Alan, you make excellent points, as usual.
But I feel that I must point out that not everyone believes that the enjoyment of music is based entirely on the objective specifications of the equipment. I know, a lot of people around here say it is, and it's one of Axion's core beliefs. But I respectfully disagree. There's no scientific basis why you may like one painting and I might hate it. Likewise with food. I can't stand celery and I don't know why. Same with cars, or beverages, or brands of pencil, or, well, everything. Music is the same way. Everyone's ears are slightly different. But more importantly, everyone's brain is different in terms of how it processes "sound" into "music". Alan, your latest article touches on this. I've read that book you mention,
This is your Brain on Music. It's an excellent read that discusses this at length.
And unless you have a live band playing the music for you via unamplified equipment, there is *always* going to be some amount of modification done to the sound waves. I also don't think that recording engineers always have the best interest of the music in mind. See all the recent discussions about the lack of dynamic range in CD's.
But of course, the reality is that Axiom makes speakers and their spiel is neutrality. It's a big reason why I love them. Since they are neutral, they do get out of the way. If I want to throw a tube pre-amp in the line somewhere to 'warm' things up, so be it. Or, heaven forbid, play with a 'Bass' or 'Treble' knob. But the point is that we're not stuck with overly 'warm' or 'cold' speakers for everything.
Here's what I know....
I have a few CD's by a certain acoustic guitarist that I really like. He's a little-known guy. I've heard him live at a couple of coffee-house performances. Very intimate, very live settings. When I don my HD-650's + tube amp, his CD's
come alive for me. The music feels like I am back at that live performance. The vibrato on the strings, the soft thump of his hand on the guitar, the sound of his guitar strings rubbing against the bridge, all just "oozes" reality. He's *there*, in my head. Some songs nearly bring me to tears, they sound so good. I can crank up the same performances at home. I often do. It sounds fantastic. There's a spaciousness and depth to it that the headphones simply can't match. But at the same time, it doesn't quite have the same intimacy. Maybe it's poorly mastered CD's that the tubes of my Little Dot are somehow compensating for. Maybe it's the fact that I'm wearing headphones. Maybe I'm just weird. I don't know. But the performance through these tubes are pleasing and simply
makes me happy.
Had I listened to and obeyed the 'tubes suck' crowd around here, I never would have experienced that. Which is why I encourage people to trust their own ears, buy from places with good return polices, and to always enjoy the music, even if it takes a tube amp and an equalizer to make you happy.
