What does listening to a speaker really tell us?

I may have been misusing the word all along, but when I speak of 'transparency', I'm referring to the amount of information on the disc that is actually conveyed, sort of the opposite of veiled or smoothed over.

What I gather is that you are speaking of here is more a question of neutrality and accuracy, no? As in, how do we really know if what we are hearing is exactly what was recorded? I'm not sure that we do, frankly.

Personally, I draw the line between audio systems that sound like recorded music, and those that sound live. I need a connection with the players, and many audio systems lose me for the same reason that a lot of abstract art does. Because somehow I'm supposed to relate to the final product, but not the artist him/herself. An audio system that does not convey the humanity and energy of the players first and foremost loses me in a hurry. And while you may be alluding to accuracy and neutrality, I believe those judgments to be more intellectually based--and thus, more distancing--and have less of an gut-level, emotional impact than transparency does. In other words, IMO live music doesn't convey pleasantry. Rather, it bites down hard.

Very interesting topic!

Pawlowski,
I think that's exactly what has most listeners conclude that XYZ component/cable/system is the "best", because it makes the music sound the way they want to hear it. We are always the litmus test for the system AND the recording. And where do each of us purport to stand on that malleable scale of evaluation? At dead-center neutral. Our perspective always looks to be the most sensical, the one against which all others are measured generally as being equal to or less than. Add one more like-minded vote to our own and we have successfully converted opinion into fact. Or so we would like to believe.

The most neutral system is the most musical is the most transparent is the most appealing is the most engaging and is the most everything because WE are the final judge of each. Every time we choose something it isn't because we have access to some divine rule of audio that others simply missed out on. Whether we're talking politics, audio, cars, or choice of life partners, WE are the point of neutrality on that grand, subjective scale called personal opinion. We might try and substantiate our choices through scientific fact, or by quoting a respected source in the audio industry, but each new 'teammate' for our cause is no more than a simple attempt to validate our own personal choices. We choose according to your own parameters and standards, and then many of us forget that they are only opinions.

Bombywalla, for you it might be the system that distorts the least. For someone else, it might be that last bit of inner detail brought on by shifting a bookcase a couple feet to the right. Some people just want to be moved by the music, while others are jazzed by being able to say they own a particular brand of speakers. We can debate right and wrong forever, but in the end, if you turn on the power switches and ease into a chair with a smile on your face, who cares?

Pawlowski,
Your analogy is an excellent one, though as a painter I might consider the final product to be made less transparent by a glaze, a glass cover, and a complimentary frame. These ancillary effects are often made present by certain components, cables, tubes, tweaks, etc. And they may be exactly what my audiophile buddy wants, but instead might leave me wanting them gone. Because in the end, I don't believe we are looking for a connection with the music, but rather one with ourselves.

In regards to that bird, no two people observing it live would see the same thing. By the same token, you and I could listen to a live concert and you might come away saying that the singer really moved you because she is so close to the words, and I might interpret her as forcing it. You might come away with the impression that the sound was transparent, and I could find it muted. Whether at a live performance, or a recorded one translated via an audio system, everything is left to interpretation by each of us. And our own personal, individual conclusion IS our reality, whether fleeting or fixed. Sometimes it may feel more solid if we pair up with others of the same opinion, but it doesn't transform group opinion into empirical reality. It only makes you all friends.

So, to answer your original question posted here, I would have to say that unless Diana Krall pops out of my Klipsch speakers--and you know I'm praying that tonight she does--I am relegated to enjoying her recorded music through the system that I (and in this case, my wife AND I) determine to meet our standards for musical reproduction. And fortunately, our system does that really well...in our OPINION.

Next week, I'll be 40 years old. And in my brief time here, I have thus far earned only one unshakable truth. That is, Steve Guttenberg is a crappy actor. Now, back to the music!