muffbuster wrote in
:

Hi Joe,

I have to disagree with you here...

I'm not exactly a purist, but I am fussy about reproducing what's on
the recording.

And that's what you're actually buying... the recording. Your system
doesn't care about the mics, the room, or the recording equipment.
It only cares about what it's being fed... that is, the sound of the
recording.

OK, but I think we have different reference points as to what "flat"
is. I'm comparing the original live performance to what you'll hear
over your system. I think you're comparing the original _recording_
to what you'll hear over your system.

The artist has the control over everything that goes into
the CD and they should do their best to "capture" the essence of the
performance.

Depending on the artist's contract, that may or may not be true. Some
artists have very little input as to what the final recording will
sound like. It's really up to the producer and management team.

I'm far more interested in making sure that the recording sounds as
good as it can... based on making my system as close as possible to
the proverbial "straight wire with gain." Since speakers are not
capable of reproducing *exactly* what they are fed- especially in a
car with its problems with speaker location, eq is a "crutch" that
brings us closer to reproducing the recording...

Just my 4 cents worth.

smiles,
Jamie

Jamie, I generally agree with you, but I've heard recordings that
absolutely suck in terms of tonal balance, eq, etc. If these
recordings were played on a truly flat system, they'd sound horrible.
So sometimes it's desirable to be able to _not_ reproduce that
straight wire and effect it to your taste.

Regards,
Joe


In article , Joe
wrote:

True. Everything's colored, especially with today's synthesized
mixes and productions. The concept of "flat" really goes back to
reproducing a live sound without coloration.

Consider a trio - a drum set, an acoustic piano, and an upright
bass. The idea of "flat" is being able to reproduce the same sound
from a recording that you heard when the trio played live. This
can only happen if the microphones used for recording had an
absolutely flat response, the room acoustics were perfect, the
position of the perfect microphones was perfect, and the recording
equipment itself had no tonal effect on the recording. A virtually
impossible environment. So much for the purist's "true flat".