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In Reply to: RE: That being the case, I think you are in the minority posted by John Marks on February 23, 2015 at 06:30:44
"a desire to hear deeper into the soundstage."
Do you attempt to do that when you attend concerts or do you just sit back and enjoy the music?
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I have never heard a stereo reproduce what it sounded like to hear Sir Colin Davis conduct Gerontius and I was sitting in the third row. Not just the dynamics and bass but also the nearly 50-foot width and depth (depth counting pipe organ chambers) of the sound source.
And yes, when the motif that is played by the viola comes up, one does hear a specific image within the sound stage.
String quartets from mid-hall, not so much. More like blended mono.
Assuming that competent engineers and a wise producer made the recording, if there is informational content in a recording of a great performance I want to hear more of it.
jm
"I have never heard a stereo reproduce what it sounded like to hear Sir Colin Davis conduct Gerontius and I was sitting in the third row. Not just the dynamics and bass but also the nearly 50-foot width and depth (depth counting pipe organ chambers) of the sound source."
And I assume you've heard some cost-no-object systems. Is it safe to conclude that audio gear will never bring us the realism of a live concert, regardless of how much money one invests? Or are you of the mind that one should "never say never" regarding this matter? Is there any technology on the horizon that makes you sanguine or do the laws of physics prevent you from duplicating your third row experience in your home?
The problem with homes is that in general the rooms are too small and one rarely has a situation where the ceiling is so high that the ear registers all the horizontal room reflections (for spatial localization) before the ceiling reflections interfere. That obviously is an issue with the room at The University of the South that now has Alexandria XLFs.
And the normal home has about 30 dB of background noise (refrigerator compressors, traffic noise, airplanes) anyway.
Believe it or not Bose was doing some research a few years back about "virtual reality" testing of room acoustics but IIRC to hear the effect your head had to be clamped in one place in a device that could remind one of something from an eye exam and the speakers were very close--as close as computer speakers.
I have NOT heard the technology JA did at CES that used ear-canal measurements to adjust the speakers' sound to the room's quirks. SP-BACCH?
All that said, at the end of the day the object of the game is first to fool the brain and then to win over the heart. Exhibit 1 being a bootleg recording of The Eric Whitacre Singers that is up on YT. The young lady thought she was taking a photograph but she started taking a movie, and so when she put the iPad back in her bag, its lens was blocked but the microphones heard enough.
I had a friend over and I played some DSD files for him and then some hi-res PCM and then some Red Book and just as a gas I played the YouTube off the internet, and when it was over, he looked at me and said that of everything I had played, the crappy YouTube of a bootleg made with the mics in a handbag had had the biggest impact on him.
So, at the end, the equipment is always a tool, and the slenderest knowledge of divine things trumps certainty about mundane things.
ATB,
JM
I'll put this right out there:
Half of the battle is in your head. If you are in the right mood, then your enjoyment, even on "crummy" gear with "crummy" sonics can be transcendent.
I think we spend time fussing about the sound, and the layout of the room, and everything just-so to stack the deck to more reliably get one of those transcendent experiences. But sometimes the stuff isn't needed and you get there in spite of it all.
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As audiophiles, we take what's obsolete, make it beautiful, and keep it forever.
Hey! I have a blog now: http://mancave-stereo.blogspot.com or "like" us at https://www.facebook.com/mancave.stereo
Thanks, John. Always a pleasure.
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