How do you judge your system's neutrality?

This is an excellent topic to throw around Byron. For me, it is absolutely essential that Neutrality be defined a certain way. How does one know that what they are hearing, is not influenced by any coloration? You have to know what the intended original piece sounds like. The way I started was using equipment that was noted in the industry for representing true unadulterated signals. Studio equipment. Specifically speakers. As my experience increased with time, familiarity with recordings became a standardized way to help interpret any subjective additions to the way these original recordings were engineered to sound. Discerning neutrality takes a while to figure out. There is no formula. It's almost like research, in that you need to learn how to rule out variables that influence the contolled conditions. A lot of study is required in reading, listening, trial and error,and communication with every source available to you to help you achieve this level of realization. Many individuals have only the experiences of others in making their own conclusions as to this and that . And thats OK. But, there has to be a WANTING to understand for oneself how these different equipment, technologies could play a role in defining the original intended source. How an engineer takes "NEUTRALITY" and makes it into wonderful sounding music is THE key to high-end audio. Not by the addition of coloration. Sure, a well extended lower frequency response may sound nice, or a rolled off sugnature may help "tame" the upper frequency curves, but is that what the music is supposed to sound like?

I think the term defines itself. Does a piece add to or subtract from what a particular sound indeed sounds like?

I don’t think even the Swiss are completely neutral.

Bring into the room a guitar, symbols, clarinet, sax or trombone. Play ‘em. Then play your solo music pieces. That should help you determine how neutral your system is…. How close to the actual natural sound of the instrument is another thing. I suppose too you can use tuning forks or similar things with known specific tones… if you have those items on hand in well recorded formats.

But I feel transparency a more apt term when someone aims at trying to convey the influence of a piece of equipment. Often though I feel the two words are interposed…. But shouldn’t be. After all, they’re spelled differently so they should have disassociated indications.

I’ve often wondered too, who wrote the audio terminology dictionary, where’s it at, and just who read it?

I personally don’t believe as is said so often, exact neutrality or absolute transparency exists in audio equipment on the whole, and is rather mere perceptions of those auditioners or previewers who attempt to tell another as to it’s performance in words only.

It’s very much like explaining an orgasm.

How was that for you? Well, It was very nice but I felt it a touch too much towards the cool side of neutral honey.

Usually another response follows, like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’

BTW I’d not recommend articulating such an experience to your significant other as such, if asked. She had no idea what I had just said. I had no idea why I even said it.

Suffice it to say I’ve never had a bad one but some have been better than others.

For my own money, I’ll determine my version of warm, neutral, and transparent as close to what I perceive the popular philosophies on them to be and my own exp with different devices. I really can’t see how one can go about it otherwise as we can’t all hear everything as it ‘was’ heard which promulgated the pursuant articles, notes, threads, or casual conversations like these. So instead of saying I’m neutral on the topic, I’ll say “I’m Swiss.”

Perhaps we should all quantify our mention of those terms too, by saying, a thing is ‘as’ neutral or as transparent as I’ve had the opportunity to experience in this or that regard. Pinning those words down to being absolutes is well intended I’m sure, but off the mark a good bit.

Truth be told, if the aim of a systems sound is to be as natural or as lifelike as one may manage, those words take care of themselves eventually. If it is to be merely satisfying to it’s owner, they remain quite arbitrary terms.

Thanks for the responses so far. One point of clarification. My original post was not intended to conceptually define 'neutral,' as one or two people suggested. It was intended to operationalize the term 'neutral.' This is not merely semantic, as I hope you will see...

DEFINING 'NEUTRAL'
The 2nd definition of 'neutral' in my desktop dictionary is: "having no strongly marked or positive characteristics or features." It is in this sense that the word is used, perhaps somewhat metaphorically, to describe a component that is free from coloration (another metaphor). So, a conceptual definition of 'neutral' for audio might be something like, 'free from coloration.'

Of course, no component is completely free from coloration, and some are more colored than others, which raises the question, relevant to audiophiles: HOW DO I KNOW if I'm choosing components that are less colored? In some cases it is obvious, but in many cases it is not (think: cables). In cases where it is not obvious, answering the question "HOW DO I KNOW which of these components is more neutral?" requires you to operationalize the term 'neutral,' which brings us to...

OPERATIONALIZING THE TERM 'NEUTRAL'
Operationalizing a term is a matter of identifying some observable conditions that reliably indicate the presence of a characteristic and determine its value (i.e. how much of it is there is). Blindjim was proposing a way to operationalize the term 'neutral' when he wrote:

"Bring into the room a guitar, symbols, clarinet, sax or trombone. Play ‘em. Then play your solo music pieces. That should help you determine how neutral your system is…"

I think that is a great way to operationalize the term 'neutral,' and it would be a highly informative test for any audio system. However, since it's not very feasible for many audiophiles, I proposed a more actionable way to operationalize the term 'neutral,' in terms of (1) the sonic uniqueness of individual pieces of music; and (2) the sonic diversity your collection of music.

I will be the first to admit that I am a bit of a terminological fetishist, but I don't think this topic is merely mental masturbation, for the following reason: These kinds of terms refer to the concepts that help us understand what we are hearing and why, and that is an essential step to choosing audio components that result in long term fulfillment. As I mentioned in the final postscript of my original post, the changes in my audio system that have resulted in greater neutrality (operationalized the way I proposed) are the very same changes that resulted in more musical enjoyment.

Neutrality by definition is 'without difference'.

By it's unwillingness to be pulled into conflict while still holding a morally superior position.

Alternately, by comparison to other systems using the same source material.