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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

 

carlos269
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
15,052 posts
 

Instead of focusing on the gear design  and how beautiful and better our own system  is compared to others system,  smiley  why not  thinking about music and acoustics as  some Bayesian  predictive prophecy about possible  perfection in this world and the other and between them and in our own dedicated room ...

Anyway some think that our brain is not so much about computations than about music...

 A very serious scientific paper about that : 

«A great deal of research in the neuroscience of music suggests that
neural oscillations synchronize with musical stimuli. Although
neural synchronization is a well-studied mechanism underpinning
expectation, it has even more far-reaching implications for music.....We propose that people anticipate musical events not through predictive neural models, but because brain–body dynamics physically embody musical structure. The interaction of certain kinds of sounds with ongoing pattern-forming dynamics results
in patterns of perception, action and coordination that we collectively
experience as music. Statistically universal structures may have
arisen in music because they correspond to stable states of complex,
pattern-forming dynamical systems. This analysis of empirical findings
from the perspective of neurodynamic principles sheds new light on
the neuroscience of music and what makes music powerful. »

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389971292_Musical_neurodynamics

 

 As you can guess psycho-acoustics and acoustics rules engineering not the reverse...

Stop boasting about your gear and think about your experience in a dedicated room, experiment with your brain body less  with soldering...

Control your room as if it was a part of your body / brain interaction  ...

It is fun ...

Then sound  experience is not about gear musicality or gear resolution, it is about motion of our brain/ body in a room call it dance, tapping, playing an instrument or hearing music   etc...The waves in the room also dance and bounce back many times on you and around you   think and see them doing so then learn how to act on them and with them  ....

 

«When we hear music, what we hear is above all motions» Victor Zuckerkandl  "Sound and symbol "

 

 

 

 

toddalin's avatar
toddalin
661 posts
 

@carlos269 

It's not in the bass, but rather the vocal range and more of a broad peak.

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
15,052 posts
 

By the way Carlos the problem is not so much your systems, they sound good to me through youtube  and my own system, but the room  where they are is not  synchronised or tuned for them and  with them...this is the problem anyway for almost all people...

it is easier to create a good system synergy than create a dedicated room...

But a good synergetical system in an uncontrolled room  never sound  at his peak and never reach his optimal working......

 

 

« a room or a great Hall are the most impactful musical instruments»Anonymus acoustician cool 

 

 

 

carlos269's avatar
carlos269 OP
473 posts
 

@mahgister Think about what you stated, the sound of my systems sound good yet you are still concerned about the room. The sound that you hear incorporates the room contributions that I hear at the listening chair when I listen to my systems. The sound/music that is on the audio recordings that I post is the resultant sound at the listening chair location. This resultant sound is the composite sound of ALl the things that contribute to the sound including room acoustics, electrical power, audio components, speakers, and so on. The resultant sound is the cumulative result of everything that impacts the sound heard at the listening chair location/ listening chair position and that is why is referred to as the composite sound.

 

@toddalin high frequency room nodes are a new concept to me. Room nodes are typically low frequencies associated with the room dimensions. If you hear what you think you hear point it out next time and I will listen to try to hear what you hear. For the record, I hear no such thing either in the room or on the audio recordings of my Test Bed system.

carlos269's avatar
carlos269 OP
473 posts
 

For those who want to test or are concerned about room acoustics and interested in hearing how musical their sound reproduction presentation is, play this recording on your system and compare it to this one on my Pinnacle 4-way system with field coil horn tweeters & midrange, mid-bass horns, and augmented by a pair subwoofers:

Unstoppable

 

 

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