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How do you judge your system's neutrality?


Here’s an answer I’ve been kicking around: Your system is becoming more neutral whenever you change a system element (component, cable, room treatment, etc.) and you get the following results:

(1) Individual pieces of music sound more unique.
(2) Your music collection sounds more diverse.

This theory occurred to me one day when I changed amps and noticed that the timbres of instruments were suddenly more distinct from one another. With the old amp, all instruments seemed to have a common harmonic element (the signature of the amp?!). With the new amp, individual instrument timbres sounded more unique and the range of instrument timbres sounded more diverse. I went on to notice that whole songs (and even whole albums) sounded more unique, and that my music collection, taken as a whole, sounded more diverse.

That led me to the following idea: If, after changing a system element, (1) individual pieces of music sound more unique, and (2) your music collection sounds more diverse, then your system is contributing less of its own signature to the music. And less signature means more neutral.

Thoughts?

P.S. This is only a way of judging the relative neutrality of a system. Judging the absolute neutrality of a system is a philosophical question for another day.

P.P.S. I don’t believe a system’s signature can be reduced to zero. But it doesn’t follow from that that differences in neutrality do not exist.

P.P.P.S. I’m not suggesting that neutrality is the most important goal in building an audio system, but in my experience, the changes that have resulted in greater neutrality (using the standard above) have also been the changes that resulted in more musical enjoyment.
bryoncunningham
cdc
1,669 posts
 
I used to say "flat frequency response". While that it important, there is such a wide variations in FR of the recordings I listen to, I couldn't get a flat FR unless I eq'd each recording.

There are some others like:

1) Consistent sound between drivers. I had a speaker with poly mid/woofer and metal tweeter. The drivers did not blend together at all and sound like two different speakers.

2) Dimensionality. As one reviewer wrote, when a system reproduced things spatially, you know it is working very well. Or words to that effect.

3) Transient response. For one thing, when you limit a driver in the frequency domain, you limit it in the time domain as well. I'm guessing that's one reason why speakers put a bump at 100 hz. It's to try to add the bass that gets lost from dampened transient response. It's why SET amps are so popular. Again, IMHO.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
ok, no one is contradicting my assertions.

here is another issue.

if a recording distorts the sound of the instruments being recorded, how do you assess the accuracy/inaccuracy of the stereo system ?

if you were present at a recording studio, you would audition the recording through the equipment at the studio.

such an audition would not reveal the sound of the recording, because of the inherent flaws of the stereo system at the studio.
bryoncunningham OP
890 posts
 
...if a recording distorts the sound of the instruments being recorded, how do you assess the accuracy/inaccuracy of the stereo system?

...if an optical lens distorts the characteristics of the light transmitted through it, how do you assess the accuracy/inaccuracy of the telescope?

(1) Measure the accuracy of the individual optics.
(2) Compare the telescope to other telescopes.
(3) Perform a Star Test.

RE: Audio systems...

(1) Measure the accuracy of individual components.
(2) Compare the system to other systems.
(3) Perform the Neutrality Test that I described in the OP.

Bryon
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
ok bryon, i see your point.

however, measuring the accuracy of individual components is probably near impossible, because accuracy is a multi-dimensional concept. how can you be sure you have measured every relevant variable.

also, if each component in a stereo system were accurate, does that imply that the stereo system is accurate ?
bryoncunningham OP
890 posts
 
...measuring the accuracy of individual components is probably near impossible, because accuracy is a multi-dimensional concept. how can you be sure you have measured every relevant variable.

Mrtennis - I agree with you that accuracy is a "multi-dimensional concept," in the sense that it refers to a number of variables, rather than a single variable. But I do not conclude from this that accuracy is impossible to assess. Consider the analogy with telescopes again...

A telescope's optics can suffer from various kinds of distortion, including spherical distortion, astigmatic distortion, and chromatic distortion. Hence the accuracy of a telescope is multi-dimensional, just like the accuracy of an audio component. The multi-dimensional nature of a telescope's accuracy makes it more difficult to assess, but not impossible. Similarly, the multi-dimensional nature of an audio component's accuracy makes it somewhat difficult to assess, but not impossible.

Having said that, I agree with you that the common measurements of an audio component's accuracy, like those that routinely appear in Stereophile, are unlikely to be exhaustive. In other words, there are probably some unknown variables that are relevant to the assessment of a component's accuracy. But even the likely presence of unknown variables doesn't vitiate the concept of accuracy in audio. It merely makes judgments about accuracy FALLIBLE. But that shouldn't be news to anyone.

also, if each component in a stereo system were accurate, does that imply that the stereo system is accurate?

IMO, yes. Assuming that you include the listening room as part of the assessment of a system's accuracy, and acknowledging that what inaccuracies do exist in the various components may interact in non-linear or unpredictable ways.

Bryon
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