If Warmth Is a Distortion, Why Do So Many Audiophiles Still Defend It?

Every single element in our systems and listening environment contributes to the composite resultant sound that we hear at the listening chair position. The question is, do you leave the resultant sound as a raw aggregate or do you take charge and control the outcome?

Stick around Super-fan and you will continue to learn and understand that our  unique choices of equipment, cables, listing  acoustic environment/room, and our electrical power, RFI environment, and things such as temperature and humidity all cause small perturbations/manipulations to what we hear when we playback the “original recording”.

The questions then becomes, do you leave all the influences on what we hear uncontrolled? Or do we take charge, if we have the knowledge and know how, to control what we hear?

As Dr. Ernst said, “if you don’t understand the concept then none of the details will make sense to you”!

Carlos  : ""  or do you take charge and control the outcome?  ""

50+ years ago this is the kind of " take charge and control "" according what each one of us like it:

Test super audio pro euro 4 way system hiend #bose #pioneer #amthanhbai #audiophile #speaker

Today you can do it in the analogue domain with the Harmonic Linearizers by FM Acoustic  or in a digital domain using  adavanced proccessors. In both cases you are Adding and/or Substracting signal information that does not comes in the original recording and where the " new " signal of that recording goes according what you like and these manipulations give you " control " of what you like that means ( like it or not ) is a equalizer item with today technology that alters the original recording.

Well there are thousands and thousands of audiophiles/MUSIC lovers that we want to listen what is in the recording in exactly the same way that @westcoastaudiophile posted:

" The key is a distortion of original soundtrack at the listener ear point!  "

That’s it, simple.  

You like to have that fallacy of " control "  using the proccessors as a toy where you have fun playing that toy in almost the same way several of us made it 40-50 years ago.

To each his own.

Ovbiously that you do not comprenhed all those yet. Jus follow playing your " game " and be happy.

R.

So why does every system sound different? How are thousands of audiophiles chasing “what is in the recording” and yet all have different results? BUT even more important, how does one confirm, verify, and validate “what is in the recording”? What is the process for anyone of us to state that any our systems reproduce exactly what is on the recording? The so called “Absolute Sound” is a mirage. And after all these years you would think that you would have figured this out already. An ideal is just that an ideal and then there is reality.

 We cannot go further than acoustics science.

There is nothing in the recording save the trade-off set of choices of the recording engineer...

Then you want your system/room be able to translate (not reproduce which is impossible a mirage) acoustically through your system/room/ears these set of  trade-off choices of the recording engineer by the set of trade-off choices implicated by your system/room/ears...

I call "minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold" the state of balance between all acoustics factors implied you can reach by a relatively low cost system well optimized...(almost all systems are relatively low cost in non dedicated room mostly living room) 

is it not simple?

There is no reproduction only translation...

Translation between the acoustical set of trade-off by the recording engineers from the original event ( Acoustic language A) to the set of trade-off choices implicated by your system/room/ears ( Acoustic language B )

The language A and B  are constituted by all the words  or acoustics factors and parameters in some specific  balance ratio between each others, different for each person and situation.

I simplify but it is this...

For sure we can go chasing with big money  the "maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold" and we can go from an ok good translation to something which will always be a translation but more resembling a dreamed almost perfect elusive reproduction...But it will not be a question  about price or high-end design, but also about deep acoustics knowledge, which escape most audiophiles anyway...

@carlos269 

Many people are chasing what sounds good to them as opposed to what was recorded or what the real things sounds like. 

I was after that later. I don’t think the approach of comparing one recording is enough. But that exposure to lots of acoustic music to train your ear as to what the real thing sounds like, then listening to lots of recordings to evaluate your system is how to get to a system that sounds like the real thing. The empirical ruler is the real acoustical music and while there will be variation around different people mastering recordings you want to use the lots of recordings to converge on a system that produces music that sounds real.