told they`re hearing a system and judge it) they might say it lacked tightness and was too warm and round.People like what they like,but many audio components tend to thin and make the sound leaner(tighter?) than real life presentations i.e. fuller tone and body with weight and presence."

To this point, I would add that we also need to distinguish between amplified and unamplified acoustic bass - as soon as amplification is used, as it almost always is in live jazz, for instance, this results in an artificially boosted bass, and a very different sound from the unamplified string bass.

There are a great many audiophiles who do not listen to classical music even on recordings, let alone live, and therefore really don't have any idea what an un-amplified string bass actually sounds like live. Their concept of how bass is supposed to sound is therefore entirely based on either electronically produced or at least amplified acoustic bass. This is the biggest reason why there is so much debate about this in the audiophile community - there are two VERY different references going on. When orchestral musicians use the term "tight," they are never describing timbre. You simply would never hear someone say "He sounds tight!" Instead this term is used to describe how rhythmically together the group is playing - as in tight or loose ensemble.

Learsfool,
Thanks for your comments and viewpoint.I made it a point to be clear about the enrivoment in the jazz I attended.Kenny Washington`s stand up bass was 'natural' and unboosted. Definitely not'tight' in the audiophile sense.This is why IMO tube amplifier bass sound more real than most solid state when reproducing acoustic bass, there`s no artificial'slam' added.I do appreciate though that many do like that 'slam' factor and I`m likely in the minority..
Regards,

Learsfool, Upright bass has better "definition" related to fact that strings are, being long scale, at high tension. Sound of plucked string instrument can be defined by factors like Presence, Projection, Sustain, Separation and Tone. Upright bass has huge projection and great separation making for punchy tight sound, but at the same time has good presence and long sustain. Sound depends entirely on the player, that can play it to use projection and shorten the notes to kill sustain or can play softer because of good presence and use sustain "filling" the room with bass that reverberates. All I'm saying is that short scale bass guitar like McCartney's Hofner will sound flabby no matter how you play it, because it is extremely short scale bass with very low string tension. For the same reason Strat electric guitars sound punchier than shorter scale Les Pauls.

Learsfool, this is all semantics. I have been playing classical guitar since high school, and have dabbled in piano and sax. I have attended concerts at some of the finest halls in the country (Symphony Hall in Boston, etc) and listen to live unamplified acoustic music on a regular basis (Jazz, folk, and classical). By tight, I don't mean bass that has been stripped of harmonic content and sounds dry. I mean muddy bass that has been stripped of harmonic content distorting the timbre of the instrument. Tight bass has initial fast transient attack followed by natural decay and rich harmonics. This can be heard with plucked stand up bass, low piano notes, kick drum, tympani etc. There are exceptions of course such as wind instruments, like church organ, tuba, etc.