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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
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
This thread is too long to re-read, but here's a new addition to the audiophile tool box that will bring one's system closer to "neutrality" (whatever that means): DEQX. Read the various threads on A'gon that speaks to and about DEQX and see why. If interested, look at the DEQX web site too.

IMO and IME, the DEQX PreMATE has squeezed about all there is out of my Paradigm Sig 8 (v3) speakers and achieved a modicum of "neutrality" that was not otherwise possible. Not just because of deficiencies with my speakers, but also because of anomalies caused by room ... an all too often overlooked "component part" of one's system.

Although in the end, one must rely on their ears, FWIW, after correction, my speakers are pretty flat out to 30K HZ and closer to being time coherent. How do I know?? The DEQX set up entailed using a high quality mic which measured my speakers in-room response.

The neighborhood dogs are in doggy heaven.

As Ronald Regan used to say, "trust ... but verify." And that's why I boldly write this post. My system sounds better and measures that what too.

Cheers,

BIF
rja's avatar
rja
2,356 posts
 
If a system is completely neutral it will sound exactly like the real event.
I don't think this will ever happen.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,137 posts
 
Even if your system is neutral, how do you know the recording is a faithful capture of a real event?
tostadosunidos's avatar
tostadosunidos
1,197 posts
 
Other than live, recording has not been a faithful recapture of a "real event" since multitracking came along. Also, you may not find many artists who are satisfied with the sound that comes of the speakers (from the recording) as opposed to the sound they imagined in their head.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Tostadosunidos, even in a live listening, one doesn't hear what artists "imagined in their heads."

I find most systems are smeared because of not only slow drivers without much of a leading edge, but also because of slowness in cables with the dielectrics being chiefly responsible. I have speaker wires with nothing but air between the leads, not beads with air around them. They are very fast.
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