Going to hear the NAD M3 master series / Thiel CS3.7

[E-Stat]

and always found them too bright for my taste...

I'm a fan of having an HF control on speakers. I agree that speakers that measure truly flat tend to sound unnaturally bright with most recordings.

rw

[Ajani]

I'm a fan of having an HF control on speakers. I agree that speakers that measure truly flat tend to sound unnaturally bright with most recordings.

rw

My question is:

Is that "unnaturally bright" sound due to the speakers or the quality of the recordings?

And it leads to the question of:

Should the HiFi system compensate for shortcomings in the recordings being played, or be totally accurate to the input signal?

[Hyfi]

My question is:

Is that "unnaturally bright" sound due to the speakers or the quality of the recordings?

And it leads to the question of:

Should the HiFi system compensate for shortcomings in the recordings being played, or be totally accurate to the input signal?

It is the speakers along with the metal tweeters. Dynaudio of same caliber is nowhere close to the brightness of a similarly priced Thiel.

My system does reveal shortcomings in recordings but some speakers over emphasize it.

[Ajani]

It is the speakers along with the metal tweeters. Dynaudio of same caliber is nowhere close to the brightness of a similarly priced Thiel.

My system does reveal shortcomings in recordings but some speakers over emphasize it.

I have no doubt that some speakers are bright (metal tweeters often fall into that category), but a bright speaker will show a peak in the high frequencies, while a neutral one will measure flat... so my question is really aimed at audiophiles who suggest that a speaker that measures neutral is in fact bright and/or that a speaker that is clearly rolled off at the extremes is somehow neutral....

[E-Stat]

Is that "unnaturally bright" sound due to the speakers or the quality of the recordings?

Either or both along with other factors in the reproduction chain. It may not be speaker at all. Amplifiers with high order harmonic distortion tend to sound bright. Untrapped RF also manifests itself as a false brightness layered on top of the signal. My experience suggests this is where cabling of all sorts can improve the result. Not acting as a *tone control*, but a filter to attenuate non-musical hash.

Should the HiFi system compensate for shortcomings in the recordings being played, or be totally accurate to the input signal?

Such is determined by preference. As for me, I couldn't care less what the anechoic *measurements* tell me if the final result sounds unnatural. I have no trouble at all with the concept of using small amounts of EQ to attenuate overly bright results after one addresses the electronic gremlins. I usually run the HF control on the stats around 2:30-3:00. With the double New Advents, I run the upper tweeter control on Normal and the lowers on decrease. Sometimes, I use a 2 db treble cut with the Polks in the HT systems since they do not have a contour control.

rw