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.