Different strokes

Which flavor, sir?

Hosting guests? What the heck do you have in mind? To impress people? To make a statement? To prove I'm better than you? You're opening yourself for contempt not screening your guests, I have none of the intentions. My system is my private journey. Good or mediocre, that's my business. Can you believe this? Giving big comments beyond their capability will one day backfire. Here's a little advice, keep your comments to yourself to save you from embarrassments for words do come around.

Can I ask you a simple question? What do you want your guests to listen? What if your guests are looking anything and everything but none from your system, how then? Expectation, every audiophile comes with an expectation. Relax, you don't have to satisfy their expectation. Play your audio exactly the way you listen. Love-hate is none of your concern.

If you were to play your system to what they want to hear, make sure your system is up to the task or politely decline the request. No one will bad mouth you. The best excuse is system building in progress, let no one disconcert you. No shame. Doing so, you throw the ball to their court. If they condemn your system, leave them. Hang around with like minded people and helpful people, good men build each other up. Leave if you find yourself out of the place, there is always a place for you somewhere else.

Look closer, even as most audio companies claim the highest fidelity, one way or the other, they flood the market with a diversity sounding equipment. Thus, the million dollar question is if one is true, what can be said about the others? They all can't be true. Hard not to notice the hype going on in the audio industry, the pricier the product, the more outrageous the hype.

Accurate sound and pleasing sound, the great divide. Pro sound upholds the former, serving as an instrument to meet the requirements of their line of work while the later for the vast consumers like you and me for domestic entertainment. Everybody and his dogs are happy with how things go. Pro sound has the notorious reputation for being coarse, lean and dry but I supposed this generalization only applies to low-cost pro sound like Behringer SRC2496. Apparently, audiophiles long for sweetness, succulence and refinement. Capitalists go where the money is, we're witnessing the crossing of pro audio gear to the lucrative consumer audio, like FM Acoustics, Prism, PMC, Bryston and et cetera. As of today, the consumer market is realigning to a new pricing paradigm, USD40K is the new entry point. Genie, I wish for a money printing machine.

Propagating audio religion is a taboo, no one like preaching. You see, preaching involves a top down order. Fine if the other party is superior in his audioing skills or else don't. I have this thought, why must I explain my tweak since I enjoy the fruit of it? My latest acoustic endeavor fills the air in the entire room, smooth air flow with no black hole or standing waves. The room effect has been further diminished. Commonly in a closed room, room stuffiness is a sign of bad acoustics that will lead us to sound congestion. That feeling of dullness is evidence during high driver excursion as the drivers are moving a good deal of air.

Soundstage is the byproduct of your room, I'm not shy to admit that it is not a strength of my system. In regard to music, I enjoy being deceived make believe listening to a big system. The loading of sound pressure in a small room stimulates the energy of the music and the wonderful enveloping effect of a mega system. The downside is I got to keep a watchful eye on the volume, I couldn't crank the volume up at will. The standing waves will eventually get into the way, the magic will be gone.

Different strokes for different audiophiles. It is so rewarding getting the sound right, a close replica of the real thing. Let's not forget, we are meddling with sound reproduction. The keyword is sound reproduction. If you have attended live performances periodically, the constant reinforcement of sonic memory helps a great deal ascertaining the rightness of sound, it is easy to decide if the recording is edited. Our brain is much capable of analyzing harmonics than any scope. The silky string section, the brassy brass, the gushing air of alto saxophone, the warmth of woodwind, the resonating of a concert piano, the tenacity of double bass, the exuberating drum play, the rumbling of the timpani, the crowd applause and even the serenity of the ambiance during the pause. More so, the composition and the rich harmonics. I supposed that's why we go listen to audio products to decide to purchase and not reading the technical data sheet.

My visit to Tombo Audio in Bangkok enriches my aural experience, as well as many other audio shows. I appreciate what Tombo Audio wanted to promote, these little tweaks do improve the sound. From Five Tone Sticks, Noise Drainer, Multiple Crystals Frequency electromagnetic waves buster, top of the line Spooky power cord, Red Sun and Blue Moon Grenade, they help to tailor the sound. Lastly, he demonstrated the surface treatment effect on the sound. Bizarre but I could detect the difference in sound. Some tweaks are really complicated, I'd rather do the undo and let the customers found wanting for the missing qualities. Easier that way than bombasting the aural with a plethora of tweaking, leaving the customers query which is which.

Skepticism is deadening. Tweaking is never an avenue in high-end audio, High-end audiophiles don't want to look awkward with tweaking, they wanted a showroom like sound room. Shouldn't we stop awhile and think for a second, why do the tweaks perform like they do? Only an engineer with a true inquisitive spirit can scientifically explain. What is measured we could hear, what we hear couldn't be measured.

KLIAV 2017 is around the corner. Year in year out, people complain about too little to listen at the show. Depending on how you look at things, You must be able to weed out stuff and find gems. See how far the modern technology has advanced the sound reproduction. I enjoy the time chatting with all walks of audiophiles. Spare your negativity, complaining doesn't make you a better person. Your attitude projects the kind of person you are, wanting to be served, wanting everything to go your way, selfishness and refusing to budge. Life would be wonderful if you are born rich, you can it any way you way. But if you're not, get down to earth to learn to live with what you have. The truth is you need the world, the world doesn't need you.