Getting to the bottom of it

Readers love to read stories with flair of writing, top stories like new state of the art (SOTA), the typical A vs B bout, David versus Goliath and a new component breaking new ground are a seller. These stories underlines audio consumerism, consistently sending a message your audio system is not good enough. Fanning audio fantasies, one upgrade after another opening cans of worms. This is not what you'll get here, I'm done with all that.

I approach audio from overall system package, the intelligence of putting up a system and acoustic solutions, how little sonic anomalies. Paying attention to details. Your efforts will bring your system to its true value.

Optimisation of sound is the essence of the game. This has since been my endeavor after my attainment of system synergy. No such thing as drop in replacement. Audio in many occasions abides to the principle of "here and there", you add here by subtracting from somewhere. Extending upper frequency extreme, the sound becomes lightweight. Doing the opposite, the sound becomes heavy. Protruding the lower mids will add warmth, protruding the lower treble will intensify the sense of space. This is textbook. Beware, sonic attractiveness is always blinding. When in doubt, go back to basic, tonal balance. This is where experience comes handy, hasten upgrade should be keep at bay.

I know there are folks who resist to tweaking, preferring neat looking system. And often, a room with amber space don't sound good. Well, what ever makes them happy. Any system regardless of price benefits from tweaking, that's my opinion. Mind you, over-tweaking is neither a good thing. I'm reluctant to show you my room for one obvious reason, controversial tweaking. Even my audio components don't line up straight, but unorthodoxly zig zag. The sound profoundly improved. Sight can in many ways form a preconception. Never a good thing. My one and only merit is sonic performance and sonic performance alone.

There are tool to help you on audio course liken compass to sea voyager expeditions. Establish a reference before tweaking. Unamplified classical music is the best there is as reference. Many like to use personal favorite CDs as reference in which the idea isn't a good one unless you have participated the recording process. You know too little about the sound during the recording. Don't pawn away your tonal accuracy. Each instrument carries a distinctive sound to it. It is those signatures we want to hear.

The day you aren't managed to nail down tonal accuracy, high fidelity is still very much implausible. Texture deficiency follows. They don't sound anything at all but restricted to personal liking. Under these circumstances, the system will arguably go down well with audio folks. The pricier the system attracts harsher critic. It's just human nature. Go out and hear the real thing if you are serious with your system.

DIY products are mostly at the mercy of going off track without a control sample. Reputable manufacturers are using competitors' products to keep check on its tonal balance. Calibrate your system once, you are good to run your victory lap.

Oh my Lady Gaga!

Lunar New Year (LNY) is around the corner. Most Malaysians are drowning in holiday spirit. A week long holiday is a good break before working your ass off for the entire 2016, your boss expected that commitment. My new year resolution this year is having no resolution, live life easy. Securing livelihood, stay healthy, attending more live music and taking better pictures, something to keep myself occupied.

Music is still my first love, it enriches my life. Who wouldn't love good music particularly those in growing years? Those sensual tunes walk me down memory lane. I do know now that some people do strange things, perhaps they are painting a piece of memory. Well, we all have tendency to look back when you reached a certain age. Those are good times especially when you are young and healthy.

Honestly, I don't know much about Malay classics. When you look at music, you look at articulatory phonetics. Some lingoes are inherently romantic. Like majority of the languages of the world, Malay phonetics has the fluency in which, facilitate beautiful phrasing. Mind you, some lingoes audibly angry with strong emphasis of nasality. Chinese is choppy with four distinctive keys. The meaning is vastly different when you pronounce the wrong key. That's why Chinese is one of the most difficult language to master.

Anyway, I'd like introduce Sheila Majid, a diva who requires no further introduction to fellow Malaysians. Here's her credentials, she begs 1998 America's International Star Search Award for Best Female Vocalist, the first Malaysian artist to break into Japan in the following year. She also the first Malaysian artist to stage a solo show at Royalty Theatre. And, the below CDs were recorded in Petronas Philharmonic Hall in 2015 commemorating her 25th years in her singing career.

She has an incredible voice, plenty of wetness. Not forgetting the background vocal too. The vocal harmonization deserves credits. Mostly, the orchestra injects power to her delivery. Every artist has his/her own delivery. And music lovers look out for that signature, the uniqueness. Me too singers at best singing cabaret in local lounges, they don't have the ummph... to go up the next level. People listen and forget. Anyway, entertainment industry is a complicated business. Beside vocal line, look which relating to image plays a big part.

Remember I write about the blackness when the music dies some time ago? It was again audible in these CDs, it was there. The blackness is even more profound in the hall. This is because the reverberations of my room amplify the whiteness unless your room is acoustically dead.
Comes in double CDs box set, it costs RM34 (8USD) this is tremendous value. Listening to the CDs, I was amazed how well they were recorded. The hall ambiance retrieval and the crowd applause just as remembered as with my past audible experience with Malaysia Philharmonics Orchestra. Three visits in 2 weeks.

Strings, brass, timpani were spectacular. I really need to set the record straight, my reference is based on hall ambiance retrieval, the crowd applause and orchestra play, all the elements of MPO sounded right. The uncanny quality is magical. In my humble opinion, this local recording quality surpassed audiophile approved CDs, audiophile CDs in comparison sounded artificial. I say this with one reservation, her voice was stronger than the mezzo soprano that might have suggested that she was using a mic.

Hair raising every time I play these CDs. Oh my Lady Gaga! Without hesitation, these CDs are now firmly my system repertoire. I will not point you to tonality, dynamic, micro details, extreme frequency or other parameters, but listen for yourself how close it sounded to the real thing, specifically the ambiance. Some of MPO recordings are labelled under BIS under the baton of Kees Bakels.

A well recorded live album is very hard to come by, a true rarity. You know how reproduction music can sometimes sounded weirdly different from the real thing. People refer this phenomenon as black art because you never know how's your mixing turn out to be. By the time this post is published, I have already got a second copy as spare. Folks, it is that good! Only if you like her music, of course.

Unamplified music

Gustav Mahler quotes "If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother saying it in music". Words sometimes do seem inadequate. When a chick addresses a thirty years old "Hello! uncle", he might feel a sense of maturity but to a fifty years old, dudes, it sounds like an old hog. Take a hike, uncle. Unless the old hog riding a Ferrari, ha ha ha... 

Worry not. There is no end to worries. We all should live life by the day, blessing Lord for each new day. The thought came to me that I should go get a ticket to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), with or without buddies. I picked up the phone and book my ticket. My distance to MPO is manageable and I don't have to put up a night in the city the least. I could hit home in 45 minutes after the show. No sweat.

MPO is a world class auditorium designed by Cesar Pelli. You will be greeted by the majestic of the hall upon entering. Wow! The lushness of Asian hardwood decorated the hall, wooden hard floor, the majestic of the pipes, tall ceiling, hidden diffusers and the circular lighting mimicking the stars of the universe is the highlight of the hall. The hall air ventilation is also noteworthy, quiet as a mouse. Pictures paints a thousand words, need I say more? The seats are showing signs of wear though. All in all, this is one acoustically very good hall.

"A superb 885-seat shoebox-shaped auditorium, it has a 2,997 pipe Klais concert organ with 44 stop tracker action and a state-of-the-art recording studio designed in Britain by Abbey Road Studios. The hall has two large rehearsal rooms, a third for section rehearsals, eleven individual practice rooms, two suites for conductors, a dressing room for the orchestra leader, two for soloists, and provision for ensembles". John Robert Brown.

Mahler Symphony Nine, conducted by Yoel Gamzou. He is a young conductor specializes in Mahler's works. The dramatic performance with romantic ending, the performance under his baton lasted approximately ninety minutes. I couldn't comment how good his performance but would agree it was a good performance. Yoel's music background was impressive and perhaps will get better with age. All conductors do. My ears were served with a great variety of timbre goodness, my cognitive was busy impregnating the experience in my tired brain. Not before long, my memory was full. It is a tiring endeavour performing long critical listening. Used to complain why with all the coughing, I couldn't resist the itchy throat as well! I was wore down and submitted to the kaleidoscope of sound. Quite an ear "bashing" when great variety of instrument plays simultaneously and consequentially at the peak of drama. Well, not to the extreme of discotheque though. When the music pause, deafening silence follows, the kind of silence like you are exhaling your last breath.

Third row center seat, approximately ten feet from the stage, this a close emulation of near-field listening in my room. Not to be self fulfilling, I got to admit my system could not come close to emulate the atmospheric details. There is a whole lot of information missing! If there is one word I may want to use, sterile. Of course, front three rows tickets are cheap. Constant looking up to the stage contributes to sore neck. You got to pay for better seats. Furthermore, no full visual of the orchestra particularly, woodwinds and percussion sections. You do get a good look at the conductor's back, the hysterical intensity. The orchestra members maintain a close watch on the whipping of his baton, little do I know, his baton now regulates the pressure of my bloodstream too.

A couple of things become apparent upon comparison. First, dynamics is on a whim without hesitation. Accelerate and stop liken road runner, bing bing. This is where most box speakers failed miserably. Hello horn speakers, you don't get any impeccable rise time other than horns. Timing is without question spot on. Secondly, the priceless effortless. It comes only with large diameter driver. Thirdly, overhang bass. Ill-designed boxed speaker and room acoustics are largely account for these. A great amount of turbulence generated inside the speaker box in dire straits, self regulating the air pressure. Seal box designed speakers control the aggression of driver excursion in the expense of sensitivity. A good amount of power is necessary to move the high Qts driver to produce weightier sound. Bad room acoustics aggravate the problem. All box designed speakers exhibit bass overhang to some degree, period. The best bass I heard is from open baffle speaker!  Open baffle speaker bass comes really close to the real thing in this regard. Box-less designed speakers in nature will not have to deal with box induced colourations.

Next, the unparalleled directness of sound, "in yer face" is how audio community says it. This directness diminishes in correspond to the distance from the stage, somewhat homogenized from row thirteen onward, premium seats. You get full view from premium seats in which they also charge you premium for the seats. I now know which row I wanted to be seated.

Lastly, harmonic purity. Without amplification and minimum room influence, harmonic is presented in its truest form. In my humble view, I break harmonic down to two namely, harmonic hue and density. These two virtues fundamentally responsible for tonality. I couldn't help some recollections flashes in my mind, some speakers innately sounded overly rich and denser than reality and vice versa. Most home speakers are tuned to be ear pleasing, anyway.

Watching and listening concurrently brings forth information explosion where your two primary sensors are working their ass off feeding information to the brain. Your brain may caught in buffering mode. Your attention most likely moving around all sections, you could barely cover the orchestra on certain passages. The experience differs from listening playback through a system, you simply let your imagination go wild. MPO, thanks for the experience, I will return for more for the musical extravaganza.