The pursuant of sound

Vintage audio, I know many audio enthusiasts do not care much about for a sound, inoffensive and "nothing in it". I now eat humble pie. Things change when there is an adequate detail. Never deny physics, you will never win. Big drivers are capable to move a lot of air, effortlessly. They do it with such ease and produce a big sound that multiple smaller drivers never get close to. I am sorry, we are taken a ride by audio manufacturers suggesting narrow baffle with multiple smaller drivers to the task.

I learned about membrane material effect to the sound, lightweight, rigidity and damping, this matrix is complicated as they inversely correlated. Lightweight and rigidity introduce ringing that you and I would not like to hear. Overdamped hampers dynamics and detail. Slow and muddy, you and I neither like them too. There are many speaker design philosophies, measure perfect or pleasant sound have their followings, a fine line that separates both. Hence, loudspeakers are a compromised design, and they are the major influencing factor to the sound. Given the vast sonic diversity of speaker, the magnitude of the electronic and amplification sonic profile are much less varied. 

Decades into this passion, I have learned and walked away with some valuable lessons. Every audio enthusiast wanted his own signature sound, to be reckoned with. This is self-actualization. This explains audio enthusiasts' senseless audio spending. Sitting outside the fence, some wiser audio enthusiasts ridicule the audio madness, but most of their system sound not spectacular. 

Recording is the king maker if you agree with me. All recordings are not recorded equal. Therefore, no matter how you dislike a sound from who and who's system, there will always be some tracks their systems shine. The horn quirkiness for instance, no system can beat them on brass, similarly voices on tubes. No one system can do all things well. So, our music genre to decide what sound to build.

Kidlin's law says, if you can write your problem down clearly, the matter is half solved. Good sound is always about the acoustics a system sings in a particular room, regardless how good is your system. People mock me on my acoustics madness, I have the last laugh. No matter difficult room acoustics may be, you only have to do once. The only sacrifice is your room aesthetic. Look, you can't have a cake and not eat it, sound or aesthetic, you decide. 

Room acoustics relates to in-room reverberation time, semi anechoic room is not my thing. Technocrats want sound that emits from the speaker alone, this kind of sound only attainable from headphone, the end of the story. This is anti-nature. Sound in real world situation has some degree of reflection even in a philharmonic hall. They go on to argue that the reverberations are also captured in the recording, so we do not need the real-world reverberations. This argument is valid too but listening test tells a different story. What will happen if a system sings in an anechoic room? I have been in an anechoic room, you will get crazy. The lifelessness will drive you crazy, a great fear creeps in, psychoacoustics is one field less understood by many. Just like the sun, people in countries with less sunlight suffer depression.

Back to basics whenever you in doubt. I have exercised this many times. You want, at the end, a sound that is big and immersive. 

Wave Audio Show afterthought

Wave Audio Show 2025 has drawn its curtains, however, the number of the visitors and exhibitors, based on my observation has declined. The crowds are gone. It was a stark contrast to the famous Hong Kong High End show 2025 with record breaking number of visitor year after year. The loss of interest among the younger crowd, could this be the decline of audio? Audio needs newcomers to sustain the health of the industry. Is the economic hardship becoming burdensome? Or audio has priced themselves beyond the reach of the consumers? Even the familiar faces are not to be seen. Things are not all that bad because I see some affordable products too.

The highlight of the show was Marten Coltrane Quintet and Mingus Septet speakers. Every visitor wanted a sip of a RM4 million system, a system out of the reach of most audio enthusiasts, including me. I'm a cheap audio enthusiast, value preposition is important to me. Of course, how can I not mention the debut of Sonus Faber Amati Supreme with Nagra electronics. Sadly, I missed out the Audiovector Trapeze and Manger. 

The quality of the show overall is good. All rooms performed without severe acoustic issue. Resolution continues to be the trend of audio, with a touch of musicality. This is an improvement over the last few years with bright sound. 

My spouse tagged along with me to the show after a nice lunch. We spent as much time in each room whenever we possible to really "capture" the sound. She has good ears and favors tonality, purity and musicality. We agreed on many systems, but a system that clearly won our hearts is the Lumin-Phasemation-Devore Orangutan system. The tone was spot on, the bass was lightweight. 

T+A-Mofi V10 and Monitor Gold gets our vote too for its natural sound albeit a thinner sound, I wish it could be a bit meatier. Praises to the Acoustic Energy, for a lively demeanor. Monitor Gold was good too. Now, the ones we disagreed is retro looking Vestlyd, ha ha ha. She thought it was not emotional but the bottom end won my heart. They stretched your money and they do music. 

It was nice to spend an afternoon to see what the market has to offer.

Metaphysics, ha!

So often audio enthusiasts slap something they don't understand why and how it works, metaphysics. Doing so, they maintain killing two birds with one stone. Preserving a high degree of intelligence and hiding their knowledge gap. Nobody want to be looked unlearned, more so among the audio friends. Science always used for their defense. For instance, how a simple network cable can have a significant impact on sound, a convincing reply, anyone if you have gone through this path? 

Science works around with a few assumptions, sensibly and from some perspectives. There is a great possibility that some assumptions are missing the mark. Break through always come about after thinking outside of the box. And unfortunately, engineers are too rigid thinking.

Science or snake oil, I care less. I reap the sonic benefits, enjoy the improvements and leave the debate opens to the interested parties. I have no time for this. In short, there is so little audio enthusiasts understand about physics and what more to relate it to acoustics. The first that come to the mind is speaker placement. Audio enthusiasts give the weird face when one claim he can hear 1mm deviation effect on the sound. A non-audio enthusiast heard it and guessed what will happen if you, a long-time audio enthusiast doesn't. Are you serious? Where to bury the face? 

Practice makes perfect, I found gold in this quote. You might be one time lucky, two time lucky, strike three? Very unlikely. Continuous trials and errors get you close to the sound you want to attain, talk is cheap.

Music or sound

I'll be honest, I never find favor in delta sigma digital conversation. Despite the superiority in dynamic range and resolution, my ears go with my heart. Once I heard a true 16 bits, there is no turning back. The wonderful texture and presence are priceless. In comparison, the texture of delta sigma is washed out, it has gone even worse on a higher oversampling rate. In this account, you are right that I'm biased since I mainly listen to redbook.

For Gen Z, they are brought up in the digital age. Everything, their lifestyle is computer related, work, social media, entertainment and online shopping. Everything is revolved on their fingertip. They are living in a higher pace than their parent and the world will only get faster. 

Music is feed by AI in accordance with your preference. No physical thing. 

Even then, something will never change. The quality of sound and the good old yesterday's taste, they stayed in your memory. The sound of vinyl still has its charm. 

My goal of my system is playing music, not resolution or sound because music resonates. The selling point of modern audio equates resolution to music, this is a big-time fallacy. And this probably the only selling point high-end audio is promoting. Theoretically, it makes perfect sense but in reality, this is something else. I once loaned a higher revealing cables to a friend, he returned back to me citing too many details to absorb, calling too much attention and inducing listening fatigue. OK, the modern recordings will have to share the blame too. There is another aspect of sound, psychoacoustics. Music listening at the finest hour is at the right music, at the time and at the right mood.

Don't be quick to point a gun at me, digest my thought and find if there any truth.