A great read...
https://www.dagogo.com/mastering-engineers-systems/
...Fast forward to a career in audio production. First as a recording engineer – thanks to my Dad for suggesting a job in a recording studio as opposed to my college dropout plan to be a rock star – then later a producer/mixer, and finally my job for the last 20 years as a mastering engineer.
Looking back, I think I pursued studio life as a way to be the person responsible for helping create the kind of recordings that I enjoyed sonically...
...So what do I want in my home system as opposed to my work system?
First, to be clear, I’m of the opinion that audiophiles should not aim to have a system that perfectly re-creates what was heard in the recording studio or concert hall. The notion that a playback system can be completely transparent and colorless as some sort of pure conduit for the recording is a noble pursuit, but that doesn’t cut it for me. The flaw of this approach, in my opinion, is almost no one can know what is ‘correct’ and even if they did, it would only be ‘correct’ for a tiny subset of recordings that were specifically produced to sound good on that kind of ultra-flat and almost distortionless kind of system. And don’t get me started on one thing any recording engineer knows in their bones: what comes out of any playback system regardless of how well recorded any musical performance is, never sounds like what it sounded like in the room with the performers. So given that the recording is an illusion (admittedly sometimes very convincing), I just want my home system to sound good! And on a broad range of recordings. But just like many audiophiles, my good is a pretty sophisticated good. Born from many years of listening and experiences with lots of different gear, including a massive amount of tools that influence the sound of the recording itself. I’m picky about my good....
...I need the lows to go low. Too many years of listening to a full-range system in a well-designed mastering studio have me hooked on the sensation of feeling some 30 or 40Hz if it’s in the recording. No excessive boominess please and not gobs of it, but I need a little splash of that in my coffee. ...
...Further down the scale but again of no small importance is a sense of harmonic richness, including a buttery smooth and extended top end, plus a sense of texture to the midrange. Musicians call it simply ‘tone’. Some of this is just plain frequency response, but I believe components can also change the sound in ways I perceive as a harmonic coloration that melds to the recording in a pleasing way – ‘Hey hon, can you put on a little of that makeup that makes you look so hot?’ ....
....That is what I need to do good work, but it’s not what I wanna listen to for fun. To quote another mastering engineer Dave Collins, ‘(when playing my own work) I want my home system to make me sound like a genius.’ ...
https://www.dagogo.com/mastering-engineers-systems/
...Fast forward to a career in audio production. First as a recording engineer – thanks to my Dad for suggesting a job in a recording studio as opposed to my college dropout plan to be a rock star – then later a producer/mixer, and finally my job for the last 20 years as a mastering engineer.
Looking back, I think I pursued studio life as a way to be the person responsible for helping create the kind of recordings that I enjoyed sonically...
...So what do I want in my home system as opposed to my work system?
First, to be clear, I’m of the opinion that audiophiles should not aim to have a system that perfectly re-creates what was heard in the recording studio or concert hall. The notion that a playback system can be completely transparent and colorless as some sort of pure conduit for the recording is a noble pursuit, but that doesn’t cut it for me. The flaw of this approach, in my opinion, is almost no one can know what is ‘correct’ and even if they did, it would only be ‘correct’ for a tiny subset of recordings that were specifically produced to sound good on that kind of ultra-flat and almost distortionless kind of system. And don’t get me started on one thing any recording engineer knows in their bones: what comes out of any playback system regardless of how well recorded any musical performance is, never sounds like what it sounded like in the room with the performers. So given that the recording is an illusion (admittedly sometimes very convincing), I just want my home system to sound good! And on a broad range of recordings. But just like many audiophiles, my good is a pretty sophisticated good. Born from many years of listening and experiences with lots of different gear, including a massive amount of tools that influence the sound of the recording itself. I’m picky about my good....
...I need the lows to go low. Too many years of listening to a full-range system in a well-designed mastering studio have me hooked on the sensation of feeling some 30 or 40Hz if it’s in the recording. No excessive boominess please and not gobs of it, but I need a little splash of that in my coffee. ...
...Further down the scale but again of no small importance is a sense of harmonic richness, including a buttery smooth and extended top end, plus a sense of texture to the midrange. Musicians call it simply ‘tone’. Some of this is just plain frequency response, but I believe components can also change the sound in ways I perceive as a harmonic coloration that melds to the recording in a pleasing way – ‘Hey hon, can you put on a little of that makeup that makes you look so hot?’ ....
....That is what I need to do good work, but it’s not what I wanna listen to for fun. To quote another mastering engineer Dave Collins, ‘(when playing my own work) I want my home system to make me sound like a genius.’ ...
