What do you seek the most from your audio system?

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The most important aspect of sound reproduction for me is:

  • Clarity

  • Accuracy

  • Dynamics

  • Spatiality

  • Emotionality

  • Something else (pls specify in comments)

  • Can’t say/nothing in particular


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What's the difference between clarity and accuracy? A lot of these things are intertwined. An accurate speaker is accurate only if its in-room response is smooth and without coloration. For that to happen, reflections also need to controlled and balanced, which will lend good spatial behavior too.
 
Correctly said. Perhaps this is because the feel of ownership has a lot to do with emotional quotient. Also the kind of relaxation, time, content and ambience one has in own home can't be replicated on a showroom. The goal is very different there!

We are talking of the emotion in the song and not the emotion attached with owning the system.
 
What's the difference between clarity and accuracy? A lot of these things are intertwined. An accurate speaker is accurate only if its in-room response is smooth and without coloration. For that to happen, reflections also need to controlled and balanced, which will lend good spatial behavior too.

Explained earlier in the thread. Accuracy is producing exact frequency response as in the recording. Clarity is being distortion/noise free. There are high end systems producing very clear but coloured sound.
 
For me it’s Imaging & Microdynamics

Imaging
When everything, and I mean everything comes from behind the speakers and the soundstage fills that imaginary rectangular cuboid, for me that’s the magic I’m looking for.

Microdynamics
Though most people relate this to the ebb and flow of instruments I have found that this attribute especially helps me connect with the emotionality in vocals.

Of course there are a lot of other aspects that I enjoy and appreciate but these two are paramount
 
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So, based on the limited response, Emotionality turns out to be the most sought after aspect of sound reproduction, followed by Clarity and Accuracy. Interestingly, no one rated Spatiality the highest.

Now if we juxtapose this against the demos in most audio showrooms, we see how the order is actually inversed! They’d try to impress with Spatiality (soundstage) and most buyers perhaps fall for it. It’s rare to find salespersons helping you see how emotive the system sounds. In fact very few reviewers focus on this aspect.I doubt frequency response curve discussions they devote pages to capture this important aspect.

I think spatiality partially leads to the emotionality as well, you get drawn into the music when the vocals are crystal clear and instruments just float around it else the presentation soungs congested. On the contrary if the spatiality overpowers everythinge else i enjoy it for the first few minutes then it tends to get fatiguing and i start noticing some things are off here and there. The sales person probably bank on this initial impression to get the sale .
 
I think spatiality partially leads to the emotionality as well, you get drawn into the music when the vocals are crystal clear and instruments just float around it else the presentation soungs congested. On the contrary if the spatiality overpowers everythinge else i enjoy it for the first few minutes then it tends to get fatiguing and i start noticing some things are off here and there. The sales person probably bank on this initial impression to get the sale .

Nice way to summarise. ‘Spatiality attracts you into the music, Emotionality holds you there.’
 
Read this interview of Nick Doshi of Doshi Audio and thought of sharing this snippet:

How do you define the difference between hi-fi and high-end audio?
High-end audio is the experience of being intellectually and emotionally connected to a piece of music through the conduit of an audio system. If your system inspires you to listen for more than an hour at a time, it transcends hi-fi and becomes high end.

 
No matter how detailed the sound can be, if it is not emotionally connecting, we will not be listening to it for long. Second most important is Spatiality, provided that Audio has decent level of all other attributes like Clarity & Dynamics.
 
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