True audiophiles, in general, are obsessed with perfection. Having said so, some are genuinely gearslut, they keep shopping for the sake of shopping. Without a clue where he's heading, the equipment is treated as fashion cloth, in season and out of season. In due time, they flip it in the pre-owned market, the shopping continues. Will their system able to attain good sound? Very unlikely. They don't spend enough time to realise its potential. Why's the rant? It's their money, they can spend on whatever they want. They sure do own many legendary pieces of equipment, they tend to brag too.
Quite frankly, I care little of how high-end one's system. The sound is what I after unless you get down to work and optimise your system or you'll never get far. Stay with your hardware a while longer, try doing something different, you got nothing to lose. The thing is audiophiles are fascinated with what's the latest and love to talk about their newly acquired, it all beginning to sound superficial. Funny that it (pride) wear off as you get older, you get wiser. Take time to focus on capitalising on the improvements, try a few cables, changing the system up a bit, try different resonance feet and et cetera, observe where things take you. Doing so, you also do yourself a favour by stretching your value proposition. Particularly in audio, we strive to minimise shortcomings instead of runaway success on one aspect of sound. End of the day, the system with the least shortcomings wins.
Audio is never short of paradoxes, what is in this world? Inexperienced audiophiles fell for a particular sonic spectacular. They like to think that they are having an edge over the peers and spare no effort to flaunt their edge. So much so, he walks away with a "designer's sound" resonating in his head. It's implicitly trouble-telling, it couldn't possibly be a good thing. It goes without saying the system is picky on music, shines on one particular type of music.
Stand firm on your goal, blame only yourself for letting others stray you away from your goal. Do your due diligence, go check the guy's system out before you follow him. He can say a million things right but if he doesn't have a sound to boot, he is good for nothing. If his system exhibits brilliance, by all means, put down your ego, learn from him. You stand to benefit learning from him. If the system is of blink-blink, merely hooked up with cables, big theory, big ego, give his system a miss because there is little you can learn from him. An audio system ought to serve our auditory pleasure, not finishing. Fine finishing costs money, a lot of money. I have zero interest in listening to this sort of system except with an intent to know how it fails.
The end justifies the means. About 18 months after I have settled down with my system configuration, I'm still working on my room acoustics. I took pride in my work and confessed I'm a self-taught acoustics bonehead. Make no mistakes, the sound of your system will speak the loudest. An expensive system with an average sound will attract criticism, audiophiles don't take kindly to average sound. Like it or not, acoustics is the mother of good sound, you undermine room acoustics, you undermine high fidelity. Face it, bad acoustics ruins even the highest end system. Done right, the music rejoices. Look now, the marketplace is flooded with room treatment solutions, not so in the 90s and 00s. I got my share being a punching bag over my unconventional room treatment, mostly self-developed solutions. Tell me who has the last laugh now? For peace of mind sake, I stop wasting my time there and quit group chats.
December has always been good to me, my acoustics works bear fruit. Inspirations came flowing, three in December alone. They may not look like much but the sound responded to them quite positively. You see, the form factor, the physique can shape the sound. It's physics, you don't have to look far to verify this; a horn amplifies sonic intensity, speaker box shape introduces colourations, transmission line speakers produce more bass and the list goes on. At this point in time, I no longer focus on the micro aspect of sound like imaging or sonic density, I've had taken care of them already. Instead, from the macro perspective, I tidy up the overall sound. A cohesive sound, the blending of highs, mids and lows as one enterprise, devoid of each singing respective tune, the credit must go to the speaker designers on their crossover design. The loudspeaker has been before and today still, the weakest link of a system. We, the audiophiles could potentially make worst with the wrong choice of the partnering equipment and cables. You have not tried cables, how do you know which is the suitable one? I feel sorry for you. A good sound bears very little signatures, absolutely.
Never ever say you're done with your system unless you quit. Not so fast, just when you think you're done, you add something new. You make yourself eat your own word. Repeatedly, I've made that mistake over and over again,, again and again, I'm humbled. In addition, audiophiles must reckon the significance of speaker positioning, the very essence of audioing. Nevertheless, this is one area most audiophiles don't do enough. It's either their room size or equipment arrangement that compromise their speaker positioning. They are left with no choice but to settle in one position and that's it.
When the room size is the concern, minimalist is the way to go. Space is premium in a small room. A stereo block will produce better results than a mono-block cramped in a small room. Sound needs breathing space, overriding electronic superiority. I don't like the idea of the equipment arrangement across the front wall. It is a first-degree audio crime if you asked me. If you have a three-tier racking, empty the bottom tier and listen. Tell me I'm wrong.
My latest move, to squeeze an additional 6 inches listening distance. What an impact the 6 inches had made! The sound has opened up, one welcoming sign. Rather, quite miraculously, the bass has got out of the jail. It might get to some audiophiles' nerves that they don't really know what riped bass is like. Most of them never experience a fully developed bass anyway. When a sound is upheld by the bass, the sound becomes grounded. It has got weight, it has got body, it has got the extension.
The second sign, the sound as a whole has gotten relaxed, no abbreviated dynamic contrast, thank goodness. Remember the experience of adding a subwoofer to your monitor speakers, the sound opened up notably. The highs and mids run free, they will not go unnoticed. I'm now seated in row J, my sight is levelled to the stage. No more stiff neck. The price to pay is precise imaging and intimacy, I'm ready to make the trade.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations while some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost. Similarly, greatness doesn't come from performing simple tasks, and certainly not trying to talk yourself out. Good sound is never easy. High-end systems correlate to high-end sound, take it with a pinch of salt, not till the fat lady sings. My new year resolution is to enjoy quality music and maintain good health. Happy new year. God bless you.
