The 2026 show has now drawn its curtain, my damage this year is sub RM1k which is ummmm..... manageable. I brought home a couple of CDs and a cheap power cord. The story of the power cord comes later. My initial plan this year was a power regenerator but I pulled the brake after I learned that most power regenerators introduce unpredictable coloration and somewhat dynamics compression. The stake is too high for me to mess around my current state of sound. I don't look for a drastic improvement but refining the sound like lowering noise floor.
Moving around in the show was rather easy, I spent two-day time listening to systems and chatting with the exhibitors to learn latest evolution. Let be honest, we all are looking for the next big thing. Evidently, most systems sounded good. A sign of maturity, they know what they're doing. Systems in the hall don't sound great. One exhibitor said small room acoustic is more manageable.
Bite me, I constantly being sold that better sound with the pricier equipment. The whole world subsribe to this notion. Well implemented circuit and good quality parts are essential, the rest of the money goes to the capability to play loud. Look, the highs and mids still being produced by the same tweeter and the mid driver, the woofer size or the number of woofers increased. It comes down to the implementation. Frequency response tells little, impedance tells different things, total harmonic distortion ...? These parameters serve more as product design and quality control. Don't bother talking about it if you're only superficial on this subject. For the matter of fact, most audio companies never even publish in-house measurements. Does this make sense? The lesson is never claiming expertise where you don't have it, this is a perennial problem among audio enthusiasts, half-baked knowledge.
Now, we, audio enthusiasts rely on our auditory acuity to decide what fit us and spend on. We can talk all days about technical excellence, if you need technical excel to convince you, you're not listening. You may even not a skilled listener. For that reason, my presence at audio show is to grab a listen and learn, probably be inspired, my next move.
Egoistic is common in audio community. I see audio enthusiasts belittling lower fi systems even though they don't say in your face. You can clearly sense it. Good sound with a better system, they fervently believe it. A typical audiophile thingy. Look, someone will always have a higher-end system. Equipment is only a part of good sound equation. A higher-end equipment has only a marginal improvement over the lesser ones. Only a marginal improvement, the rule of diminishing return slips in, this marginal improvement can be easily offset with power and room treatment. The real playing field is sound quality. A higher order system is a system that leveraging on the room.
All systems sounded different from one to another at Wave Audio Show. They all have different emphasis. Given the different playing tracks, it complicates comparison. We are basically listening to the recording quality. Make things worse, each of us listen differently. Some sounds resonate with you, some not. A minefield if your EQ is low.
So, what to look for? Putting tonal palette aside, you ought to look for a smooth highs-mids-lows transition and high transient attack. Both these elements are timeless, you're on a solid footing. If your room and budget allow, a solid 40Hz is the minimum. 30Hz is the cherry on top. Resist the temptation of sound effect or firework, this attraction may one day be the reason you ditch them.
