If there's any standard, consumer audio has none but not pro-sound. Pro-sound treats the equipment as an instrument, they all dressed up in a utilitarian black box. I kind of like them for never drawing attention to themselves. The fancy metalwork, the glossy aluminium, the blink-blink looks cold as ice to me. Anyway, I listen in the dark, theses aesthetics are glaring in my sight. On sound, the ball is at your court eventually unless you end there, doing nothing more. Relax fella, who needs policing! Your listening volume and room size are vital to your choice of equipment, you make your educated speaker selection from there on, then follow by the amp.
Let's not deny that you were as blind as a bat in your early years. Learning takes time, it's largely influenced by your peers since the beginning. Time will develop your own taste of sound. Only then, you enter the realm of voicing your system for a simple reason, you know exactly you want, you have your preferences. Boys to men, this marks the exciting time for an audiophile to part from his peers and find his own destiny. Absolutely pointless to argue the taste of sound, don't you think so? It's absolutely an elephant in the room to talk about the taste of sound. He likes what he likes, he cares less if you don't like it. After all, he lives with his system, not you but that doesn't stop you from talking about it.
Some of us look up to pro-sound. Pro-sound has known for maximum dynamic and a balanced sound, they try hard to never throw off the balance, tipping to either side. This is one area we ought to bend over backwards for you can't go wrong. You and I are the victims of bad recording, especially the Chinese ones. How often you feel the justice is served to listen to American, EU or even Taiwanese recordings. Man! I do. The comparison is as clear as daylight, I can't help thinking this is a cultural thing or at worst, substandard. The Chinese recordings sound unreal, deliberately cooked up but if you like the music of the artist, bite your nails until the Chinese recording companies up their game one day.
The recording is where fidelity begins. Silly me. I should have invested in good recordings since the early days, they appreciate in value. Rarity rockets prices. As you can see, using bad recordings for tuning can lead to ill sound despite it sounds good on that said recording. About audiophile recordings, they're for the sound enthusiasts, not music lover so much I feel bored listening to them. They serve as a test disc to exhibit what their system is capable of. The system calibre is the battlefield particularly the manufacturers in their efforts to outdo the competition. Unknowingly, they dissect the music. What they do, the repro lacks the necessary binding element to hold the notes together. I care very much about the music of the same cloth, natural, cohesive and balanced, texture is important.
We, audiophiles let crazy ideas to mess up our mind in our course of producing a better sound. Hence, we search on the internet to check if someone shares the same experience, we often end up with polarised opinions. End of the day, admit it we choose to believe what is aligned with our thoughts. We have predetermined our decision. Isn't that right? Nothing beats equipment loan, you get to listen to how the equipment sounds in your system, what you hear is what you get. As the competition heats up, we have some dealers oblige to home demo.
I can't explain my fetish for sound except that sound is fascinating, it has a personality. Putting the equipment together that sings well is a flair. A friend told me acoustics is a difficult subject, you don't know what you will get. Not really, you get the hang of it if you put some efforts in it. The other told me that by a mere millimetre adjustment, the sound changes dramatically. I'm flattered.
Never neglect the contribution of the cables, it goes as far as no cables, no sound. You can stack up some high-end equipment but with the wrong cable, the sound comes short. What's the missing puzzle? Your listening intelligence. It hurts to hear a cheaper system beats big boys. Depends on which side of the fence you're at, big boys believe in you get what you pay while cheap and cheerful hope for the messiah (a giant killer). I urge you to look beyond preamp output impedance, power amplifier input impedance and the speaker demeanour in system building. It's not that easy. Leave some room for human intervention. The magic(sound) will resonate in your heart, I trust that your first high fidelity experience lasts quite some time!
Coming from mainstream audio, I collect the benefits of simple circuitry, passive preamplification, high-efficiency speaker and a minimalist system, never turn back since. Makes me a minor in today's audio community. My sound plodding comes at a cost, a young mechanic learns his skills. You don't expect his work for free. In audio and as in life, you learn either what's work or not working. Direct, clear and transient attack, my synonym of the life of music, my brand of sound. My heart melts discerning micro-dynamic like the guitar plucking and hammering of the keyboards, I know what it's like thanks to years of going to live concert. I kind of expect something from the musicians or a twist of music, a good conductor stands out from mediocre conductors. I can now comprehend music critics better, you couldn't have learned if you listen to your stereo in your man cave. Live music has much more fidelity than our system. Essentially, life is about relearning what you already knew. Laws are frequently rewritten, theories are frequently re-established, nothing is static.
The matter of facts is bass reach and extension is my kryptonite. Big symphonic pieces will definitely make my system belly up, the speakers ill behave. In retrospect, sonic purity (of simple music) is more than makes up for my bass limitation. Furthermore, I don't have a room that's capable of 20Hz. To get 20Hz, I need 28.3 feet in length. Without good integration, reaching down 20Hz is merely a self-consolation. You got high drinking by yourself.
Perhaps today's sound is heavily weighted to details. I don't know about you, I'm done with 2 hours high-resolution listening session. My brain is exhausted processing a huge amount of information. To balance details, sonic density is a remarkable quality to crow about. The British sound, roll-off at the top, forward mid, dense tone and soft bass still get a lot of following or audiophiles shy talking about? Every audiophile plays that poker face once in a while, you never know who's on who's side.
My system suffers downtime since last month, it's a nightmare. Got lucky if my speakers didn't blow up, otherwise, everything is chicken feet. Boring without music. If everything is as planned, my system should be playing music by this posting. That doesn't stop me greeting you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Monday, December 23, 2019
Monday, December 2, 2019
The trinity of hardware
OK, OK, I confessed I'm an audiophile first, music lover later. I enjoy good sound, I enjoy good food, I enjoy travelling, who wouldn't? Silly me. I'd like to keep myself busy with tuning to keep my mind occupied, to not think about upgrading. Otherwise, my inquisitive mind roams freely and suck dry my wallet. The world today is consumerism driven, shopping is made easy through your fingertips, the package will be delivered in days. Look no further than the staggering sales of 11.11. When you committed a purchase, good or bad, you will find reasons to justify your decision. Look, no one is pointing a gun at your head to buy. You're bound to make bad purchases, lick your wound and bite the bullet.
My friend accused my tuning is a band-aid. On second thought, he is right. Only upon a good system, only then my passive tuning will work wonder. There will not be magic in a problematic system, especially a poorly matched system like underpowered, inappropriate matching or both. As of being a human, we will never go back after indulging greater quality.
I read the other day that a guy says every equipment has its worth, especially the high-end one. It worths every penny it asked for and it's our job to bring the best out from the equipment. A fair statement. As you increase your spending, you get better tonality. But the yield curve isn't always moving in tandem with the spending at a fixed ratio. It somewhat plateau after the point of optimum price-performance, the law of diminishing return kicks in. The additional dollar spending only brings about a fraction of yield. Sounds like a bad deal, doesn't it? But audiophiles are jumping into the bandwagon for the new sonic frontier that separates mediocrity. As of with anything and everything, audiophiles don't bode well with mediocrity.
Look easy on paper, the difficult question is how to determine the point of optimum price-performance? Your point of optimum price-performance is not necessarily identical to mine. The point is it is not measurable. Here we go again, there will be no end to this debate on what basis to use. Unless you have unlimited resources for audio, most of us don't, the optimum price-performance lives in the individual's head. I suggest instead of continuing to put your money in the equipment, spend some on room acoustics and power treatment instead, their influences are greater than what you think. Especially room acoustics, the harmonious marriage of sound and room shouldn't be undermined. You could further redefine the sound quality via speaker placement and cabling.
Perhaps, you may not get your fellow audiophiles to come over for a listen due to your unfancy equipment list. Some audiophiles look at the list to determine worthwhile the time to come over. Forget about them, they are a technocrat. Most technocrats don't listen, they're only interested in the technologies. How about 10watt TM-85 SET amp? Not seen many, this ought to attract them. A well-tuned moderately priced system in a well-treated room will give the big boys a wake-up call less loudness capability and extreme bandwidth. It shines in refinement and articulation. But if the fame and glamour that you after, go spend big. Your fellow audiophiles will not confront you face to face even it falls short of delivery but talks behind your back Those behind your back comments come harsh and merciless, don't audiophiles always have something to say? Suffice to explains some audiophiles keep their systems off the radar of the general audiophiles to avoid attention.
Audio is a discipline too big to be mastered by anyone. Succumbing to many branches of speciality, you get nicknames like Power King, Cable Master, Guru, Sifu, Rabbi, Teacher, Princes of all sorts and in geographical too. All suggested that the individual is respected and has an in-depth knowledge among the general audiophiles. We all pursue the sound that we like. We will please ourselves by imposing individualism, in the right context of mind. From there, we build a system to attain the sound that we desired. It all begins with the speaker selection. Choose a speaker that produces a sound you like, throw out the thought of aftermarket value, the alluring good deals, psychological brand affection or wanted to be accepted. You end up dumping your purchase faster than you know. Buy the best speaker you can afford, stick with them. Our desired sound pretty much tells us the type of speaker to go with. This follows by the choice of amplification. I'm inclined to finesse than brutal power. I'll stay below 100wpc or maybe below 50wpc. The bigger amp produces a coarser sound if the quality of the first watt matters to you? As a new full-range speaker convert, I'm sold by its veil-less-ness, texture, coherency, transient response, sonic gradient and effortlessness. These features outweigh low-frequency extension in my book. Sounds real to my ears. I'm embarking a new sonic frontier. It isn't easy, I know. My thought is any system should and must do the small music well. This has led me to pack up my multi-driver speakers, storing them where I can find the least obstructive place in my house to avoid the wrath of the lady in the house.
The third aspect is the interlinking cables. If there's a fair price mechanism where you can put your finger on it and say this exotic cable is a fairly priced, the cable industry has none. Price is relatively dependent on the individual's pocket. The irony is there's always a better cable around and might not sing well in your system. Getting the right cables is like finding a good tailor to alter your shirt, the shirt sits at where it should. Speaker, amplifier and cable form the trinity of hardware. A matched combo will pay dividends in sound and blows the ill-matched combo out of the water. The rest is add on. Wasted years, the bad news is you never know what you've missed if you don't go find out.
Passion is like a car without brakes, you bound to get over the top and crash at some points of time. You're supposed to crash! When it does, all doesn't go to waste, every event offers a lesson that will own a place in your memory. God knows how many repeated errors I've committed no matter how well thoughtfully I approach from the beginning! In many cases, rework, rework, rework. There simply isn't any way to avoid mistakes because new knowledge keeps pop up.
My friend accused my tuning is a band-aid. On second thought, he is right. Only upon a good system, only then my passive tuning will work wonder. There will not be magic in a problematic system, especially a poorly matched system like underpowered, inappropriate matching or both. As of being a human, we will never go back after indulging greater quality.
I read the other day that a guy says every equipment has its worth, especially the high-end one. It worths every penny it asked for and it's our job to bring the best out from the equipment. A fair statement. As you increase your spending, you get better tonality. But the yield curve isn't always moving in tandem with the spending at a fixed ratio. It somewhat plateau after the point of optimum price-performance, the law of diminishing return kicks in. The additional dollar spending only brings about a fraction of yield. Sounds like a bad deal, doesn't it? But audiophiles are jumping into the bandwagon for the new sonic frontier that separates mediocrity. As of with anything and everything, audiophiles don't bode well with mediocrity.
Look easy on paper, the difficult question is how to determine the point of optimum price-performance? Your point of optimum price-performance is not necessarily identical to mine. The point is it is not measurable. Here we go again, there will be no end to this debate on what basis to use. Unless you have unlimited resources for audio, most of us don't, the optimum price-performance lives in the individual's head. I suggest instead of continuing to put your money in the equipment, spend some on room acoustics and power treatment instead, their influences are greater than what you think. Especially room acoustics, the harmonious marriage of sound and room shouldn't be undermined. You could further redefine the sound quality via speaker placement and cabling.
Perhaps, you may not get your fellow audiophiles to come over for a listen due to your unfancy equipment list. Some audiophiles look at the list to determine worthwhile the time to come over. Forget about them, they are a technocrat. Most technocrats don't listen, they're only interested in the technologies. How about 10watt TM-85 SET amp? Not seen many, this ought to attract them. A well-tuned moderately priced system in a well-treated room will give the big boys a wake-up call less loudness capability and extreme bandwidth. It shines in refinement and articulation. But if the fame and glamour that you after, go spend big. Your fellow audiophiles will not confront you face to face even it falls short of delivery but talks behind your back Those behind your back comments come harsh and merciless, don't audiophiles always have something to say? Suffice to explains some audiophiles keep their systems off the radar of the general audiophiles to avoid attention.
Audio is a discipline too big to be mastered by anyone. Succumbing to many branches of speciality, you get nicknames like Power King, Cable Master, Guru, Sifu, Rabbi, Teacher, Princes of all sorts and in geographical too. All suggested that the individual is respected and has an in-depth knowledge among the general audiophiles. We all pursue the sound that we like. We will please ourselves by imposing individualism, in the right context of mind. From there, we build a system to attain the sound that we desired. It all begins with the speaker selection. Choose a speaker that produces a sound you like, throw out the thought of aftermarket value, the alluring good deals, psychological brand affection or wanted to be accepted. You end up dumping your purchase faster than you know. Buy the best speaker you can afford, stick with them. Our desired sound pretty much tells us the type of speaker to go with. This follows by the choice of amplification. I'm inclined to finesse than brutal power. I'll stay below 100wpc or maybe below 50wpc. The bigger amp produces a coarser sound if the quality of the first watt matters to you? As a new full-range speaker convert, I'm sold by its veil-less-ness, texture, coherency, transient response, sonic gradient and effortlessness. These features outweigh low-frequency extension in my book. Sounds real to my ears. I'm embarking a new sonic frontier. It isn't easy, I know. My thought is any system should and must do the small music well. This has led me to pack up my multi-driver speakers, storing them where I can find the least obstructive place in my house to avoid the wrath of the lady in the house.
The third aspect is the interlinking cables. If there's a fair price mechanism where you can put your finger on it and say this exotic cable is a fairly priced, the cable industry has none. Price is relatively dependent on the individual's pocket. The irony is there's always a better cable around and might not sing well in your system. Getting the right cables is like finding a good tailor to alter your shirt, the shirt sits at where it should. Speaker, amplifier and cable form the trinity of hardware. A matched combo will pay dividends in sound and blows the ill-matched combo out of the water. The rest is add on. Wasted years, the bad news is you never know what you've missed if you don't go find out.
Passion is like a car without brakes, you bound to get over the top and crash at some points of time. You're supposed to crash! When it does, all doesn't go to waste, every event offers a lesson that will own a place in your memory. God knows how many repeated errors I've committed no matter how well thoughtfully I approach from the beginning! In many cases, rework, rework, rework. There simply isn't any way to avoid mistakes because new knowledge keeps pop up.
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