[ThePianoMan]

B&W have fun and smooth sound, but they're certainly not fully neutral. Made for enjoyment, not monitoring. Just like my Fidelio X2.

Depends on the product. Their lower end stuff certainly is. Get into the 800 and nautilus like though, and that stuff is so clinical and analytical it's boring for home listening (IMO) some very respected studios (Abbey Road) used diamond series speakers for monitoring.

 

[sheldaze]

Depends on the product. Their lower end stuff certainly is. Get into the 800 and nautilus like though, and that stuff is so clinical and analytical it's boring for home listening (IMO) some very respected studios (Abbey Road) used diamond series speakers for monitoring.

Not to disagree, but I like it!
I was concerned, but the sound is good through Yggy/Rag stack.

 

[watchnerd]

Depends on the product. Their lower end stuff certainly is. Get into the 800 and nautilus like though, and that stuff is so clinical and analytical it's boring for home listening (IMO) some very respected studios (Abbey Road) used diamond series speakers for monitoring.

 
Ahh, the old "should home hifi sound good or should it be accurate" conundrum.

 

[artur9]

  What really bothers me is that it is not them, it is not the A&R guys, it is the market. The market dictates what those guys do. If everyone demanded better DR, they would bring it. Vinyl has some limitations when it comes to preserving DR, but what has made that format revitilized is the download code...but that is is a discussion for another day.
 

Yep.  I mentioned how this thread says a DR6 is necessary for iPod/earbud listening to my wife because those listeners are too <*> to touch the volume knob.
 
My daughter jumps in and says, "I HATE changing the volume.  It starts soft then blows out my ear!  Hate it."
 
I think it's a market failure of ReplayGain.

 

[Nu3nO]

Many thanks to watchnerd & rtaylor76 for sharing your knowledge & insight into recording & mastering. I've attended live concerts, gigs, audio expos & listened to real instruments be it on the streets or shops to comprehend the real sounds & ambiance. I can digest that what is reproduced from whatever gear is different from the real McCoy & at times the real stuff didn't sound nice to my liking. I've experienced reverberation & sibilance during live performances which I felt was annoying, drums at times without mic or amplification sounded boomy or weak to my detest. I trust the recording & mastering engineers to do their best to make music sound better. So, what I look for when listening to my music is happiness & enjoyment, not with super duper hyper gears to get as close as possible to the real thing.
 
BTW, watchnerd, your avatar is a MU9413 caliber from Muhle Glashutte? Looks like it is based of an ETA7750.

 

[watchnerd]

 
I think it's a market failure of ReplayGain.

 
ReplayGain is pretty much a failure.
 
I don't know of anyone who regularly encodes the necessary metadata tags to make it work.  Also, if one uses LAME (usually regarded as the best MP3 encoder), the album gain tags aren't supported by any player.
 
And on the playback side, lots of mobile devices don't support ReplayGain at all or use their own implementation/interpretation.
 
Net result: going for low DR in the final mix always "works" on every playback platform.

 

[watchnerd]

 
BTW, watchnerd, your avatar is a MU9413 caliber from Muhle Glashutte? Looks like it is based of an ETA7750.

 
Yep, it's a Valjoux-based movement.

 

[watchnerd]

  I've attended live concerts, gigs, audio expos & listened to real instruments be it on the streets or shops to comprehend the real sounds & ambiance. I can digest that what is reproduced from whatever gear is different from the real McCoy & at times the real stuff didn't sound nice to my liking. I've experienced reverberation & sibilance during live performances which I felt was annoying, drums at times without mic or amplification sounded boomy or weak to my detest. I trust the recording & mastering engineers to do their best to make music sound better. So, what I look for when listening to my music is happiness & enjoyment, not with super duper hyper gears to get as close as possible to the real thing.

 
That's great. Listening to as much live music as possible is really one of the best ways to improve your "ear" and listening skills. I usually attend/record 1-2 sessions (jazz or classical mostly) per week.
 
One thing you'll probably notice is that live music isn't nearly as "detailed" as as some hi-fi systems make it out to be.
 
My personal pet peeve of live music: the sound guy gets the mic reasonably well adjusted for gain, sibilance, etc, then the singer ruins it by grabbing it and shoving it in their mouth during dramatic moments.

 

[dr cornelius]

  ...One of the upsides of working with pro-type gear a lot is that you get a pretty strong BS detector for some of the silliest audiophile tendencies...  Or friends of mine who change speakers or amps every year trying to fix a problem that is actually in the room acoustics.  Or the same friends who keep trying to change their systems to make bad recordings / mixes sound good.  This is why I like my Schiit gear.  It's mostly free of magical thinking.

Agree on the BS detector in the pro-world...  

 

[ThePianoMan]

Not to disagree, but I like it!
I was concerned, but the sound is good through Yggy/Rag stack.

Ahh, the old "should home hifi sound good or should it be accurate" conundrum.

Nothing wrong with that of course I was only expressing my own opinion. I've only heard higher-end B&W's through Krell electronics in somewhat "dry" sounding setups (to my ears) they are fantastically accurate sounding speakers just not to my taste is all. Sorry if I sounded like I was knocking them!
And I personally believe accurate does not preclude enjoyable. But that's a whole other can of worms : )

 

[Archimago]

  Elsewhere posted but very germain:
 
...  
Thanks to Dr. Heil, the inventor of the Heil AMT speaker who shared this experiment with me over 40 years ago, Consider this: I am 67 years old – my high end extends to just under 15KHz (not bad for and old fart). I can play back two pulses 200 microseconds in length separated by 20 microseconds and clearly hear two pulses. Not unusual until one considers that 20 microseconds corresponds to a square wave of 50KHz. And then, there is the time domain – home of spatial cues which audio measurement traditionalists ignore. I believe that in the quest for the best sound, an open mind is the most important asset. I will even listen to cables, even though I believe in my heart that all technology about cables is well known. Who knows, even an old fart like me could be surprised.
 
...

 
Sorry I might have missed further discussion of this point in the thread. But before this paragraph becomes entrenched in the audiophile mythology, I would very much like to test this assertion!
 
Anyone have a WAV/FLAC, maybe in 192kHz of 2 pulses separated by 20usec where that 20usec pause is felt to be perceivable!? I've done my own testing and have not been able to hear the difference myself nor others I've tried this on...

 

[Ableza]

Seeing Oscar Heil's name invoked reminds me of one of the best sounding loudspeakers I ever owned: The ESS AMT1b with Heil air motion transformers.

 

[watchnerd]

  Seeing Oscar Heil's name invoked reminds me of one of the best sounding loudspeakers I ever owned: The ESS AMT1b with Heil air motion transformers.

 
AMTs have had a huge resurgence, both in the studio world (Adam Audio, Eve Audio) and even in budget hi fi (Emotiva Airmotiv).

 

[AudioBear]

I have a pair of the Airmotivs on my desk and they are exceptional for budget hi-fi.  Thanks to Heil.

 

[DougD]

  I have a pair of the Airmotivs on my desk and they are exceptional for budget hi-fi.  Thanks to Heil.

Me too and they are exceptional for the price.