Neutral for me, as long as that doesn’t mean sacrificing detailed treble and upper-mids!
I know that when I first started listening seriously to music, I was blown away by the rich, smooth, bass-heavy sound of my mate’s dad’s sleek, teak stereogram (we’re talking early 1970s). But as my audio appreciation matured, I began to see that richness as ‘muddiness’.
Then, when I started working in an audio production studio with an industry legend, I was taught why studio monitors needed to be as neutral as possible. To begin with, what I heard was pretty unexciting until I started to listen out for – and appreciate - detail in the upper end that wasn’t swamped by all-enveloping, muddy bass. Tight, punchy bass was fantastic, though!
With all that in mind, I took advice from my local hi-fi dealer and auditioned a few amp-and-speaker combinations. I discovered that (potentially bright) Monitor Audio Silver RS6 floorstanders played really nicely with a great (neutral) Arcam amp and have steadily tweaked the system around that premise… and my budget!!
I still retain those 18 year-old RS6s, though now powered from a mighty 2017 Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 home cinema amp (set to stereo only). My choice was roundly ridiculed by a hi-fi obsessed colleague (“MA speakers are way too bright and one-box AV-focused systems are usually crap” etc etc)… until he popped round one day and had a listen. Putting it mildly, he was blown away by the overall sound I was getting (for peanuts compared to his £15k set-up). Why? How?
I honestly believe that most listeners are scared to try a few very basic tweaks for fear of having hi-fi scorn heaped upon them by so-called purists. Firstly, I have always paid fanatical attention to speaker positioning; I’ve experimented wildly with different degrees of toe-ing in (regardless of manufacturer’s recommendations). I’ve tried having sound paths intersecting in front of my listening chair, behind my head and even not intersecting at all! I’ve tried moving the speakers closer to and further from the rear wall. And I’ve found – seriously – that 0.5cm can make or break perfect stereo imagery and ideal soundstage (my wife has finally accepted that I can tell even if she’s only moved something a miniscule fraction to hoover).
I’ve also never been afraid to use a balance control (if available) for fine-tuning – anathema to the purists! But the fact is that everyone’s ears are different, and no two listening environments are the same. Few of us are fortunate enough to have an acoustically or positionally ideal listening set-up in a family home – in my case, I have to live with my speakers being way further apart than I am to their mid-point (i.e. a very flat triangle!) and I can’t even achieve a position where I’m bang in the centre. Windows, doors and a fireplace make that a practical impossibility.
So, in hi-fi theory, I shouldn’t be able to get a fantastic sound. But to me, and to other discerning lugholes that have been allowed to listen from my audio throne, I do. It’s lively, punchy, neutral and keeps its body even at very low volumes. And it sings triumphantly when cranked up to the point where the Boss’s fluffy penguins fly off the top of the speakers!
OK I could undoubtedly get an even better sound by having a dedicated room and a massive investment in audio equipment. But that would likely involve moving house plus a trip to the Bankruptcy Court, so for the moment (and foreseeable future) I’m very happy with what I’ve got. Neutral, powerful, lively, punchy, hugely entertaining and well within budget; but I’ve certainly had to be prepared to think out of the box to get it like that.
Oh, and yes – it does really matter PP!