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The Flat Earth philosophy evolved out of ideas advanced by Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn and the late Julian Vereker of Naim. Tiefenbrun was really the first person to demonstrate that turntables - which '70s conventional wisdom held were strictly mechanical devices that had no inherent sound of their own, assuming that wow and flutter were adequately low - actually had dramatic differences in their sounds. Tiefenbrun proceeded from that breakthrough to argue that hi fi gear should be evaluated by such novel tests as "does it make you tap your foot to the beat?" and "can you hum along with the notes?" Here's another take on the definition; I cut this from an old posting on the Naim Forum. It's meant to be humorous but there's some truth behind it, it more or less presents the hi fi world from the point of view of a Flat Earth devotee: "Bollocks: A typical flat-earther response to round-earth tendencies. Boogie-factor: The ability to make one shimmy along, get down and get-on-up like a sex-machine. Detail: clarity, the ability to resolve fine intricacies of the whole performance. Dynamics: the ability to resolve low intesity sound in the presence of high intensity sound. Flat Earth: A philosophy of musical transcription that prioritises the presentation of music in a way that enhances emotional enjoyment. Prioritised attributes include Tune, Timing, Speed and Boogie-Factor. Inner Detail: refers to a system's ability to resolve small nuances in the tone of a musical instrument and small nuances in the musicianship of a musician. Macro Dynamics and Micro Dynamics: These concepts are not based in reality. There is only Dynamics (see Dynamics). Round Earth: A philosophy of audio transcription that prioritises the presentation of audio in a way that enhances cognative recognition. Prioritised attributes include Tone, Soundstaging and Transparency. Soundstaging: See Bollocks Speed: The ability of a hi-fi to respond to sudden transients in the music, such as drums and the leading/trailing edge of notes in a controlled manner. Not to be confused with Timing. Timing: A hi-fi's ability to align all musicians, musical notes and events at correct intervals. Not to be confused with Speed. Timing in a performance may intend to carry drama and emotional and spritual weight. Tone: See Bollocks. Transparency: See Bollocks. Tune: A tuneful hi-fi allows the listener to easily hear a tune and its flow without breaks or collisions with other instruments or musical events. A tune may intend to carry emotional and spritual weight, therefore a tuneful hi-fi will try to convey that emotional and spiritual weight." You might take a look at the web site linked below which archives some issues of the notorious, short - lived, but historically important British hi fi magazine The Flat Response . Editor Chris Frankland was a ferocious Linn / Naim zealot; I imagine him as sort of like the Scottish shopkeeper Mike Myers used to play on Saturday Night Live , barking "if it's not Linn or Naim it's crap!". An important point to keep in mind is that the whole Flat Earth philosophy of music reproduction was (and still is) a controversial minority viewpoint in the audiophile world. To someone who subscribes to the philosophy (as I do, mostly) judging hi fi equipment as a reproducer of music and not of recordings seems patently obvious and correct. On the other hand "Flat Earth" seems like some sort of lunacy to "Round Earth" audiophiles who argue that high fidelity by its very definition is about reproducing recordings with the highest accuracy.
