Long Post.
Hi
I had wanted to write this post for a while... Never could carve the time to do so …
I will try as much as possible to de-personalize this post but that shall remain difficult so please bear with me…
I have been in this High End thing for a while about 40 years or maybe more. I have had an audiophile father, audiophile friends of my father and a family deep into music with a niece studying the Violin and Western Classical music...
I have followed the High End Audio scene for a good while... In the beginning I did follow both the American and the French High End Audio scene, and then it was mainly the American although the electronics that have provided me with the best results are German (Burmester).
In the beginning Audio reproduction in the house was about to bring the performers in our home. We needed to have High Fidelity. We were trying as hard as possible to reproduce what we heard in a live performance in our home… The goal proved very difficult, even impossible... So we lowered our expectations... We begin to admit that such goal was impossible rather than trying to push the limits we strayed … It was no longer about Hi-Fi we will mess with the signal and qualify the results .. However remote they became from the original signals.
Now let’s admit that we have preferences... I am always fascinated by the interplay of the violins in an orchestra, I also like the sound of cello and the way the violins interplay with the violins … I simply like the sound of an oboe and consider the horns like something that I must resign myself to listen to in music (IOW they have a purpose) but I prefer the sound of the woodwinds not of the brass.. I like the startle caused by a line from the double bass sustained by the whack of the percussion, mostly or other big drums. It seems to bring a power to the piece being played a gravitas if you will. Those are my preferences and I can understand that they would play a role in my choice of equipment: I like Full range systems. Call them Big Systems. I want real dynamics everywhere my hearing reaches. From down low to as high as I can (presently) perceive … No “oh but the midrange is soooo nice” I want full range wide dynamic range and purity in ALL registers. Thus my systems have tended toward large speakers with good dynamics or at least that what I know now. I dabbed in Quad and Martin Logan CLS ESL and no matter how much I admired the midband , I was always dissatisfied with the rendition … polite and always lacking of the visceral that makes music alive for me … Give me the IRS V ( I know people it is surpassed) or rather the Genesis 1, Give me the Maggies any of them but the 20.1 remains a favorite , give me the Dunleavy designs, the Von Schweikert , the Soundlabs or the X-2 with serious amplifiers some wattage and I am pleased .. Those are my preferences …
Thus the notion of “preferences “which is pervading the High End IMHO and taking it in a strange and in my opinion nefarious direction. I do understand that within the whole audible range there are preferences. Some like bass some like treble some like mid bass.. Since we can’t have a system that it does it all well we choose within those preferences or rather we should .. What I am seeing is the rise of systems that have no relationship whatever with the reality of a sound and that is becoming the norm.. . The preferences have become what sound pleasing even the music (message) wasn’t pleasing to begin with… Varese is supposed to sound dissonant and unsettling if it does not your system is wrong … Such euphonic systems are easily accepted by the audiophile world in the name of “musicality”. On the other hand when a kid fit his car with 10,000 of bass amplifier and enough 18-inch drivers to unscrew everything around his car, we find this system wrong … The chorus is that the subwoofer AKA car system is wrong .. We find Bose LifeStyle systems wrong and frankly we know they are is wrong.. We know the sound is not good… But if “preferences” are all that matters how wrong can a Bose be? That is what its owner like ….
I am trying to point to the fact that there may have to be some sense in all this there must be some references even if our preferences allow us to choose within the infinite possibilities that this entails… Euphony has become too much what the High End Audio is trending toward …
What do you think people? What are your views on the reproduction.. Aren’t we abandoning the very notion of High Fidelity where does that take us .. I would suggest : Not in a good place….
Hi
I had wanted to write this post for a while... Never could carve the time to do so …
I will try as much as possible to de-personalize this post but that shall remain difficult so please bear with me…
I have been in this High End thing for a while about 40 years or maybe more. I have had an audiophile father, audiophile friends of my father and a family deep into music with a niece studying the Violin and Western Classical music...
I have followed the High End Audio scene for a good while... In the beginning I did follow both the American and the French High End Audio scene, and then it was mainly the American although the electronics that have provided me with the best results are German (Burmester).
In the beginning Audio reproduction in the house was about to bring the performers in our home. We needed to have High Fidelity. We were trying as hard as possible to reproduce what we heard in a live performance in our home… The goal proved very difficult, even impossible... So we lowered our expectations... We begin to admit that such goal was impossible rather than trying to push the limits we strayed … It was no longer about Hi-Fi we will mess with the signal and qualify the results .. However remote they became from the original signals.
Now let’s admit that we have preferences... I am always fascinated by the interplay of the violins in an orchestra, I also like the sound of cello and the way the violins interplay with the violins … I simply like the sound of an oboe and consider the horns like something that I must resign myself to listen to in music (IOW they have a purpose) but I prefer the sound of the woodwinds not of the brass.. I like the startle caused by a line from the double bass sustained by the whack of the percussion, mostly or other big drums. It seems to bring a power to the piece being played a gravitas if you will. Those are my preferences and I can understand that they would play a role in my choice of equipment: I like Full range systems. Call them Big Systems. I want real dynamics everywhere my hearing reaches. From down low to as high as I can (presently) perceive … No “oh but the midrange is soooo nice” I want full range wide dynamic range and purity in ALL registers. Thus my systems have tended toward large speakers with good dynamics or at least that what I know now. I dabbed in Quad and Martin Logan CLS ESL and no matter how much I admired the midband , I was always dissatisfied with the rendition … polite and always lacking of the visceral that makes music alive for me … Give me the IRS V ( I know people it is surpassed) or rather the Genesis 1, Give me the Maggies any of them but the 20.1 remains a favorite , give me the Dunleavy designs, the Von Schweikert , the Soundlabs or the X-2 with serious amplifiers some wattage and I am pleased .. Those are my preferences …
Thus the notion of “preferences “which is pervading the High End IMHO and taking it in a strange and in my opinion nefarious direction. I do understand that within the whole audible range there are preferences. Some like bass some like treble some like mid bass.. Since we can’t have a system that it does it all well we choose within those preferences or rather we should .. What I am seeing is the rise of systems that have no relationship whatever with the reality of a sound and that is becoming the norm.. . The preferences have become what sound pleasing even the music (message) wasn’t pleasing to begin with… Varese is supposed to sound dissonant and unsettling if it does not your system is wrong … Such euphonic systems are easily accepted by the audiophile world in the name of “musicality”. On the other hand when a kid fit his car with 10,000 of bass amplifier and enough 18-inch drivers to unscrew everything around his car, we find this system wrong … The chorus is that the subwoofer AKA car system is wrong .. We find Bose LifeStyle systems wrong and frankly we know they are is wrong.. We know the sound is not good… But if “preferences” are all that matters how wrong can a Bose be? That is what its owner like ….
I am trying to point to the fact that there may have to be some sense in all this there must be some references even if our preferences allow us to choose within the infinite possibilities that this entails… Euphony has become too much what the High End Audio is trending toward …
What do you think people? What are your views on the reproduction.. Aren’t we abandoning the very notion of High Fidelity where does that take us .. I would suggest : Not in a good place….