When I decide to write, I didn't want to write something common, boring, me-too nor to please anyone. It just not my style. Not just another review, please, the world isn't short of reviews of this sort. Succumb to no pressure, I write what pleases me. I want to write something brutally honest that soul-stirring, to self-reflect. Leave if you can't take it.
Foolish pride, I can't help taking a swipe at people's over-assertiveness. It is in sound we compete, not anything else. It is in the sound we compete, not a tastefully designed room. It is in the sound we compete, not state of the art equipment. It is in sound and sound alone we judge and determine which system is a nose ahead. If you can't get over equipment paranoia that you believe equipment and equipment alone will bring home glory, consumerism will eat you alive. You will end up with a closet full of equipment and still long for the perfect equipment. Castle in the air, I got to tell you here we have no shared value here. On hindsight, audioing is about you stringing equipment, cables and room acoustics together to produce a sound, that satisfies your musical sensual and of the highest fidelity you can. The sound of our system is, without a single doubt, up to the player to lose. Ignorance tops the rank, heading in the wrong direction. Not only the sound doesn't measure up in tandem to the cost of the system, but it also sounds like no other, nothing like what we all accustomed to. Why is it difficult to find a good sounding system? Some say the know don't have the money. Not entirely wrong though, I got to say. What more, no system sounds alike, that's the hard fact.
A friend gave me a tinkle says my recent FB posting on seniority and competency was stirring the hornet's nest. You know what they say about the parable of ginger. The older it gets, the more pungent it gets, corresponding to the older you get, the wiser you become. My argument; does one puts the time to good use or just merely passing time. A lacklustre effort is as good as hot air, seniority is hollow but another meaningless number. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that. What more with disparagement, to my dazzlement you're assassinating your character openly. Pretty stupid thing if you asked me. On the contrary, a person with compassion gets a lot of respects from me. Always be mindful, be self-less and wary of your actions that may affect others in a bad way, I keep reminding myself.
Not hard to notice that audiophiles are generally not pragmatic and unbelievably self-opinionated. For instance, I got snubbed for sharing a live performance experience, I was told so and so performance is better. Instead of confronting head to head, I went on to do research on reputable and reliable sites and my findings concluded that his mentioned artist isn't well regarded for that particular repertoire. Isn't that sounds a little too familiar? Has he listened enough to draw a conclusion? I think not. Furthermore, listening live and playback represents two different standards, what more I listened live from a perfect spot. I regular live performance that I know which seat to get. I get the goosebumps listening live every single time, not so with playback. For playback, recording quality weigh in here.
With a little short of 30 years in this hobby, I must admit the last few years of work has been more educational and productive than my first 20 years combined. What can I say, it is my learning curve. Wasted time and money in the early years, I am now in a better position to figure the audio jigsaw out. By constantly asking why, what, where and how confronting issuance, I reduce my chances of taking a wrong turn. Time and time, you addressed a problem, you have one less problem.
So, trying to make up for the lost time, I need to double effort. To learn quick, I need to be a sharpshooter. Relying on people for spoon feeding will be too slow, furthermore, people might not want to teach stuff. Roll up your sleeves, go on an on the job training. You get the hang of it before long. System scrutiny is my habit to determine the secrets of good sound. Most audio secrets are laid out in the open, I will decode and employ it on my system. Common sense sadly some have little, a little too little, answers most of the questions. What I have learned, I inclined to add a twist of my own things to it. And that's not enough, I expand and explore it to develop new applications. As of today, I got some tweaks I can proudly claim that they are original (not shared out openly). Most tweaks are a zero-sum game and as always with some exceptions, some tweaks you never figure their magic, I take them as it is anyway.
I know this sounds arrogant, a picture tells a system a lot, coming from experience. However, video clips are far from the truth since it is your device that is playing, your device electronic, your device speakers. Even on the same performance, on the same seating, the audiences perceive different sound since the performance remains a constant. Even the pro guys don't listen the same way. So, what do we have here, an opening to a diversity of sound? It corresponds to sound equipment with a vast diversity of sound in the marketplace. The irony is audiophiles could immediately recognize sonic colouration, a call for multilateralism perhaps?
Monday, October 29, 2018
Monday, October 1, 2018
Greater good
People learn different things at various stages of life, it all got to do with your surrounding and some say fate. Some learn at a much earlier time, some learn faster than the others and unfortunately, some never learn nothing at all. Thus, all of us will never begin at the same starting line.
It has been a while I have not posted, I needed a break and time to sort things out for myself. Time didn't slow me down on my audio. Rather quite the opposite, I have got more involved than before. Greater anticipation, with new thoughts, new perspectives, I'm all pumped up. I even surprised myself finding the energy to tweak. Sounds old, huh.
You know what, coming from an audio dealer, he said to me "Audiophiles today listen to coloration!" I was taken surprised, I didn't see it coming but on a second thought, could he be pulling a trick on me? My defence mechanism triggered. Play dumb and submission always works miraculously in an embarrassing situation. Anyhow, what he says didn't deter me from my goal. My intention is clear, my conscience is clear, how I'm to go about is clear. Get real, they, audio dealers need to make a living too. Blessed my equipment day is over, my urge is at new low. I don't read much reviews these days, the days who race to the first to know is over. Ironically, the day you stop reading reviews is the day you stop fertilizing your libidinous upgrade.
Today's information boom age doesn't make decision making any easier, you need an enormous filtrating power to weed out marketing hypes. These hypes work your mind if you're carelessly allow them to slip into your mind, they are clever marketing deceit. The real test is in the listening, always, never let others convince you it is not. The measurements and graphs stay on the paper, if your ears tell you not right, it is not right. Irresistible and irresponsible buying will see yourself ended up with things locked inside the closet collecting dusty. No enthusiasts is spared from it, sadly. However, as we collect more experience, we ought to better manage our expectations. You feel sorry for yourself if you don't.
Cuffed with low spending power, tweaking is naturally a poor man's audio venture. In many cases, a gradual climb of the audio ladder proved to be a good self check and balance than shooting straight to the highest-end. To begin with, you're clueless about what's highest fidelity. Never skip the basics, in any discipline. A solid foundation goes a long way.
Every audiophile has a strong inclination towards certain audio respects, I could smell it. Sadly, one trick pony these days is hard-pressed to woo your fellow audiophiles, let alone respect. I have been searching for new teachings since many years back, both local and overseas. Hey, Bruce Lee too, learned from many martial art teachers before he unveils his Jeet Kune Do. Be mindful, audio is never a classroom hobby 纸上谈兵. What is on paper stays on paper. For the most part, the engineers have already worked the equipment out. Is it by your mercy of hooking them up and sing makes you great? I don't think so. Blatantly, I don't see anything to shout about on your part buying a fancy system and hooking them up. Maybe perhaps you can make more money. Too easy, it is too easy, anything that's too easy, you don't get the credit. Einstein wouldn't be a genius if he can answer 1 + 1. You need to bring something "new" to the table. Cocooning your mind is not helping, rules are meant to be broken, sometimes.
Moving forward, you must understand the concept tweak on tweak. Pardon me, if I got it grammarly incorrect. It is all for the greater good. Literally, you are not done with only one tweak alone, your primary tweak is, often, to get rid of your glaring shortcoming at a great cost, a secondary tweak is required to reduce or compensate the side effects of the primary tweak. Eventually, your shortcomings will be mitigated if not totally gotten rid.
My work on audio energy is not documented and I don't intend to. We are dealing with acoustic energies of the sound. Read this Conservation of Energy on Wikipedia. There is a pattern how these energies behave corresponding to the frequency range. Their behavior is pretty consistent and produces repeated results, the foundation of science. Just because a subject never or seldom discussed, it doesn't mean it is not there. Do your due diligence. Not resting on my laurels, I have developed my own techniques to harvest them, making them work in favor to me.
From the selection of rack, to the equipment arrangement and down to chair type, nothing is spare. For tidbits, fabric chair is not a good choice, many overlooked the seating height. Ultimately, we got to ask ourselves a down to earth question, what do you set out to achieve? I want to reproduce a living acoustic experience in a room with minimal room influences. Small room equates small soundstage, this stereotype need to be broken.
Sight distracts listening. No, I'm not suggesting jolting your eye balls out, you got to manage the lighting. Listening in a brightly lighted room, a spoiler. Which live performance you attend held in a brightly lighted hall? The only light you can see in my room is the equipment indicator light. Even the tube glow bothers me.
A cohesive environment prepares you an optimal listening experience, you need to feel comfortable in it, unplug unused power cords that will, the least, deteriorates your audio performance. These are the examples of my studies that I will share with you, just only that. I don't want accused of SKL, loosely interpreted as Mr Know It All, of which I had been accused in my face many years ago, he didn't know who is who. A snob will always be a snob, just like a leopard never changes its spot. An owner of fancy equipment with a fat ego, I'm sure like to listen what he can do in a difficult room.
With many things done, my sound has the expressiveness and expansiveness belies my system cost. I don't let price point to be my excuse. Finesse meets power, tone wholesome is thorough, in-room wind noise is at new low, and with the right recording, I could feel myself being wrapped up with acoustic energy. Though this is with a caveat, coloration. I gladly take because studio recordings do not exhibit the natural airiness, I take it anyway.
I can't helped sneering at those who think they know bass, I'm talking about unamped bass. Amped bass is not my concern because they are electronically-fab and often overhanged if you know what I'm talking about. You never knew what is what, why bother. For listening pleasure, no problems. To serve as reference, no way. I shook my head listening to the synthesized bass of The music of Hans Zimmer played recently in Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Synthetic came to my mind. With the volume boost, the amplified bass guitar in the orchestra rendered a somewhat dirty and woolly bass. The acoustic percussion fell short of generating the seismic visceral effect, I'm afraid. On pop songs, the recording engineer cranked up the gain at his will to create the drama and sensation. And you use that for reference? What more, no articulation to speak of, none like acoustic drums. Get out and check for yourself.
Seriously, I'm inching closer to the red line before receiving a smack from someone. Audio community is hostile, and I take no prisoners in my audio principals. I asked myself why should I bother to blog, it is not my business any way to tell others. Best to keep quiet and low profile. I don't do honest audio talk unless I think the other party can take it. No audiophiles like to look like an audiofool, truth always hurts. A little saving grace, that's the least I gladly give to avoid a sticky situation.
It crossed my mind numerous time if I should stop blogging. Perhaps, I should, I don't want myself to be overly exposed. Things certainly not looking good with some friends blowing my cover, aiyah. Well, personally, I got so excited that a sifu from abroad who took me under his wing, he will share with me some amazing tweaks. Have tested the water, and far from audio myth, his tweak has resulted one heck of performance leap on my system, ever. This tweak was leaked to some, they were totally blown away too. But what they have implemented is just a fraction of a great thing, quite far from the full potential. I worked my ass off executing this tweak on my system, my body took a beating, the restrictive space around my system doesn't help at all. This execution normally take days to complete, I took one. Impatient, I was born like that.
OK, 虚声, I'm out of word to translate this, is miraculously dealt with. This is not a sonic description people normally describe my sound, period. His tweak strangely remedied this hollowness or emptiness, blessing every note with an unprecedented weight and solidity. Let's not misconstrue this as forward midrange or bottom heavy of which tip the tonal balance scale. Thanks God, the liveliness and the lightness stay intact. As such, my system is now poised to take much more beating with composure. I'm closing this post with an icing on the cake, I have got a weapon that promises a game changer. Super excited. Til then, chao.
It has been a while I have not posted, I needed a break and time to sort things out for myself. Time didn't slow me down on my audio. Rather quite the opposite, I have got more involved than before. Greater anticipation, with new thoughts, new perspectives, I'm all pumped up. I even surprised myself finding the energy to tweak. Sounds old, huh.
You know what, coming from an audio dealer, he said to me "Audiophiles today listen to coloration!" I was taken surprised, I didn't see it coming but on a second thought, could he be pulling a trick on me? My defence mechanism triggered. Play dumb and submission always works miraculously in an embarrassing situation. Anyhow, what he says didn't deter me from my goal. My intention is clear, my conscience is clear, how I'm to go about is clear. Get real, they, audio dealers need to make a living too. Blessed my equipment day is over, my urge is at new low. I don't read much reviews these days, the days who race to the first to know is over. Ironically, the day you stop reading reviews is the day you stop fertilizing your libidinous upgrade.
Today's information boom age doesn't make decision making any easier, you need an enormous filtrating power to weed out marketing hypes. These hypes work your mind if you're carelessly allow them to slip into your mind, they are clever marketing deceit. The real test is in the listening, always, never let others convince you it is not. The measurements and graphs stay on the paper, if your ears tell you not right, it is not right. Irresistible and irresponsible buying will see yourself ended up with things locked inside the closet collecting dusty. No enthusiasts is spared from it, sadly. However, as we collect more experience, we ought to better manage our expectations. You feel sorry for yourself if you don't.
Cuffed with low spending power, tweaking is naturally a poor man's audio venture. In many cases, a gradual climb of the audio ladder proved to be a good self check and balance than shooting straight to the highest-end. To begin with, you're clueless about what's highest fidelity. Never skip the basics, in any discipline. A solid foundation goes a long way.
Every audiophile has a strong inclination towards certain audio respects, I could smell it. Sadly, one trick pony these days is hard-pressed to woo your fellow audiophiles, let alone respect. I have been searching for new teachings since many years back, both local and overseas. Hey, Bruce Lee too, learned from many martial art teachers before he unveils his Jeet Kune Do. Be mindful, audio is never a classroom hobby 纸上谈兵. What is on paper stays on paper. For the most part, the engineers have already worked the equipment out. Is it by your mercy of hooking them up and sing makes you great? I don't think so. Blatantly, I don't see anything to shout about on your part buying a fancy system and hooking them up. Maybe perhaps you can make more money. Too easy, it is too easy, anything that's too easy, you don't get the credit. Einstein wouldn't be a genius if he can answer 1 + 1. You need to bring something "new" to the table. Cocooning your mind is not helping, rules are meant to be broken, sometimes.
Moving forward, you must understand the concept tweak on tweak. Pardon me, if I got it grammarly incorrect. It is all for the greater good. Literally, you are not done with only one tweak alone, your primary tweak is, often, to get rid of your glaring shortcoming at a great cost, a secondary tweak is required to reduce or compensate the side effects of the primary tweak. Eventually, your shortcomings will be mitigated if not totally gotten rid.
My work on audio energy is not documented and I don't intend to. We are dealing with acoustic energies of the sound. Read this Conservation of Energy on Wikipedia. There is a pattern how these energies behave corresponding to the frequency range. Their behavior is pretty consistent and produces repeated results, the foundation of science. Just because a subject never or seldom discussed, it doesn't mean it is not there. Do your due diligence. Not resting on my laurels, I have developed my own techniques to harvest them, making them work in favor to me.
From the selection of rack, to the equipment arrangement and down to chair type, nothing is spare. For tidbits, fabric chair is not a good choice, many overlooked the seating height. Ultimately, we got to ask ourselves a down to earth question, what do you set out to achieve? I want to reproduce a living acoustic experience in a room with minimal room influences. Small room equates small soundstage, this stereotype need to be broken.
Sight distracts listening. No, I'm not suggesting jolting your eye balls out, you got to manage the lighting. Listening in a brightly lighted room, a spoiler. Which live performance you attend held in a brightly lighted hall? The only light you can see in my room is the equipment indicator light. Even the tube glow bothers me.
A cohesive environment prepares you an optimal listening experience, you need to feel comfortable in it, unplug unused power cords that will, the least, deteriorates your audio performance. These are the examples of my studies that I will share with you, just only that. I don't want accused of SKL, loosely interpreted as Mr Know It All, of which I had been accused in my face many years ago, he didn't know who is who. A snob will always be a snob, just like a leopard never changes its spot. An owner of fancy equipment with a fat ego, I'm sure like to listen what he can do in a difficult room.
With many things done, my sound has the expressiveness and expansiveness belies my system cost. I don't let price point to be my excuse. Finesse meets power, tone wholesome is thorough, in-room wind noise is at new low, and with the right recording, I could feel myself being wrapped up with acoustic energy. Though this is with a caveat, coloration. I gladly take because studio recordings do not exhibit the natural airiness, I take it anyway.
I can't helped sneering at those who think they know bass, I'm talking about unamped bass. Amped bass is not my concern because they are electronically-fab and often overhanged if you know what I'm talking about. You never knew what is what, why bother. For listening pleasure, no problems. To serve as reference, no way. I shook my head listening to the synthesized bass of The music of Hans Zimmer played recently in Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Synthetic came to my mind. With the volume boost, the amplified bass guitar in the orchestra rendered a somewhat dirty and woolly bass. The acoustic percussion fell short of generating the seismic visceral effect, I'm afraid. On pop songs, the recording engineer cranked up the gain at his will to create the drama and sensation. And you use that for reference? What more, no articulation to speak of, none like acoustic drums. Get out and check for yourself.
Seriously, I'm inching closer to the red line before receiving a smack from someone. Audio community is hostile, and I take no prisoners in my audio principals. I asked myself why should I bother to blog, it is not my business any way to tell others. Best to keep quiet and low profile. I don't do honest audio talk unless I think the other party can take it. No audiophiles like to look like an audiofool, truth always hurts. A little saving grace, that's the least I gladly give to avoid a sticky situation.
It crossed my mind numerous time if I should stop blogging. Perhaps, I should, I don't want myself to be overly exposed. Things certainly not looking good with some friends blowing my cover, aiyah. Well, personally, I got so excited that a sifu from abroad who took me under his wing, he will share with me some amazing tweaks. Have tested the water, and far from audio myth, his tweak has resulted one heck of performance leap on my system, ever. This tweak was leaked to some, they were totally blown away too. But what they have implemented is just a fraction of a great thing, quite far from the full potential. I worked my ass off executing this tweak on my system, my body took a beating, the restrictive space around my system doesn't help at all. This execution normally take days to complete, I took one. Impatient, I was born like that.
OK, 虚声, I'm out of word to translate this, is miraculously dealt with. This is not a sonic description people normally describe my sound, period. His tweak strangely remedied this hollowness or emptiness, blessing every note with an unprecedented weight and solidity. Let's not misconstrue this as forward midrange or bottom heavy of which tip the tonal balance scale. Thanks God, the liveliness and the lightness stay intact. As such, my system is now poised to take much more beating with composure. I'm closing this post with an icing on the cake, I have got a weapon that promises a game changer. Super excited. Til then, chao.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)