Real timbre

My 2026 live concert kicks off in August, with many more to come, reason is that I'm very picky on the performance and the conductor. Hard earned money, you know. 

People have very little idea what's real timbre. In this context, timbre is merely an envisage and conveniently borrow from the past casual listening experiences and introduce higher fidelity. More tellingly, they developed fragmented listening. The cannon in the1812 Overture, the noises behind the music, the stomping of the Flamenco, the bass of cinematic track for instance are the showstopper. Make things worst, the heavy-handed EQ recordings. Too polish and too clean to be unreal. Hence, they allow envisions to run wild with their notion of sound, unchecked. Extension, resolution, fatter bottom and et cetera.

My recent live concert's insight; the fogginess of our playback, at any price level of system. My educated guess is the microphone at the first line of recording. Not much we can do about it. I go as far to say the modern recording technique couldn't capture the real timbre and nuances. Listening live always make me grief with my playback. 

You can't miss the violin's buzzing sound, as if there's an amplification at the f holes. The friction of bow-string showcases the radiance of lumen, a long ascending sustain thereafter. I can't help being astonished with the intricate details and the sonic amplitude. Despite extraordinary swift, I can articulate each note and visualize the action on the strings.

When the entire string section in play, unison come to my head, the pitches receive a rounded makeover to arrive at bodied sound. Fortified. Similarly, the cellos become mellower, grounded and layered. What can I say about piano? A very challenging piece of instrument. All playbacks that I've heard failed in either a short-lived sustain or less imposing pitches. The exotic tweeters do bring the gap closer in spite of our audible range. Notwithstanding the complexity of piano pitches, the roar of the piano begins with a tee off with steely pitches and a pronounced body resonation follows. Either aggressive attack at the keyboards and fleet fingered, our skin feels the acoustic energy. In this regard, our playback failed miserably. Woodwind ah...., the flute and the oboe, captures the moment of the beguiling warmth of the morning sun or the depiction of a stroll through the garden. Moving on to the screeching metallic sound of the brass cutting the air like a butter, often used to convey a dramatic change of event. Sigh! The nuances mostly got lost in the recording I often find difficult to come to terms with after a live concert. Our playback is outrightly pale, with a lot of additives and colorants. Accept no argument. Go listen for yourself, the philharmonic sound is the gold standard.

Odds are you will go off track with your tuning without a reference. It happens under your nose. Whatmore with audiophile samplers with crazy fireworks. And this narrative is profoundly misguided. Most audio enthusiasts embrace the scientific approach to sound, too clinical for musical appreciation and profoundly soulless. And yet, the measurement is impeccable.

Listening to the same score through my system ripped off an unsettling issue, the recessed upper midrange energy. Reason being my tuning was erring on voices. This is a longstanding conundrum, voice or instrument, you can't do both well. My speakers were toed in about 5 degrees, a slight toe in. As with all box speakers, off axis will result in a drop in acoustic intensity. Your flat frequency response goes to the bin. Nevertheless, my voices are served pretty well, remarkably bodied and palpable but my violin loses its rightful luster. 

At around 15 degrees, my tweeters are on axis. Upper midrange energy increased to come to a shift on sonic equilibrium. The usual hi fi-ish presentation reinstalled, precise imaging, stronger delineation, less analogue albeit the violin's vividness. It's a dessert dry presentation. To some extent, the room didn't get energized the way it used to. Alas, the loss of bass drive makes the sound subtly uncanny, less anemic, less punchy, at least from where I come from. Bass quality improved though, less cloudiness and more "concise". Granted, the room plays a lesser role now, I have squandered my immersive sound. At this standpoint, reposition my AGS and crank the volume up a little bit do get me closer to where I was. This exercise unveiled one thing, contrary to conventional wisdom, a slight smeared bass can be so alluring for music appreciation but I'm not going back. With that in mind, you have to decide which you in favor of.

Toe in affects soundstage considerably, this will be followed up in my next posting.

Lifelikeness

Last night was by far, the finest hour ever from my room, I was delighted to bag it. With the new batch of tone woods in place, it's a game changer. Two at side wall and six at the back wall, I had created an envelope of sound through front-back wall symmetry. The acoustic tides smash my back wall. Side wall placement is a bit tricky, overbearing at some spots; too much of even order harmonic distortion for my taste. Yes, they introduce an even order harmonic distortion, a good thing for a full solid-state system. Sound has new depth and layering landing an inviting sound. This is not a blind box because I have had a taste of it from my last tuning. Knowing exactly what's coming but I'm still excited.

Symmetry is an essential element. Let me iterate, these tone woods are placement sensitive. As such, your preference will dictate where you want them. Despite all that, working on a certain principle and therefore, the result will not be far off. But if you nitpick like me, precise placement is not an option. Good thing about them is flexibility and immediate result, no burning in time. Moving forward, I played the same music library days before to build a legit comparison. Placebo effect, as much as I can, checked. Self-deceiving is often a form of cowardice, I'm wise enough to shut it out. Life is too short playing game, what more with your own self. On the contrary, I like people point me the flaws but given today's diplomacy, truth is a prized commodity. The guests will shower praises. 

The popular saying, "Only sound direct from speakers and nothing else", headphone rationale applicable to home audio is so wrong. Mind you, skin is also a sensor. My approach to sound is the direct opposite. Truth is there are some audio enthusiasts couldn't stand my approach to sound. Well, you have it your way, I have it my way. We are two parallel lines with no intersections.

With the addition of tone woods, I'm grateful for no timbre shift, perhaps not substantial to rock my boat of tonal balance. I do gather a tad more refinement. The OMG sense of immersion struck me dumb. Every cubic inch of the room, all the way to the backwall, is teeming with particles. It's a real-world's lifelike sound replica. The unmistakable breath of music, particularly on a grand piano, is vivid. Piano playback is the acid test, period. How could you not feel the chill with the long steely sustain and grandiose? Tone woods are a coloration alright because they are an add on and how some audio enthusiasts despise it. Hey! So is your linear power supply, your voltage, your frequency and what not. Given that they are not constant, the more you mess around with them the more impairments you will impose to the sound. Dynamic compression being the worst-case scenario. At this point, tone woods is a welcoming coloration. A decorated sound (music) or technical realization sound (sound) on the table. This is an old audiophile conundrum. The latter is the devotees' fervor pursuant of the theoretical approach to sound, getting it right is more important than enjoyment.

Black out the room, I hear more. You need to try this. All attention goes to the music. Tone woods add the dire reverberation energy and spaciousness within the confines of the room. Live recording renders a spectacular visual illusion. This is the magic of two channel system, live performance offers no imaging. Hard to resist this expansiveness. 

What caught me off guard is the undistinguished low-level details that come to light, only on the premise a system of demagnetization. Vague if not. Phew... My horn-loaded compression tweeters have no right to sound this good. They, in nature do not affiliate with refinement but often carry a bad name for a gaping maw with zero toe in speaker placement, let alone the silkiness and extension of the exotic tweeter. But the gap is narrowed, my violin playback is more than acceptable, no edginess but I heard better, almost unrealistically. 

Strangely, my bass is tenacious than before. The late Khalil Fong's The Dreamer, released in 2024 serves my bass sampling. Man, he's so talented. The recording quality is fabulous. Lesser drag and with a sense of wholeness, the gift of in-room lower acoustic impedance. It puts a smile on my face. The midbass.... is so awesome. I found America born Chinese musicians tends to have remarkable recording than their peers. My new sound resonates with me. Better recordings shines. What am I talking here? All systems benefit from better recordings. Though the diminishing returns kick in, it still worths every penny. If you still with me, thank you. Remember to demagnetize your system periodically.