Since the early days, I was fascinated with sound. Like many fellow audiophiles, I was led to believe equipment is the only ticket to sonic heaven, well, at least from what the people in the industry, the massive advertising and the rave reviews want you to believe. Equipment is something tangible people can see and touch, something that your peers would envy, something new to play with, something to show off, a myriad of factors that drives audiophiles nut. To some extent contributes to the divide among the audiophiles, the so-called audio clan. But seriously, if I could go back in time, I would learn listening first before anything else. Come on, knowing how and what to listen, you could tell apart the good and the not so good. Or otherwise, be impressionable and susceptible to "new teachings" by some gurus. All things in life, you can't rush learning or end up learning half baked knowledge. Indeed, good advice will take time will absorb, doesn't it?
So, who will produce better sound, an engineer or a musician? The answer is clear as daylight, in my opinion. Audio engineers that design their products by measuring equipment can almost never deliver. As logical as it might be, the reality is completely a different story. I reiterate here that measuring equipment is a tool for quality control, that a piece of equipment is safe to be used, not anything more. I'm also not so enthusiastic about "new sound" by protruding a certain frequency range that wow many wannabees.
Sound and acoustics are inseparable. My wake-up call came about some years ago I couldn't recall the exact time, room acoustics is the kingmaker, hands down. This awakening pivots my approach to sound, nevertheless. Equipment has been "relegated" in important second to acoustics. Good system in bad acoustics will sound terrible than a mediocre system in good acoustics. So, go fix bad acoustics beforehand for any further upgrade for your upgrade will not realize its promised potential. Absorptive acoustic panels, six wells diffusor or 3D diffusers have never been good enough for me, I hear their shortcomings. Studio-like, dullness, foggy sound, dead room, very little reverberation and surreal quietness, not my cup of tea. Man, this isn't real in life. The sound not cutting through the air, hold back and the bottom line is it doesn't sound realistic whatsoever. The naked truth is we are not listening to only direct sound but reflected sound too, so until this sense rings your bell, you will still not be out of the woods. I'm sorry to break your bubble.
And so, my effort to eliminate in-room standing waves has been relentless, how to make sound sounds like music. Through the years of acoustic dwelling, I have become sensitive to standing waves. Highs-mids-low harmony is one big subject that becomes a pillar of my sonic endeavor. Life-like is top on my want list. Acoustics is a very deep knowledge, the more you learn the more you found you don't know, this is I found myself at.
December, my favourite time of the year. December, a month Christmas carols filled the air. December, I received a lot of presents. December, be it a good or bad year, we wind down the year letting our guard down. Though this Christmas will be plagued by Covid, it means social distancing. Until we got vaccinated, stay safe stay home, there'll be more Christmas to come. And December, we play Cantate Dimino, Christmas carols "tanpa waswas" without your neighbours looking at you one kind.
My tonewood research has never been so exciting. It has to be a combination of tonewoods that does the magic. My addition of two rare tonewoods heightens my listening pleasure, absolutely. They are precious because money can't buy, but by chance. Tone colour enrichment, denser tone weight, intensify palpability and texture, how do these sound to you. If your sonic window is small, tonewood fixes it. If your voices are hollow, paper-thin, tonewood fixes it. If your sound lacks power, tonewood fixes it. Inadequate room-filling, tonewood fixes it. I don't see how my system has gotten to where it is now without them. I'm not going to lie that I'm not without hits and misses, there's no free lunch so to speak for I had spent years studying the tonewood application.
For the last three months, things have been very exciting. Two achievements were worthy of milestone achievement I must admit. Stepped up room treatment, adding more tonewood but ultimately, the highlight of 2020 has got to be stereo subwoofering to remedy my bass limbo. Started with a sub, it kept me happy for a while. Soon enough, I was left high and dry looking for another identical sub. To be honest, the addition of another subwoofer leverages on the existing "strength" to bring up to another level of excitement. The room filling phenomenon, the airiness, the grander soundstage and the enveloping effect all in one package is manifested.
I'm not a patient person, I see problems I get my butt to fix it. Pulled the trigger and bite the bullet, paid above market price for an identical sub, gosh... it will be cereal breakfast for the next 6 months, mercy, mercy me. Oh, man! I could use some weight loss. The second sub placement was easy after experimenting with the first one. After meticulous cabling, my stereo sub is up for its maiden performance at the eve of Christmas, tell me about just in time. A gentleman once says subwoofer is an atmosphere generator, I couldn't agree more. Just as what I perceive, the ambiance got a big boost alongside with the low bass when called for. Bigger bass doesn't equate meaty bass, this I come later if I ever write again. My subwoofer tag team has paid dividend handsomely, I was about to do my victory run.
Take the famous Matilda from Harry Belafonte at the Carnegie Hall, each conga beat was clearly distinguishable. The double bass of Cottonfields was tuneful and clean with some meat on it. This is one of the tests if the gain of the subs is set higher and I know that we all have the tendency to up the gain for our bass craving, the trade off is the articulation. I must ressist my temptation. Voices are the forte of fullrange speakers, men and women, boys and girls. The projected soundstage was enormously expansive, laterally and layered. This album is a musical gem but in all honesty, the fidelity is pale comparably especially with modern recordings, there are signs of blur and clouding.
Moving on to Acoustic Alchemy's Red Dust and Spanish Lace, the unmistaken steel-string guitar is filled with enthusiasm. The rhythm was snappy, I want to check if the bass was detached. To my favour, the music was intact and cohesive, the bass notes largely keep up with the music.
I wouldn't be excited about my system if it couldn't do orchestral crescendo. Nothing challenging about Wilson Audio's Centerstage (https://www.wilsonaudio.com/wilson-audiophile-recordings/center-stage), my system still has plenty of reserves to weather the tracks on this CD. Moving on to The 30th Taipei Audio Fair CD. Asian audiophiles are fanatical about the gutsy bass punch. The opening of African Swinging Rhythm puts me on suspense with the hard-hitting drums, fearing my speaker drivers blow up. Lacking punch? Bass is never the strength of any fullrange speaker, you all knew that. The fittings in my room were rattling, ops, I forgot to turn down my volume. It was loud in my room, my ears ring ever so slightly after the listening session, my wife was quick to issue me a warning as she usually does, turn the volume down! She didn't this time. I give credits to the intensive room treatment, I got out from my room to check, it was noticeably much quieter than before outside the room.
Next up was Gustav Holst in Suite 2 in F excerpt, this is exemplary of timpani drums. No problem either, thank God. Timpani produces bigger and greater lower bass. This track is good enough to test the water. Two issues that prevent bass glory, puny amp, the damping factor, the speaker that doesn't go as low or in any combinations. The bass seemingly came from a far distance which should be the case because timpani always located at the back row of the orchestra. To my ears, I sensed no hints of compression. Jheena Lodwick's You raise me up was warm and bodied. Realistic, not overly sweet while Nat King Cole's When I fall in love was dark and chesty.
Fella, this wraps up my audio 2020. 2020 will largely remain the year of Covid. Stay safe, stay home.
