Great Music Courtesy of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Mr. Brown,

Alas, I missed the Rach Three with Bronfman, but have heard the CSO often enough to attest that its string playing is exceptionally lovely. Next time you're in town, try to take in one of the Chamber Players Series concerts at Memorial Hall; the music, performed by CSO players (generally from the string section), will confirm your high esteem of the orchestra’s musicians and musicianship.

The larger question you raise—the relevance of the “absolute sound” to hi-fi and hi-fi reviewing, given the manifest impossibility of ever duplicating it—is a doozie, much too big and complicated to answer in the kind of detail it deserves on this forum. In a nutshell, however, here is what I think.

Harry Pearson originally proposed the idea of comparing the sound of music played back on a stereo system to the sound of unamplified (i.e., acoustic) instruments in a real space, not because he thought a stereo system would ever sound identical to a symphony orchestra but because he felt the sound of an unamplified violin or piano or voice was an unimpeachable standard—the purest measure of fidelity. Most of us know what a violin or piano sounds like, and all of us know what a voice sounds like. In other words, we recognize the “realness” of the real thing when we hear it. Comparing playback to anything else—even to the mastertape from which an LP was made—is comparing a copy to a copy, playback to playback (and to the vagaries of recording, mastering, and playback gear).

As instinctually appealing as HP’s approach is (at least, to me), it does rather sidestep several important questions. First, to compare a recorded violin to a real one is to assume tacitly that the recorded violin should sound like a real violin. However, what if the recorded violin isn’t a well-recorded violin? Then what should it sound like—or, rather, using the absolute as a benchmark how do we know that, in making a recorded violin sound more like a real violin (or our "idea" of a real violin), our playback system is reproducing that violin accurately?

Second, to compare a recorded violin to a real one is to assume tacitly that we want our played-back violin to sound more like a real instrument (warts and all), rather than less—or, to put this differently, that in listening to recordings we listen, first and foremost, for fidelity to life. This raises the very legitimate question of whether fidelity to the real thing makes music more enjoyable and involving—whether sounding “real” is more important to a listener than sounding “good.” Putting aside the question of whether sounding “real” is sounding “good” (I think it is), I can see where an argument could be made for putting together a stereo system not on the basis of the absolute sound (or any absolute), but solely on the basis of the kind of sound that is most appealing to you, the listener, on the music that you listen to most often. The truth is I think we do a large bit of this, perforce. Even Harry, I think, would concede that his notion of the “absolute” is unique to him, and that mine is unique to me. Of course, we both aim to get that violin to sound like a real violin. But, given the impossibility of perfect reproduction, different listeners can legitimately argue about what constitutes “real” (or “more real”). For instance, I tend to prioritize presence and dynamics; Robert E. Greene prioritizes flat frequency response.

Third, the absolute sound is acoustic music. But what if you don’t listen (or care for) acoustic music? What if you prefer rock ’n’ roll or electronica? Would you end up with the same system that HP has—the system that best preserves his notion of the absolute sound? I doubt it.

I’ve said this so many times in the past that I sort of hate to repeat it again, but…a stereo system (no matter what your point of comparison) isn’t a bunch of equipment; it is an idea—YOUR idea—of what constitutes the most realistic or the most enjoyable (or, in all likelihood, some unique blend of each) reproduction of the music that you listen to most often. Reviewers, especially reviewers whose taste in music and sound are similar to yours, can help point you in the right directions; they cannot decide what your “idea” of great playback should be. That you have to do.

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