My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers


The one word that bugs me the most in all of the audiophile world is "revealing." 

It's plenty descriptive but it's also biased.  What I mean is that speakers that are revealing are also usually quite colored. They don't unveil a recording, they focus your attention by suppressing some tones and enhancing others. The reviewer who suddenly discovers hearing things he has never heard before and now goes through his entire library has fallen for this trap hook line and sinker.

This is not always true, as some speakers are revealing by ignoring the room.  They can remain tonally neutral but give you a headphone like experience.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the others.  I  wish we had a better word for it.

Mind you, I believe you should buy speakers based on your personal preferences.  Revealing, warm, neutral, whatever.  I'm just saying this word is deceptive, as if there were no down side when there is. 

Best,

Erik
erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by kenjit

 I'm not at all frustrated with my sound system.  
@erik_squires 

are you implying they are perfect? 
For example: B&W has a certain sound that shows up in all of their speakers except for their top of the line.
How do you know that? 
There is nothing wrong with coloration if it enables you to hear more details in the recording. As long as the speaker gives you more enjoyment it doesn't matter what coloration there is or what frequency response it has or what crossover circuit it uses. 
It also doesn't matter what words you use to describe what you hear. Some people call it revealing others call it coloration. The fact of the matter is Erik, unless you can prove to me precisely which measurements are important and why when it comes to perceived sound quality, you are just going round in circles.