Zenelectro
Your wrote:
The dilemma is that if you use a super low distortion microphone and microphone pre amp, the sound is more 'modern' and quite different. It is actually more accurate to the way peoples voice sounds in real life, but it doesn't have that magic quality that gives you the illusion of the voice floating with richness.
If I heard this done right, or more specifically I heard this reproduced, I might agree, usually what I hear its dried out, thin analytical voices with no wetness and also a very poor ability to in conveying the unique characteristics of each singers voice, though that’s the speaker and the rest of the chain also contributing to that result. Sure early recordings you mention are likely too far the other way, yet most systems need so much help it’s a positive rather than a negative. And we havent even touched the black art of emotional conveyance. And you also didn’t mention the ability to real hear the change in the vocal delivery, when the singer really lets fly, though maybe its compression that’s the culprit here. We seem to have become accustomed to thin weedy vocals, even worse when they have a metallic sheen as well.
Why is it I could spend 8 hours in front of a system which is like the trend of making lps sound like CD, what Id call the clean school and there’s no emotional conveyance period. Sure I can hear what’s going on well, but I am not moved one bit, frankly what ever good points such systems have and they are boring, and are not joyful. You can keep all of them, there not my cup of tea at all. We have seen in recent years some of the audio reviwers realise they had been going down the wrong path as well, listening to systems that had been sucking the life out of the music.
You wrote”
Yep, it's a combination of the 205 and all the transformers etc etc that adds the vocal richness - however you will find on complex material it can go the other way.
Theoretically fine, just like the expert that told me with my car project I couldn’t put supercharger boost through individual throttle bodies it will never idle and be almost impossible to drive smoothly. As it turned out the expert was totally wrong. It took courage to ignore the feedback. No problem with complex material what so ever, on the contrary it’s a strength and I have heard few if any systems with greater capability to handle complex material.
The other point here is the synergy of the overall equipment, some sauce can be a good thing if some other parts of the chain are lacking. The problem is where people seize on a simple formula and implement it blindly, everything thing, every cable, part must be supper clean and detailed, the system ends up just as unbalanced as a system which is soo rich it gives you a stomache, ache its bloated, so syrupply everythings golden when its not.