Musicnoise, I never said anything about live performance, so why are you talking about it? I talked about replicating a live performance. Get your panties out of your crack and move on.
Dave |
If you listen at average levels of 85 to 87dB, which is what I do, you'll hit peaks over 100dB. They don't last long and will not hurt those with healty ears.
Dave |
I've never understood trying to match speakers to particular types of music. Either speakers are accurate or they're not. If they're accurate (dynamically and frequency response-wise) and full range, then they'll work equally well with any music.
Dave |
Pubul57 said:
"Is compression much more common in pop/rock? It seems like it is."
I think you're right about that.
Dave |
08-15-08: Musicnoise said:
"... the amount of distortion desired or unwanted comes into play." and "There are really two broad schools of thought with speakers and sound in general. One is to build the most accurate system possible, the other is to treat the system as a musical instrument in and of itself."
This view boggles my mind. How can adding distortion on top of distortion replicate a performance say, "Sympathy for the Devil"? If the recording itself is full of distortion, then don't you want to hear what the artist intended??? I don't see that as a valid approach at all. A system like that couldn't reproduce anything well, IMHO.
If you want to reinterpret the recording, then load it into a music suite and modify it to your tastes, but then play it back through an accurate system, rather than a crap shoot, distorting system.
Dave |
Eweedhome, what's your digital source? That's often the real issue with unlistenable CDs. No front end can overcome an overly compressed extremely poorly mastered CD, but a good player/DAC combination can work wonders with most CDs, removing the glare and digital uglyness marring many CDs.
Dave |
Timrhu said:
"When looking for speakers I look for a one that can play at low volumes without losing its sonic signature. Not all speakers do this well."
Unfortunately for you, Flecther and Munson (sp?) demonstrated that your ears don't hear the same at low volumes. The old "Loudness" button on old two-channel receivers was meant to compensate for this.
Does anyone have a modern, audiophile-level way to deal with this today?
Listening near-field is my only suggestion. I do this often on morning when I get up early for coffee and the paper while others are asleep. It works pretty well.
Dave |
Musicnoise, what you meant to say in your quoted text is muddy, at least. We're talking about home music systems here, not live performance equipment and I still can't see where you made any clear distinction. Sorry for the misinterpretation.
I think we agree, but I'm not sure, that we both think that distorted reproduction systems really make little sense, even though many people choose them. I think this choice is often made because getting the sources right, particularly on a budget, is hard to do, so they buy distorted amplification to smooth over the shortcomings of their frontends.
Dave |
I with MrT, if you suffering, then get another hobby. Music should be a joy.
Dave |
Go ahead, extract whatever you want out of context, the fact is I said, "replicate a live performance". Your just being argumentative for some reason.
Dave |
Calldr said:
"A speaker that will not let you hear a bad recording is poor investment."
Absolutely!! |
To expand on Learsfool's theme, any one of the recent SACDs of Mahler by SF Syphony with Michael Tilson Thomas will test the limits of a speaker system. Symphony #1 and #6 have over 40dB of dynamic range, with huge sounds juxtiposed with almost silent spots.
For someone that doesn't know symphonic sounds, then some vocal music will need to be added to check timbres. Female and male vocals in rock or pop genres will usually do, so long as the recording is not grossly compressed.
Dave |
That was mastering really, wasn't it? No doubt it was in a pretty small room and, perhaps, some subs were integrated into the mix to get the full range, even in a smaller room.
In an average room, without subs, IMHO, ELS 63s will be stretched beyond capacity by Mahler. They'll sound glorious most of the time, but the peaks will slay them. That's just not acceptable for me, but I understand the attraction for those that go that route.
Dave |
Eweedhome asked:
"You have any suggestions?"
Playback Designs MPS-5.
Dave |
To Shadorne's point, last Saturday I listened to Mahler's 1st, which gets incredibly loud at several points when the average loudness is set around 85dB. Immediately after that I put on a Bruce Cockburn CD that had mysteriously arrived in the mail despite me not ordering it. I love much of Bruce's work, but the thing blared out at 90+dB and just sounded crappy. I turned it way down, but it was totally lacking in dynamics and sounded lifeless at lower level. It didn't sound good loud and it didn't sound good medium or soft. I gave it one listen and, even though I was intrigued by some of the lyrics and music, I'll never listen to it again.
Dave |
