| Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
July 10, 2010 - 12:51am
#1
What are we supposed to listen for?
| Loudspeakers Amplification Digital Sources | |
Analog Sources Accessories Featured | |
Music Columns Retired Columns | |
Show Reports | |
Features Latest News Community | |
Resources Subscriptions |
© 2024 StereophileAVTech Media Americas Inc., USA
All rights reserved
You missed the most important factor of all:
"If it ain't got that swing, it don't mean a thing!"
1. Content first
2. Sound quality ALWAYS second
I suppose I covered that in Can you keep the foot still? Do you want to just go on and on listening through your records?
That's a wonderful list.
I see the term 'natural' appears frequently in your list and would place that term as the top over-all 'descriptor.'
I also agree about the general importance of "the music not tiring you out," as you put it.
Between 'natural' and not getting 'listening fatigue,' the rest kind of follow behind!
Right you are-- not to disparage the list really. Maybe it was a bit too long for me and I missed that one.
I tend to look for larger categories than be too granular. It still gets down to a gut level assessment first, details second, for me at least.
Can't say I disagree
In addition to those already mentioned, a system should sound good at low volume. To me, if you can't listen while having a conversation about the music, the system is flawed.
Excellent.
Took me years to assemble such a system, or find the speaker that did that for me. Probably the single most motivating factor for my upgradeitis.
But isn't this term, along with 'nuetral' extremely
subjective from listener to listener? Can it truly be defined?
Hey, amigo.
Perfect question.
To steal from Justice Potter Stewart: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of sonic attributes I consider to constitute 'natural' . . . but I know it when I hear it . . . "
For me, it's more than neutral. Natural constitutes a more organic whole than that. It's a useless Gestalt term, really, but part of the 'feeling' of good audio.
(Left wing granola west coast bullshit answer? Maybe.....
....)
It is extremely subjective and can vary from listener to listener....but the term should resonate with someone despite any person to person variability.
Yep, it's probably something that eludes most of us for a while. I mean my first little system, bought with part-time job money back in '72 played well at low volumes. Only took me about 15 years and a bushel of bucks to learn how to do it again.
I think the real reward in this hobby comes when you have learned enough about gear and your personal taste to make the magic happen somewhat consistently. It's never perfect, but you do learn how to roll them sevens.
Thank you. I apologize for my poor use of your lingo
Sure thing. Why didn't I think of that?
IMHO no. We can only do our best in comparing reproduced vs real music. Right?
You Can't listen AND have a conversation. STFU I am listening to some music. My wife does not get it, but I do my best to be civil.
Women never get it
Well, there's your trouble right there.
If your wife got it more, maybe she'd be more accepting of your hobbies!
Considering the imminent danger of the names/things/obsessions/defects/drawbacks I will be associated with, I can say that I am in the lucky situation that I got divorced 11 years ago, and have been happy ever since!
(To make matters worse, I gotta admit she paid for my first HiFi amp, a Pioneer c90a/m90a 20 years ago, and without even blinking)
I don't really categorically believe in this one. Sure, I don't want AC hum in my system or hissy tubes, but I rarely hear black backgrounds when music is made in a real space. Studio recordings will have unnaturally black background because of all of the close miking, but I view this as an artifact of studio recordings and not something I strive for in creating my system.
What I want to hear is a system that creates a different background noise floor or room color on each and every recording I listen to. I want to hear that the system can really recreate the recording space or producer's mix accurately. The background should be black only if the recordings background is black - which I hear VERY rarely. I find that systems with consistently black backgrounds sometimes rob each recording of thier idiosyncrasies.
Anyone else find this to be true?
1) You are right in not categorically believeing in this. It should of course only be there when it's present on the recording.
2) Is anything in reproduced music natural?
3) I do. I want my system to be able to create this effect, even though it's not the case on every recording.
4) If you strive to build a system with close to no distortion (Well, you konow what I mean), and a very good S/N ratio, the black background will eventually come by itself IMHO.
5) How many normal consumers do you think listen to studio recording sessions regularly? I for sure don't. Having a dark or black "velvety" background between instruments and voices, provides a calmness to the music, that I find suits most music very well, at least studio recorded music. But it's all illusions anyway, right?
Yes and No, I suppose. I mean, an accurate microphone and an accurate amplifier and an accurate loudspeaker will come up with a natural tonal balance of a recorded instument. So in that case, for instance, I'd say you could have natural tonal balance (a recreation of a very similar spectra of sound from the original), free of other distortions and resonances. But since there are SO many factors that contribute sound, some we currently measure and some we don't, getting them all right is probably currently impossible. However, the illusion of a natural presentation is within our reach, I think. At least at my house!
Me too. But I don't want to strive for a black background when its not there, which is why I said I don;t catagorically believe in "black backgrounds" as a goal. I've heard people who use all sorts of line conditioners and power cords that achieve a consistent black background, yet rob the music of its openness and color the music in other ways.
True dat. That's why its not a goal for me, but an occasional byproduct, depending on the recording.
I don't understand. Don't we all listen to studio recording all the time? Almost all Rock and Pop recordings are studio-made. The exceptions are classical and maybe jazz recordings that are performed in a real hall, trying to capture that sound of the instruments in that hall instead of a studio affair where the naked sound of the instrument is captured and then manipulated to exist in the producer's idealized manufactured space.
Again, I only want a black background if I think it exists on the recording. Mainly, I just don't want to hear any part os my system introducing noise to the whole affair. This is why I go crazy with tube amps that put out a constant High frequency hiss. No matter how good the amp sounds, you are ALWAYS going to have that hiss in your music.
Yet its funny how well I can shut out surface noise on a record.
I'm a walking bag of contradictions!
...and nothing's wrong with that
What are we supposed to listen for?
Joy.
Hope.
Amazement.
Amusement.
Delight.
YMMV.
Trey
Amen.