Nine out of Ten audiophiles agree that a system should be 100 percent revealing and 100 percent musical. Obviously this is impossible and the perception is that as the system becomes more revealing it also becomes less musical and vice-versa. So, a system that is 100 percent revealing will only be about 50 percent musical; whereas, a system that is 100 percent musical will only be 50 percent revealing. My best advice (after years of research) is to split the difference and shoot for 75 percent revealing to 75 percent musical. But whether or not you will recognize when you've achieved this balance is uncertain and completely subjective for each individual. So there you have it, in black and white. By the way, could someone please enlighten me as to how high is up??? :)
How Revealing Should a System Be?
I've heard tales of audiophiles reach a point of dimininshing returns as they upgrade their systems. Meaning, the more revealing the system gets, the more discriminating their system will be of the recordings that are played back on it. Some of you have said that recordings that you once really liked were now unlistenable because your system revealed all of the flaws in the recording. Doesn't that limit some audiophiles to what recordings they can actually listen to? If so, we have gotten away from the thing that brought us to this hobby in the first place.........THE MUSIC! It seems the equipment should never be more important than the music.