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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
audiotroy
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
782 posts
 
I’m definitely now (finally) in the real is good camp, but that may be merely because I’ve now been after it for 45+ yrs and have managed to cough up enough cash over time for what it was I was ultimately shooting for.

IOW, I suspect most folks relatively speaking would be more in the just starting out category than that and that the apparent disparity between the real is good understanding of what is possible and everything else may be more of an experience-vs-financial opportunity thing than anything else...IOW all that may be perfectly normal or predictable to an extent. Many people may be inclined to dabble in the hobby during their first few years or even for decades before the ultimate decision may take hold to up their game and really consider what it may take to get beyond all that.
williewonka
1,826 posts
 
@audiotroy - you might want to track if the hearing of either camp is omni vs. uni directional - it might explain a lot

Omni Directonal hearing people do not like being in a crowded room

Uni Directonal hearing people can focus on a single conversation across a crowded room

I'm Omni and my wife is Uni.

I like details - she likes musicality

Go figure :-)
rshak
309 posts
 
Well, FWIW, if I had to pick one of the two camps - - I'm a Type 2.
ps
411 posts
 
OP:
Please define "absolute sound" versus "musical"



almarg's avatar
almarg
8,673 posts
 
IMO the question involves greater complexity than a simple division between the two characterizations that have been suggested. As the varied responses in the following thread from a number of years ago seem to make clear:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/which-attributes-do-you-value-most

An excerpt from the OP in that thread:
Here is a list of attributes commonly valued by audiophiles, in no particular order:

1. Resolution
2. Soundstaging
3. PRaT
4. Dynamics
5. Tonal balance
6. Harmonic content
7. Accuracy
8. Coherence
9. Frequency extension
10. Scale

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. I’m interested to hear which attributes people prioritize above others.

My response in that thread:

1)Harmonic accuracy.

Which in turn encompasses or is affected by many of the factors that have been mentioned (tonal balance, harmonic content, accuracy, clarity, resolution, coherence, lifting of veils, freedom from distortion, etc.). To me "harmonic accuracy" is the most significant determinant of how "real" the instruments sound. I realize that by lumping its contributing factors together I am begging the question :-)

2)Clean transient response.

3)Dynamic range.

4)Frequency extension.

5)Image scale.

But given a choice between the two philosophies described in the OP, I’m definitely in the camp of "trying to reproduce the absolute sound and use live music as their guide."

Regards,
-- Al

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