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.