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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 5 responses by mikewerner

mikewerner
120 posts
 
Think about this...
If a playback system is low distortion, then it is high resolution.
The contrapositive statement is:
If a system is low resolution, then it is high distortion.

I regularly listen to "poorly recorded music" through a low distortion system and am amazed at how good it sounds. One of my favorites is "1967 Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits." Really, I am slack jawed listening to the music. It sounds fantastic!

Note the common error of logic made with the above statement:
If a system is high resolution, then it is low distortion. This is NOT true.

This helps explain much of the seemingly contradictory statements made in this thread.
mikewerner
120 posts
 
Power compression is another common form of distortion that can occur in a high resolution system.
mikewerner
120 posts
 
Thanks glupson, that is really funny!

mikewerner
120 posts
 
To clarify,
I am saying that a low distortion system is NECESSARILY high resolution.
A high resolution system is NOT NECESSARILY low distortion.
mikewerner
120 posts
 
What if you have a high resolution system in a crappy room? There will be distortion in the sound from comb filtering, modes, etc. 
Or a speaker with a non-flat frequency spectrum. The resolution can be high but the sound is distorted.
These equal high resolution and high distortion.
I am using the broadest meaning of distortion, not just THD. If the sound wave produced at the listening chair is different than the recorded sound wave, then it is distorted.


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