These two attitudes are valid simultaneously in my opinion according to the acoustics circonstances ( Acoustics with an "S" here mean psycho-acoustics not just room acoustic)..
The problem with the words "neutral" "warm" "cold" is they are adjectives used by subject focusing on gear pieces synergy.
There is no concept of neutral warm or cold in psychoacoustics parameters...
These concepts though being subjective descriptors correlate with :
«
- Warm Sound: Generally associated with an emphasis on lower frequencies and lower-midrange. It often involves:
- Rolled-off high frequencies (darker sound).
- Softer transients.
- Even-order harmonic distortion (often associated with vacuum tube amplifiers).
- Cold Sound: Typically associated with an emphasis on higher frequencies (brighter or more "brilliant" sound). It often involves:
- Scooped midrange.
- Sharper, more pronounced transients.
- Odd-order harmonic distortion (sometimes associated with early solid-state electronics). »
But doing so condition us to put attention only to half of our acoustic experience related to the gear pieces synergy out of any psycho-acoustics and physical acoustics context (room) ...Then Neutral position is not enough, nor warm and cold qualifications.Read me right: i used these two orientations of our two friends poster myself, but it is not enough and it may become misleading, taking attention from the system/ears-head/room toward gear synergy which is merely a starting point...
Then i also search for a "neutral" balance between "warm" and cold" but this is secondary concepts, i try to understand how ti implement natural and realist "timbre" experience through my system/room first and last and i try to optimize the acoustics spatial cues various dimensions.
My unprovable theory is that if you find a house sound that is perfect for you. All the same components should outperform mix and match. I cannot prove it. But to me, each component must be subtractive in some way. Say your first component is lean, and the second really warm, and third lean, and amp is warm... aren’t you loosing nuance at each component when they are of different character. I will not defend this. It is just a thought experiment.
@ghdprentice Very adventurous thought process — I like it. To add to that, my view is that any coloration (anything non-neutral) acts like a filter that accumulates or cancels out across the entire signal chain (cables included), ultimately altering the system’s frequency response. So to minimize that effect, it’s preferable to keep components as neutral as possible and preserve that neutrality until the very end of the chain, where you can make intentional adjustments to the timbre or overall tonal balance for better coherence. This principle could be duly applicable to a mixed and match system as well.