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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
mikewerner
118 posts
 
Think about this...
If a playback system is low distortion, then it is high resolution.
The contrapositive statement is:
If a system is low resolution, then it is high distortion.

I regularly listen to "poorly recorded music" through a low distortion system and am amazed at how good it sounds. One of my favorites is "1967 Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits." Really, I am slack jawed listening to the music. It sounds fantastic!

Note the common error of logic made with the above statement:
If a system is high resolution, then it is low distortion. This is NOT true.

This helps explain much of the seemingly contradictory statements made in this thread.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
"Time and time again piano crops up when evaluating the authenticity of any playback system, as does listening to live unamplified music."

In my case yesterday, playback system helped me evaluate the piano. It reminded me that it is time to tune it.

I listened to my new record yesterday, new to me as it was made in 1950s. I compared it with piano behind me. Record won.
mikewerner
118 posts
 
Thanks glupson, that is really funny!

stargazer3's avatar
stargazer3
135 posts
 
If I was forced to listen to contemporary music for last 5 years which is played on the most popular stations then investing into HiFi which is revealing would probably be waste of money.  You can't force sunshine on a cloudy gloomy day.  However my music tastes are wider and go way back in history which consists a richer concoction of music then the above given example so I would prefer a more revealing system which for instance, recognizes the tone of the piano (which changes in use and surroundings) and can tell the difference and give correct tonality between wound steel strings and nylon treble strings from two guitars playing on the same track.
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