It is strange how often it happens that I change something in my audio system while experimenting and notice an improvement. I enjoy the achieved result for some time, but then I decide to restore the system to its initial state, only to realise that the so-called “improvement” is nothing more than an effect that actually moves the reproduction away from its authentic character.
By means of experimentation, we are constantly learning, and our criteria for evaluating sound quality are evolving. With time, the evaluation process becomes much more concerned with the overall presentation rather than with individual aspects of reproduction, such as bass tightness, highs precision, vocal clarity, soundstage dimensions, ambience detail, and so on.
Concentrating on the presentation as a whole—an organic and balanced entity that either brings or does not bring a feeling of rightness and believability—becomes much more important than focusing on individual tonal or sonic characteristics. What I mean is that deep and full-bodied bass should not come at the expense of unnaturally sounding vocals, and vivid and mellow vocals should not come at the expense of unnaturally sounding strings, for example. The overall tonal balance is a very fragile thing.
With time, I learned not to fix my attention on particular features of the reproduction while evaluating components relying on my logical mind. Instead, I observe how my body reacts and rely more on intuition and feeling than on rational analysis. The only rational approach, I think, is to employ dedicated measurement techniques and methodologies in order to analyse the performance of an audio system in a room. But then again, the methodology itself opens the door to interpretation of the collected data, and it is often the case that the flattest frequency response does not necessarily lead to the best reproduction.
The notch filter experiment I started a few months ago is a good example of how my evaluation criteria have evolved over time, so that in the end I find myself back at the beginning.
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