Striking a balance between musicality and resolution

Part of the problem is that flaws in the speakers can sound like flaws in the room and vice versa.  Alternatively, flaws in the speakers may accenuate flaws in the room.

My room is pretty big (~5K cu ft) and I had associated a specific peak/sound with the room (e.g., 3:15).  But I’ve found that with crossover modification, this is pretty much gone. Is it the speakers or the room?  Actually, it is the speakers interacting with the room.

I’ll have to do an "after" video when I get a chance.  Just another advantage of doing a video.

https://youtu.be/rKKsVw_szl8

And this is how you can tell how a room or system alters the original.  Just put one in each browser so you can instantaneously A/B them. (Well, not quite as this is a remastered version, but you get the idea.)  Note that even though this is a live recording, it has far less room effect.  You need to get them to the same perceived volume level.

https://youtu.be/FBon6rGGuS4

Almost forgot.  This is a regular CD played on an Oppo-95 through a Yamaha RX-Z9 RECEIVER in "Pure Direct" mode over my speaker creation that uses a JBL 2241H 18", JBL 2251J 10", and modified Heil AMT.  There is no eq or room correction, either electronic or physical, or sub being used, nor are there fancy wires or cables.  The recording was made using a Nikon D750 DSLR approximately in the sweet spot.

Makes the magic happen:

Interesting!

But everyone here speak about their gear, recorded their system and think "good sound"  is born from the gear pieces synergy or optimization   instead of the room optimization or lack of optimization...Room acoustic is way more complex than GIK panels and potentially way more extraordinary for enhancing the sound experience...

Myself i focused on the couple system/room experimenting in the past with my room acoustic optimization to improve my low cost  system...

None of the system/room i heard here impress me, they are good thats all,  and they are better than the  gear system i used in my acoustic room few years ago and this is so  because they are no room acoustic  control and it is easy to hear it  in your videos...Sorry...

Nowadays DSP is so advanced it can help a lot too (Choueiri filters)  if i could i will use them someday, i will not anyway begin again  with  a mechanical distributed  grid of tuned Helmholtz resonators...Too hard work to do...Fun the first time though...Choueiri filters used in an acoustically relatively well controlled room will do the job without distortions at all unlike my grid of resonators so good they were..

No gear design, dac,amp,speakers, crossover, even Choueiri filters, cannot replace minimal acoustic control of a room designed in function of specific system and specific ears... Small room acoustics is not the same as Great Hall room acoustics, the same principles but applied differently because size of enclosure and one pair of ears in one case and a collective in the other pose very different acoustic problem...

This is ABC of audio ...

Acoustics and psycho-acoustics  rules audio engineering not the reverse...

I have to say that this is the most bizarre thread that I think that I have ever read. I can only compare it to a bloody car accident. You really don't want to look at it but you can't look away. Many of the posters have legitimate responses that I agree with. But having spent 30 years as an audio engineer/sound designer for a major PBS facility. I won't go into detail of the plethora of factors that make some of these assumptions absolutely ridiculous to the point of being humorous. The fact that you have the audacity to believe that you can possibly have a clue as to what I wanted something to sound like or rather I was actually successful in achieving that goal. Or that you can determine what is the closet approximation of what it actually ended up sounding like, in the environment that it was mixed and/or mastered, is disillusion to the point of grandeur. I could elaborate for ten pages of why that is absolutely absurd. But, I don't have the time nor would you listen. You have developed a system for measuring accuracy out of your own ignorance of what exactly exists in the real world, or the resources, compromises, and conditions under which they occur. I could expand on any one of these points for pages. The idea that you can record a sound system, post it on Youtube, and have it reflect the actual performance of said system is a joke without a punchline. Live in your make believe world if it makes you happy. But you have no clue as to what factors come into play in the real professional audio world from which your recordings are manufactured. Once again I could elaborate for hours. And just as a side point. Because of my profession,  I have had the opportunity and pleasure developing relationships with many of the  musicians that I had the pleasure of working with. Who currently post there latest material onto sites such as Qobuz, Apple Music, Tidal, etc.. AndI have been fortunate enough to request, and have delivered copies of the digital uncompressed wav/AIFF files that were sent to these streaming platforms. I have played them off of the internal drive of the same streamer and synced them with the files that were being streamed. Both were going through the same external DAC. The audio path was exactly the same path. The only difference was one was streaming FLAC and the other was streaming copies of the original files uncompressed files. I only mention this because that question was ask of somebody somewhere in this endless thread. I won't even get into my conclusions of the two. Simply because of the fact that I couldn't just look away and ignore this complete line of speculative bullshit. And had to stare at the blood and guts, until I actually gave in to the need to make this response. Actually makes me feel as trivial and as pointless as this thread is.

Great post!

To evaluate any system we must be in the room...

Acoustics and psycho-acoustics  matter ...

From the live event, to the  perspective trade-off recording and mixing choices, to our specific controlled or uncontrolled speakers/room, to our ears/ brain biases and acoustic parameters, we have many acoustic "translation" and trade-off ...No absolute truth...

The fact that you have the audacity to believe that you can possibly have a clue as to what I wanted something to sound like or rather I was actually successful in achieving that goal. Or that you can determine what is the closet approximation of what it actually ended up sounding like, in the environment that it was mixed and/or mastered, is disillusion to the point of grandeur. I could elaborate for ten pages of why that is absolutely absurd. But, I don’t have the time nor would you listen. You have developed a system for measuring accuracy out of your own ignorance of what exactly exists in the real world, or the resources, compromises, and conditions under which they occur. I could expand on any one of these points for pages. The idea that you can record a sound system, post it on Youtube, and have it reflect the actual performance of said system is a joke without a punchline.