neutrality & transparency: what's the difference ?

This is kinda like trying to explain to someone the difference between horsepower and torque. You think you know, but can't quite explain it.

Current?

"My best friend's sister's boyfriend's cousin said she saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors..."

neutral and transparency are often considered the same by some hobbyists.

in fact they are not.

I have not found many people who believe that. In fact as Jamscience mentioned, one is not event he subset of the other. From the Stereophile Glossary:

neutral - Free from coloration.

transparency, transparent - 1) A quality of sound reproduction that gives the impression of listening through the system to the original sounds, rather than to a pair of loudspeakers. 2) Freedom from veiling, texturing, or any other quality, which tends to obscure the signal. A quality of crystalline clarity.

In my opinion and somewhat based on the above definition, "neutral" is a term that mainly applies to the frequency response of a component, i.e. there are no colorations over the proposed range of the component. Bass extension does not play a role in my opinion though, e.g. many Monitor speakers are considered neutral in their respective range.

"Transparent" on the other hand does not necessarily only make a statement about frequency response, but also affects attributes like timing, rise times, ringing, and most importantly in agreement with part 1) of the Stereophile definition, spatial clues and information.

At the end of the day, it would be nice to have an agreed on Glossary. The main problem here is though semantics: Using subjective, metaphorical terms to gain an objective description is bound to fail.

My 2c,

Rene

by neutrality, i mean accurate or the truth. if the input doesn't equal the output, there is inaccuracy, error hence not accurate not neutral.

transparency is a window on the music, if a component(s) is restricted in frequency response, and a source is also restricted in frequency response , i.e., within the range of the equipment, the result is transparency. you hear what is on the recording.

if there is some veiling, but very slight, you may still hear everything on the recording. however, in this case the result is less clear the the recording, hence not the truth, not neutrality, not accurate, but possibly transparent enough to be assigned the term

since perfection does not exist, there is no absolute transparency there is inaccuracy.

however, for listening purposes, audibility, one acknowledges imperfection and still uses the term transparency.

i still maintain that if a stereo system/compent is virtually neutral, transparency is implied.

if a stereo system is virtually transparent, virtual neutrality may or may not exist.

the attribute of virtual neutrality is more rigorous in its requirements than that of virtual transparency