Who would have thought France to win the World Cup 2018? They were unbeaten in their road to the final to meet the eventual runner-up Croatia. They scored 4 - 2 to lift the prestigious World Cup for the second time in the history. Well done. Wimbledon 2018, the oldest tennis tournament which runs concurrently with the World Cup looks pale. Djokovic ended 15 months of trophic draught, came back from an injury to beat Anderson from South Africa convincingly. Too much tennis in a week for Anderson, he was made to play the second longest match against John Isner, holy cow! 6 hours 36 minutes, the third longest match in the history of tennis. The KLIAV organiser was diligent to start the show the following week.
The show has yet to commence at the time of this posting. 25th year anniversary so it seems. Boy! It will be tiring days into the weekend. Let tomorrow worry about itself, I have got enough worry already. Sorry if I'm repeating myself again, a well-balanced sound is a gold standard. Not heavy at the top or excessive bottom, resolution and musicality in perfect harmony. Let's nobody convince you otherwise. I brought this up to remind me as well because I got carried away with my desires sometimes. Because brightly lit up sound gives an insight of the recording, a new world of resolution comes forward while heavy bottom offers warmth and slows things. Right in the middle gets the best of both worlds, the line straight to sonic utopia. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, the beginning and the end. There's a price to pay for stubbornness.
Many found to have individual sound preferences that would serve well in some music genres and less on the others. Build the strength of your system, that's the game that what I come to understand. Hence, we end up having a picky and coloured system that veer away from neutrality. Honestly, I wouldn't want to mess around with tonal balance too much. It goes without saying that neutral sounding is the way to go. Using voices to gauge tonal balance is a no-no, it is like letting your imagination goes wild. Don't you know that the recording engineer can do wonder on the voices? With no valid reference so to speak of, it is up to your interpretation. Religious interpretation is the classic example.
Audiophiles caught themselves with luscious, creamy and super moistened sound, zooming into the voices while downplaying the timbre of the accompanying instruments. You screwed the timbre of the instruments. Troubles arise when you itchy backside wanting some music that you begin to show interest, kaboom, you have opened a can of worms. A wild goose chase begins. Sigh! This wisdom comes to me a little too late. I couldn't image me listening to this crap ten years ago, I was ignorant then. What can I say, willful ignorance is the voluntary misfortune. Accumulated wrong turns makes a man wise and humble. Time and time again, reality has a way to teach us.
Transforming my listening room into an acoustic mancave has been my long-term goal, a living acoustic mancave. Cool idea, isn't? This is exactly what I do differently than the herds, most audiophiles are a gearslut. They over obsessed with technologies and absorb all the marketing hypes the manufacturers throw at you. The equipment always gets the first blame when the thing is not going their way. Resonance, for instance, the most neglected element in audio. You ended up being the biggest loser if your equipment is not high-end enough. The money isn't enough to spend on vibration control. After years of optimization, I'm settled on my present system configuration. My system equilibrium has established. Yes, I'm sure there is better equipment out there but I'm not willing to break my piggy bank for the negative diminishing return. What more risking giving away on my precious tonal balance. In audio, there is seldom a perfect drop-in component. It requires a re-tuning. Always allow compensation.
Blacker background is a courtesy of low noise floor. Equipment, grounding, resonance, EMI, RFI, cable shielding and management constitute to the degree of blackness. Your work here will see the micro detail receiving a boost upon a black sonic backdrop. The notes complete in fullness, particularly in the bass region. Gone is the woolly bass. But one thing you can not have without; air conditioning. I can not imagine you can enjoy the music living with poor ventilation and the heat. Regulating the temperature is the first factor you should look at. Temperature and humidity affect the sound, the ideal temperature is 23-25 Celcius. Check this out. The wind noise is inevitable. It is negligible, I incorporate the noise into the sound, as an extension of the sound. High fan speed generates high air velocity, helps sound propagation. Check the reference. Crosswind? You go figure out yourself. As you crank up the volume, the wind noise will be thoroughly masked, they become inaudible. The better the propagation, the better the sound reach. My crazy thought is guiding the sound propagation, to allow a better airflow and eliminate chaos. Front loaded horn inspired me where the air motion is one directional. Aerodynamically shape, the airflow is to cut through the objects with the least noise.
Attention to detail rewards. That is if you can discern from the system. You can lie the world but the sound never lies. People might not know the hidden factors but they will discern sound quality almost instantly, who says you need a pair of trained ears?
