"Rob" wrote in message
...
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
It is reputed to have some of the lowest noise and distortion figures on
record (Martin Colloms) yet, last night when I was listening to a
particularly fine 1958 recording of Grieg's Concerto in A minor
(Solomon), I switched from the Technics on the TLS80s to my 2A3 SET on
the Fidelios and got a much better, more *exciting* (more listenable)
sound. As the SET (according to the pundits here) produces enough
distortion to bend light and the Fidelios have little or nothing outside
the range of the human voice, I am intrigued as to what's going on?

Is it me?

Almost certainly.

Plenty of people prefer the colour saturation turned up on the their
telly
for that 'technicolor' look. So actually preferring some types of
distortion doesn't seem that unusual to me. That's why so many like
vinyl,
after all.


It's all 'reproduction', and it all 'distorts'.

It could just be that certain modes of reproduction produce a more
satisfying result. A painter's rendition, a musician's performance, a
poet's meter, a writer's (etc). These examples may result in a more
satisfying, more *realistic*, experience of the original event, despite
the fact their efforts are not technically facsimiles.

Is distortion always bad?

Is distortion always bad? Now there's an interesting question.

For me yes, High Fidelity sound reproduction for me has been constant battle
to identify forms of distortion and eliminate them. When I first started in
Hi-Fi, few amplifiers were "transparent", and bit by bit they improved such
that by the mid '80s, no further subjective improvement became possible.
Amplifiers since have become relative cheaper, more reliable and higher
powered, but performance hasn't improved, in fact can't improve, as our
hearing thresholds haven't improved. CD removed the distortions of vinyl
reproduction, but we're still left with the limitations of loudspeakers,
listening rooms, poor recording (and getting worse) and the most fundamental
limitation of all in my view that stereo or surround does not recreate a
convincing soundfield for the listener. We will need a completely new way
of generating sounds at home, not using discrete loudspeakers, before we can
realistically recreate a complete soundfield.

However, the improvements in sound reproduction have bored some, who have
returned to very obsolete technology in an attempt to stir up some
excitement. So, plenty to exercise us.

S.

--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com