Mad about tone wood

Pardon me if I have audioly abused you. Come on, all work no play makes Jack a dull boy. And what else to expect here? Progressive audio refining, I'm not sure about you, do whatever makes you happy. No head start if you don't know what and where is the problem. Knowing my problem and I find ways to fix it.

As such, heavy orchestral works could not be manifested in a reasonable manner in my system, lacking the final punch to win a convincing accolade. My low registers is my Achilles heel, period. I blame my speakers for bass shy demeanor. The concentric driver serves as waveguide point source is smashing, it is hard to go back to tweeter and mid driver configuration which have a tendency to sing their own tune at crossover point. Smooth integration at those frequency range is a noble design. Alas, upgrading power amp isn't my option because I love the sound of my precious puny power amp for unsolid state like sound and delicacy. Yes, the delicacy is something special. No one want to be a poor audiophile who doesn't have the financial might to upgrade.

Incidentally, a friend swung by and listened, "You've cleaned up the frequency bandwidth." Now, I'm counting on my educated guess; curtailed edginess. We need outsiders' feedback for reaffirmation if we are on the right track, sometimes. Let's see what I did. The changes I made were a power cord change, foot rest rearrangement and new tone wood. Actions bring forth changes. The occasional grainy tailing is slowly become a nuisance, particularly the very last breath/bow of sax/violin. Though it is not offensive but the uneasiness grows by the day. Power cord change fixes that. This is the day, as in any other days of a typically chronic disease of an audiophile! The day you get cure is the day you quit this hobby.

Foot rest sucks life out of the music especially when it occupies the reflection hot spot. Removing the foot rest to a non critical spot opened the sound. So, you be aware of what you put in your room. Bass loves to creep underneath the furniture and sofa. Lived long enough with my system to pick up the differences fairly easily, power cord and rearrangement of foot rest could not have contributed this magnitude of performance elevation, tone wood deserves the credit.

How is it possible to make your system "grow" without adding active components? Let's alone a passive component. Pretty impossible, a?

Tone wood A

The effect of tone wood is mind blowing. I'm a big subscriber of all things in the room influence the sound. It is like a religion and the room tells a lot about the sound. Given ceramic, you get the ceramic thingy, marble with marbly, glass with glassy, wood with woody and et cetera. The challenging part is how to balance up these attributes to achieve a harmonious sound. Anyhow, talk is rubbish, truth lies in the listening.

Five shok zhi

Took me hours to figure out to optimize the tone wood. The data is stored in my memory. I should have gotten a log book to record my findings since the very beginning. First impression always correct, the subsequent impressions somewhat realign to what you wanted you to believe. In my case, it ended up with five shok zhi mahjong placement, a basic placement to begin with in any system. By the time this post sees the daylight, I'm sure the placement will vary.

Like beta agoinst, tone wood grows meat at the lower registers. Miraculously, the bass got bigger, more resounding, more echoing. Double bass, drums and timpani texture received a make over, if you will, more realistic with a fluffier feel to it. No more of that hollowness that comes with low quality speakers, one note bass. Voices are fuller with added chestiness to male voices. I was careful to have midbass intrusion to the minimum to avoid Tom Boy voices.

Tone wood exhibits predominantly wood element of Wu Xing, benign rounded sound and warmth. Pseudo tubbiness without the expense of tubes, for me, it's a good thing. Aggressive highs is a turn off, tone wood nullified the nasty digital glares.

Tone wood B

Being inquisitive in nature, I replaced the center tone wood A with another tone wood just for the sake of fun, in come tone wood B. Both tone wood possess different structure of grain and density. Wow! I experienced a knee jerk hearing the difference. The saxophone popped with greater dimensionality. Protruding images not only within the plane of the speakers but both flanks. My friend and I instantly recognized a sense of rightness lay bare before our eyes. As I was going to re-AB replacing the tone wood, "Put it back, leave it alone." The reaffirmation was not necessary. The congealing images, blooming and layering vow us something special. Tone wood A was warmer, rounded and pale by comparison. The following listening impressions thereof are based upon tone wood B.

Weird enough, the added weight promotes rhythm. The swing receives a charged "velocity" in micro dynamic, lasted some milliseconds longer. The breathing, strings, brass and woodwind exhibit a longer exhale! Overall, music is dense and heavy. Too much of low bass grouchiness is a drag and takes its toll on marco dynamic. Determining the adequate bass is time consuming, you certainly do not want to overblown the bass. Likewise, Europeans feel American bass is overwhelming whilst Americans feel European offerings are too civilized. Right between the two should be okay. The double bass is deemed more correct in this composure whilst cello as some called violincello, the glissando and portamento is silkily elegance through 150hz and onward. The bass, occasional paralytic sensations on certain playing material, I could feel the energies through my chair. 

The stretched soundstage accorded greater separation, more distance apart from individual instruments. Tone wood could really alter the soundstage! More headroom, I suppose? Background gets blacker, tailing is extended. Sensational, it illustrates a virtual reality.

Two sides of coins, I could happily live with the new equilibrium. This is the single biggest improvement I have ever experienced. I have got Gabon Ebony, Makassar Ebony, tone wood A and tone wood B for my disposal. To compliment tone wood A and B, readjusting all other tweaks is absolutely necessary. Classical music is spun to check on the tone accuracy, I don't mess around with tonal accuracy. There's no such thing as drop in tweaking!

For a month already my excitement shot over the roof to have rediscovered revelations of sound. The versatility of tone wood supersedes my past tweaking experience and I have no intention commercializing it. Today, my audio room is intensively tuned with these tone wood, well, it might just be my last tweaking.