Neutral electronics are a farce...

Wolf,  I love the bread thing, especially useful at our Thanksgiving jamboree. Do you think 1247 pieces of rye (can I mix in some white?) would adequately stuff the turkey? Perhaps you know of another way to attach them to the ceiling...... I'm fearful of the affect the duct tape residue may have on the dressing. Cheers

Wolf, you managed to scare the crap out of me...the images you painted sound absolutely frightening!  Not sure if it was the acid or the braiding...I'd prefer 10th row at the BSO;)

JMCgrogan2... i agree with everything you wrote. "Neutral" in audiophile circles is a term that has been twisted to mean something different than balanced and uncolored. As a result, it misleads many people to expect it to mean one thing, when it is being used to mean treble-tilted and midrange sucked out, giving the impression of treble clarity and "clean" midrange. This is something i avoid at all costs, and my experience is that these days "neutral" is used in the latter sense 90 percent of the time.

Jmcgrogan does have a point...as he indicated, natural is vague as well.  How about realistic, as having the full envelope of frequencies and tones expressed with complete dynamic freedom and clarity!  That should eliminate about 90% of systems:). Of course one can only really assess an entire system.  That's why reviews are quite meaningless really, except for the very obvious features and characteristics.

Have words lost their meaning? Words and terms like smooth, refined, detailed, wide soundstage, organized soundstage, bass shy, microdynamics, de-interleaved, irritating, tortuous, threadbare, innocuous, harsh, whimpy, congealed, boomy, honky, musical, open, metallic, electronic, wet, liquid, anemic, bland and so forth attempt to describe the sound. But the usual audiophile words have become meaningless or trite. Maybe we need a new lexicon.