When has a mixing or mastering engineer ever thought "if only every listener had the same setup I do so that they could understand the music"? Never. And if that were the case, endgame would be NS10M, Auratones, and MDR7506 for everyone.
It's *hilarious* to me that some folks think that Harman target is 'what the artist intended' but then also continue on to say that the ideal is 'the same sound they had in the studio'. You think Harman-tuned gear is used in studios? Dafuq?
1000% agree. Most audiophiles have better setups than studios, and today most modern songs are recorded in home studios and mixed with entry level monitors so the bar is set quite low
I don't care about what the artist intended, I care about my own enjoyment. The gear exists to serve my needs and bring me pleasure, not the other way around. Soon as it stops being fun and becomes a flame war about what's objectively best, we're already outside the scope of what the artist did actually intend which is just for listeners to enjoy their music...
I feel like the more interesting discussion for the sake of an audio forum is 'what kind of music did the headphone maker tune with'? I find my least favorite products are often the ones that seem to cater towards 'audiophile(tm)' productions. I like to tune to the lowest common denominator - the worst masters I can find. Because I'm more likely to listen to that stuff than female vocal fetish ballads.
As a creator, I'd have to respectfully disagree. If there weren't some sort of loose ideas of what reference was for image and sound, all the content you consume would be a complete shitshow of headaches. We might not need end-game reproduction, but we do need some sort of goal-posts of standards that artists are trying to work within.
It makes a lot more sense to have some sort of reference goalpost for production equipment - to be sure that what you make translates well to 'whatever listeners may have'. I'm mostly thinking about playback equipment, for hobbyists instead of creators.
Also, I don't think any professional working with NS10Ms, Auratones, nor MDR7506s are using them as neutral references but as tools to hear different and sometimes less than ideal chains.
Mainly what I'm getting at is that people who appeal to the 'objective reference' mentality are not in fact using gear marketed towards professionals who do need something more akin to an actual reference. Why don't these people buy active monitors and treat their rooms instead of cycling hifiman headphones from FOTM front-end electronics?
I also know a lot more independent music producers using M50X from laptop jacks or some tiny KRKs in untreated rooms than proper equipment. And I am more likely to listen to their stuff than things with higher production value. Maybe that just means I have bad taste in music, but it is what it is.
I just came back from a live show, and their was this drone band that was Avant-garde but it was loud and passionate, and on the main stage they had a 10 piece band full of stiff players and it was so boring rigid. Some vosco, bosanova thing. Nothing about it stuck out to me other than decision paralysis because the band was too big and it seemed they had no real direction in a huge open space.
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Being true to what the artists intended
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