Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveC
Firstly to the concept of running in. There has been an objective vs. subjective debate about this for years in the Audiophile community with absolutely no agreement or conclusion
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Of course there's been no agreement or conclusion, because the subjectivism is like religion -- everyone has their own story and is convinced it's correct. Yes, in the end, sound is an entirely emotional experience. But until those pressure waves hit your ears, the whole process is purely measurable, repeatable science. Unfortunately most system evaluations test the emotional experience, and almost never the actual sonic properties of a system.
In regards to blind tests, their usefulness entirely depends on the component, and the rigor used when setting up the test. For example, different copies of the identical model of speaker are often sufficiently different to be marginally audible. For components in the signal path, a difference in sound pressure of a couple of decibels is enough to reliably skew results heavily in favour of the louder component.
Your paragraph on imaging is substantially correct, but might as well be a quote from
Layperson Wikipedia. It's not a response to anything I said.
Your paragraph on pace, rhythm and timing is amusing -- but like arguing with someone's religion there's just nowhere to start, and nowhere to go.
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The entire consumer audio space is infected with many layers of misinformation, misunderstanding and plain old bullshit. Layer upon layer upon layer of complete and utter wrongness.
Perhaps the biggest lie in audio is that personal taste matters. If you set up a good system
properly (i.e. competent equipment, good acoustics and accurate calibration) then it will immediately sound fantastic to 90% of ears. The remaining 10% or so will take time to acclimate, but will always, without fail, eventually prefer the accurate system over their old system.
For anyone who's interested, here's a quick summary of what matters when it comes to audio reproduction:
- What you're listening to. If you listen to terrible music, the best equipment in the world can't fix it!
- What you're used to. If you're used to a treble-heavy system, everything else is going to sound flat. Like reducing salt from your diet, food will taste bland for a while. Your tongue can slowly acclimate; your ears can slowly acclimate, but it takes a while. The same applies to dips and peaks across the entire audible frequency spectrum.
- The room. And anything you can do to improve the room. Simply stated, the best speakers in the world will sound like crap in your bathroom. Modest speakers will sound amazing in an ideal space. Most people's listening spaces are somewhere between a bathroom and the ideal; more often closer to the former than the latter.
- The speakers and speaker cabinets. They matter a little bit; they certainly define the upper limit of potential of a system. Particularly the speaker cabinets -- this is why treating your door cavity can be so important.
And here's what doesn't matter:
- Cables
- Interconnects
- Amplifiers (as long as they're driven within their limits, and not broken)
- Digital audio exceeding 44.1kHz/16 bit
- DACs and source devices
- Magical tweaks
- "Pure direct" modes
- Your favourite brand name
- Everything else I haven't mentioned