King Rex, I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing. I’m talking about the ambience on the recording which tells the listener the character the space in which the musicians are playing. This is not about the speaker. This is about the whole system having a level of resolution that allows the listener to hear that information. And it begins with good basic power delivery to the components which I am learning about right now in my own system.
The challenge is not losing it through poor gear choices, room treatments, wire choices, or set up decisions. The information is there on the recording. I heard it in varying degrees on all of David’s systems.
I have also heard the effect injected into systems by cables that enhance certain frequencies, but in this case everything sounds the same and it’s really not the same quality of naturalness. In fact it is unnatural and immediately tells me that I’m listening to is a high-fi system.
This is one of the big lessons I learned with this most recent visit to Utah. The information is on the recording. The challenge is to leave it intact and deliver it to the listener.
My first usage of the term transparency to recordings dates back to Oct 2018, and used it many times since then with people confusing it with see through transparency, so I even differentiated that. Despite repeating, there were many misinterpretations including tone, resolution, but few talking about the ambience being reflected of the records rather than the ambience artificially created by the system, which is more of a constant independent of the recording. I then concluded that those who haven't heard transparency to recordings will not be able to relate to it and hence the confusion.
The Oct 2018 comes from experimenting with good recordings at the General's starting summer.2018, then hearing some at Bill's when he moved to a simple system with Vyger and crossoverless speakers with a very low priced mastersound integrated (used price under 2k iirc). Every LP was a different concert. I also heard that through devore orangutans with NAF 2a3 integrated. I guessed it was simple circuits and crossovers that was probably helping..
I also then found this review from Marshall Nack that conveyed the same thing on Vyger Atlantis:
"All tables color the sound, one way or another. I find a reliable indicator of the degree of this is if the sound remains the same from record to record. The Best Record Labels That's not what I heard with the Atlantis. One after the other, I lined up original pressings from the most highly regarded LP labels: RCA, Capital, Vanguard, Lyrita, Decca, Argo, even modern LPs on Harmonia Mundi and EMI from the twilight of the LP era. All sounded splendid, all sounded different, and all displayed the skills of each engineering team. Each label's house sound was clear as day."
I also visited Tang in Oct 2018 and heard a lot of transparency to recordings on his. The horns universum does it the most I have heard in any system with Tang's, and the Uni system has a 3k table with 400 GBP Audio Technica Art 33, and 1k+ Art 9, so I became a fan of beryllium horn drivers. I love a lot of things that Altecs do but they don't do transparency to recordings the same. I also heard Vyger in systems that it does not do it in. While tables affect the sound a lot, I concluded that for transparency to recordings, it is the speaker, electronics, and possibly cables that matter more, though I never experimented with cables, as some of these had audiophile cables and some simple, I never got into the specifics. For me Devore and Tannoy are the compromise contenders at equal level but Devores do it and Tannoys don't. It was also great at Anamighty sound
http://zero-distortion.org/analog-shoot-anamighty-sound/ with small speakers and Thrax integrated.
I never heard it on Wilsons and Magico type systems, but I hear it on my friend's Avalon after he put in the Soulution preamp between Allnic phono and power, though not same extent as above mentioned systems
Not that I don't like systems that don't do it to same extent, though I would prefer it. It requires a lot of investment in well recorded vinyl to justify that approach. The interesting thing is that with something as small as Devore, which does not have complete extension, transparency to recordings can make you feel you are listening to more concerts than a system with greater bass, treble extension which is forcing sound, but not doing that recording ambience. Hearing the contrast in the same room with 20k and 65k speakers was quite eye opening.