Videos of Acoustically-Coupled Audio Recordings

I am curious though as an experiment if it is possible for you to make it sound just like the recording. Can you actually get there with your process? I am assuming of course you clearly hear where your system deviates from the recording itself...

This brings us back to the crux of the matter: what is the reference to be judged by? The YouTube music video that someone posted. You know Brad, one thing that I learned a long time ago is not to waste my time chasing ghosts but instead spend the time chasing what I enjoy. If you think that there is an “Absolute Sound” then good luck finding it.
 
This brings us back to the crux of the matter: what is the reference to be judged by? The YouTube music video that someone posted. You know Brad, one thing that I learned a long time ago is not to waste my time chasing ghosts but instead spend the time chasing what I enjoy. If you think that there is an “Absolute Sound” then good luck finding it.
The original recording is a good starting point, no? Live unamplified music is the only real reference. You may not prefer that but it is the real thing. This is not like wine tasting where you are sampling among many real things to find your preference. You can treat it like that I suppose but I choose to get closest to the sound of the real thing...whatever that real thing happens to be.


Try this one on your system. This is my system playing a track off of Itzhak Perlman "Virtuoso Violin" on EMI from 2001. Sadly, I am work and cannot tell you from the sound what track it is...however, once you find the album it should be easy enough to find this track.
 
Maybe some dipole subs where you roll off the fullrange speakers?

That would definitely be a possibility. I have to consider the complexity and cost as well, and see if I can improve things marginally with my current system.

I have discussed all this with the designer of my speakers (and amp) and he made some interesting suggestions, but I have not had the courage to embark into this yet. I am not in any rush.
 
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The original recording is a good starting point, no? Live unamplified music is the only real reference. You may not prefer that but it is the real thing. This is not like wine tasting where you are sampling among many real things to find your preference. You can treat it like that I suppose but I choose to get closest to the sound of the real thing...whatever that real thing happens to be.


Try this one on your system. This is my system playing a track off of Itzhak Perlman "Virtuoso Violin" on EMI from 2001. Sadly, I am work and cannot tell you from the sound what track it is...however, once you find the album it should be easy enough to find this track.

Next time you see you ex-wife ask her if all her violins sound the same. If the did then Stradivarius would be nothing special wouldn’t they?
 
Yes most of these audiophile demonstrations tracks are shitty and not worth listening to for any other reason than sound comparisons. If videos of music for musical enjoyment is the goal then all commonality will diverge and then the videos would serve less value as audiophile comparison tool and just be uploaded for the purpose of musical enjoyment or for private comparisons instead of public commentary. I see your point. Here are a couple of videos of music I actually enjoy:


Thank you for some music that doesn’t send me into audiophile breathy vocal/ tinkly piano toxic shock syndrome.

But, I’ve found much Radiohead to suffer from the digital harshies, sadly. I don’t know if the vinyl is any better. I doubt it.

The WAAR remaster ameliorates some of it but overall the
dot sounds more balanced. The bass sounds overblown and the midrange thin upon a 2nd listening to the WAAR version.
 
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The wavetouch sounds quite nasal on the voice...something is wrong tonally here. I found that quite distracting.
All IMHO...
Thank you for your honest feedback!

Audiophile ears can be in an unnatural sound mode right after listening an unnatural hi-fi sound, then even the original (natural sound) music can sound strange and funny for few minutes until ears regain reality.

Could you please check the original music if it has a similar problem with WT sound? Please remember the original music is like listening 2-3ft away from the singer and the audio is listening 9ft away with the room acoustic.

 
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Like the previous one...much too thin in the body of the instrument (the other one was much too thin in the voice and piano).
It’s the reverberant coffee can sound which bothers me in the in room recording sound. Room needs treatment! — if the vid sound is to be trusted…
 
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Next time you see you ex-wife ask her if all her violins sound the same. If the did then Stradivarius would be nothing special wouldn’t they?
Interesting non-sequiter. It just so happens on the violin thread at the end I posted a bunch of violins played by the same person (not my ex…and not a wife). You can easily hear how different each one sounds. There is also a video of my ex playing live in Tonhalle Zurich. It is not a great recording but it is live (It’s done on a Sony video camera circa 2004) and through my stereo…you can’t get this one any other way…

However, you again conflate reproduction with the real thing…a common problem here.
 
Interesting non-sequiter. It just so happens on the violin thread at the end I posted a bunch of violins played by the same person (not my ex…and not a wife). You can easily hear how different each one sounds. There is also a video of my ex playing live in Tonhalle Zurich. It is not a great recording but it is live (It’s done on a Sony video camera circa 2004) and through my stereo…you can’t get this one any other way…

However, you again conflate reproduction with the real thing…a common problem here.

My point was/is that unless you produce the recording, you really don’t know exactly what it is supposed sound like. Even the same instrument played by different performers can sound differently. There are no clear and well defined targets to benchmark your systems against. And that is why that is no longer a focus for me. My only goal these days is musical enjoyment.
 
My point was/is that unless you produce the recording, you really don’t know exactly what it is supposed sound like. Even the same instrument played by different performers can sound differently. There are no clear and well defined targets to benchmark your systems against. And that is why that is no longer a focus for me. My only goal these days is musical enjoyment.
Oh I have some of those too (ones I made myself). But I don’t really agree, very good recordings from capable hands can show the instrument being recorded and distinguishable from others of the type (again I direct you to my thread).
 
Oh I have some of those too (ones I made myself). But I don’t really agree, very good recordings from capable hands can show the instrument being recorded and distinguishable from others of the type (again I direct you to my thread).

Brad, make it easy for all of us. Please submit one of those perfect recordings. You don’t have to submit a video of your system playing it, just simply the title of the album, track, and record company. One that you can categorically state “can show the instrument being recorded and distinguishable from others of the type”. Perhaps those of us that like to record and submit videos can record our systems playing one these infallible tracks.
 
Brad, make it easy for all of us. Please submit one of those perfect recordings. You don’t have to submit a video of your system playing it, just simply the title of the album, track, and record company. One that you can categorically state “can show the instrument being recorded and distinguishable from others of the type”. Perhaps those of us that like to record and submit videos can record our systems playing one these infallible tracks.
Again follow the violin thread I linked above. It’s really not that hard…

However, the album is called “What about this Mr. Paganini “ on Tacet from 2004.
 
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Some violon here :)


I'll record this with my Tascam recorder to give a point of reference in assessing the distortion brought by phone recordings.
As usual, your system has a nice open sound and flow to it. I'm sure if you posted this video on Vimeo we would hear more of the emotional impact that is always lacking via YouTube.
 
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The original recording is a good starting point, no? Live unamplified music is the only real reference. You may not prefer that but it is the real thing. This is not like wine tasting where you are sampling among many real things to find your preference. You can treat it like that I suppose but I choose to get closest to the sound of the real thing...whatever that real thing happens to be.


Try this one on your system. This is my system playing a track off of Itzhak Perlman "Virtuoso Violin" on EMI from 2001. Sadly, I am work and cannot tell you from the sound what track it is...however, once you find the album it should be easy enough to find this track.
Here it is:

Screenshot_2023_0829_071139.jpg
 

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