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.