Happy days are eats well, sleeps well. Oh my God, sounds like a pig except for you know, being the butchered part. Happy days are everything goes according to plan. No surprises, I don't like surprises. Surprises give me the uncertainty, my heart isn't strong to take the shocks. Happy days are you're in good health. You're free from sickness and you're agile. You lose health, you lose everything in life. Long life without health is a torture. All hard earned money, years of saving goes to medical treatment, just like that. It's ok if you're treated, what if you aren't. Commercial hospitals have been known to milk the patients dry. Happy days are a happy marriage, to co-exist under the one roof.
Happy days are you have attained the desired sound for you had been working on it for so long. Tears of joy. I asked myself to describe my dream sound, specifically. I'm sorry (for you) if you couldn't make your description because chances are you either don't know or self-deceiving. And I don't pick the description from the air, I got inspired by the unamplified sound of classical music.
Thereafter, I go down to fine-tuning. I opined that two aspects (of sound) will irk you, there're highs, specifically lower treble and bass around 60 to100Hz. The former shouts at you while the latter smears the critical mids.
I'm going to touch on the lower treble today. Reaping the benefits from my classical music exposure, the highs from the real thing possess that feathery lightness and godspeed immediacy. They never sounded heavy and draggy. Sadly, this exquisite quality has been eluded me either I wasn't aware of it or I was caught up in other aspects of sound. In light of this awakening, I wasted no time to work on it.
Firstly, I revisited the tweaks that work for me well in the past, took them down and listened critically. True as I suspected, some of them attenuated the echo, nevertheless, they also sucked the life out of the music. They staged unnatural highs with a degree of curtailment. Out they go. I tuned it with a carefully selected precious wood. These wood are hard to come by, they enhanced the ambience beautifully. The sound was delightfully light, I tried them at a few positions and settled down.
On to the crunch test, I played Best of Kokua Festival by Jack Johnson and Friends under Bushfire Records. This is a fantastic live recording, the recording quality is commendable; sounded as natural as can be. Wonderful airspace audible around the guitar, the playing is nimble, the plucking is snappy but what's more enticing is the quality of the highs, I get the sense of relaxed and absolute freedom. The tones last with an extended decay of hundreds of millisecond.
To affirm to my findings, I pop in Maria Joao Pires plays Frederic Chopin Nocturnes under DG Records, this is considered a reference recording by many critics I soon understand why. She plays them with an unbelievable sense of sensuality and lightness. Again, I heard the piano notes exhibiting a similar relaxed and free quality I got from the earlier CD. It renders the realism of piano I wouldn't dare to dream of a couple months ago. Her rendition of Chopin affords a cognitive room to reflect the feelings and the moods so driven by the composition. I'm beginning to understand the critics' approval of The Poet of the piano, a style so sharply contrasts to Franz List which a rivalry at the time between both pianists.
In tandem with the highs rejuvenation, I noticed that the soundstage in lateral, width and height dimensional noticeably expanded on the highly popular George Bizet's Habanera, a beloved aria from Carmen opera. I have grown to love Grace Bumbry, the American African mezzo-soprano flirting. She has a creamy grain-free voice to boot. The sound has flanked both speakers caught me unprepared for it. With the expanded width, the spatial localisation has never been more "stand alone" to allow blooming, a magnificent air surrounding an object. We know that the singing, strings, brass and woodwinds exhibit the exhaling characteristics that give that distinctive airiness. Audibly, singing and woodwinds present a more point source properties. In addition, the backstage was also lighted up to present a sizeable performance stage making an opera a wonderful aural treat.
I know an idiotic audiophile who uses movie sound effects to calibrate the sound of his system. At one point, cranked a cello play at 100dB and guess what, distortions. I know my lines. His sarcasm doesn't reflect himself an educated individual, I carry no balls because my livelihood doesn't depend on him. His recent attack on me, shooting down others' opinions of all sorts. Can you believe it? Even Mr Trump, the most powerful man on earth listens to his advisors and think tank. I have caught him self-contradictory in many occasions, like seeking out opinions from his buddies and dealers. He seems to have all the answers to hardware, he knows it all. If not getting opinions from others, how the hell he knows if he hasn't owned them, what do you think? Your guess is as good as mine.
The irony of the situation, the visitors recognise my works on his system during a home audition. That's my not opinion anyway. As he proves to be funny with me, I challenged him to remove all my tweaks from his system if he has that little dignity in him to do so. In actual fact, I doubt that he will. Shame on him. He who knows who I'm talking about feels the pinch. My works there generate no profit so to speak of, for a friend sake. When a grape turns sour, you throw it into a dustbin. As wealthy as he is, a person who makes big money, took him three months to pay three hundred ringgit for my tweaks.
Therefore, take my advice, stop being a good sport. High-end system gets to pay more, that's how it should be. Because these people take thing for granted. Appreciative? Think again. I hold back giving out the secrets of my tweaks. Those who know me know my character. Don't do it for free, if you want to, get them pay for your intellectual works or otherwise don't bother. They wouldn't have called you if they know. Make them spend, it helps the retail industry anyway.
