Right angles

The largely unexpected rain brought forth a cooler climate, it has always been freaking warm around this time of the year in the past. The heat is annoying and I can't remember the last wet new year. The true spirit of the lunar new year is in the villages. Lunar new year reunites the family members from afar over a reunion dinner, it strengthens family ties. Sadly, this traditional custom is slowly eroded among the younger generations due to job commitments. Their livelihood is at stake, and the Chinese are the pragmatic ethnic. Spending a few days in hometown is ok, any more days you will be begging to return to the city. Fortunately, I'm a local and don't have to spend the time crawling on the congested expressway getting home like the rest. 

With free time to spare after the spring cleaning, I took a long hard look at my room. An idea flashed into my mind and wonder why it didn't occur to me earlier - addressing more right angles. Intolerant of patience, I wasted no time to get my hands on the problems. Having dealt with the room acoustics in the past, I have my doubts on DSP preserving the signal integrity. You just can't get away with bad acoustics. Makes little sense paying so much attentions to hardware and disregarding room acoustics. From what I have gathered, room acoustics is equally important if not the most important element in the sound reproduction. I thump my chest that your sound is as good as your room acoustics. I had addressed 95% of right angles in my room, the remaining is negligible. The ceiling, the floor, the walls and even the heat sinks, all had been duly treated. I give no excuses.

A wise one says you reap what you sow. Time for truth, let's hear what my room treatment had installed. The first grasp of the sounds, refreshing, clean and stretch free. Promising signs! "Violin Showpieces" under RCA recording label requires no further introduction, is highly sought after. Erick Friedman, the American-born violinist's virtuosity is highly commendable. The box resonance travels through the f-holes resembles horn amplification. Apart from the start-stop, his violin artistry stirs the soul. His bowing techniques share the similarities with the likes of Jascha Heifetz and Ruggiero Ricci is magnificent. The articulate and preciseness on the strings is as good as it gets. Hearing the sheen A and E notes, Erick Friedman's bowing was as visible as in broad daylight. If your string turns rope, vocal with added chestiness, time to reexamine your room acoustics. Do not misconceive the pseudo warmth from the in-room rumbles as natural warmth.

Transparency is the synonym of the sound of the twenty-first century. The thinning is noticeable, there are areas you can look at getting around the minor setback. A careful selection of hardware and cables should suffice to maintain a bodied texture. Miles Davis's sharp notes serve a good illustration, his trumpet renders a fairly excruciating but lean texture. It sounds musically correct, it should be brassy. His trumpet overtones open to a new dimension of space in the sound field, this chills. My sonic lens is cleaned, I could see greater musical insights through it. 

Beethoven's most romantic work, Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" 5th movement in music lingo tells the serenity reappears after the storm had subsided. The coda paints the tranquility of the countryside with quiet pauses in between the passage and down to the whispering wind of my air conditioning unit, the lessened in-room rumbles are telling. The battle is not over until you hear the interactions and see the grandiose of a full orchestra. You will not look back once you attain the realization of left to right and front to back sound field. My effort pays a handsome dividend.

Elgar Meyer's brilliance could not be contained. His compositions, in any variations or forms, broke out of the classicism. Unlike Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich or Mischa Maisky, his cello has less of the mysterious dark G note and slow paralytic ripples of the masters. Elgar's work is experimental and light-hearted. Credits to the recording engineer for capturing a colossal amount of detail.

The audio spell - "Hard to go back once you are up there" has been the case for me. I believe this applies universally to all audio enthusiasts. Symbolic aspirations need not applied, audio enthusiasts have only fidelity in mind. Room acoustics sculpture my tonality, period. Administrating right angles is the real deal, it is my ticket to sonic utopia. It should be yours too. Happy Chinese New Year.