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High Performance Audio - The End?

Steve Guttenberg recently posted on his audiophiliac channel what might be an iconoclastic video.

Steve attempts to crystallise the somewhat nebulous feeling that climbing the ladder to the high-end might be a counter productive endeavour. 

This will be seen in many high- end quarters as heretical talk, possibly even blasphemous.
Steve might even risk bring excommunicated. However, there can be no denying that the vast quantity of popular music that we listen to is not particularly well recorded.

Steve's point, and it's one I've seen mentioned many times previously at shows and demos, is that better more revealing systems will often only serve to make most recordings sound worse. 

There is no doubt that this does happen, but the exact point will depend upon the listeners preference. Let's say for example that it might happen a lot earlier for fans of punk, rap, techno and pop.

Does this call into question almost everything we are trying to ultimately attain?

Could this be audio's equivalent of Martin Luther's 1517 posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg?

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Can your Audio System be too Transparent?

Steve Guttenberg 19.08.20

https://youtu.be/6-V5Z6vHEbA

cd318

Showing 3 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,870 posts
 
Do you see the difference I mean to make between imperious pronouncements of that sort, vs sharing our experience and knowledge with our system building?



So an example might be:


I tried X tweak and it expanded the soundstage in my system.


Cool. I might want to try that too. Or not.



Vs



"I've used X tweaks and found benefits, so it's my position "audiophiles OUGHT to use those tweaks" or "audiophiles are really missing out if they haven't tweaked out their system in these methods" or "audiophiles are going to keep chasing their tails unless they do what I'm doing. The equipment and tweaks I use solve audiophile problems."

Bingo!





mapman's avatar
mapman
21,870 posts
 
Interesting Steve worked at SBS. Did not know that. He reviewed Ohm Walsh speakers recently and was very impressed. The time I went to Sound By Singer and mentioned I owned Ohm Walsh speakers the guy there totally dissed them.  I do not think it was him but not sure.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,870 posts
 
I watched the video and practically, I think he nailed it pretty well. The example of pop music on Magnepans is a classic example of wrong speaker for a particular kind of recording. Been there, done that. But that is not strictly a case of too high performance for the genre. The issue is also lack of performance regarding large scale dynamics with planars. You will hear the music but probably seldom feel it.
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