Found, a nice example of a simple setup, using small speakers, that gets so much right ...

And at the other end of the spectrum, in terms of bling,

Hmmm ... gremlins in the sound - sorta OK, but the more you listen, the more there is a sense of unease in what you hear. Very typical of what happens, and why throwing money at it, to make things better, is no guarantee ...

Became curious about the Chord "house sound" - seems to be a 'natural' competitor to the new PS Audio - is there indeed such a thing, because if there is, then it means there an audible, distortion colouration to the sound? Looking up a few captures of the Dave DAC in rigs there does seem to be an issue - nominally clean, there is an unnatural sharpness to high level transients, along with, to my ears, a "kitchen radio" sound - strange combination.

Following is an example of the latter, which just doesn't cut it,

For a change, a bit of talkin' ... this chap, who 'discovers' what Led Zeppelin can sound like, when reproduced correctly. Starts at about 6:30 ...

Yes. The nonsense about these being "bad recordings" has stuck hard in the audiophile world, and it requires exposure to a competent setup to understand, just a touch more, what's going on - some recordings are very demanding of a playback rig, and when they, the combo of gear, don't measure up then the listening just ain't gonna work ...

This was what I was after - an example of the L-Acoustics Syva speakers, the units that their surround setups employ, being used purely to do stereo; how well do they perform, doing 'straight' reproduction?

To my ears, very good indeed ... zero issues, tons of space in the sound - from just two speakers, . Of course, this is a little embarrassing for the high end consumer gear makers - a full blown pro audio company, out of sight to audiophiles almost completely, able to produce effortless SQ of a very high standard ... who woulda thunk it ...

Nice thing about YouTube is that the quality is good enough to easily pick variations in SQ, about the gear ... now , I've mentioned several times how you can actually hear the quality degrading as the track moves along, in some; but this is one where it works the other way,

Is a good exercise to note how the sound at the beginning is a bit clunky, the transients are dead and grouped instruments are quite buried. Steadily opens up as the clip progresses, and the acoustic around the brass makes its presence felt.

Why is happening? ... Who knows ... could be one of a million reasons . The trick is to be aware of this going on, and track down what's causing it. If you evolve an effective solution, you are so much further in front ...

Very nice ... a follow up to the Apogee brand speakers,

Ticks the boxes - would need one of my more testing CDs to unearth any issues ...

Okay, a demo of another, typical issue,

Now, parts of the sound here are quite reasonable - but when the whole band launches in, ummm, claustrophobia, anyone?

The mix and volume are too much for this setup, as it stands; and you get, turgid SQ. It would take some work to sort this out; but it most certainly could be done ...

This is an, Oh Dear !!, one ... someone mentioned Atma-Sphere Class D amps as being pretty good, and looked for some clips- and came across,

Ummm, pretty 'orrible - what's at fault? Well, it doesn't inspire confidence in the amps - but the mess doesn't register as being the fault of the speakers ... will leave it as an example of just how getting a few "good" bits in a rig won't deliver good sound ...

A clip coming from a completely different direction - an attempt to 'objectively' understand why cables make a difference,

But, what it really does is serve to demonstrate that unless one really understands the process involved in the acquiring of data, that "objective" appraisals are quite useless. If you go to the actual YouTube page, https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncAhs44sp8, you will see the first comment is by our GoldenSound member, who gives an extensive explanation for why the video poster gets his results. Other responses echo this; the clip has revealed, nothing ...

What's my point? That, only the most careful technical analysis will ever show differences that correlate with what is heard - in 35 years I have never come across anything that gets to the heart of the matter, in terms of measuring relatively easily, what the audibly significant variation is - so much easier to just use one's ears . I have contemplated many times working out some test signals that will make what's going on obvious - but the motivation has never been strong enough to follow through. After all, the real point to what one is doing is to fix the problem, not just have some numbers to 'prove' that there is one in the first place, .

Audio chains are fragile. Period. And the closer you get to best accuracy, the harder it becomes to achieve the next level of precision. Almost every field of human endeavour, and science, knows this. Except audio, . Many want to live in a fantasy world, where some ultra expensive rig, bought off the shelf, will make all those annoying defects disappear ... well, it just ain't gonna happen!

Not a clip, but a channel ... . An enthusiast visiting various rigs, probably of friends and fellow audiophiles, and capturing what they're like, https://www.youtube.com/@haleson0704/videos.

Solid high end stuff, some doing better than others, and music choices are not always suitable - but the relatively uniform way of recording helps for getting an idea ...

YouTube is easily good enough to easily pick between, say, current amplifiers,

Gee, where is "all amplifiers, especially modern ones, sound the same"? ... though I'm sure that there will be plenty of listeners who will be determinedly sure they can't hear a variation ...

I was wondering how well NAD did at "updating" that famous model number ... well, I'm not wondering any more, .

This I find an interesting one,

About halfway through he records what the sound is like coming from the speakers - and it's OK, but not much more than that. For someone who is so fussy about "special SQ!", and spends the money to get it, I would call it a poor return - one of N.'s rigs, up the road, when running nicely is quite superior - and costs a tiny fraction of what you see here.

This bloke had me going for a bit,

Makes a lot of sense, with great humour ... but then throws in curveballs: add a tube, to inject distortion ... yeah, right!! Then does an Adware thing, for a particular product; umm, it may do the job in a specific case, but no guarantees ...

What was good was that he nailed what people don't like; and what they're after. And why the problems exist. Anyway, how you go about evolving a rig from A to B is a case of, How many Roads to Rome - what counts is to know that one needs to go on that journey, for best hearing satisfaction. Do your research, do your experimenting, whatever it takes to carry you to point B.

Those people who don't even acknowledge that there are issues, think that they're already at B ... well, maybe we should just close the door, and leave them to their, er, space . For those who are motivated to go down the road, intelligently ... that option always available, .

The bell is a good demonstration of a point - a convincing rig should fool someone, with a recording of that bell played from behind a curtain. So, why doesn't (insert identity here)'s setup achieve that?

Gee whiz, wasn't sure about this one ...

Gets so much right ... but there's a niggling quality in there. A sister clip has the same attributes - there's plenty to praise, but something is not quite in order ...

Someone fairly recently installed a Sanders Sound System, posted about in a thread on another forum, and mentioned it was a big step up in SQ, from his previous Dutch & Dutch 8Cs. I'm very partial to this brand, as my single experience with its Magtech amplifier was a positive experience. So, looked on YouTube, and found, one(!), clip presenting this component,

Yes. Ticks the boxes, nicely. I suspect it would be hard to deliver a more 'accurate' rendering of what's on this particular recording than this ...

And by contrast, the type of thing I expect to hear at the upcoming hifi show,

Umm, this is awful - ticks about every box of how high end rigs can get it so wrong, .

And, to change the mood, ,

The bit that's of interest starts at 2:14 ...

Very pleased to find this clip,

One of the best examples I've heard on a YouTube clip yet of what competent SQ is like - I heard MBL nearly 20 years ago do this sort of thing, and that inspired me to again tackle the 'problem' of extracting accurate playback. So, yes, this is what replay of recordings should be like; evolving some rig to produce this standard is very satisfying, and why I get a kick out of doing it, .

A follow up on the previous clip - in particular, from 9:20 on,

What's being said? That convincing replay generates an overwhelming immersive experience, automatically. And that it occurs throughout the room. Now, some might say only a peculiar omnidirectional speaker, driven by right electronics, like this MBL rig, can make it happen. Well, this is partly right - the integrity of the chain is essential, and since this combo of components has been around well over 20 years there has been plenty of time to sort out every last gremlin, . But this is not, most definitely not, the only way!!

What this standard of reproduction gives you is accuracy. To the recording. An extremely expensive setup can't manufacture high SQ out of thin air - it has to be encoded on the music capture, the track you are hearing! So, all an alternative system has to do is get it as right at this one ...

There no magic to the speakers being omnidirectional!! Yes, such a technique makes it easier to get the soundwaves in good enough shape to let the listening brain grok what's in the recording - but that's all it is. Completely conventional speakers will also do this - but, and this is always the huge but, the playback chain overall must be of a necessary integrity.

Can an absolutely current system, costing 1.2 million dollars, be put together, and produce good sound, straight off? Nope!!  ... Just posted, from Axpona,

In particular, at the 5 minute mark - oh, dear ...

I was interested how this gear sounded - and it matches my expectations,

Doesn't sound like audio gear ... and hence many disappointed - quite a number of posts in the comments area reflect this; audiophiles want a rig to sound like a rig, and when it doesn't they lose interest ... fast. I've come across this quite a number of times; in spite of what audiophiles claim they want, it's not the reality ... something equivalent is the TV that turns people on with its really, really hot colours - is it accurate? Naaahhh!! Who cares about that!

But getting the impression, overall, that the standard of replay at this show is quite above what is was like even 10 years ago ... a good sign ...

1 hour ago, fas42 said:

 

Doesn't sound like audio gear ... and hence many disappointed - quite a number of posts in the comments area reflect this; audiophiles want a rig to sound like a rig, and when it doesn't they lose interest ... fast. I've come across this quite a number of times; in spite of what audiophiles claim they want, it's not the reality ... something equivalent is the TV that turns people on with its really, really hot colours - is it accurate? Naaahhh!! Who cares about that!

 

Found this comment elsewhere,

Quote

Plus the music everywhere was primarily heavily processed pop with overbearing synthetic bass. I asked the young man running the Maggie demo if he had anything in his playlist that had acoustic instruments in a real space. He just kind of shrugged and said he was from their repair department and was subbing for someone who was at lunch. At any number of rooms I found myself wishing I could hear a few minutes of the openings to Mahler’s 2nd or 3rd symphonies. And I’m not even a Mahler fan.

Gosh, the 'colour' of that rig over there is fabulous ...

Some comments on Borresen speakers at Axpona, positive and negative - one was that they were glaring ... this to me is actually a positive sign, meaning that they are very revealing of the state of play of the driving chain - you know, GIGO ...

Were the speakers a bit "too revealing"? Nope! Did a little search, and found this - driven by CH Precision M1.1 Mono, ASA Ref Dac, Aurender N30SA,

Can't fault this ... tonal qualities are spot on; this is how this type of music should sound ...