Hi John and Robert!
-> JA> I don't see that many big names in the audio business
-> JA> talking about flat response and other such "outdated" thinking
-> JA> and goals. Just bring on the doodads,gizmos,tweaks,technobabble
-> JA> and powered subs and pounding sounds below 35 MHz and we shall
-> JA> proclaim it "Great Music".
Every time I go into a consumer stereo shop, motion theatre, live event
I'm getting to agree more and more with your above statement.
After carefully getting tuned, aligned, certified and accepted by the
Dolby, HSX, SRS and who knows whate else that their theatre sound system
is indeed perfectly set up, the theatre menager walks in and says "I
can't hear the surronds, turn them up" and "I can't FEEL the thunder"
so the subs also get turned up.
How many owners of car stereos with equalizers have that disco "smiley
faced" curve on it.. even a Bose ad for their "Wave" radio did this on
the ad!
Then there is the live concerts with row after row of subs primarily
there for the bass drum that everytime a note is played, it feels like a
halfback just hit you right in the gut!!!
Maybe I'm getting a little old fashined too, but I thought sound systems
were designed to be used for faithful  reproduction of sound, in the
case of records, tapes, CDs and newer medias  to accrately playback what
is on the medias.
I think equipment is still being designed this way, it is that all of
these tweaks are available for the consumer to distort and pervert to
their personal "ideals" which is often so far off the track of flat
audio frequency response, no tweaks needed, no EQ needed on a system
that is ideally set up to be flat in the first place and is acoustically
aligned and some thought has been given to room treatments, then it
should sound reasonably good. The biggest problem is putting all of
these tweaks in the hands of people that don't have the slightest clue
as to what they do, and they start fiddling, getting further and further
off of the ideal of flat frequency response with  adaquate power and as
little distortion as possible.
-> JA>  But then again I have always marched to a different
-> JA> drummer/violin, anyway. I doubt many young people have ever
-> JA> paused long enough to really listen to symphony music or anything
-> JA> so beautiful as a stringed quartet, and realize it is possible to
-> JA> enjoy something so uncool. Its' a shame, too. They are missing so
-> JA> much. Unfortunately too, many audio manufacturers seeme headed
-> JA> in the same direction.
 I can appreciate just about anything musical. I think that my current
system does a  decent job of reproducing it, and it doesn't have any EQ
on the sound system. I have the ability to introduce whatever tweak may
be needed on a specific thing, but otherwise, the best sound is that
which has been left alone, particularly if professionally and
competently recorded.
-> I know that's right.  I may not listen exclusively to symphony but wh
-> I want that sound, man.  My old AR-3a speaker, converted to the now
-> archaic 11a speakers, really get that sound for strings.  But also
-> piano (Horowitz on vinyl) and jazz sounds (Old Mingus records
-> utilizing the the state-of-the-art RCA microphones all listed out on
-> the album jackets) and such.  "Hi-fi" was the term.
The AR-3s were great. Those RCA mics though, were state of the art 1938
though.. but still some of the best made in ribbon microphones which
work terrific for horns and sections. I heard some "hifi" when I was
young by audiophiles then, and was very impresssed with the clarity and
power of it all.
-> I suppose my system would still be considered state-of-the-art for
-> vinyl, no CD.  I do notice vast differences wuen playing CD's as
-> opposed to records. Records sound like the players are on a
-> miniature stage right in front of me. CD's sound too up front, out
-> of perspective for lack of a better term.
 I'm not totally sure that this is the case, but then most everything
since about the late sixties has been recorded to be in your face. Most
of the recording work that I do takes spaciality of the "soundstage"
into consideration and is an important aspect, as important as getting
the levels correct, it's just a few steps further down the lists of
priorities in recording.
-> Systems are made, perhaps, for the thrill and n Maybe "accuracy"
-> is a nebulous term now, also.
 While the manufacturer will make what the consumer wants or is unable
to make a sale, we have such advanced equipment out now to do the
measurements for manufacturing and for aligning and testing components
and systems, I don't think that most of the manufactures are abandoning
the foundations of good audio. just "democratically" giving the end user
more options to do things that a normally sane audio listener would
never consider or need, perhaps just to make that sale. If those of us
who are around the media and the industry find that a company can
provide a good product that can't function correctly under the normal
standards for good audio, then we need to complain to the manufacturers
to let them know that we won't buy their products if they continue on
such a cource.
I don't think the audio products have this problem, it is the options
that an uninformed end user gets to mess with and does that is the
majority of the problems.
Bonnie *:>
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