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:
Here is an audio recording of a home system recorded with high-end studio microphones and professional studio equipment, the details are on YouTube: Audio recording of home audio system made with professional grade studio mics and equipment Listen to the other recordings posted by Believe in High Fidelity. He owns a studio and uses the most expensive professional microphones and “best” professional studio equipment to make his audio recordings. |
Thanks very deep observation by a clinical doctor about the real impact of the perceived soundfield on some patient. If we create a 3-D soundfield in our listening room, by controlling among many factors "reverberation time and timing" what we experience is no more a familiar space, but an imaginary one as real as the usual one, which may be the recorded acoustic space of an album of music translated through our room acoustic controlled space or a silent room more able to create distortion or elevate the level of our perception then more able to increase anxieties or panic.(anechoic room can also induce this for other completely inverse reason: unnatural total absence of reverberation ) Most audiophiles had no idea about this because they dont control their room parameters really (except at best few panels) , they buy gear...
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OP you said 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.
Exactly where my journey was this year, striking a balance (and for me budget target) I did this as I started with audio gear that promote a high level of accuracy (all Benchmark gear and ATC speakers) and after a year, found out that there is something missing, an incomplete feeling of emotion. So, I went with class A, (Pass, Tube 845 power amp and Mac Tube Pre and atc speakers) and after a few months, well, where did my accuracy and detail go ???????? and then all the changes happened, change Preamp, cables, speakers Oh speakers, they obviously have a profound effect! went from ATC to Kliphes, to B&W to Magnepans, Devores, Focal and finally to Falcons when I heard the Falcon, I remembered what Herb Reichert of Stereophile said, He and others have been lifelong devotee of the Ls3/5. its ability to present music and colors that are near true to life. And ATC, the ability to just present the music as is, no / minimal coloration, just accurate. it ability for Piano and female voice are uncanny. So, in the end, I settled for my gear that is on my Profile as this has the "Best possible" for Me matching of gear to reproduce what make me happy
so that is my journey and if wanted to "Tweak" the sound, I just switch my standby speakers, Kliphes and B&W to produce music a certain way
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@joeycastillo Thank you for bring the discussion back to the original post’s topic. Yes the process that you underwent with your system and the components changes underscores the thinking behind striking a balance between resolution and musicality. I found that balance with my Test Bed system a couple of weekends ago and posted audio recordings of it and two of my other systems which are on opposite sides of the musicality versus resolution spectrum but many ignored the original premise of the post, I’m glad to see that you did not. |
