Class D Amplification Announcement

Fantastic advice from Atmasphere re making one’s recordings “to know what’s right and what isn’t”.  I would include and stress increased attendance to live performances.  In that advice is the simple reality that there IS a “right”…..certainly within a narrower spectrum of variability (for various reasons) than that which I hear among many different audio systems, all claimed to be right (“accurate”).

soix - the amp it's replacing is Music Reference RM10 MkII which I've enjoyed for 11 years now, one of my favorites of a long line of high quality tube and SS amps.

The sound of a high rez two channel system sounds nothing like live music

Three possibilities:

-The ‘high rez’ system is not assembled well; it is not well balanced.

-Recordings being played are not very good.

-The listener is not familiar with the sound of live music.

———

The idea that there can be a high rez system (def: revealing of the recording) that is not well-balanced is, if anything, a contradiction in terms. The qualifier ‘well balanced’ is so vague as to be essentially useless.

There is no universal definition as to what constitutes a good recording, other than that it sounds good. The idea that a good recording is supposed to simulate a live performance is simply false for the vast majority of recordings.

Whether or not the listener is familiar with the sound of live music (I am) is simply not relevant- neither the recordings nor the equipment is designed to simulate a live performance. Which is as it should be. How much of the music that is consumed these days is comprised of acoustic instruments on a stage, recorded ‘live’? Virtually zero.

The idea that a good recording is supposed to simulate a live performance is simply false for the vast majority of recordings.

Big +1. Listen to Donald Fagan’s Kamakiriad or Morph the Cat — they were clearly recorded in a studio with absolutely no pretense of sounding at all like live music, so if a system makes them sound “live” it’s manipulating the crap out of the recording and is highly inaccurate. But, as I said earlier, different strokes…

I do not believe the majority of " audiophiles " know how to listen to music, and are listening to the things that do not correspond to live, unamplified musical performances. Buying an amplifier, to make Nils Lofgren’s guitar ( from Keith Don’t Go, Live ) " sound " a better way....a different way, in tone, in stage location, all from a source that was recorded ( it is done regularly by most ). Music has several key components....rhythm, texture, dynamics, pitch, form and timbre. Admittedly, I have a musical background, and learned about music. I listen to recorded music a particular way, and my low cost system ( compared to others here ), delivers the goods, that pleases me and engages me.