Sure, but that has nothing to do with defining fidelity.
The headphones that are the most accurate will come closest to reproducing the intent of the artist and mix engineer. I can't imagine what else could be a more important goal. Now, some people prefer a sound that has a particular coloration. Maybe it's the slight added distortion from vinyl and analog tape, or the reduced treble response of an aging tube amp. If someone likes that sound, that's fine with me. But you won't hear what the artist heard when they signed off on the recording.
--Ethan
In much poplular Music, the song you hear is not the song the artist produces but a compressed louder Version intended for mass appeal. So reproducing the compressed recording as accurately as possible, may actually take you farther away from the original artists intent. Equipment that makes it louder With more Dynamics and a fuller sound may actually sound better than the actual compressed drum beats of the recording that sound like farts, instead of drums, and can even be closer to the artists recording before it got compressed to farts and noise.
Some only listens to music that has low dynamic range, and to them impact and coloration may give a more pleasening listenig expirience. And to this type of music, details and neutrality may actually give a less pleasurable listening expiriance, because you hear more of the compression and distortion that took Place to compress the entire song to -6dB from clipping. Most audio Equipment that is loud enough, will be good enough too.
Sure, but that has nothing to do with defining fidelity.
Sure it does. What does the Fox Say dont need hi Fidelity equipment to sound good. It is constructed for mass appeal, and therefore sounding good on divices most dispose is much more important. The impact of the song lies in the lyrics and being loud, much of the same parameteres goes for most popular pop Music today. Most of the song is also -8dB from clipping. This is not very demanding on audio Equipment, and most Devices will manage to reproduce this dynamic range without much problems.
Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites does not sound good on the radio. Tchaikovsky dont have any funny lyrics it relies on, its not even loud. It has to rely on instruments and Dynamics alone to have an impact, and this requires Fidelity Equipment that has the ability to be loud without distorting on a number of levels. The dynamic range of the song can vary alot. Some sections may keep an konstant level of -6dB from clipping like What does the fox say, while other parts of the song keeps a constant -36dB from clipping but still uses the same dynamic range sporadicly. This is very demanding on the Equipment.
The audio eqipment needs to be dynamic, have low distortion and still be fast on 74dB, and still produce peaks up to 110dB. And it needs to be loud enough on 104dB, and still produce peaks to 110dB. Therefore it not only has to be loud, it needs to be fast too and have extremely low THD so its not audible in the parts With lower SPL.
Therefor it cannot be to hard damped, because it will not manage to reproduce the full signal on all Levels. And some compromise has to be made to Archive speed to play dynamic songs like this. To much damping gives more distortion and may reduce the drivers ability to produce SPLs and still be dynamical enough to produce the varying SPL of Tchaikovsky.
The song relies on the switching Dynamics to make you feel something. Equipment that cant reproduce the switching dynamic Levels, and still be detailed and have low distortion will reduce Your listening expiriance.
