Neutral IS attainable...very much so; as a valid audio concept it is alive and well, even if only in a purely subjective sense. But, brightness, darkness or bass-heavy etc, are nothing more than frequency response issues and can be fully corrected as such. What cannot be corrected in that way are the effects of colorations. That is a different problem with a different solution. I’m not talking about just speaker boxes, although that is certainly part of it. What I’m talking about here are the colorations in the components, passive crossovers and the wiring - ALL of the wiring...power cords, IC’s, speaker, all the in-wall wiring, breaker box wiring - everything. Yes, it is about EMI/RFI and yes, it is about magnetic fields. (I happen to think Geoff was in the middle of making a very good and valid point about magnetic fields here originally before he was so shrewdly interrupted ;-)
But, be that as it may, there’s still such a thing as non-neutral gear, pro or audiophile. We’re all probably aware of the nature of, say, the amp market at around, say, $3k or less. ’Rogue’ amp designers trying to make a name for themselves by giving us "more" of some particular favored attribute when we really know that it really can’t happen that way without giving up some other still-desirable attribute in the design process. We know this is true because if they were able to give us more of the good stuff without ever sacrificing anything elsewhere, then everybody would be making amps that way...there would be only one way to go to get the best sound and clearly that’s not the case, is it? There is no free lunch. And then there are, just for example, all those low cost tube amps that are known (and even sought) for their colorations (yielding some ’tonal color’ to a degree and "sweetness")...whether those colorations predominantly belong to the tubes they are using or to their amp design. I don’t really want to take anything away from those folks who prefer going this route, it’s all good and perfectly valid...it’s just not my particular cuppa, but I respect it 100% but, that’s because I know there are so many more buying factors that go into those choices than what I can include here.
My prior amps were the little (but mighty) Monarchy SM-70 Pros (single-ended transistor design). Long on timbre, but short on good string sounds, but overall somewhat colored through the lower mids and to lesser extent up into the midrange. It took a long time for me to fully figure out why I could never get EQ to sound right, no matter how much I experimented, measured or listened. Sometimes it sounded FAR better than I would’ve thought it had a right to - and then suddenly it would sound ’off’ or unnatural on the next disc - or even on the next track. No amount of Alan Maher Designs electrical noise reduction gear could neutralize that. When I ’upgraded’ to the less expensive and pro-sound Crowns I’m using now, Bam - that problem disappeared entirely. EQ now is set it and forget it...no measuring needed.
I suspect, though, that for some audiophiles, there may be perhaps too much of this kind of gear available to sift through and because most audiophiles don’t start out with the experience level to avoid buying this kind of gear initially, manufacturers may interpret this as ’demand’ and may respond by making more. But, there may be a certain frustration level out there by those who are not finding the neutral kind of gear they’re looking for, so they may end up feeling they are forced to go the "natural" sound route, instead. Not necessary, maybe, but IMO understandable possibly, given the lay of the land.
As for solving colorations (the electrical ones, not physical), I was able to solve that with AMD gear...but, my components had to be inherently neutral enough as well.
I define ’neutral’ then as having no colorations, a sound that is equally adept at reproducing "lush", "sweet", "brash" and "shrill". (Also can be used to describe a sound stage that’s neither too far to the front or to far to the rear).
Congrats to Peyton Manning!
