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Should a high end system be flexible, or demanding?

This is a discussion we dance around here a lot. I want a system that is flexible. That lets me play music from Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1940s all the way up to today and enjoy it.  I simply can't expect mono recordings from then to sound the same on my system as they did to the recording engineers at the time, nor can I make a 1940's "reference system" work well for modern tracks.

Making a system that is too demanding that keeps you looking for audiophile approved recordings while ignoring music as culture for the past 100 years is a kink.
erik_squires

Showing 2 responses by cd318

cd318
2,636 posts
 
According to professor James Morrison, it might mean that we want everything and we don't want to have to wait for it.
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@douglas_schroeder

"The hard limitations of the genres of speakers and components becomes clear as day when many systems are built and assessed using a wide variety of musical genres."


Agreed.

I was happy listening to my collection of largely 60s/70s rock and pop for years and years on my small Rega bookshelves until a friend introduced me to Coltrane and Davis via his large bi-amped KEF floorstanders.


It soon became apparent that the tiny Regas, despite their superior midrange, could not do justice to those vintage Blue Note recordings the way the KEFS could.Without the double bass driving along the rest of the band, the performance lost most of its impact and momentum.

"Ye cannae change the laws of physics, Captain!" as a certain Scottish engineer may or may have not said.

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