tomjtx;177033 Wrote: > I would go for #1. I would like for my system to simulate the experience > I would have in the concert hall if the engineer was savy enough to > record it this way. > Of course it will be a "miniature concert hall" since my room is not > the size of a recital hall :-) > I want to hear the general imaging I hear with orchestra, chamber group > or string quartet. > > I would NOT want to hear a string quartet as it would sound live in my > room because it would be to loud and I would be too close to hear the > "totality" of the quartet. (a problem that exists when rehearsing > chamber music in too small a room , BTW) > Rather I want to ear a receation of how that quartet sounded in the > hall transported to my room.
It is indeed an interesting question, and I think that I am partly with tomjtx. I want my system to be the most reasonable transfer of the sound I hear at concert halls into my living room. This is not going to be exactly the same as being there, but it can get close in the most meaningful ways. tomjtx's comments about the reduced scale of the living room vs concert hall touch on an important point. In the same way that a concert performance is only a representation of a piece of music, an audio system can only provide a representation of the performance. The transportation of the musical event into your room involves a significant change. I guess it may be possible, in an anechoic chamber and with some very clever recording and processing, to make a performance sound identical to the live version (i.e. close your eyes and it sounds identical). However, this still would not be the same for me - I like to be able to see what the performers are doing too! The whole experience of being at a concert is not something I could ever hope to reproduce at home (unless I get much richer and can hire them!). So I recognise that this is not going to be a concert, and I adjust my expectations. Since I will not have the visual clues, I hope to get better imaging (I have no idea why audio systems can image better than live music, BTW). The dynamic range and low frequencies are limited (sadly the Royal Albert Hall organ doesn't fit into my living room!). There should be a real impression of musicians playing a piece together. It should engage me and make me want to be conducting it! So my reply on the OP's scale is actually a (3) - I expect something different to the original performance. Even a perfect sonic reproduction of my favourite seat at the opera house would not be right, as different imaging might mitigate the fact that there's nothing to see on an audio system, and provide a better experience. My system reflects what I'm looking for very well. It doesn't have thunderous bass, or the dynamic presence of some Avant Garde speakers I enjoyed recently. What it does is engage me with a (scaled-down) performance that makes me think that a mini orchestra is playing just for me, and carries me into the music often as much as a live performance does. One reason this is interesting is that some people seem to want something different! 'What the recording engineer intended' makes sense to me with respect to highly processed music (electronica and the like), where the processing might an effect that the musician is trying to add for artistic value. However, I would have thought that 99.99% of recording engineers are simply trying to provide a window into a musical performance. It should be transparent. I'm much more interested in connecting with the musicians, conductor and composer. Adam -- adamslim SB3 into Derek Shek d2, Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32374 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
