Thinking further along the line of low levels of background noise, I dawns on me that different systems have different presentations of low level detail. I am thinking of the recording venue. Let’s assume a symphony hall for the moment.
I used to listen at the symphony to just the reflections of the sounds. So, if the violas would abruptly start playing I could hear the sound reflect off the sides of stage left, then the ceiling and then blend from the same sounds reflecting at the back of stage. These are pretty sublet and only a small number of db above background.
One my major realizations were that many systems overemphasize the venue of the recording. So say these reflections were 5db above the background… my current system would represent them as about 5db. But a lot of systems… my last generation included would represent them as 10db above the background. This is what I consider details forward. An overemphasis on quiet detail. Thirty years ago, I would have chosen this as “better sounding”.
My thought is that these two systems would sound very different in rooms with different background noise levels. Assuming the same character of sound in a noisier room, one would probably identify the 10db venue as better balanced because the details would not be drowned out. One more variable in evaluating systems.
Better and better equipment tends to get better at presenting all sounds proportionally (I think… assume.. in general). So if you don’t make sure your audio environment is up to the challenge, you could be losing a lot. Maybe by accident, I have worked at more and more aspects of sound as my system has improved… so I now have the best quietest audio room I have ever owned.
I am not adding, change volume… because that adds a bunch of additional variables.
