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In Reply to: RE: Unfortunately, there is no such thing as 100% "accurate" in home music reproduction... posted by mkuller on October 19, 2009 at 10:03:06
There is little point in describing my reference if reader's have never heard any of the components of my reference. To say a Sim Audio is "dark" doesn't really mean much because it may be "dark" because of the interaction with the overly bright reference I am using.
I am of the view (and unfortunately it doesn't work this way even with best intentions) that system reviews are more helpful to people than component reviews.
If I review and all Linn system - then you and everyone else on the forum can go out and determine if RGA's review of the Linn system holds merit with what you heard. If I suggest that the Linn system is polite or a little laid back compared to say an all Bryston/PMC system and you have easy access to the latter as well then you can determine if I'm hearing it the way you're hearing it.
But if you read a lot of reviewer's systems they have speakers perhaps that have not been sold on the market for more than 15 years. UHF magazine have reference system pieces few have heard. Their baseline reference is no help to you if you have not heard it - or likely will never be able to hear it.
At the end of the day I found reviews not to be very helpful to me. I decided that instead of "trusting" reviews I would get my butt off the couch and out of Chapters and listen to the stuff myself. Then I would create a list of stuff that I liked and see which reviewers were on the same page.
With the myriad of possible system combinations it seems ridiculous to me to be able to say "Rotel" sounds bright or Cary is veiled or whatever.
Just last week I auditioned a Rotel RC 1082 preamp - changed out the CD players and got wildly different results. The Tube CD player actually took on SS stereotypes of being open fast lean and a little bright while the SS CD player sounded dark heavy and a little veiled.
However with the tube misconception that tubes are soft and mushy and thick sounding if you heard the combination "most" people would blame the Rotel for being bright - after all it is Solid State. In reality I found the Rotel extremely commendable because it really did what it was supposed to do and give the listener a wide open window to what both CD players sounded like.
Was the tube CD player the problem - perhaps a mismatch - but it did bring IMO "more of the recording" out than the SS Sim Audio player. The leanness in the rock recordings simply didn't paper over the cracks and that tube cd player in a different system was pure excellence - still the Sim Audio CD player with the Rotel while a little veiled was easier in many respects to listen to longer term. But the tube CD player IMO was considerably better sounding in the system it was designed for - SETs and tube friendly speakers.
It's awfully difficult to review when confronted with such varying differences in sound. It's all well and good to have a "reference" amp or speakers but the fact is some stuff is just not going to get along with other stuff.
And IMO no words or graphs substitute the actual visceral experience of listening. The the trick is to have the confidence to buy what your ears tell you rather than some review, because after all - next month that reviewer will be telling you about some other amp that is absolutely wonderful.
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