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
Csontos, well it is great to be able to hear stellar performances from the past with great realism. I just heard Nnenna Freelon from about ten feet away from her. The performance was heavily amplified, however. She was great, but so was her Live recording with the same songs was also equally outstanding. That is always my goal in 45 years of being an audiophile.
Hey, if you end up replicating the performance, all the better. I think it's everyone's goal whether we know it or not.
While sitting in the best sweet spot, I use a analog sound level meter to set the source listening volume around 80 dB's with 86-92 dB peaks. (I have 15" drivers in each front and L/R surround channel, and two 12's in the center - 80dB's is very adequate for me in my listening room as a comfortable baseline).

This SLM method provides a consistent, reproducible, measurable reference standard. As I'm listening, I move my head (ears) around to search for the most lush, open air and balanced tones. It changes with slight head movements to compensate for my ears - should they be completely clear or a bit stopped-up. Tilted forward or slightly downward, slightly more bass and mid-bass is captured. Tilted up towards the ceiling, the trebles and mids open up. In between, it's pure musical neutrality. I usually find tilting my head back to about 45 degrees towards the ceiling, and slowly rotating my ears from left to right (while exploring through a performances tonal balances), the best immersed listening experience. This is true for all modes - 2-channel, L/R Surround and mulit-channel SACD/DVD-Audio. It likely resembles a blind listener/musician.

I think we’ve found the next big audio tweak - The adjustable, micro calibrated head clamp.
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