neutrality vs. realism

Gregm, I'm not sure I understand your comment. Are you saying a poorly recorded violin still sounds like a violin? Or it doesn't sound like a violin? To clarify my early post, "to make your music sound good", by that I mean should your system alter the music signal in such a way as to make even widely different quality recordings conform to the listener's preconceived notion of what a given instrument should sound like. In my mind this would make your system the equivalent of comfort food. It's emotionally satisfying and filling, but it's also non-challenging and eventually boring.

I read the original post as a restatement of the old question: "Do you want your system to make your music sound good (musical), or do you want your system to accurately portray what's in the grooves (neutrality). Tok2000 makes an excellent point about the quality of our music software being a major determinate of musicality/neutrality. Is a system really a high end system if it makes a shrill recording sound warm and pleasant? The accurate reproduction of an input signal should be the goal of all high end equipment (EQ devices excepted). Any sonic deviation from this definition of neutrality should be considered distortion. The problem with this line of reasoning is that we don't have a comprehensive set of tests and measurements that can accurately describe the human music listening experience. Some interpret this predicament to mean that we should ignore measurements and rely entirely upon our own individual hearing. Instead I think it merely means we, as both listeners and equipment designers, still have much to research and learn about music reproduction.

I totally agree that there is no live reference point for nearly all pop/rock recordings. However, I would take it even further for the case with even audiophile/purist recordings is not so clear cut. An experienced recording engineer can effectively control the sound of a recording by his/her choice of microphones and mic placement. Without using any EQ or other outboard processors the sound can be made upfront and forward, louder/softer, bright, warm or spacious. Regardless of the resolving power or musicality of their system, how can an audiophile know what particular sonic flavor the engineer was trying to acheive?

Recording music is a highly skilled craft. A skilled recording engineer will take into account the performer, the instruments, the hall, the recording equipment and make assumptions about the playback equipment in order to make what she considers an accurate representation of the musical performance.

For instance, let's say an unaccompanied vocalist has trouble controlling his dynamics and is prone to a slight sibilance. The engineer might pick a microphone with a recessed upper midrange to combat the sibilance and "ride the fader" during the recordings to keep the dynamic range within the optimum area of the storage medium. Alternatively, the engineer could use a compressor/limiter (essentially an automated volume control) and dump the recording into a computer based editor (think of it as a word processing software for music) and repair individual instances where sibilance is an issue. Neither approach is inherently superior and either method can result in a natural sounding recording. The determining element is not the equipment, but the skill of the engineer.

As audiophiles improve their playback systems they may start to reach a point where their systems are capable of readily revealing the artifacts (edits, aggresive EQ, mismatched reverbs, sibilance, low frequency garbage, tape hiss, instrument bleed-thru, air conditioner noise, etc.) of the recording process. These artifacts are not part of the musical performance and as such can only distract from it. I suspect that a large element of how people react to specific pieces of high end equipment revolves around how the equipment deals with these artifacts. I'm over generalizing, but for unknown reasons some equipment heightens and draws attention to these artifacts, while others expose them, but at the same time don't seem to emphasize them. There's so much that we don't know about reproducing music.

BTW, have you ever noticed how in recording orchestras or other large ensembles that the microphones are never positioned where a listner would normally sit?

I honestly don't know why the mic placement issue works the way it does, I only know it usually doesn't sound right if you try it otherwise. BTW, what preamp are you using with the Earthworks? Have you heard their speaker?

Cdc, an argument like that could be used to justify engineers using EQ, harmonic enhancers and other creative outboard devices.