Bottomless pit

 Audio is bottomless pit, hands down. Changes in taste, music genre, advancement in technology and the influence of your circle of audio peers among many are the primary reason for your financial loss. But all is not loss, you learn what is not working. At the same time, you want to share your progress, findings and excitement. I know your frustrations when your invitations meet silence, your peers are not showing any interest. 

Be careful of your audio peers, purge your toxic audio peers out. They seem to possess a philosopher's stone but they are no good for you. I regard them as Mr Know-It-All or Shin Kar Lan. If you are new, I suggest you to a music school to learn a musical instrument for the truth of timbre. That way, you will not be drifted by the waves of sound. But if you are too old to learn anything like me, go listen to philharmonic concert to grasp what real world sound is like instead of visiting audio stores meeting strangers of the same interest if you want to avoid the blind leading a blind. This is true when you are new into audio, you wanted to learn from the "guru" and there are many passionate gurus who would be happy to take you as a disciple. 

Strange that musicians do not listen like audio enthusiasts, they stress more on the emo and the flow. They can live with sonic crudity while audio enthusiast disgust even with slightest blemish. Similarly, the retro audio enthusiasts show more tolerance with imprecise sound. Me? I stand in between. 

I am amazed with streaming Youtube music through my LED TV, the voice is so smooth and devoid of edginess. On the other hand, the sound lacks dimension and ambiance, this I will not deny. I do not want to reinvent the wheel. 

A double edged sword

Imaging is synonymous with precision, I don't think it many will disagree. The spookiness of imaging is intoxicating, it is quietly changing the way we listen to music, perhaps the way we see music will be more appropriate. This is a quiet double-edged sword.

There is no denying that bookshelf loudspeakers beat big loudspeakers in this regard. On the downside, you will sense the missing textural properties, the necessary drive for the listening pleasure especially on pops and rock. 

Hence, the highs centric is the trending these days. It leads us to an analytical presentation and projects higher fidelity. Higher fidelity means atasness. Anything less spectacular in this regard will not be well received. This is a real problem with many audio enthusiasts, their perceptions derived from their cognitive beliefs. It is fascinating to learn from a professor that how people perceive/listen from their expectation. In audio, our sight has already predetermined the outcome that deriving from our past experiences and experimentation. What is your first thought seeing a plate of blue rice aka nasi kerabu? So, our mind has already predetermined before our other senses. It's a norm for Kelantanese, weird for non-Kelantanese.

This is a bad thing as we are at risk of missing the mark. To dig further, how good is your expectation? Does it build upon a solid foundation or personal subjectivity or past experience? The engineers can build speakers through measurements, the end product is acoustic energy. Coming from the mouth of an audio DIYer, it is easy to draw a schematic that works but it takes months to tune it right. Mathematically, input equals to output minus losses. The objective here is optimum output, for instance lower driver mechanical losses and inert enclosure. Where is the musicality? Is musicality itself is a subjective?

Flat frequency response

Measurements are king today, literally measuring flat frequency response in your room. An approach to eliminate the influence of the room with the assumption of your speakers measured flat frequency response. 

AI reveals that philharmonic halls are generally designed to have a perfectly flat frequency response, but for a balanced and natural acoustics. Philharmonic halls inclined to have a lift in low-mids for extra warmth citing philharmonic halls like Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Boston Symphony Hall, they all share this character. Particularly with the latter where all famous RCA Living Stereo Recording are recorded in Boston Symphony Hall. AI further points out that flat frequency response leads to dry, less immersive, lacking warmth and bloom and poor orchestral blending. 

I had heard in-room flat frequency response and non-flat frequency response in a same system and same room. Absolutely neutrality or listening pleasure, kamu sendiri pilihlah.