How can you evaluate a system with highly processed music?


Each to their own.

But can you really evaluate a system by listening to highly processed, electric/electronic music? How do you know what that sounds like?

I like to listen to voices and acoustic music that is little processed. 

Instruments like piano, violin, etc. 

And the human voice. And the joy of hearing back up singers clearly, etc.

Even if full instrumentation backing a natural sounding voice.

(eg.: singer/songwriters like Lyle Lovett or Leonard Cohen)

There is a standard and a point of reference that can be gauged.

 

mglik

@simonmoon Define, “accuracy.”

”Sounds exactly like a violin does in person”?  
“Sounds exactly like a piano does in person”?

This may be true to the listener.  
Sure, it’s possible someone may “get it right,” or “as close to ‘right’ as possible.”  
A person may be able to perform some scientific process of, say, a trial run involving the placement of a world-best conductor and/or orchestral player in the “sweet spot” of their listening room for an hour’s time each trial, ultimately coming away with a significant-enough sample size of “yay” votes as to the system’s “accuracy” to be able to say, “this system is super accurate.”

Other than this extremely rare extenuating circumstance (to the average Joe at home), a listener is determining “accuracy” from a place of inherently-questionable science.

Then we look at the definition of “accuracy” again: being able to reproduce what was performed at the performance stage as accurately as possible, being able to reproduce what was heard on the studio monitors at the time of recording/mixing as accurately as possible.  
To say, “now that I’ve determined reproduction of acoustic sound is ‘accurate’ on this system, I know that reproduction of pop recordings will be ‘accurate’ as well” is problematic.  
Hearing what the pop artists, engineers and producers were hearing when they listened to the studio monitors/master tape at the time of recording/mixing is not necessarily achieved across the board after determining “my system is ‘accurate’ based on classical music reproduction.”  
A different set of principles is adopted when making a pop record.  
A setup that is “super accurate” for reproduction of recordings of exclusively acoustic instruments may not necessarily be “super accurate” in reproducing what was heard on the studio monitors/master tape on a pop record.

Saying, “this is as close as possible to what the artists/engineers/producers heard on the master tape of this particular pop record” can only be achieved by having the music/recording’s progenitors sitting in your “sweet spot” in your listening room saying, “yup, this sounds exactly like the master tape.”

The classical recording/mix/master and the pop recording/mix/master are two pretty different things.

Beyond this point, the variables become so overwhelming across the entire spectrum of music-listening as to make a proclamation of objective “accuracy” across the board pretty silly.


 

There actually are classical recordings where the orchestra or ensemble are playing in a real auditorium and the engineers use what audiophiles call purist recording techniques.  They exist and they are rare.  Most classical recordings involve multitrack recorders, EQ/filters and digital reverbs.  The recordings are made in such a manner that mistakes can be "punched out" and corrections overdubbed.  The multitrack recording is then mixed down to stereo with people making numerous decisions about the overall sound and manipulating it accordingly.  It's expensive to get an orchestra together and audiophile approved sonics is not the first priority.

Anytime the discussion of music moves into the discussion of what, how, why

the subject sounds the way it does

I flashback to the movie Phantom of the Paradise...

where our tortured 'hero' ends up with some 'studio time'

although not the way he'd hoped for....

Wiki !!!

Changed forever how I thought about it....then

Now?

I've yet to stop laughing....;)

 

@onhwy61: What you say is true of contemporary Classical recordings, but not of recordings made in the 1950’s and 60’s; all of those were recorded on a 2-track or 3-track machine (that’s all there was back then). Lots of recordings made in England and Europe were done so with minimal miking, including those made with the famous Decca tree, using only a pair of mics.

In the 70's, 80’s, and 90’s there were a number of small audiophile labels (including Wilson) making Classical recordings using only two or three mics, recorded onto a 2-track machine. I have a bunch of them, and they’re not that rare, hard to find, or expensive.

@bdp24 I agree with your comments.  Big labels recording top orchestras with an all analog chain takes us back 40 to 50 years ago.  Times have changed.