Never will be on the same page

One thing audiophiles could not ever come to agree upon is good sound. Everyone has his own interpretation of good sound, I supposed. If both continue to argue, it will only boil down to whose has a higher listening standard. Pay no heed, do as you might for the betterment of your system, that's paramount objective. Many are swayed by brand, technology, measurements, parts and components, even celebrity designer for the wrong reasons. A victim to marketing ploys? The power of marketing has increasingly pervasive, even seasoned audiophiles could sometimes buy into their claims. Wannabe don't stand a chance of the marketing slaughtering. The rule of game is sound quality being the steadfast objective of audioing.

Personally, I resent overwhelming advertisements and reviews. Perception requires huge budgets and I like to think there's no conspiracy. But someone needs to bite the advertising bills, a king's ransom. On the contrary, some high ends do not worth its salt for what they offer in terms of sound. To avoid fallen prey to these ploys, exercise your judgement.

I'd describe the speaker and amp relationship as intriguing whereby in some cases the measurements mean little. Two capable amps, one on the be the opposite sides of the same coin, no parallel output stage, no global feedback, linear power supply against parallel output stage, high speed global feedback and switching power supply. How would the outcomes be? To further illustrate, Peter Breuninger an ex-senior writer for the top magazines including: The Absolute Sound (TAS), Stereophile, and Listener Magazine was waxing lyrical about the marriage of YG Acoustics and Audionet electronics, and went on to declare a match made in heaven. What are the major contributing factors? What compose the chemistry? Substituting with another equally spec-ed amp, the sound loses its magic. Either the engineer didn't get it or some hidden secrets they aren't telling us.

To be responsible for my posting, I excuse myself talking about things that I have not laid my hands on. It isn't right. Forgive me if my posting in any way offended you, words come straight from my head. I have my likes and dislikes, so do you. I can accept that. But, what is the common reference point we can rest upon to start a constructive discussion? Perhaps, we never will be on the same page. Usually I mum about other's system because I am sensitive about people reactions. When I visit audio home, I engage eagle eye on the host's system and room. Apart from fundamental flaws, attention to little details matter. Why is the so and so here, why is so and so there? Those kinds of questions.

A friend once asked me how long would a concrete wall "break in" as he finds amusing when audiophiles claimed two years "break in". If one has a fair bit of construction knowledge, he will know that concrete wall cures at a right ratio of aggregate, water and cement, normally to cure in less than an hours on the outside, the curing will still continues on the inside. Go check on water hardness if you are fanatic. Observe the change of the concrete wall from pale grey to lighter grey, the hardness reading gets up. Thus, the concrete wall settled after moist in the concrete wall completely dried up.

Another frequent asked question I get why my components aren't aligned perpendicular like most other do. They are arranged in varies degree of toe in, in an irregular pattern. Hmmmm.... they sounded best that way. Before you start staring at me like a weirdo, experiment for yourself before you slam your judgement on me. My approach has been "experiment, experiment and experiment."
You derive conclusions from experimentations. Not bowed down with laws and prejudgement.

Fundamental things such as these have great impacts on sound. The resonance control on the caps, transformer and the chassis too affect the sound. So, I am not surprised to see some applied damping materials on them to hold them steady, isolated transformer and dampening aluminum chassis or even applied screwing at a specific torque. Measurement doesn't tell everything, nothing beat hearing. But, I can't help some is hinting tweaking is a joke per se. If scientists today failed to reveal the secrets of Stradivari, do I convince myself science has answers to everything in audio?

And the latest trick is stripping off plastic wrap from capacitor especially at the signal section, it is claimed further opening up the sound. I couldn't validate this because I have not done A-B benchmark. All these things might be weird for engineering people, but the truth lies in critical listening.

Anyway, I occasionally record my sound with a hand phone to establish monitoring. Plenty of debate on hand phone recording. Wo..wo..wo.... hold your horses, hold, hold, I do not use hand phone recorded materials to benchmark against others. Different hand phone, different recording distance, different volume, different ear piece and the list goes on, subject to debate. Hand phone could not fully capture the bass, that's the limitation. I use it to pick up room noise. The louder the hiss, haze, fog or whatever is an indicate the more undone room acoustics. I recommend clean sounding recording to begin with, that way you could tell the noise is attributed by the room.
   

A third row seat

Audioing is an effort of righting the wrongs. There is no perfect system but a system with least wrongs. Pin down the problems, deal with it. Without tweaking, what are your avenues of getting the sound right if the problems do not lie at your components?

Like a dog with a bone, I enjoy my time tuning. I can't help without realizing, I could go off track sometimes. What my system sets apart from others is less laid back. On The King's singers The Beatles Connection, I am seated at second row. The presence is amazing, can almost reach out and touch them. Most of all, The King's Singer's vocal harmonization is incredible, from vocal range to across the plane of the speakers. There is so much depth in the music. The vocal shed a hint of British voicing, to many probably a little leaner. Love it.

Thing takes a turn playing La Fille Mal Gardee by The Royal Ballet Production, a strong ballet and dance influence piece. Under the baton of Lanchbery, he is gentle with this score. He threw a spacious scene to allow you to fill your wildest imagination. The rhythm smooths flow, moving from section to section. It is a joyous piece. This is one of the CDs that makes you forget about the system flaw finding, sit back and relax. Soundstage width is one of my system setbacks, an inherited weakness of a small room I have got to live with. Life sucks sometimes.

Early pressing, 1985

Lost and found, my prized bid shipping was delayed for more than a month. Better come than never. I was so glad to see Carol Kidd All My Tomorrow in my mail box. Carol Kidd All My Tomorrow requires no further introduction among audiophiles. Mine is 1985, early pressed. This CD is now fetching USD99 in open market now.

I pop the CD in and play. The sound is fantastic and I don't remember it has so much more subtleties. Vocal is so well articulated and not overly detailed, the hallmark of Linn record. Her voice is buttery smooth, dense and with occasional flirtatious runs and riffs. Relatively free of grain is her most compelling signature. Keep things simple and tidy, it was emotional. Whites do not do runs and riffs that much compares with the Blacks. She delivers the songs with care, not going overly "promiscuous". The phenomenon of music growing on you does not get better than this! I repeated thrice playing this CD straight on one occasion.

Well, some CDs above-mentioned are not necessary audiophile-approved but they deliver ton of music. They serve a different set of check points. I hope you enjoy as much as I enjoy them. More exciting time ahead.

Adios, audio amigos.

买也要受气，有没有搞....错？

In the years since I'm a staunch believer of "To sound like the real thing", I guess I will have to mince my own words now. I hate that shitty feeling. A lofty ideology nevertheless, a perpetual illusion, 海市蜃楼 with each passing day. It isn't happening. Largely disconnecting with the real world, live music is a masterpiece in each performance. Some are brilliant, some aren't quite even though the same music is played by the same people. Every day is not a Sunday. Our system sometimes groovy, sometimes lethargic. We put the blame squarely on power due the to inconsistent voltage. The disparity between day and night could reach 10V and at times 15V.

"Sounds close to the real thing" is more realistic. Reproduce is synthetic. The mic itself, the miking technique accounts for lion's share of the quality and characteristic of recording. Some tell they can identify the mic given the benefit of doubt. No, I can't. Unless of course tube mic. Vintage tube mics are considered the best ever, even the modern mics could not come close to the performance. That's in a way explain the exorbitant prices for them. Modern technologies do not necessary is better. Man, once they are gone, they are forever gone. People hunt them and treasure them, restore them if faulty. They won't be going to the dustbin any sooner.

Strange things happens in recording studio is unexplainable. For instance digital format in WAV and red book format as read in 16/44.1 sounded different which shouldn't be the case. I like to think that the mixing engineer is qualified to do the goods.

A reproduce allows listening at the sweet spot every time in the comfort of your home every time you wish to. Enormous details pick up at close range by the microphone that is impossible with live music. We are not able to capture those details from a distance. Live music instead offers the sense of being enveloped and the atmospheric, these are totally different experience. The communicative emotion, the sing along, the tear of joy, live music is powerful. Maybe vinyl manages better than digital, digital always seems a little jittery in its delivery. However, you needed to be seated right to get the magic of live performance. I know that some audiophiles subscribe to season ticketing to obtain the same seat.

Hobby turns to business, sounds wonderful but audio business is a difficult business with huge capital tie down due to order commitment and unpredictable revenue. Audio customer is among the most picky customers. They exercise tireless exhaustive auditioning which can sometimes take a toll on impatient salesperson. Buying a car somehow is a likely easier decision to make, so it seems.

I rarely patronized audio shop but if I do, I am serious about spending. I can't help resenting cold/silent treatment by the salesperson at audio store. So, what with the attitude? Does it negates the concept of retail sales and jeopardize the efforts of advertising and promotion activities? Isn't reaching out and generate revenue, the primary objective of audio store? If not, close the door, down the curtain and state "exclusive members only".

Like a credit card sales, the marketeers are working their ass off to sell card while the customer service mistreats the customers with stupid company policies. A management discord, the management failed to pick up in. What are you going to do? Rebuking customers? Are you for real? Swallow your pride and do damage control. Let me give you some insights, an average of a thousand plus calls the telco customer service has to pick up round the clock. That's work out to twenty two thousand calls per month, imagine the stress level. Do they curse the customers? What is the value of the customer generate? A couple of hundred of Ringgit per month.

Tell me which job is easy? Auditors have crazy dateline, doctors have crazy hours, contractors have crazy demand, lawyers have crazy paper work even masseurs also complain about their job.

Watch this /bikini-nightmare-old-man-harassed-by-sexy-customers and this
never have taken the job

Now, what is the retail price of audio products? Easily, a few thousands. Don't they deserve a listen or two before decide on purchasing? And just how many customers walk into an audio store per day in average? Ten will be very very impressive! I bet the figure will be much lower. The hit rate, how many customers walk away spending at the store? What more a repeat sale? Maybe, it is time to seriously think of quiting the job if so unhappy working there. If still can't take it, knock yourself off, start your own business. Get a taste of sticky human resource problem.

Five audio struggles

Strictly from my experience, the following is the five most challenging missions in audio. Different audiophile might have different order of hierarchy. Anyway, every improvement sees a smaller step closer to audio nirvana but the road ahead remains evermore long. To the positive thinker, every improvement is a sweet cookie regardless of the significance, progressing is better than not progressing at all. However, some spiritually weak audiophiles will eventually decide audio is too much and call it a day. Well, your mileage may varies. Coming in at number five of audio struggles is:

Honest tone colour
Comes with all components, I know that some declared defeat after tirelessly pursuing for decades a specific tonal colour. This is rather unusual, adding salt to the injury, they could not describe the sound. We must keep our feet grounded because if you don't, you are not getting anyway. Perfection does not exist in audio.

No components out there mould perfectly to your sonic profile, the challenge to do what you might to get close to your desired sonic profile is what makes audio fun. Things that you wouldn't think of can produce good results. This has become the reasoning for the new comers to come into the industry. They are cheering, I've achieved breakthrough or I can do better at a lower cost.

Tubes and solid state, the best of both worlds simply is too good to be true. The line separates the two is wide apart as Yellow River. Some solid states attempt to emulate tubes and vice versa. One must able be clear in his mind about honest sound and good sound. Honest sound is not picky on music genre, good sound is the opposite. It reproduces some materials extremely well, but not great on certain materials. Thing gets complicated with more components from different makes and cabling throwing into the mix. You are on our own.

Take me for instance, I admit I got lucky. The stake was high. My speakers did not bless my previous DIY amps. YBA, a discontinued amp ended my search for my speaker mating amp. The sound blew my mind away with immense musicality, I hear no traces of solid state drawbacks. Perhaps, this is the biggest factor that appeal to me. This little amp charms with sweetness and kicks like a pony, it is stable to one ohm impedance. You got to pay through the nose for this capability these days.

Took me long and hard to pick the chosen pre hopefully to unleash the full potential of YBA. Power and sweetness combined. A friend came and listened and told that my YBA didn't sound anything resembling to his sonic memory. Though, it may not have the ummph to deliver the lowest abyss bass, it was not meant to. The analogy is a jungle and a tree. You can keep your tree, I am holding on to my jungle.

A set of right cable will certainly make or kill a system, trust me. And the good thing is, it doesn't necessary have to be exotic. But the bad news is this is a never ending exercise.

Superior tonal quality
Some say tonal quality has a direct correlation with price. The more expensive the component, the greater the tonal quality. I say this is half-truth. Of course, state of the art components are not bounded by cost, which can be interpreted as compromise on parts.

The real deal is a good design, it tops all factors. Overly complicated design stands a risk of signal loss for lengthy signal path, make thing worst, exposing to EMI and RFI. Many high end companies use common quality components, with tight tolerance. Quantity speaks, the suppliers will oblige to specific demands if it is a big order. And only boutique audio will resort to manual matched components. Big company will never go near to that level of meticulous. Both going opposite direction.

Think sweetness, smooth, glow, full, bodied, weight, moist and sometimes even flirtatious for the praises and compliment on good sound. The opposite is shrill, choppy, jerky, coarse, dull, hollow, bland, flat and etc. Tonal quality is easily discern-able. Poor tonal quality will make you get up and leave your seat after a short ten minutes of listening.

Riding the perfect storm
Everybody loves bass. Some ill minded audiophiles can't wait to see a system get squashed by rowdy storm, your job is to prevent it. Come think of it, audiophiles are flaw seeker. Managing bass is like PhD in audio. Like it or not, your guest wouldn't miss a chance to request some bassy materials to be played or otherwise the trip isn't worth making. This is their dirty agenda. Great bass is a hallmark of a high end system, it remains one of the prerequisites. Attaining great bass requires plenty of techniques and money. Nevertheless, big bass serves as a great barrier to separate mid fi from meddling in the holy ground of high end. Blemish, blemish, blemish.

Three major ingredients for great bass, they are non-other than gutsy hardware and a well behaved room, and the rest is technique. Ability to shape and sculpture the bass, crafting a perfect balance of quantity and quality is a very fulfilling endeavor.

Assuming no hardware issue, one must first attend to bass definition. Optimizing speaker positioning and dealing with standing wave too are big skill. Resonance, furniture and fittings, master these skill sets, you are all set to ride the perfect storm, do yourself proud.

Hate to bore with techniques, each case demands for different solutions. Lest move on to discerning good bass character, shall we. The very first thing I look for is cleanliness and purity; follow by the texture. It all started from one percussion focal 鼓眼. Drumhead reverbs will project ripples, the soundwaves slowing outwardly propagandizing in descending order and die.

On the other hand, double bass sound is largely diverging from drum. The big bass percussion crawls whereas the double bass bounces. More snappy and tuneful, it is also more directional and the outline delineation is clear at sight. The reverberations of the cello, courtesy of the figure eight cello body is a part its tone color. The dark and mysterious bass is radiating through the f  holes.

They could have given a noble prize if I could just pick and write from my imagination. In order to improve my bass, I have been tuning my bass extensively on regular basis. You see, I have done my homework.

It may not be all bass playing the bad boy, the smearing of lower midrange could occasionally intrude. The lower midrange haggling plagues the overall cleanliness. Any note that hits that region will trigger the standing wave, abnormally longer than it should. So, next time you know when it comes. Deal with it.

When you audition a system, first determine is there a deliberately bump up in upper bass. Most speakers are tuned that way because the slightly excessive bass energies appeal, so do voicing of some cables on bass to entice. And the upper bass punchs like Ali while the lower bass is a boring work, boring a hole on the surface of the earth. Can you perceive the later description? Most I heard are the hole caves in and muffled.

Admittedly, I have grown sensitive with recording. The bass quality of audiophile approved recording is considerable superior than normal recording.

Top to bottom transparency
With the bass getting out of the way, a major hurdle has been removed on the road to top to bottom transparency. I like to think electronics are transparent sounding, low noise floor, speaker is the main gatekeeper, room acoustics and cables are the devil associate.

Now, imagine a panoramic picturesque of cognitive illusion present before you. The Turtle Creek Chorale or Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall's Matilda is exemplary. It is absolutely exciting to see the rear stage lighted up. The disappearing act of the speaker, the tumbling of your room concrete walls (light off, please), the shared on stage atmospheric, the enveloping effects of the music and the ambiance, any time at your convenient, all at the comfort of your home, isn't that enough to get you jump for joy?

Michael Hedges' superb Aerial Boundaries on Windhall Hill label, free style on steel string acoustic guitar used to be pretty transparent, it was considered as a recording marvel back then and I'd have rated it mediocre now. This shows how far technology has progressed.

Absolute neutrality
Absolute neutrality is insane, this is crazy. There are something you just could not possibly achieve and this is one of them. All components are colored in some ways and speaker tops them all. I got to admit YG Acoustics comes to be on the very top echelon of transparency and neutrality. It is almost like a clean sheet, voiced via the associated components at your will.

There you go, the essence of your audio greatness.