Hello Srajan: I know you'be been criticized by this individual in his blog more than once so I wondered whether you'd seen this? In it a reader of his blog got to hear Romy's personal system and shares his observations on DIYaudio. It made me wonder about hearing reviewer systems (including yours) and what I'd think. Have you heard any systems by colleagues over the years? Did you, like Josh, feel disappointed relative to your own expectations created by those reviewers over the years? Just curious whether you had any insights. Aaron
I just took a look, Aaron. I also went to Romy's blog and read his own reactions to Josh's post since he couldn't reply directly because he's been banned there. In my opinion, it all depends on the kind of music you listen to primarily; on how loud you like it; and whether you're in the nearfield or much further away. Romy's favourite fare which he comments on the most is classical including large-scale complex stuff like Bruckner. According to Josh, he also likes it very loud. If John Darko who fancies electronica heard Romy's system, I doubt he'd like it very much. And vice versa. A system carefully calibrated to excel at symphonica will not automatically excel at synthesized infra bass, synth drums, close-mic'd kick drums or wailing e-guitars. A lot of carefully curated classical can be very well recorded. That too makes a difference on what you can hear and care about to begin with to then fine-tune a system to excel at. If someone listened predominantly to compressed recordings of synthesized fare without real venue ambiance, I'd not expect their systems to be dialed for it. If I suddenly asked them to play back a premium recording with cubits of audible space, I'd be surprised if that ended up being a strong point of their setup. These are very basic examples to point at the various layers a system can explore depending on what one aims to do.
Would you like my system if you heard it? I have no clue except to ask, which system?
Unlike some people who invest all of their discretionary hifi funds into one big 'end-of-life' system, I deliberately keep around a variety of kit in each category to mix and match and change things in smaller less ambitious setups. The SIT-1/Nenuphar system is a very different proposition from a Hyperion/Druid VI combo which is very different from a Codex/Liszt pairing. I don't listen to large-scale classical. I find the attempt of cramming 70+ people into the physical soundstage dimensions of our normal rooms perfectly silly. It's just not gonna happen. I've played in an orchestra. I don't view that experience reproduceable. I prefer to reserve it for a live performance. I've heard Stevie Wonder, Pat Metheny, Dhafer Youssef, Lila Downs, Andreas Vollenweider, the Taksim Trio and many others live, too. But that kind of style and repertoire isn't what I played myself. Now I don't apply the same expectations to its replay. And I don't tend to listen very loud either, finding that quite fatiguing.
So, would you like my system with your own kind of music? If we had a day wherein I'd collect your feedback from whatever system was set up first to keep swapping things in and out toward conforming more to your personal tastes, I'm reasonably certain that I could come up with something which was at least 'close'. But if I expected you—or you expected yourself—to love whatever happened to be set up when you got here, then I'd rather doubt it – unless what you and I listen for and to sync'd up by pure chance.
In the end and like Josh found, it'll always sound like a hifi system with speakers. What else would it sound like? It's not live music!
As to the systems of colleagues, I've heard some. Will such an experience head-on meet one's own expectations based on how they describe it? That really depends on whether we use the same language to begin with; and what our evaluation criteria are. The thing to remember is, you only have yourself to please. Romy shouldn't care whether Josh likes his system and you needn't worry about whether I'd like yours. But since most of us suffer egos, the likelihood is that we'll react like Romy did to Josh's feedback. It's quite easy to be an opinionated critic. When critics themselves are criticized… that's when there suddenly can be a fire in the kitchen. Srajan
