Has modern hi-fi got too polite?

[matthewpiano]

Alongside my modern system I'm also very interested in vintage gear of the 60s and 70s. Mostly Jap stuff and particularly Sansui gear but also Thorens turntables (the TD150 is my favourite) and some Pioneer amps. Listening to some of my vintage gear I get a much greater feeling of the music sounding alive. You can hear the sound of the individual guitar amps and their different distortion characteristics and there is an energy to the reproduction that I find is missing from most modern kit. Anyone else have any more thoughts on this? Is a lot of modern hi-fi too polite, too HI-FI?

 

[cse]

What a load of rubbish.

 

[matthewpiano]

cse:What a load of rubbish.

In your opinion. If you don't want to take part in a perfectly reasonable, constructive discussion why bother posting in the thread at all?

 

[cse]

What a load of complete tosh.

 

[Anonymous]

maybe had one to many eh ---- its nice to be nice

 

[drummerman]

Some of it is. I think thaiman made a good posting recently grouping a few examples of 'musical' brands as opposed to 'hifi' ones.

Example, I have a little Denon system here keeping me company at the moment. Its a PM355 integrated and 685 player. They are certainly not high end (though we did put it against an Arcam A28 and it fared rather well ) but are punchy, drive music along and bass is great. Engaging to listen to.

Recently I had some CA components here. Technically far superior, powerful, detailed etc. Whilst my immediate reaction was admiration it slowly became one of technical appreciation. They are superb and of course technically better than the Denons but just lack a little soul and passion. Very hifi as you said, great value non-the-less.

Different era's had different sound preferences but you can get anything you want today to please most tastes.

 

[Anonymous]

CSE, what's your problem?!!

 

[Anonymous]

Picking up from DM's points, a good hifi sound is accurate and as uncoloured as possible. A 'musical' sound is often described as that because a bit of inaccuracy and colour can make things more enjoyable. Referring to another thread on here at the mo, the Rega kit sounds very hifi, accurate and quite polite. The Naim Nait sounds much less polite but probably less accurate.

One of the reasons valve kit can be so delicious is because of their lack of accuracy by way of distortion and colour. My sub adds inaccurate bass but I prefer music with it's extra warm and presence.

Whatever works for you.

 

[Anonymous]

It's possible. Some brands are really too polite.

That's why I'm using for some years now Tannoy professional monitors. Good professional monitors show you the truth; they don't hide or soften anything. And Tannoys are at the same time musical, with an organic and meaty sound, so you don't get either that sterile sound of some studio monitors.

I think our grandfathers, with their big and sensitive JBLs, Tannoys, Altec, etc. maybe were closer to the music than we are now with our stylish, slim floorstanders.

IMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

I would have put it another way, you may perhaps prefer the colourations (assuming thats the correct spelling using the UK spelling of color) of your older kit compared to the - hopefully at least - more neutral and real presentation of modern kit. Lots of people prefer tubes, but many would argue they hardly give a neutral presentation, even if its a beneficial effect to your style ofÿpreferredÿmusic. Personally I'd disagree, I think modern kit compared to even expensive stuff from 10 years ago leaves older kit in the dust. Not sure, but I think Thorens is a Swiss company

 

[timwileman]

mine is very polite, says please and thank you a lot and even makes me a cuppa when i get home from work....

just kidding ....it makes coffee

 

[Anonymous]

timwileman:mine is very polite, says please and thank you a lot and even makes me a cuppa when i get home from work....

just kidding ....it makes coffee
Oooh, if it's espresso I need to get me one of those...hot or just warm??

 

[the record spot]

cse:What a load of rubbish.

I see the book of online etiquette for this address got lost in the post then.

 

[JoelSim]

Mine says 'Hello beautiful' on the A85 display when you switch it on. I did it for the g/f when I first got it to help the settle-in period

I'm not kidding either, it does.

ÿ

 

[timwileman]

igglebert:timwileman:mine is very polite, says please and thank you a lot and even makes me a cuppa when i get home from work....

just kidding ....it makes coffee
Oooh, if it's espresso I need to get me one of those...hot or just warm??

yup and its warm

 

[matthewpiano]

mcd0234:I would have put it another way, you may perhaps prefer the colourations (assuming thats the correct spelling using the UK spelling of color) of your older kit compared to the - hopefully at least - more neutral and real presentation of modern kit. Lots of people prefer tubes, but many would argue they hardly give a neutral presentation, even if its a beneficial effect to your style ofÿpreferredÿmusic. Personally I'd disagree, I think modern kit compared to even expensive stuff from 10 years ago leaves older kit in the dust. Not sure, but I think Thorens is a Swiss company

I think you've probably hit the nail on the head. Maybe I do like the colourations of 1960s and 1970s kit better than the 'neutral presentation' of modern stuff. A lot of people have described the earlier Sansui transistor amps as having a valve like sound so I think your comments are very much on the trail and, if you prefer the presentation of modern kit thats brilliant. It wouldn't do for us all to be the same.

 

[Anonymous]

mcd0234: Lots of people prefer tubes, but many would argue they hardly give a neutral presentation, even if its a beneficial effect to your style of preferred music.

The way I see it, when the recording process occurs, there is an inevitable loss of the "humanity" involved on the original performance. The human aspect of the music gets lost into electric pulses. Then, when you reproduce that recording, if you use "neutral" gear (a Bryston, for instance), it's going to sound more accurate to the recording, but the problem for me is that the recording media actually has already sucked out all the humanity from the music. So neutral components may reproduce faithfully the recording itself, but since the recording already left the soul of the music out (because the recording media it's just an inanimated, technological entity), the result will be clinical and uninspiring.

With tubes and speakers which add "colourations", if they do so "properly", you can finally feel a cello is made of wood, and that the voice of a tenor is made of flesh and bone resonants, etc.

I don't care if it's inaccurate, as long as the equipment re-humanizes what has been lost in the recording process.

Once again: sorry, English is not my native language, so I hope I managed to express what I think.

 

[matthewpiano]

Tannoyite:
mcd0234: Lots of people prefer tubes, but many would argue they hardly give a neutral presentation, even if its a beneficial effect to your style of preferred music.

The way I see it, when the recording process occurs, there is an inevitable loss of the "humanity" involved on the original performance. The human aspect of the music gets lost into electric pulses. Then, when you reproduce that recording, if you use "neutral" gear (a Bryston, for instance), it's going to sound more accurate to the recording, but the problem for me is that the recording media actually has already sucked out all the humanity from the music. So neutral components may reproduce faithfully the recording itself, but since the recording already left the soul of the music out (because the recording media it's just an inanimated, technological entity), the result will be clinical and uninspiring.

With tubes and speakers which add "colourations", if they do so "properly", you can finally feel a cello is made of wood, and that the voice of a tenor is made of flesh and bone resonants, etc.

I don't care if it's inaccurate, as long as the equipment re-humanizes what has been lost in the recording process.

Once again: sorry, English is not my native language, so I hope I managed to express what I think.

Your English is excellent and you put it better than I do to be honest! An excellent posting that encapsulates exactly what I'm getting at.

 

[Andrew Everard]

the record spot:cse:What a load of rubbish.

I see the book of online etiquette for this address got lost in the post then.

Agreed - cse, if you have nothing constructive to add, please don't simply attack other members.

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:
Your English is excellent and you put it better than I do to be honest! An excellent posting that encapsulates exactly what I'm getting at.

Thank you very much, matthewpiano!