20.9 Why do people disagree on what is the best sound?
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This article is from the rec.audio.* FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Bob Neidorff others.
20.9 Why do people disagree on what is the best sound?
There are at least three different measures of what is "Perfect
Sound". All three have advocates, and all three are right, in
their own way. In general, whether they admit it or not, most
listeners fit into one of these three preference groups:
1. It must sound like live music. These people know what
voices sound like in person, they know what instruments
sound like without any amplification, and they have
heard orchestras perform unaided by sound systems. They
want to accurately reproduce that sound.
2. It must sound like the recording engineer wanted it to
sound. The recording engineer listened with extremely
good equipment to the sound coming out of the
microphones, and mixed them together for what he, at
that time, felt was artistically correct. It may not
have been the same as live, but it was exactly what he
wanted. In the extreme, people like John Fogerty used
to audition his final recording mix in his truck to see
how it would sound through a common, lousy stereo.
3. It must give me the most pleasure. No matter how good
or bad live sounds, no matter what the recording
engineer intended, if buy some equipment will give me
more listening pleasure then it must be the best.
With these three perspectives, it is clear that no one system
will satisfy everyone. Add to that confusion the variable that
everyone likes a different kind of sound, has heard live music
under different conditions, and has a different idea of what the
engineer intended. There is an enormous range of possibilities.
Another set of reasons is that people look for different things
to be right. Some want strong bass; others want male voices to
sound like male voices; others want violins to sound like
violins. Systems rarely do everything equally well. Speakers (in
particular) are compromises. Look for the speaker where the
designer had your priority first. You are perfectly right to
select speakers based on YOUR personal taste.
Confounding the situation further, we all say the greatest
things about the stuff we already bought. To do otherwise would
be to admit that we are either stupid or deaf.
Still another reason is that most people haven't heard enough
variations. Until you hear a system that can truly reconstruct
the three-dimensional accuracy of a stereo image accurately, you
may never realize that it is possible. Some excellent
recordings contain enough information that with a good enough
system, you can hear up-down, in-out, and left-right
distinctions very clearly. However, we will never experience
this until we are fortunate enough to hear such a fine recording
on a very good system.
Finally, some of us really can't hear much difference. We
aren't deaf, but we don't have a well trained ear, don't know
exactly what to listen for, and may even have slight hearing
deficiencies, such as bad sensitivity to high frequencies which
comes with older age, or hearing damage from listening to loud
sounds (machinery, rock concerts, etc).
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