Music Reproduction Systems - what are we trying to achieve?

Why would you want your system to sound like live music? Most live music is not very hi fi. Even if it's just acoustic. Unless your in good seat in a good room you will hear more room and audience than music. the mix in your seat will change every few seats ( instruments are directional so they sound different at different angles, next time you hear a real horn listen to how much the tone and volume change when it moves. Is this what you want at home, for the trumpet solo to disappear under the other music when he turns? And don't even get me started on live music thru a PA. What I want from my system is to sound like the one in the mix. Not very easy to do.
 
RE: "But this would make any discussion of the qualities of a particular equipment for listening to music as totally subjective and therefore lacking veracity for the purpose of comparison."

EXACTLY - That is why real double blind testing is needed. Way to many variables otherwise and nothing really proved.
 
Why would you want your system to sound like live music? Most live music is not very hi fi. Even if it's just acoustic. Unless your in good seat in a good room you will hear more room and audience than music.
etc.

We had a whinge thread about inconsiderate audiences some years ago, quite satisfying to get it off our collective chest.

Puzzled about performers moving around.

I buy good seats in good halls to hear good performers. Perhaps you are not lucky enough to be able to reach places like Symphony Hall Birmingham (arguably the best in the UK), Bridgewater Hall, Barbican, even Royal Festival hall is pretty good. Orchestras such as CBSO, LSO, BBC SO, BBC Phil., don't drown each other out - anyone who did would be sacked.
 
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RE: "How something sounds is subjective. A DBT can tell you whether a difference can be heard. If during this process one is found to reproduce music in a "better" way, that is subjective."

Yes, but when you know for sure there is a difference, then you can start judging, knowing that you are not imagining it... Way, way too many start judging before they even know if there is a valid difference...
 
How something sounds is subjective. A DBT can tell you whether a difference can be heard. If during this process one is found to reproduce music in a "better" way, that is subjective.
It is because it is subjective that it cannot be taken as a point to argue because there is no common ground to start with.

Sure every one can coice their opinion till the proverbial cows come home but only a standardised measurement can put the conversation on a firm albeit intollerant setting.

If a piece of equipment can measure something in one tape deck under a set of circumstances then that same apparatus can measure a competing tape deck under that same set of circumstances.

With this then done... the discussion about the advantages of one over the other can thwn make sense to not only the two owners of said tpe decks but also the audience listening in on the discussion..

Of course with each measurement the conditions ought to be stated or at least be understood.

It is for this reason that the specifications of equipme t are made available alongside the product when sold.
 
There is a growing consensus that the traditional measurements, THD being a prime example, are inadequate when is comes to how equipment sounds. The quest now is to find more meaningful tests and measurements. Problems seems to be that few are interested enough or have the means and wherewithal to investigate it, and what would be the method for discovering them?
 
There is a growing consensus that the traditional measurements, THD being a prime example, are inadequate when is comes to how equipment sounds. The quest now is to find more meaningful tests and measurements. Problems seems to be that few are interested enough or have the means and wherewithal to investigate it, and what would be the method for discovering them?
I follow you on THD... ye ive often found that measurement too fine a tollerance to be a tually heard.

Perhaps a multiplier of that distortion figure that could be heard.. so the higher the multiplier the better the audio equipment. Trouble is.. heared by who ? Who would be the standard. Perhaps the minimum hearing range ?
 
Incomprehensible

Barcus Berry Electronics (BBE) is a digital enhancememt to recordings to help recreate the presence of a live performance.

The piano notes sound sharper, the strings have more detail in their vibrations.

I just wonder if its not the power of the notes that you seek but rather its attitude or rise time or attack curve.

Are you serious? Detail cannot be added if it wasn't there in the original recording.
 
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Program Material is crazy

I have settled on my streaming app as a music source, there is sufficient clarity, but not loud enough on some recordings, it even varies from album to album, with the USB amp am using, sometimes I have to turn the volume down, sometimes I turn it up but its not loud enough. That problem will be solved soon - I bought a "Lepai" amp once but never liked it, too antiseptic.

My digital recordings also vary in output volume, sound levels, and of course quality.

Bottom line is I can only make valid judgments about my system, or to be more exact, meaningful, useful comparisons with good quality audio sources.

Once you get into good audio, its a bit of a Pandora's box isn't it?

Also see this site:

FileNugget | Home
 
We should not manupilate by using something like BBE. My experience is via tweaking of components, why cause details are already there is the first place. Take for example an I/V resistor. Different brands or types of the same value will have different sound results. Use the wrong type details will be hidden, does not sound natural etc.
 
If the source is a pig veils all the nuances etc , how can BBE retrieve those info ?
Very difficult for me to explain this, only those like me whose got real itchy fingers
& never stops tweaking will understand what Im trying to say. Offcourse there’s gonna
be guys who’ll say a resistor is just a resistor , a cap is just a cap, it should not affect the
sound & if does then the circuit is in question.

Cheers
 
Emphasis of certain frequencies in a dynamic(automatic) way can bring out detail that was there but hidden.
Music perceprion is complicated and varies between people. Bbe pits back in what recording takes out..so it does indeed at least in intention recover the original source ..by undoing the things that occur when something is recorded.

How does it know what was taken out?