Striking a balance between musicality and resolution

The best post of this thread by far by someone understanding acoustics..

 Thanks 

Wheel of Audio by CEDIA for evaluating audio system in private listening space

The core of this wheel of audio recommended by CEDIA/CTA contains nine criteria, which in turn can be categorized into Timber, Spatial Resolution and Dynamics.  

First of all, every criterion listed here can be considered a critical element in assessing the ’musicality’ of a reproduction system. The spatial *resolution* category also includes three attributes directly related to musicality. This strongly indicates that resolution does not conflict with or compromise musicality, contrary to what this thread claims. Several posts have already made that point quite clear.

Second, to evaluate an audio system objectively through recordings, the fidelity of the aforementioned nine criteria must be preserved as much as possible. Isolating the room interaction of the recording environment is crucial and is recognized as a fundamental recording technique. Several people here have emphasized room interaction in an entirely misguided way. Consider this: why should the original recording be made in an acoustically treated space, yet the recording of the reproduction system need not be? If you want your system to be evaluated by an audience via YouTube, you must minimize other variables including room interaction.

The recording equipment used by people purporting the theme here is very basic and fails to capture acceptable fidelity across several important criteria — spatial (cue) resolution and bass impact (hence dynamics), to name just a few. How can you possibly convey the true performance of your system to an audience through an already compressed platform? Ignoring advice to improve recording equipment and technique, while preaching about the importance of this approach and complaining about the audience’s unwillingness to cooperate, is like putting the cart before the horse — utterly absurd and laughable.  Big vision but poor execution.  Refusal to accept one’s limitations is biggest hurdle to achieving their goal.

@cleeds the spatial arrangement on multi-microphone recordings is arranged by level of the tracks, panning and phasing by the mixing engineer. All done in the studio. 

Some like Believe In HiFi use professional grade studio microphones and equipment to record their home audio systems. Listen to some of his audio recordings and judge for yourself if they are any better or worse than what others do and achieve.

@theophile You laugh, we laugh, but the joke is on you. Anyone who has to resort to insults and personal attacks is the one with the inferiority complex. 

@#mahgister: I read your comments about Edgar Choueiri with great interest because I stumbled upon a similar effect in my research on patient experience in clinical settings. I am a cognitive psychologist and used to do research for GE Healthcare on the design of clinical environments to improve patients' experience while being treated. I worked with Orfield Laboratories in MInneapolis, MN to create a variety of virtual clinical environments with different spatial, material, lighting, and acoustic properties. I had a sample of actual patients experience the various virtual environments and then rate their perceptual experience of those environments using a battery of specially designed psychometric rating scales. One thing that struck me as particularly interesting was that acoustic reverberation made patients feel less secure. My interpretation was that reverberation created a perception of greater space in the environment, which made patients feel exposed and vulnerable. Point is, we humans are highly attuned to reverberation in the environment and it is a rich source of information for a variety of subtle human perceptual responses. Whether it is good or not depends upon the situation.