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RE: Okay, now I know I can safely....

Posted by stehno on March 7, 2015 at 02:43:55:
Really?

So when I speak negatively about the quality of music for 2-ch. systems you don't have any apparent issues. But when I speak equally negative about the quality of music for multi-ch. systems you have issues? How is that so?

If you disagree with our playback system's levels of musicality, then you give clear indication you know not what you speaketh. But as you know you are far from alone here.

Let's start with a few quotes about playback systems and their potential limitations.

Robert Harley, editor-in-chief of The Absolute Sound magazine and former sound engineer speculated in the Mar/Apr 2009 issue, "I believe that something catastrophic occurs at the recording mic's diaphragm so that much of the music never makes it to the recording." Paraphrased.

About 1 year earlier, Jonathan Valin, senior editor at the same magazine said, "We are lucky if even our very best playback systems are able to capture 15% of the magic of the live performance." Paraphrased.

In the Sept. 2009 issue of Stereophile mag, editor-in-chief and sound engineer John Atkinson something similar when he said, "I believe much of the music never makes it to the recording." Paraphrased.

Should you encounter somebody intimately familiar with live muisc performances as well as playback systems, if they are worth their weight in salt, they should also say something not too dissimilar.

Regarding Valin's comment above, I've had several tell me that even that 15% is rather optimistic.

As for me, I agree with their catastrophic claims of a playback systems performance level, but I disagree with them when they say the music info never makes it to the recording. To the contrary I'm confident the vast majority of the music makes it to the recording and is processed throughout the chain during playback, but distortions are so great that much of the music processed falls below a much raised noise floor so that it remains inaudible.

How do you weigh in on this? Do you think Harley, Valin, and Atkinson, and others are out to lunch on this matter? Do you suppose they have as much or more opportunity than you to listen to live music? Do you think they have at their disposal far better products than you or I?

Or do you have some insights of your own here where you can demonstrate that what you're hearing (though perhaps impressive in its own way) is indeed still catastrophic when compared to the live perfromance?