A tiger or a cat?

I had a bowl of curry noodle for breakfast one morning. A meal that wake you up but as I grow older, I prefer something mild. Curry noodle is a twist of flavors, only in Malaysia and Singapore, I think. From India, comes curry powder while Chinese with their noodles, that you get when two mixed together. The rich culture of Malaysia gives thanks to the British who brought the Chinese and Indians in the early 19th century over here to work the mine and rubber plantation. Along with them, they brought their ethnicity and food, a cultural melting pot have come to pass. What exactly makes this bowl of delicacy different? A distinctive lemongrass aroma, going along with a rich and thick flavor. The best is relative. Its uniqueness draws patrons, likewise in audio too.

Every system is unique. I go as far to say you won't find two systems sounding identical. Hence, audio will never short of stories, gossip if you looked at the bad side. Without stories, the audio community will sick to death. Audiophiles like to express their individuality through sonic differentiation, let it be known of their taste. We love surprises, we long for surprises, we want to be surprised. One thing we ought to do, embrace sonic diversity even we may not like one's sound. Sonic homogeneity is a bad thing, thank goodness that's not happening.

Each listening opportunity offers implicit knowledge provided you know where and what to look for, period. Sometimes, the mistakes at the host's place give us the needed knock on the head that we should repeat the mistakes in our home turf. Time to reset, readjust and proceed. One ugly fact is that we sometimes undermine others via verbal or behavior unwittingly. My apology. To make your visit worthwhile, suck in new ideas and incorporates them into your system where you find fit. Ditch the stereotype of fault-finding mentality, uncalled self-esteem and big boy's attitude, you make yourself a bad name. Being tactful is score high in emotional quotient, you ought to know how to carry yourself. Integrity is doing the right thing even if no one is watching.

Confidence must have come from somewhere, mine comes from the efforts and time I devoted to my system. It is undeniable, high priced equipment possess a definite edge in sound quality, the devil is in the detail. Make your high priced equipment justified, they require a set of conditions to perform to its promise. For a start, pay attention to the interlink components, cables and resonance. Resonance is the devil to audio, no system will pull through. And my ears told me the right power cord does wonder to the sound. If you haven't look into this matter, procrastinate no more. What I derived from listening matters than what science trying to convince me otherwise, I care less what science says.

I know of no other ways to attain audio excellence than a series of refinements through critical listening, it helps to be a little creative. My exploration has been seeking the best synergy, power, acoustics and resonance, and of late EMI reduction in that particular order. I might show a sign of jaded, but the progress is never halted. An audio visit, a good one can instantly fire up my enthusiasm.

The EMI effects on sound is pronounceable, it introduces mask, muddy, fog and et cetera. The revelation comes only upon an execution. I have fought my acoustic uphill battle, time and time again, my new implementations dumbfounded me. Not until the addition of ground box, my system's transparency started to shows its fangs.

Often, transparency is misrepresented by leanness, lightweight and brittleness of which is obviously not the case. The half past six reviewers and the users share the blame for the fallacy. We used to listen to some hot shots with high-end system and take what they say without a second thought. time has passed, we have got wiser. In my view, transparency is better experienced than explained by attending a live unamplified music event at a close range. Word is inadequate. Attack, bite, lightness, decay, realism and etc are bundled in a low noise floor package. Transparency is a good thing, I can't have enough of it in my system. Absolute transparency is heaven. Seriously, this is a reality, not fiction and not something made up. Your job at least, to go find out. In our playback, I know the recording as a variable but don't let it becomes a hindrance. Too many doubts invite negativity. You stayed put with grand excuses.

Noise in the form of distortion shut out transparency. It can come from the equipment, power or the room. Now you know the stumbling blocks, get to work. You do what is necessary, transparency has its way to shine through.

The grid noise is a bad thing. There is no shortage of power filtration products in the market, don't you just love capitalism? They heard you. Grid noise asides, EMI imposes a lot of damages. I got to tell you, Schnerzinger Room Protector in one demo, blew me away. Dollar per dollar, the money on this thing makes more sound that high-end equipment! A pin drop is discernible, everything is laid bare before you. The detail comes so effortlessly as if you don't have to look out for it. A window of music has opened. An event like this casts a long-lasting impression. I tried to understand what Room Protector does what it does. It has lightened my idea light bulb, perhaps, this line of work would improve my transparency. Never try, never know. Seeking refuge in shielding, ground box and grounding wire, the sound improves at a various degree respectively. Not until the addition of some crystals, quite a lot of them, my transparency raises to new height. You bet I'm delighted.

To illustrate, take Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall, it is a fantastic live recording. Organic came into my mind, a proprietary of one take recording that maintain the music intact. Same music fabric, no stitching and joining. The performance is great and the sound equally is electrifying. The improved transparency accorded an abundance of nuances and air, so much more things heard. In audio terminology, more is better than less. His voice is husky and not smoothed, permeates through the noise from the crowd. The realistic depictions of drums and guitars, the crowd interactions have come together to conjure a "thereness". It was as if I was transported to the venue. I was spooked.

On Joshua Bell with the academy Saint Martins in-the-field, conducted by Neville Marriner under Decca record, the sound of the violin stands out as a powered instrument. The glorious sound of Stradivari was further enhanced through the f-holes radiation, to give a penetrative sound that cuts through the air with commanding authority. The superlative high beat sound of Stradivari was phenomenon. Tone purity comes forward, the virtuosity of Bell lingers on in my head. I caved into the finest hour of musical realm. Hear it to believe. No, my system could not come close to the live sound phenomenon. But I figure my resolution (of my system) is no slouch, not overly tone make-up and bleaching. On the other two accounts, density and edge delineation, transparency explicit them in a grand way. Warm sound does not correlate to density, another common fallacy, it could be of "loose cotton", coarse and murmured while edge delineation shows none of the broad brushwork.

You can't separate the twins, transparency and spatiality, one way or the other. Spatiality introduces air around the images, the private space of respective images. No cramped stage, no suffocation, entering an enormous depth, width and height of the soundscape the recording has in store. The breathing of vocalist captivates every audiophile, even the non-audiophiles. On choral works, spatiality defines the meaning of grandiose (of the choral), especially in lateral and height dimension. Big sound is magically intriguing, an element that pulls you into the music.

A tiger or a cat? A tiger from the system hardware perspective, a cat in delivery or vice versa. I would go as far to say transparency is the single element that spells the quality across the entire bandwidth, it mercilessly highlights system fault too. The other being the effortlessness. A double edged sword. Handle with care.