House of snake oil

Mockery is common in audio, my tweaking never failed to attract plenty of those. Smelling it's coming, I have learned to deal with it, even slander. Mockery helps maturity, trains your ability to keep your cool head. Think before you reiterate and most of the time you find that it is not necessary. Because the mockery reflects his personality, the ugly side. Since everyone has their own opinions, let's agree to disagree. Fair enough, I too, may not concur with you. That makes us even.

This image carries mixed feelings to some

Audiophiles like to impress others. Hard to deny, it is in their blood. Even mid fi loves to blow away non audiophiles sometimes. Wining the heart of non audiophiles, the non hobbyists, commands no glory. It is a perfunctory act to end this madness. Earning praises from audiophiles that own a greater system gives a meaningful satisfaction. You may go thanksgiving by offering joss sticks to your ancestors, at last....somebody appreciate my efforts.

Body language never lies, facial expression tells. No matter how you dislike the sound, playing smartphone during listening lesson is disrespectful to the host. Browsing the room in a listening session is also insulting, can't wait to wrap up the listening session to grab a cup of coffee. Exchange of words, this is where the fun begins. Every word will unveil the hidden thought. People remember bad words, the day will come, you will be cross examined and succumb to these irking questions;

Can I trust you?
Is your view useful?

These questions are classic. The first question query trustworthiness. And if you are not trustworthy, save your comments. The second question is even more traumatic, You are a good man, I believe you, but your haven't been there. Your views come short. Mean huh? Look at the other side, it is merely self-protectionism.  

The following is even more deceitful on how words got out of the context. Friend turns enemy.

A says to B "A's bass is lightweight." 
B tells C "A said your bass didn't sound right." 
C says " O ya? A does not even know what bass is like?"
A says "Hey! I haven't listened to your system? Why did you accuse me telling your system is lack of bass?"
A, B and C never speak to each other.

Honesty has no place in audio. No one appreciate it. I fear the most audiophile puts word into my mouth. This can come at any time, anywhere, knowingly and unknowingly, you are at the mercy of ill minded audiophiles. Be dragged into a shit hole. Damage is done, the culprit left the crime site untouched. An audio veteran once advised me that rule number one, never reveal shortcomings/flaws. Rule number two, never do recommendation. Rule number three, never comment unless required. Adhering these three rules, you stay trouble free.

Revealing shortcomings/flaws, it points directly to audio ranking. Surely, audiophiles with greater system can criticize. There is a reason why a public speaker stands on a podium, to assert superiority, to grab attention. It is not OK from a smaller system to criticize greater system even though their system might be under perform. Friendly comments taste sour in the ears of others, implying "Are you telling me how to set up my system?" You are looking for troubles. Observe this, would your boss feels comfortable when he has to chin up talking to you? He'll invite you to sit before bombardment. People are very concern about supremacy 高姿态. Well, you get what I mean.

Recommending a component is also a thing I would avoid because money is at stake. If it works, everybody is happy. If not, the blame will be laid squarely on you. No fair reward system. Make your own decision and bite the bullet.

Careless word does slip out even if you are cautious. There is a saying the more you say, the more you get into trouble. I opted to live a secluded life.

How is my system sounds?
World class system. 

Smart answer, he did not reply the question at all. He is referring to the assembly of state of the art components.

This is real Shen Gong

Now, I want to share with you a funny story. I can't help amused being accused for overly shen gong 神功, which literally means mystical, unscientific and snake oil with my tweaking. The accuser adds that tweaking is full of snake oil and I am a sucker. If one can remove 30% of it and the system still sing, you are deemed to practice shen gong. Redundancy. He further argued tweaking is very subjective, and the mind is playing tricks on you. In a clever way, he is implying to me how stupid of me to believe tweaking works. Holy shit, I don't know if I should laugh or cry. The harder the floor, the greater the bounce. I have got something better up my sleeve, Tai Chi to divert the conversation to avoid further embarrassment. You know that there is no way to win them over in this argument because the sound is a subjective, unquantifiable. Your evidence deemed flaw. Save your breath.

Why do I embark this route? Because I am fussy about the sound, because I am sort of a perfectionist, most of all, because I could pick up the changes the tweaking brings about. Most tweaking brings about 2 - 3% improvement, some could be as low as 1%. Sure, some sharp minded are quick to figure a possible a 30% total improvement, by multiplying the number of tweak to the improvement percentage. Sound like the tale of Arabian nights, I don't blame you.

Because sound is abstract, unquantifiable, I don't see how one can regulate audioing methodology which is the number one talking subject among the audio community. I believe many will not bow to such "regulations".  In a way, tightly regulated hobby will hurt creativity. Those who hold the believe that good sound is attainable without careful set up, even high end stuff, you will not know what you are missing. In many ways, audioing is pushing the limit of your system.

May goaty wisdom be with you

Wishing you Gong Xi Fat Cai.



   

Recording freak?

Every audiophile has his/her own story, in the mean time, we shouldn't discount female audiophile I know they are small in number. And people telling me that female has better hearing than us. How ironic! I am sure they are as interesting. I for one like to look deep into their audio ideology and experience in a chat session.

I once asked an audiophile, what does he seek in a playback. He blatantly replied; recording quality. I must confess that I appreciate his frankness and believe most audiophiles are seeking surreal recording. He further stressed why spend more if you can obtain emotions or musicality from a cheap mini compo? You don't get much quality from mini compo. Well, he got his points, I hesitantly agreed.



Playback is all about details? But, if I'd rephrase the subject a bit. Would you (audiophile) be able to enjoy a high quality recording of foreign music that you don't understand? Maybe some. I can't answer that on your behalf, but a definite no for me. A nuisance, that's what it is. Melody is subjective as with all music too. Music must first be understood before conveying emotions, try the Australian aboriginal music as above. The play was long, I fell asleep listening to it. It isn't hard to understand that you tend to have a strong affection for the music in your growing years. Because they occupy a special place in your heart. You styled according to them too! The current music are less exciting, plain.

A masterful performance beats everything, particularly classical music. IMHO, no one surpass Carlos Kleiber on Beethoven's Symphony No 5. Whilst most audiophile recordings are boring. Their recording purposedly stretching the limit of your system. Victorious if you are able to reproduce what it is intended. And victor gets all the glory, deep down he is a poor soul. Audiophile turns sound engineer, the earlier is music enjoyment, the later is tactical.

Wonder how will it like if "Pretty woman" is not sung by the charismatic Roy Orbison? The magic is gone. It is the artistry performance that matters. I play 80s and 90s canto pop and mandarin pop, to some they represent a disgrace? I say this is plainly egoistic at play. High end means classy music? Get out of here. A system is a tool to play what you want it to play and when you want to play. A master and slave relationship, the slave is to serve the master. I can't stand people telling me what I can play or can't play, tasteful music or cheap music. Definitely not in the context of system prowess, this is altogether a different story.

Audioing is a series of continuous effort identifying the bottleneck and improve on it. Each upgrade/tweak removes major bottleneck, ushers in a new bottleneck, presumably a smaller one. That's a sign of progression. Passion and money are two critical ingredients you can have not. Better component always comes in with a hefty price tag. The approach can be varied. Some take speaker positioning as primary route to resolve sonic inadequacy, others with cabling, power treatment, tweaking, room acoustics or even component upgrade. The scope is quite wide, so to speak. There are certain situations calling for specific solutions, profoundly. Amputating your leg instead of your wounded arm is clearly not a bright thing to do. Hitting the bullseye gives maximum return over your investment, be smart to play your card right for most have an finite fund. How I wish I have a money printing machine in my garage.

Let dial in a lit deeper on bottleneck. Splitting the budget equally to source, amp and speaker is simply unjust. In entry level audio, it is probably wise to put most of your budget in amp since entry level source and speaker are superlatively low cost for reasonable quality of sound, things pretty much remains status quo to mid fi audio. Speaker is the biggest bottleneck in high end audio which goes without saying speaker technology is costly. It takes a great speaker often with a hefty price to reveal the shortcomings of the front end. A system that punches beyond its weight should resemble a system like our road system. Six-lane express way source, four-lane amp and two-lane speaker. I hold the belief that your system is as good as your source regardless how great your system is. Nothing beats a first pressing CD.

Food for thoughts. Good night.