This is correct. A system that makes different recordings sound more distinct from eachother is more neutral than one that imposes its own sugar coated coloration on everything.
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.
Showing 11 responses by shadorne
When you limit a driver in the frequency domain, you also limit it in the time domain. I've heard it often, especially in bass drivers. When the bass driver is cut off over "X" frequency vs. running full range, bass becomes slow and lacks punch, timing, impact and rhythm. This might be because the attack of the bass drum or toms is around 5 Khz. Slap of bass guitar is around 3 to 5 KHz. See this explanation of how to achieve desired sounds. |
MrTennis - your are right that flat frequency response is essential. However that does not reflect the time domain or transient behavior of a speaker/system. For example, resonance of underdamped speaker drivers or amp/speaker systems can also play a huge role in adding coloration to the sound. Modern underdamped speakers (high Q designs with ceramic or metal drivers that ring like a bell) tend to mask much of the detail because of the resonant behaviour of these designs. The waterfall plots on many of these modern systems do not compare at all well to a 1957 Quad Panel... |
(1) Was cable A preserving detail while subtracting harmonics? Without going into details, the basic engineering design philosophy of neutral equipment is such that the interconnect should not matter. Effort is made to design equipment (at both ends) that will remain unaffected by slight differences in wires. Therefore, if you have an audible difference then you have a problem with neutrality of the equipment. (assuming ordinary wires and not an IC that contains a filter network) |
How will you know when what you are hearing from a component is true neutrality to the source Good question. They have the same problem in pro audio. Sound engineers are constantly concerned with how the mix translates to other (often inferior) systems like cars and radio. Here is a suggestion: If you want to hear Telarc recordings as close to how they intended (as neutral as possible) then you can find out what gear they use and use the same. It still won't be totally neutral unless you acoustically treat your listening environment to a high standard but at least you will be closer to hearing what they hear and what they intended you to hear or as "neutral" as possible... |
If neutral system could be really defined we could hire people with best hearing ability (conductors, musicians etc) to rate systems or pick them for us. Isn't that what part of what these talented people do? They have the know how to create music we like - sounds we like - musical arrangements that fit together beautifully. Some experts are in heavy demand for mastering for the sound quality they create. Others provide key artistic input during the production. Whilst some have great skill in getting the microphones setup perfectly (and to know by ear immediately what is wrong when it ain't right) I believe there is such thing as great sound or excellent equipment and that this can be measured and rated by experts. (Dr. Floyd Toole spent years researching people's perceptions of sound quality and found that we are not so completely different - but I grant you that there are many here who at extremes of the bell curve, as one might expect from obsessive behaviour about sound rather than "music", which Newbee pointed out so well) |
According to the advertisements I have seen on TV, wives have found that a little blue pill seems to fix the neutrality of home hi-fi systems. At least, anecdotally, men suddenly stop spending the majority of their time worrying about the neutrality of their home hi-fi system and also stop spending endless hours tinkering with it. I am not sure how this can possibly have such a dramatic effect on the Hi-Fi - seems to much like "magic pebbles" to me - but worth a try perhaps... |
I've been doing critical listening lately from 12-24" away. You can hear a lot more hash and detail from the driver than the normal 6-10 feet. You may have an issue with room acoustics (extremely common - so don't worry) - if your space is fairly reflective and on the small side then it can clutter the sound - you need space between primary direct arrival and reflected sound in order for things to sound clean and clear. |