Small steps

Twenty five years in this exciting audio quest, with a few years lapse in between, I never grew tired from audio until the day I am deaf. All because of music, a driving force that keep audioing alive. Without strong interest in music, it will be like a drought, your audio day is numbered.

What is good sound anyway? Each and every one of us has different idea about good sound. There is no other subject that garners so much polarized opinions. I had in the past champion neutrality, I'm kind of feeling apologetic now. I'd say now go where your heart takes you and not wander far off from the "truth". In the course of nursing your system deficiency, we all tend to overlook the balance of the system. Just don't, just don't promulgate your audio ideology, for the audio folks are not that forgiving. That's why the obvious audio great division. You got burn if you crossed the line.

Regrettably, my first twenty years is a waste of time with impulsive upgrades and drown in vanity. Wisdom grows with age, so does temperament, like antique car taking time to fire up. Absorb it, think before you say, you don't want confrontation. I think I'm getting better at dealing with situation. Bear in mind, audio magistrate is not welcome in audio community.

If you are not passionate about audio, quit. Performance is the absolute audio merit, not any other things else. Trust me, audio folks recognize that quality, they just might not tell you. But if folks found evasive or started talking things not related to sound, you know something is rotting. Not a good feeling. Refrain from commenting high end system, you'll live peacefully. Audio holds the connotations of scorn and snobbishness if you are not careful. Audio is about how many wrong you committed, sin of omission, truly. We should all devote to high performing audio, not high priced audio! Off the record, I look for soul in a system, the talk about pristine highs, dense mids and punchy bass. All these narrative will need to correspond with the balance of the system and not separately.

The room is another speaker, the bigger one, your speakers are playing in. A good sized room beats everything! Room acoustics is the real deal, consider it as speaker in speaker. It provides the least problematic acoustics to begin with, instead of summoning acoustic correction after correction. Sadly, a nice sized room today is a luxury that most folks are dying to have. Making thing worst, the real estate prices are rather resilient, prices in prime areas are not coming down any sooner despite gloomy economy.

Ice lemon tea

The line between warmth and muddiness as blur as 500/500 vision. Are you with me? It is sometimes difficult to determine the two. Piano is an excellent instrument to demonstrate low registers. Alas, liken a glass of ice lemon tea, the bottom is murky while the top is clear as the ice melts away. The pianist often applies multiple keys to generate the desirable sound, the mixture of multiple principles and after tones creates a unique sound. The sound board started off murky, plateau then and moments later the resounding of strings shines through, gradually ascending into the dark, it depicts space!

Hypothetically speaking, the effect of tone wood would be fully exploited if allow maximum surface exposure. Besides, I also played around with mixture of tone woods. I started experimenting different placement and configurations to attain specific flavour. So, some asked how could I manage tuning alone repetitively since short sonic memory doesn't permit that. No secret here, I only listen to specific section that able to give me a glimpse of a bigger picture. It is important not to tune when you caught a flu, rushed and stressed, the result will always disappointing. Incidentally, someone is at my door, my wife was back home from work noticed the piano was different and asked,

"What did you do? The (piano) notes are better defined."
"You heard that too... my hearing is still usable (boleh pakai)" cheekily

Wonderful piano of Schumann

Schumann Carnaval Kinderszenen Waldszenen by Claudio Arrau under Philips Silver Line Classics is a great piano CD. The articulation of piano notes was unbelievable, at least from my system. Not cold and mechanical. The murkiness duration is significantly shortened, not quite a clear blue sky which then will sound rather unsubstantiated and hollow. This alone suffice to send me cloud nine, I get the hint of a better thing to come.

Snake oil? There are many angles to look at a thing, as some say. Tuning is need based, what works for me might not work for you, because we have different set of problems. But the underlying principles are largely the same. More music shall we? I continued with Andrew Rieu Masstricht Salon Orchestra Op6 by Philips records. This track needs no introduction, the recording revealed that it was recorded in a room with an opened window. The gushing of wind followed by a vehicle cruising at the first break and amazingly four vehicles vroomed passed at a fast pace at the end of the track were clearly audible. Look, I played with a mid-priced CD player.

Keeping my volume under 70dB mostly, I enjoyed my music collection without glaring problems, and I never look back since then. I looked passed images smacked on the front wall, laid back and delicately layered sound. The communication in space and time accorded by the audio is what excites me. The chemistry, the sound that moves me to tears, the rightness in a package produce magic. Still, I knew that I'm not quite there, there is some missing puzzle I think I know what it is, lacking in warmth and weight. You take a bigger step and then take smaller step when you are close. That story is to be told in my next posting.