Describe the "new HiFi sound"?


Recently had a discussion with an audio friend over the word "musical" and what this word means to each of us with regard to sound from different amplifiers and speakers. Some debate too.  And, reading this other comment on Agon once in a while...how some equipment has the "new HiFi sound".  

ASK: 

Can someone describe this, in your words, what is the new HiFi Sound to you?  Examples? Or, opposites of the new HiFi sound, what does this sound like?

 

 

 

decooney

For me, it seems my "new hi-fi music" digs so much more detail out of recorded music, no matter the format, compared to my systems of old. And that also goes for playback of "older" recorded music. There is so much more information to hear. I go through my classic rock, R&B and jazz and I’m jaw-dropped with discovering so many more layers of sound from these recordings. I’m listening now to Sting’s album, "Brand New Day", (streaming via Tidal Masters), that I’ve listened to hundreds of times, but, tonight, there is music in those tracks that's totally "new" to me.

lots of silly banter about the words here, as i read the responses...

i think what @decooney is asking about is whether newer, higher end speakers tend to portray the sound of the music they are playing differently than older top-line speakers... am sure he will correct me if i am wrong on this

the answer is pretty clear for anyone who has kept up with new stuff, gone to shows/showrooms, heard the hotshot newer stuff from the big boys

more detail up front (refined as it may be), more ability to play loud cleanly, less cabinet resonances, more ’accuracy’ so to speak, but imo arguably at the expense of musicality

as such. more of a tendency to pull the musical pieceparts apart, disaggregated, as opposed to giving a more holistic sense of the performance

Harry Pearson appraised audio equipment by its ability to approximate the sound heard from the best seat in the best concert hall, presumably under conditions of optimal temperature and humidity.

The "new" sound is something entirely different. It aims not to simulate live concert performance, but to do aurally what molecular gastronomy does gustatorily: to create, via sophisticated technology, sensory experiences NOT to be found outside the laboratory. Visual media, of course, achieved this first, in all those movies I have no wish ever to see. ("I hold most dear my sight; yet would I choose / to hear no more the music of your voice? Or could I bear the thought that I might lose / the touch of you? I could not make a choice.")  

*S* I’ve noticed a preference in the way I’ll tweak the eq ’off flat’...and 8k > 14k is about right.  *tizz 'n sizzle*  Feel it on ones' skin. ;)

Partially due to aged ears and synapse to match, it’s just ’how’ I prefer it; esp. with ’older muzac’ that still bemuses’...

@nonoise , and very much that. *5s’*

It sounds better...because it is, and it’s being reproduced (on average...a broad one, but...) Better, overall.

A win... *G*

@jjss49 ... perfect synopsis of this is to compare the old school spendor classic 100/sp100/r2 sound vs their modern sound d9 or d7 series

..."am sure he will correct me if i am wrong on this"

 

 

Nope, not wrong at all, no correction necessary. Spot on. And, I thought your example is a good one.

Reading responses here in this thread, perhaps I tend to prefer a "natural" and "neutral" presentation from a system - one that does not sound forced or call any particular attention to itself.