The entire country of Switzerland is neutral, so I suggest all serious hifi listening should be done there. |
I'm also a pro sound dude (recording, live sound mixer, musician, bon vivant, lazy older person trying not to seem creepy) and I agree that no gear is "neutral" really, but if you can cobble together a system that demonstrates the differences between things and makes music enjoyable for Active Engaged Listening, that's all you can ask. By the way…ever actually hear what "rich sound engineers" listen to for mixing? It's shocking I tell ya…Yamaha NS10s…man…it varies wildly but often it simply comes out just fine. And what does "bon vivant" mean anyway?
|
Auratones…man…and I think the only valid explanation of NS10s is everybody had them, but I have never been able to stand those damn things…they give me a headache. Note that mastering has a huge impact on the final sound…luckily…Bob Ludwig, et al…save the day often.
|
Most cables are designed to resist interference by being spiraled (many speaker cables, including the ones I use) or shielded…careful grounding, good wall plugs, transformer hum busting and better power supplies instead of wall warts, an effective power conditioner, and my own nuclear power plant I got from a scuttled sub…great conversation piece by the way. |
I think the lesser of similarity among recordings would indicate neutrality as a more neutral system would function as a window into detail…and all recordings differ. |
Geodffdude...I meant to say that the interconnects are shielded and the speaker wire I use is spiraled, but I shall now start worrying about large magnetic fields just to keep you happy. I'm a giver. My "dual mono" preamp has isolated transformers so I assume that's a good thing. Also, the philosophy I apply to my hifi rig is the same as what I apply in live sound mixing, less stuff in the way of the signal sounds better...to me anyway…for live it's about unstressed plentiful amp and mixer headroom with proper signal input trimming (you'd be surprised at how many inexperienced or simply lame live sound techs don't understand trim pots), and tone manipulation kept to a minimum…no compression. It could be argued that pro mixing boards aren't neutral at all, but I don't want to think about that…too frightening. My hifi rig doesn't even have balance controls let alone any tone stuff to manipulate them pesky electrons…but neutrality is relative to the listener's taste as the listener likely prefers some overall tone characteristic due to personal preference, not unlike my preference for tube amps for hifi and guitar, and in my car (hit a bump and the tubes fall out sometimes, not to mention the car's turntable skipping).
|
I use balanced cable runs from my DAC to the preamp, and balanced out to the amp. Perhaps unnecessary but I like XLR plugs from many years in pro audio and recording…snappy! |
Sumo is one of the coolest names anybody came up with for an amp line…somebody should revive that name and make a new tough looking amp. |
The live reference conundrum remains interesting to me. Orchestral (not miked) music live as a reference should make you think about what an instrument does…a violin is omni directional but mostly up, and unless the violinist is chained to one spot and can only move the bow and fingering bits…and NOT move around (there goes that pesky phase coherency issue) especially relative to the other people who may be playing something at the same time all over the stage, you get some crazy sonic character to ponder. The fact that great mikes can capture more or less what your ears might hear (if your seat is suspended 15 feet above the orchestra), is good news. To get anything like the live mojo out of yer tweets and woofs is doable, but still…it's nothing like live and maybe that's not so bad. Most people get that…is watching play on a high def TV like live actors in your house? Of course not (note that live actors are often difficult to get OUT of your house…trust me), but it can still be friggin' great…I have a Britten LP with old Ben conducting and man the passion and vibe get through big time, even though the velocity may be skewed (!). Don't forget, that $90 fuse takes a month to break in and you might have put it in backwards in the first place and you're going to have to remember what your rig sounded like a month ago…daunting... |
I have a polarity switch on my DAC…it is generally (or always) ignored, and great sounding recordings are great sounding…period. I do bristle when gasbags tell me something sounds wrong when I think it sounds right, and there is nothing quite as pretentious as pretention…recording venture indeed. "Velocity of air" is a generally meaningless term as far as audio is concerned (sound waves pass THROUGH the air, makes waves in it, and thus exist) although there is seemingly no shortage of gas velocity generated by obfuscation and condescension. The sound of gas escaping the bag…blaaaat…. |
Just a note about "things in the actual world," my stepson's Cambridge MA based company developed systems to pull conversations out of loud environments, and won an Emmy for it (it had been utilized in the "Most Dangerous Catch" series). Smart kids over there. Secret pseudo science claims for items producing audio nirvana waste everybody's time…talk to people who do the real work as they're much more interesting. |
The very cool Hedy Lamarr story needs a movie as it's simply one of the great opportunities for a biopic…an absolutely amazing woman. |
I've hosted concerts in my listening room…the room remains "untreated" as furniture does the job, so are the live shows not "neutral?" This is a rhetorical question. |
I meant "Deadliest Catch." "Most dangerous catch" would more likely be about hard hit ground balls. |
Dave_b..Maybe you missed the "rhetorical question" part of my rhetorical question. I find that I can pick and choose which aspects of the signal I want to harm, and then harm the living crap out of them. Pesky upper mids? I duct tape 1,247 small pieces of 2 day old rye bread to my ceiling and suddenly my system sounds EXACTLY like a concert in the Filmore West in 1972 heard while my girlfriend Shirley was attempting to braid my hair while surrounded by a "tribe" of hippies wearing feathers…just feathers...or to get the sound of Richie Haven's turquoise jewelry banging against the back of my Guild guitar I leant to him at an after concert party in 1970 Honolulu…I sat right in front of him on acid (me, not him…I assume) and to get THAT sound you have to lead a flock of quiet ducks (!) into your listening room and then gently tap your output tubes with a length of sterilized wax coated plumber's snake. Utterly worth it. |
