Striking a balance between musicality and resolution

When you have access to the digital files, either locally stored or streamed, you are in the same position as the mastering engineer.

@carlos269 This statement is false unless you have access to the master file prior to added DSP. If not, then you are not in the same position as the mastering engineer. If a digital release, he is the one who uses DSP to limit, compress (both used mostly with the understanding it will be played in a car), add EQ and of course apply normalization. 

This is what frightens most audiophiles who have made a sizable investment or who have made the effort…..to put the sound of their systems out here for others to hear, judge, scrutinize and get honest feedback.

YT is a terrible place to do any sort of assessment at all. The recording system can be quite varied (smartphones are bad at that as they have limiting and compression, and their tiny little mics are no good at capturing bass), where the microphones are placed is a big deal and YT itself has a compression algorithm. The biggest variable is the room itself.  

YT videos of people's sound systems are an unfortunate waste of memory.

 I like posting audio recordings of my systems because they speak for themselves. 

Actually, they don't. 

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.

That's the definition of the Absolute Sound I've always used. 

@atmasphere You stated that you know your way around studios. If you know about mastering, you know that the mastering engineer works typically of the 2-buss mix that the mixing engineer has assembled and compiled. The mastering engineer finishes the mastering and that is what is stamped and replicated for the commercial release. The commercial release is the 2-buss mix that the savvy end user get from Tidal, in my case, or Quobuz or the vinyl LP, or now a days even cassette tape or reel-to-reel commercial tape.For instance, those of us that use HQPLAYER get the stream from Tidal, Quobuz, or from our local library and apply our own filters, modulators, convolution, EQ, mixing, upsampling, or transcoding. How is that different than what the mastering engineer does? You don’t need access to the individual raw tracks. The mastering engineer typically does not reverb back to the mix because the mixing engineer has already compiled the requested balance between tracks and mixed the recording down to the 2-bus before handing it over the mastering engineer for final tour ups and polishing. take a look at Bob Katz set up in front of his sofa, all 2-buss.

Ralph I have to hand it to you, although every interaction you have with me is not a good outcome for you, you keep coming. You care to tell all the HQPLAYER users out here that we are not improving the source material to our liking?

@kevemaher Back when I was starting out in the audiophile world I also chased a flat in-room frequency response, first with Behringer 8024, 2496 and later with some SigTech units. I can tell you that there is not much to like about a flat frequency  response and you should know this as someone with a physics degree and background. As I approached flatness it became obvious to me. The reason is because of the Fletcher-Munson effect. Our hearing is not linear in sensitivity when it comes to frequencies, the sensitivity is a function of sound pressure level.

Static EQ, whether in the time domain or in convolution is also not good either as it is applied without discrimination. The only filtering that is useful is dynamic filtering. 

@carlos269 I don't see how any of our interaction has been bad for me. You might think so but we are all entitled to our opinions. 

Your description about mastering isn't entirely accurate. For example if a producer is savvy and wants the best version of the LP release, he will send the LP mastering engineer a digital file that has no DSP except for perhaps normalization. OTOH if the mastering engineer is savvy he might request that from the producers so he can turn out a better product.

I've had both happen; anytime we mastered an LP we requested the least amount of DSP to get the best sound possible. 

(My LP mastering system was a Scully lathe with Westerex 3D cutter head, driven by modified Westerex 1700 series mastering electronics. I had to rebuild the lathe and refurbish the electronics; I had to get in pretty deep.) 

So the commercial release may or may not be that which you see on streaming services, and if it is from the actual commercial release it may not be the same as that which was used for the creation of the LP. That depends a lot on where they got the source file. Sometimes you see high resolution files that are actually just 16 bit but reprocessed to look like something more. Its a bit of the Wild West although it has been settling down in recent years.

The LP can be different in that there may be less or no EQ and less limiting and compression, because there is no expectation the end result will be played in a car. IOW that might be the best sounding version, but usually isn't something you can stream.  

Now what you do with the file when you get home is up to you. There are plenty of people that miss the tone controls that were everywhere decades ago. So regarding your question about HQPLAYER, my answer is, using the text of your question, you're not improving the source material but you may be liking what you did to it. There is a distinction but its unimportant since the end goal is to enjoy the hobby in whatever way you see fit. 

@carlos269 

I have discovered that "flat" FR does not sound good. But I had to try that first in order to determine how I'd like the sound to be altered. Seems to me that starting with an already colored sound can create unexpected biases.

I have the "non-flat" FR that my ears and mind both crave. I check it once a month to determine if it is the same. I've found that it changes with speaker position (of course) and positions of other objects in the room. These things change all the time.

I agree that my GEQ is probably not the best tool for the task. It is the tool that I found to be the most effective in creating the sound I like.

I've done some measurements on my two GEQs. I have a Rane ME 60 and a dBx 1231. I've tested both for FR, noise, and distortion. The values were way below other components in my system (all harmonics at  approx -95 dBV). Certainly there are many other parameters that I haven't tested and most likely can't for lack or equipment. I've listened and measured with and without EQ and found no audible difference except for the altered FR. I do not crank the gain way up on nulls. It does no good. And it creates so much distortion that it was quite visible in the REW data. Could I hear it? No, I couldn't. It is very narrow in frequency corresponding to the slider chosen. I adjust very carefully in the vicinity around nulls and accept the result I am able to achieve even if not optimal.