Striking a balance between musicality and resolution

As my years and experience in this hobby continue to grow I notice a divergence between those seeking extreme resolution and detail from their music reproduction systems and those in search of maximum musicality.

In theory, high-end audio systems should provide more than garden variety stereo systems. In my view that means more detail and information should be heard from a high-end music reproduction system than one hears from ordinary HiFi stereo systems set ups. BUT is there such thing as too much resolution and detail in a stereo system’s sound presentation?

Some people feel that a less detailed presentation that is easier for your brain to process has better flow and provides more enjoyable listening.

So there is the dichotomy. Should one pay more to hear less? Can a frequency response performance that is curtailed at both frequency extremes be desired and praised?

Those that seek a “more musical” presentation usually point to their belief that that is how they hear live un-amplified acoustic music in the real world. In nature, high frequencies attenuate and decay with distance from the source and sound waves get absorbed, diffracted, reflected, and diffused by the environmental factors and landscapes; so they are not wrong in stating that in the real world the sound of music is less detailed and extended. The issue is that when we listen to our music reproduction systems at home we are not listening to live un-amplified music in a concert venue, but rather professionally produced audio recordings typically recorded with close-microphones techniques.

So the question is, do we want our systems to reproduce the sound on the commercial audio recordings accurately or does one want hear the sound the way one thinks that it should sound?

Lucky for me, I have enough systems at home that I have been able to design, set up, and tune them for different targeted resultant sound, sound presentation, and sound qualities. For instance, my OKTAN6 ultimate horn system is a dissecting microscope, my Pinnacle horn system aims at extreme musicality, and my WAAR reference system is a chameleon, which can be adjusted to sound exactly how you want it to sound in real-time.

My “test-bed” system takes on the sound character and sound qualities of the components in use and it is excellent for evaluating what new components have to offer or bring to the table in terms of sound qualities. But with the Acapella TW-1S ION plasma super-tweeters extending the high frequencies, the TBI Emperor subwoofers extending the low frequencies, and the highly detailed & nuanced Digital Audio Denmark AX24 DSD dac streaming HQPLAYER as the source, the “Test Bed” system is a highly resolving system.

As with everything else in life, is there a happy medium or compromise that gives you the best of those worlds? I believe that there is and that great music reproduction systems can be tuned to strike a balance between musicality and resolution. If one listens to the evolution of my OKTAN6 ultimate horn system for instance you can hear that the fine tuning is driving the sound in that direction.

So during last night’s listening session I adjusted the sound of my “Test Bed” system to a more musical sound presentation. The “Test Bed” system is always in flux so it allows me to experiment, explore, tweak, tune, and have fun with it.

Here is an audio recording from last night’s listening session that captures the revised sound presentation and conveys the sound qualities that exemplify a more organic sound versus a more delineated & resolved sound presentation:

The Way It Goes

carlos26911-02-2025 6:57pm

...
512 posts total
View entire discussion

mahgister Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 15,057 posts 11-07-2025 at 03:43pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete There is many things in audio which are evident but need to be said again... Audio ecological realm is brainwashed by marketing vocabulary, audio science is more complex than mere engineering... There exist physical acoustics, and psycho-acoustics. There is engineering and on the other side hearing theory and their relation. This is complex. Subjectivist and objectivist, the two groups simplify it and negate the other groups right to exist in some way ... it is why i trust acousticians over anyone else... Acousticians dont participate much in audiophiles thread... They know better... Many people dont even know that hearing is not a settled scientific problem once for all ... This is why acoustics is a so interesting and deep matter ... People look at their gear like at an idol not so much to their room or their ears... That seems so obviously true that it shouldn’t even be necessary to actually state it.
ghdprentice Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 9,499 posts 11-07-2025 at 05:19pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @flash56 @mahgister @cleeds +1
toddalin Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 667 posts 11-07-2025 at 06:18pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete FWIW: There is a million+ dollar system on YouTube doing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. The highs are extremely rolled off and the system lacks detail. This is OBVIOUS from the YouTube video and there are $10K systems that will easily outperform *what is being posted*. Yes, when you hear the dialog you can tell that the mic is doing a bit of the roll off, but the way it is set up... So to say the videos are worthless..., at over a million dollars, I wouldn't even be able to listen to this. https://youtu.be/kVe9SEm69Fg
kennyc Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 3,056 posts 11-07-2025 at 07:18pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete As my years and experience in this hobby continue to grow I notice a divergence between those seeking extreme resolution and detail from their music reproduction systems and those in search of maximum musicality. This is incorrect. We do not seek out the nth degree of either resolution or musicality but rather seek maximum subjective enjoyment.
carlos269 OP Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 483 posts 11-07-2025 at 07:27pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Well I’m glad that I finally made it back to my thread, as the original poster, I can tell that @flash56 @mahgister @cleeds all require a course on reading comprehension. First of all, only delusional individuals believe that they know the artist or mastering engineer’s intent. As I have repeated a million times here and elsewhere, there is no such thing as “The Absolute Sound” as the term is used in the audiophile world. The best one can hope a home audio system can achieve is being accurate to the source material at the output of the source component. Second, no one ever claimed that you can asses a home system in absolute terms through audio recordings on YouTube or otherwise. The principle here is, if your brains have the capacity to comprehend it, is that the audio recordings allows one to make “relative” comparisons of the resultant sound of the recorded home audio systems. @mahgister I didn’t reply to you earlier to let you off the hook since in a way I feel sorry for you and your situation, of being enamored with DSP filters that you have not even experienced for yourself and I will leave it at that. I have been playing with studio spatializers for years, from the original Roland units with the joysticks to the Desper Mastering Digital Spatializer, and my favorite the Quantec Room Simulator. The BAACH system has taken advantage of the higher processing power of today’s DSP’s but this isn’t ground breaking work. @flash56 Not only have I been in the world’s best high-end mastering studios but I actually own more capable mastering processing equipment than even those fine establishments have on hand. And here is the kicker, I know how to use the equipment better than anyone I have ever met; you know why, because most of the studio professionals do not posses my understanding of the science and engineering behind the fundamentals. They have adapted to use the equipment but ask them about the principles and science behind it? Any time you want to talk shop let’s do it and let’s see how far into the weeds you can go, that will be the real car wreck with bloods and guts. Have you ever heard the saying, “know your audience’? When I say that some of my designs are over your head I mean it literally, look up, as some of my designs are orbiting above you on the Space Station.