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Real or Surreal. Do you throw accuracy out the window for "better" sound?

I visited a friend recently who has an estimated $150,000 system. At first listen it sounded wonderful, airy, hyper detailed, with an excellent well delineated image, an audiophile's dream. Then we put on a jazz quartet album I am extremely familiar with, an excellent recording from the analog days. There was something wrong. On closing my eyes it stood out immediately. The cymbals were way out in front of everything. The drummer would have needed at least 10 foot arms to get to them. I had him put on a female vocalist I know and sure enough there was sibilance with her voice, same with violins. These are all signs that the systems frequency response is sloped upwards as the frequency rises resulting in more air and detail.  This is a system that sounds right at low volumes except my friend listens with gusto. This is like someone who watches TV with the color controls all the way up. 

I have always tried to recreate the live performance. Admittedly, this might not result in the most attractive sound. Most systems are seriously compromised in terms of bass power and output. Maybe this is a way of compensating. 

There is no right or wrong. This is purely a matter of preference accuracy be damn.  What would you rather, real or surreal?

128x128mijostyn

Showing 3 responses by terry9

terry9
2,243 posts
 

@mahgister @inna "But there is way more to upgrading and optimizing than just reaching smoothness."

I understand where you are coming from. When I first plugged in my cost-no-object DIY phono/pre, I wasn’t sure I liked it - where were the high frequencies? It was all too smooth and too easy to like - then I played some Chopin, and the piano on the system sounded a lot more like the piano upstairs. Vocalists sounded like people that I knew. I realized that I had been listening to more distortion than music.

My pursuit of smoothness is predicated on a certain basic level of equipment, like not a single electrolytic cap anywhere in the signal path. Even so, YMMV.

terry9
2,243 posts
 

I throw out everything for 'smoother'. Every major upgrade has made my system smoother.

Better electronics for my ESL's - smoother.

Better electronic components, battery power, continuous power - smoother.

Air tonearm, turntable - smoother.

Koetsu - smoother. Grado Epoch - smoother yet.

Smooth is my lodestone - it gets me ever nearer to the grand piano upstairs.

 

terry9
2,243 posts
 

Die Valkure over the weekend clarified things for me. The tenor's crescendos were painful to unprotected ears. Ditto for the orchestra. At preferred settings, my ESL system doesn't do that - and I don't want it too, either.

Smoothness is my lodestone. YMMV

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