Audiophilepure

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0125/PureAudioProject_Duet_15_Loudspeaker_Review.htm#gsc.tab=0

My impression is that among audiophiles of this era, the preferred sound emphasizes extremely low noise floors, see-through transparency, and, to my ears, an artificially hyped-up detail that is reminiscent of super high-definition television. Some of these attributes, to some degree, contribute to creating a credible musical experience. But they are not ends in and of themselves, certainly not from a musical point of view. At the extreme, they are distracting artifacts that take us farther away from the music, relegating us to taking pleasure in being observers of the experience rather than active participants in it.

The same point can be made slightly differently. We can hear something that sounds absolutely beautiful, stunning even, and find it seductive, relaxing, even gorgeous, yet find that it conveys nothing to us. By that, I mean it fails to provide insight into the composer’s intention, or into the interaction among the performers – the key element of what constitutes making music together (as opposed to playing in the same setting individually. It can sound gorgeous yet fail to convey emotional meaning or narrative content. It’s beautiful, but empty, much like the Cosmopolitan magazine issues of the 80s and 90s.  We learn nothing from it.

The main problem with the focus on sound rather than music is that producing a desired sound is largely a technological achievement, whereas conveying the musical content in ways that express emotional or cognitive content or that allow us to see into the performance is an artistic achievement.

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