When I say "objective", it definitely needs air quotes, because the well-meaning skeptics love to toss it around for some decidedly non-objective opinions. My pet example is quoting "THD" as if it were a useful figure. It's not. The advantage of THD isn't that it is meaningful, but rather that it's easy to measure. Run a 1khz sine wave into the front of the amp, tap a resistive load on the back of the amp, measure the difference. Manufacturers like it because it makes for a competitive-sounding spec. But it has approximately zero to do with how an amplifier behaves in the face of complex musical signals, driving complex speaker loads.
When it comes to recording, my "objective" reality is the sound I hear in the room before it ever hits a microphone. But what comes out of the other end of the microphone is already deeply subjective. The objective ability of hi-fi systems to reproduce that subjective, colored microphone signal (plus whatever processing is involved downstream) is about as objective as they get. But the recording itself? Outside the world of purely electronic music, it's a subjective experience.
I play acoustic guitar every day, listen to unamplified singers/musicians (other than me) at least weekly, play electric guitar at least weekly, gig regularly. These direct, objective experiences of the natural sounds of instruments color my interpretation of both magical-thinking audiophiles and pseudo-scientific skeptics. I know intimately what the natural sound is, I know intimately what the recorded/reproduced sound is, and I know how the entire recording process works, from miking to mixing to mastering. Laws and sausages. The audiophiles and skeptics are both missing that perspective.
So, as a recording/mixing engineer, as a producer, I'm looking not to deliver audiophile accuracy, but rather to deliver the intended intellectual and emotional experience of the music. What feeling is the artist trying to convey? How do I manipulate the sonics to emphasize the musician's intent, as expressed through the lyrics, the composition/arrangement, and the natural tones of their instruments? That's the fun part, for me.
(As an aside, I'm currently working on a particular song of my own, destined for my long-delayed solo album. I wrote the song based on a nightmare I had in great distress. A few years back, I suffered an illness that left me nearly unable to speak, much less sing, and my voice is permanently damaged (I have surgery a few times a year on my vocal cords to keep speaking and not die of suffocation). I recorded the song right after writing it, just a couple of weeks before my first surgery, with a near-useless voice. "My broken voice won't fill the air / I know that you don't really care / You may not need my song but I need to sing it anyway". Fitting with the broken voice is the melody repeated on a piano that hasn't been tuned in over 50 years and has been flooded multiple times, so it's, um, colorful. To both the audiophile and objective mindset, neither the voice nor the piano were worth recording at all. But as an artist trying to communicate an emotional experience, they're vital.)
When it comes to recording, my "objective" reality is the sound I hear in the room before it ever hits a microphone. But what comes out of the other end of the microphone is already deeply subjective. The objective ability of hi-fi systems to reproduce that subjective, colored microphone signal (plus whatever processing is involved downstream) is about as objective as they get. But the recording itself? Outside the world of purely electronic music, it's a subjective experience.
I play acoustic guitar every day, listen to unamplified singers/musicians (other than me) at least weekly, play electric guitar at least weekly, gig regularly. These direct, objective experiences of the natural sounds of instruments color my interpretation of both magical-thinking audiophiles and pseudo-scientific skeptics. I know intimately what the natural sound is, I know intimately what the recorded/reproduced sound is, and I know how the entire recording process works, from miking to mixing to mastering. Laws and sausages. The audiophiles and skeptics are both missing that perspective.
So, as a recording/mixing engineer, as a producer, I'm looking not to deliver audiophile accuracy, but rather to deliver the intended intellectual and emotional experience of the music. What feeling is the artist trying to convey? How do I manipulate the sonics to emphasize the musician's intent, as expressed through the lyrics, the composition/arrangement, and the natural tones of their instruments? That's the fun part, for me.
(As an aside, I'm currently working on a particular song of my own, destined for my long-delayed solo album. I wrote the song based on a nightmare I had in great distress. A few years back, I suffered an illness that left me nearly unable to speak, much less sing, and my voice is permanently damaged (I have surgery a few times a year on my vocal cords to keep speaking and not die of suffocation). I recorded the song right after writing it, just a couple of weeks before my first surgery, with a near-useless voice. "My broken voice won't fill the air / I know that you don't really care / You may not need my song but I need to sing it anyway". Fitting with the broken voice is the melody repeated on a piano that hasn't been tuned in over 50 years and has been flooded multiple times, so it's, um, colorful. To both the audiophile and objective mindset, neither the voice nor the piano were worth recording at all. But as an artist trying to communicate an emotional experience, they're vital.)