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How do you judge your system's neutrality?


Here’s an answer I’ve been kicking around: Your system is becoming more neutral whenever you change a system element (component, cable, room treatment, etc.) and you get the following results:

(1) Individual pieces of music sound more unique.
(2) Your music collection sounds more diverse.

This theory occurred to me one day when I changed amps and noticed that the timbres of instruments were suddenly more distinct from one another. With the old amp, all instruments seemed to have a common harmonic element (the signature of the amp?!). With the new amp, individual instrument timbres sounded more unique and the range of instrument timbres sounded more diverse. I went on to notice that whole songs (and even whole albums) sounded more unique, and that my music collection, taken as a whole, sounded more diverse.

That led me to the following idea: If, after changing a system element, (1) individual pieces of music sound more unique, and (2) your music collection sounds more diverse, then your system is contributing less of its own signature to the music. And less signature means more neutral.

Thoughts?

P.S. This is only a way of judging the relative neutrality of a system. Judging the absolute neutrality of a system is a philosophical question for another day.

P.P.S. I don’t believe a system’s signature can be reduced to zero. But it doesn’t follow from that that differences in neutrality do not exist.

P.P.P.S. I’m not suggesting that neutrality is the most important goal in building an audio system, but in my experience, the changes that have resulted in greater neutrality (using the standard above) have also been the changes that resulted in more musical enjoyment.
bryoncunningham

Showing 2 responses by samhar

samhar
1,048 posts
 
I think the original two point are valid but a third point is needed.

Dgarretson nailed it at the start.
"a better term to use is a flat frequency response"
Ignores correct pitch & timbre, the hallmark of a high-end system.
"No real performing space is "neutral"...the room's acoustics always have a huge effect on the musician's sounds...The reference point should be what you want the music to sound like."
Does the room in which the playback system resides really affect sonics as much as the original recording space? IMO not true of any high-performance system-- particularly at lower volumes.

A "reference point" is necessary and should be #3 on the list. For me that point is acoustic nylon stringed guitar something I played.
Without a "reference point" it just all seems like mental masturbation. Very interesting but....
samhar
1,048 posts
 
Not all better tools belong to fools!!! Nuance at some point becomes the goal, finer and finer detail be it musical instrument, brushes, paints, cameras, race boats, race cars etc.... justifiable advancements in the pursuit of one's personal quest of beauty. Necessary? Maybe not but it's enjoyable to use/design fine equipment/pieces etc....
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