If you were serious about sound you would...


If your audiophile quest is to get the best sound then buy the best equipment used to make the recordings originally. One of the few things nearly every audiophile agrees about is that you can't make the signal better than the original. So:

Solid State Logic 2 channels preamp 5k$
Meyer Sound Bluehorn powered speakers 2x 140K$
Pro Tools MTRX system 10k$
Mac Studio Computer 8k$
Total about 170k$ 
How is it possible to get better sound than the best recording studio gear? 


 

128x128donavabdear

It should be titled '....System(s)', as I really can't see you running everything all at once...*g*  Just a wilding thought...

Caught the irony, yes...and a degree of cynicism.

I'm reasonably assured that the majority of your readers here have 'live music experiences', of all manner and types of venues and players.  But on a more regular basis, we've spent the bulk of our time listening to playbacks...subject to the very wide degree of processing to offer a credible sonic ....'portrayal' of the 'event'.

A soloist via one methodology; duo's, trio's, quartet's....symphonies, orchestras...

All of these can be 'live' or studio'd; the latter really leading into the 'heavier processing', whereas the former?  A little 'sweetening', perhaps... ;)

Beyond that....

It's very much The Art of the Artifice....

Your 'office', arcticians' @ work. 

Which hits the borders of the Art of Noise; not only the group, but the 'product Itself...

Music and the voices in front, beside, and behind...at your control and call.

..................

A little movie, seen long ago, has ever since effected and affected my enjoyment of music and the people within:

The Phantom of the Paradise...

First window of clips, top first 'page', left @ bottom; play entire.... 

Nearly 50 years later, whenever I hear or listen to music of Any genre'....

...in the back of my mind and ears, I recall That series of scenes 'n shots....

And know and trust you and your fellows.....;) *s*  "You betta, you bet..." *L*

(...and Yes, the 'studio' isn't quite right, but one gets the concept....😏....)

Take ANY cd....play track #1.....Take cd out and spray with Armour-All.....wipe clean and Play track #1 again......It will sound like you did a Major upgrade to your system...it's like Magic....try it!

One of the few things nearly every audiophile agrees about is that you can't make the signal better than the original.

I do think you are missing the point. Yes, we all agree with the above statement, to expect 'better' is folly. OK you have your studio original and now want to listen to that at home. Now I'm sure you will agree, if playback is from your computer using a Chinese $99 DAC via a small pair of cheap speakers it will not provide a rewarding emotional experience, therefore components that do less damage are required, and so the quest continues.

Try it yourself: take a copy of your work to a high-end outlet and listen to it on their best money no object system in an acoustically treated room and compare that to what you hear in your studio! A difference I think.

The comment made that PS Audio gear is mid-fi holds true, meaning better is available and easily heard. With the millions you have spent would it not make sense to install some absorption panels, you know, like a real studio?

@donavabdear  "my main system is wonderful and I love the way it sounds but my professional system in the same room 90 degrees apart is much more accurate and it's not nearly as enjoyable I don't listen to it half as much,"

If your professional system isn't nearly enjoyable and you don't listen to it much why are you pushing everyone to go down this route?  Why would I or anyone else invest money into a system that creates call it whatever you want ,  "sound" , "music sound"  that isn't enjoyable to listen to. What am I missing? 

@phusis Great post! I also appreciate the thought about room calibration on such a "no flavorings" speaker like the Bluehorn. Honestly I didn't consider that in my thoughts and I should have never the less the reason I chose the Bluehorn as an example of studio speakers is because they are internally powered and the amps are designed for the speaker drivers individually there is no way to get to that level of accuracy buying amps and speakers that are not designed for each other. Also the speakers in a system that is trying to be accurate and not musical is spongy your brain will fill in the gaps of the music especially when you have more experience, most people have a few songs very well they know how that song sounds on different systems so when it sounds different on system A or B the experienced listener can very accurately note the differences compared to his reference, and if you listen for many many years you will also have a reference of where your reference system is accounting for it's particular deficiencies. Once again our brains are the listeners not our ears. Speakers don't have to be spongy they can be accurate simply turning the electrical signal into acoustic information. This is why there must be a baseline Wilson, Magico and the like are not flat they sound great but aren't flat, this is why you rarely see speakers with full range polar pattern test patterns like pro microphones come with. Professional speakers do come with these patters but not full frequency, even limited frequency polar patters are all over the place that's just the nature of the beast.

Room acoustics are secondary meaning other than using deep learning / AI in the near future to see the acoustic environment there is no standard because of that it isn't in the tool chest of audiophiles who are going for accurate stems to expect baseline acoustics from the manufactures built in DSP systems that is on the post playback side of the equation. 

Also yes the price is very steep on the Bullhorns but the technology is so ahead of everything else that it was the right choice for looking at a system that was reference not economic. SSL and Pro Tools are very standard, SSL, Neive, Harrison are all very good names in mixers/ preamps but SSL is probably what most high end studios use. Of course there are boutique studios not unlike audiophile playback system and recording systems that are over the top crystal clear in every facet of the recording and playback but since the standard high end recording studio doesn't have that equipment it's like having 2x the headroom in a recording and not knowing how that will sound. This exact thing happened to cassette tape manufactures in the 80s, hi end companies make cassette playback machines that made all the prerecorded cassettes sound unlistenable because they revealed information that wasn't available in standard high end cassette tape recorders.