A Mastering Engineer's take on home audio systems

[sidvee]

A Mastering Engineer’s Systems

[Publisher’s note: Dagogo is excited to present Dave McNair’s following new article to its readership. Thank you, Dave! This article is presented by Dagogo Senior Reviewer David Blumenstein.] About the author: Dave has been a professional recording engineer, mixer, producer, audiophile and for...

www.dagogo.com

Cheers,
Sid

 

[Nikhil]

Thanks for that Sid! Interesting read.

I've come to realize that audio is so personal.
After a while it's all about getting the sound we like and that's all there is to it.

Regards



.

 

[sidvee]

My take away from that article was that the actual recording (what was recorded in a studio or concert Hall) is like an "Illusion" and reproducing that in one's own room is almost next to impossible. I personally experienced this so many times while comparing live jazz performances at the Village Vanguard and then listening to recordings made there in my own system - I have been at this club maybe 50-60 times and sat at different locations so I know it reasonably well. Yes some spatial cues of the venue are certainly present in these recordings, and I if I close my eyes and consume a relaxing adult beverage, may be I get transported there in my mind, but the reality is starkly different. And this is with a small set of performers like a trio or a quintet at most, when I compare large scale, full blown orchestral pieces (not a genre I prefer), the difference is much, much larger. As much as I like reading reviews where the reviewers say they were transported to some live stadium venue with 50,000 attendees while listening in their small 300 or 400 sq.ft room, I think the reality is quite different and it is an exaggeration (perhaps I have indulged in it as well).
Cheers,
Sid

 

[jls001]

My most frequent live experience is attending live chamber orchestral concerts and my takeaway is no music system I know and have heard can reproduce the beautiful tonality of massed strings. I don't even know how to describe it. Honey dripper? Golden sheen? I don't know.

The power, energy and harmonics produced by a single snare drum or a trombone or a flute is impossible to reproduce too. The sheer amount of beautiful harmonics produced by a trumpet in a marching band is impossible too.

The sheer scale of full-scale orchestral performances, especially when they hit crescendos, is impossible to reproduce.

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Great write up, Sidvee, and very valid comments Nikhil and Josh.

There's also the visual impact and venue ambience in a live performance that can never be brought to life, even with an accompanying video.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

“The flaw of this approach, in my opinion, is almost no one can know what is ‘correct’ and even if they did, it would only be ‘correct’ for a tiny subset of recordings that were specifically produced to sound good on that kind of ultra-flat and almost distortionless kind of system.”

Is he saying that most recordings are produced to sound good better on colored system with distortion than on an ultra-linear and almost distortionless (let’s say perfect) system? If so, then which coloration? And what degree of distortion? Doesn’t cut logic for me. It’s one thing to say that recordings aren’t similar and/or perfect and quite another to say that they aren’t produced to sound good on an a perfect system.

 

[Nitin K]

“The flaw of this approach, in my opinion, is almost no one can know what is ‘correct’ and even if they did, it would only be ‘correct’ for a tiny subset of recordings that were specifically produced to sound good on that kind of ultra-flat and almost distortionless kind of system.”

Is he saying that most recordings are produced to sound good better on colored system with distortion than on an ultra-linear and almost distortionless (let’s say perfect) system? If so, then which coloration? And what degree of distortion? Doesn’t cut logic for me. It’s one thing to say that recordings aren’t similar and/or perfect and quite another to say that they aren’t produced to sound good on an a perfect system.

I am not so technically knowledgeable like many of you'll here on the forum . But on some occasions have heard sound engineers tweak tracks of music directors slightly according to their tonal personal preferences which they are not supposed to. On one particular session few years ago for a track, the high frequencies were over accentuated by the sound engineer to the extent that there was listening fatigue just after few seconds of playing it. Plus he was playing it at slightly loud levels on a professional system although there was no audible distortion. Sometimes the sound of the original tracks do change along the various stages it goes through by the time the master is made depending on the skill & preferences of the audio engineer plus the various electronic components the signal has to pass through.
Thanks Sidvee, it was a good article. Like the way the writer refers to music colouration as harmonic spice & richness but not distortion reflecting what the human ears would like to hear as a music lover but not as a sound engineer.

 

[square_wave]

So, now he has a transmission line speaker ! Anyone knows which one ?

 

[keith_correa]

So, now he has a transmission line speaker ! Anyone knows which one ?

I owned an MTM configuration, Dynaudio driver-based, transmission line speaker at one point

Not anymore, I think.