There actually are 2 types of listening…me and everybody else.
Two Type of sound and listener preference are there more?
In our thirty years of professional audio system design and setup, we keep on running into two distinctly different types of sound and listeners.
Type One: Detail, clarity, soundstage, the high resolution/accuracy camp. People who fall into this camp are trying to reproduce the absolute sound and use live music as their guide.
Type Two: Musicality camp, who favors tone and listenability over the high resolution camp. Dynamics, spl capabilty, soundstaging are less important. The ability for a system to sound real is less important than the overall sound reproduced "sounds good."
Are there more then this as two distincly different camps?
We favor the real is good and not real is not good philosophy.
Some people who talk about Musicaility complain when a sytem sounds bright with bright music.
In our viewpoint if for example you go to a Wedding with a Live band full of brass instruments like horns, trumpts etc it hurts your ears, shouldn’t you want your system to sound like a mirror of what is really there? Isn’t the idea to bring you back to the recording itself?
Please discuss, you can cite examples of products or systems but keep to the topic of sound and nothing else.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
Type One: Detail, clarity, soundstage, the high resolution/accuracy camp. People who fall into this camp are trying to reproduce the absolute sound and use live music as their guide.
Type Two: Musicality camp, who favors tone and listenability over the high resolution camp. Dynamics, spl capabilty, soundstaging are less important. The ability for a system to sound real is less important than the overall sound reproduced "sounds good."
Are there more then this as two distincly different camps?
We favor the real is good and not real is not good philosophy.
Some people who talk about Musicaility complain when a sytem sounds bright with bright music.
In our viewpoint if for example you go to a Wedding with a Live band full of brass instruments like horns, trumpts etc it hurts your ears, shouldn’t you want your system to sound like a mirror of what is really there? Isn’t the idea to bring you back to the recording itself?
Please discuss, you can cite examples of products or systems but keep to the topic of sound and nothing else.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
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- 151 posts total
LOL I play in an 11 piece band. i also have live sound and recording experience. I know exactly what your saying. As far as listening i tend to lean towards Dialing in the overall sound. It varies with the type of Music and recording Era and process. I like to dial my System into what i am listening to. My favorite is the sound i grew up with. Late 60s early 70s Rock. All Hi Fi is The reproduction of Music so it varies with music style, your individual taste and the flexibility of your System. John www.thebstreetbombers.com |
First a couple of admissions: 1: I have the smallest audiophile phallus in this conversation 2: I am a fanboy of Dave Audiodoctor. He has a wonderful small shop with an incredible inventory and lots of patience and spent hours moving equipment in and out for me and my wife. Having gotten that off my chest, now my comments. I once read an article by someone who went out with a coffee reviewer. These are the people who test coffees. They do it black, no sugar slurping sips and rolling them around in their mouths before spitting them out. The writer was amazed that the reviewer had his coffee with sugar and cream. When asked about it, the reviewer said that he was drinking the coffee for enjoyment at that moment, and not to review. In my mind, it is about enjoying listening to the music. Whatever floats your boat is right FOR YOU. My new amplifier, Primaluna Dialogue HP with KT150 tubes has a remote that can change from triode to ultralinear. There are recordings that IN MY MIND sound better in one mode than the other, and the next recording might be the opposite. This will depend on the type of music, the way it was recorded and my mood. I had visited a number of shops and listened to a number of very nice speakers. When I went to Dave's shop I again listened to a number of speakers at different price points, sizes and construction. For me, the speakers I chose were a pair of Vivid Oval 1.5s. I felt like I was glued or velcroed to my seat. I just didn't want to get up. I went back to the shop and had the same experience and bought the speakers. Several months later and an upgrade to my amplifier, I have the same experience every time I listen. There were other speakers that Dave clearly preferred. He explained his reasoning clearly, but he respected my reaction to these speakers. Again I have no second thoughts. If I looked at impedance, frequency response, off axis response, etc, it would not matter one iota, I like the sound, and I want to listen. We have all heard systems that for no clear reason from which we wanted to walk away. The last thing any of us want to have is "listener fatigue." Aside from a classical concert hall, all of the music to which we listen is amplified and manipulated. The one thing I think we on which I think we can all agree is that compression and loss of dynamic range is not consistent with "live" music even when amplified and needs to be avoided. When I met my wife, my therapist said that she "resonated" with me. I think that my system also has to resonate with me.. |
- 151 posts total