Neutral loudspeakers preserve musical inspiration better than colored ones

Evidence

Incredibly, there are people who argue that timbrally neutral loudspeakers are boring, robbing music of some undefined inspirational qualities. This, of course, is nonsense. It is the music, the art, the recordings that should inspire, excite, please and motivate listeners. Loudspeakers are messengers of the art, and they need to be honest messengers for both professionals and consumers. If anyone wants to add extra inspiration, excitement or more apparent reality there are signal processors and equalizers to modify the spectrum and space. For consumers, starting with neutral loudspeakers allows them to return to accuracy at any time. Recording engineers need neutral references to hear what their electronic manipulations sound like to increasing numbers of consumers. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 140

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘honest messengers’ framing is a neat, quotable way to dismiss the ‘colorful speakers are more inspiring’ myth.