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Sound, neutrality and the pursuit of everything

The audiophile hobby is inherently a pursuit of some ideal. That ideal might differ from person to person, but what I am curious about is how each of us define that ideal. 

I kinda like where my system is at. I cue a well recorded track and think: damn that sounds good. But compared to what? Do I have a point of comparison to the original performance, the day it was recorded? Usually not. To use an overused album, unless I was sitting at the Olympia concert hall in Paris when Diana Krall performed there in 2001 and have a perfect auditory memory, how do I know my system if reproducing it with “fidelity”?

If the pursuit of perfection is useless as perfection is an illusion, how do you all define your level of satisfaction or achievement in this audiophile pursuit?

jabar102

Showing 1 response by melvinjames

melvinjames
416 posts
 

I'm after the most transparency I can have in an apartment.

It has to sound good at moderate listening levels and be so clear and lack distortion that I feel like you do when you are at the top of a mountain range, like you can see for miles, only with your ears.

Re-creating a live rock n roll performance is most definitely NOT my goal.

This part of Erik's post pretty much sums up where I'm at after years of pursuit, but it wasn't always this way. My taste in music has evolved over time, goal posts have shifted as I've aged and gained experience. Small Jazz clubs have replaced deafening Rock concerts. At home it's much of the same, mostly Jazz (lots of classic 50's and 60's recordings, piano trios, late-night smokey lounge, and moody Nordic stuff). Moving to a fleawatt SET/high-efficiency speaker system with its gorgeous clarity and tone has proven to be just about perfect for me now. Doubt it would have satisfied in my youth.



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