High Performance Audio - The End?


Steve Guttenberg recently posted on his audiophiliac channel what might be an iconoclastic video.

Steve attempts to crystallise the somewhat nebulous feeling that climbing the ladder to the high-end might be a counter productive endeavour. 

This will be seen in many high- end quarters as heretical talk, possibly even blasphemous.
Steve might even risk bring excommunicated. However, there can be no denying that the vast quantity of popular music that we listen to is not particularly well recorded.

Steve's point, and it's one I've seen mentioned many times previously at shows and demos, is that better more revealing systems will often only serve to make most recordings sound worse. 

There is no doubt that this does happen, but the exact point will depend upon the listeners preference. Let's say for example that it might happen a lot earlier for fans of punk, rap, techno and pop.

Does this call into question almost everything we are trying to ultimately attain?

Could this be audio's equivalent of Martin Luther's 1517 posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg?

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Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318

Showing 1 response by mammothguy54

My system is most certainly revealing, call it high-resolution if you will.  There is a ton of music I own that is certainly not the best quality in recording and/or production (mixing, mastering, plating, pressing, vinyl quality).  However, I really enjoy that music so I just keep the volume a little lower and it sounds pretty good, just not great.  But again, the music is great and I still enjoy the listening session, even on a high-resolution system.  Last night I played a number of records (hey, it was Saturday night so of course I had a nice long listening session!) and was all over the place in the type of music and the sound quality.  This is but one example; Yes, 'The Yes Album' is not the best in sound quality but is still pretty good so I played it at an appreciable volume but not terribly loud.  What a wonderful album that is and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  On a couple of songs I found it to be a little brash so, even though at a moderate volume level, I went back a couple of clicks and it smoothed out a bit more.  Up next, Jennifer Warnes, 'Famous Blue Raincoat' (numbered limited edition, reissue by Impex, from Jennifer's private analogue tape).  Turn up the volume on that one.  Holy crap, is that a fine production quality and definitely of excellent music, to boot.  Holographic, deep, about as good as it gets in every respect.  
The bottom line is that I like to enjoy it all and most definitely prefer a higher-end and very revealing audio system.  I simply treat the volume control with a little regard when playing those not-so-great recordings and let 'er rip on those fabulous sounding recordings.  Great music is a way of life, and for me, so too is a great audio system.