Audiophilism is a hobby

I always loved music...

But before my retirement and plenty of time to kill i never adressed the sound problem... And i never really loved my system even with the myghty mithical Tannoy,...

Then i listened music without thinking about the sound too much because i did not had nor the money nor the knowledge to improve it anyway nor the time to do it ...

Anyway i did not know how to improve my S.Q. at all , after all my system gear pieces was not so bad, then why was it not enthralling ? I listened anyway mostly Bach and with Bach sound does not matter much... 😊

I decided to solve the S.Q. problem as soon as i was retired and even if i was ignorant i know enough to understand that my system was not so much the problem but it was instead acoustical, mechanical and electrical noise floor problems...

In a word i studied acoustics to understand and i begun to  listen very  critically . Without these concepts in acoustics i could go nowhere , with them i begun to understand the sound body in the room for my ears ...

For an acoustician sound is related to specifics parameters...

We must learn by playing with these parameters.

Then problem solved. It takes me 2 years though full time, i am no crafty man i read and advised about reading analysis all my life. I never designed anything .😁

I designed my dedicated room and all acoustics devices... It was a success because i learned so much.

i listen music now in ectasy with a low cost system which is perfect in the specific window limits of the gear design i own  for sure...

Then to solve the problem asked me to stay  in analysis mode the two years it takes me to understand acoustics basic but it was each new day more and more fun like a challenge ...After it was done i never felt the need to go in analysis mode again . 😊

Now i dont need to be analytical because the sound quality is balanced and detailed enough and the others characteristics are optimal for what i have...

Even if upgrade is possible it is not even tempting because of price difference ( 10 times at least what i had paid) and my actual satisfaction ..

In fact as  some owners of very costlier system  may see me from above as a deluded cheap audiophile , i myself see them from my perspective as unlucky owner of very costly gear they probably  never learned to optimize in many cases ...😁

Creativity makes us proud. money cannot buy that . And in near listening with my modified speakers and TOP headphone believe me i feel on the Himalaya for a free ride (1000 bucks) not in a stopgap...

Conclusion : read about acoustics science .. play with the parameters and have fun at no cost if you have time and a room for sure... it is not for everyone...

😊

 

I don’t know how one can’t see the clear difference between these two things:
a) person listens to music they like
b) person presses “play” and then immediately goes into “analysis mode,” scrutinizing the fidelity of the audio.

I don’t know how a person could actually undertake the process of maximizing the level of satisfaction their home audio provides without being person b).

 

I have never met anyone who listens like that nor have I read posts by those poor people. If you can provide links to posts by all the Audiophile Billies around here I’ll be happy to read them and maybe learn something. I guess I just don’t read those threads.

Look for half of the people who upgrade in a race they call their hobby with no acoustics experience about what is transient or what is really  a timbre acoustic parameters...

I was one unsatisfied and i did not know what to do at all nor where to begin....

Before i studied and experimented with acoustics after my retirement because i had time and the dedicated room to use...

Billy cannot know he is ignorant acoustically he felt it as unsatisfaction and cannnot do anything save buying to solve his uncomfort... To solve a problem you must be able to pose it conceptually no ?

My best from one past Billy .... Now mahgister ... 😉

 

Upgrading without ever learning about acoustics is  very often deluding ourselves...

Billy is not a strawman it is an existing  character... It is who i was before learning and experimenting ...

My name was Billy ...😊

He described me.😁 Are you saying that i was the only one Billy here?

Reading audio threads there is a crowd of Billy here who are like i was not so long ago  ...

Many upgrade because they dont know what else to do to improve what they own already which is good but not enough when you read marketing stuff without reading about acoustics, and mechanical and electrical working dimensions controls which are the optimizations solutions not buying a costlier piece each time ...

Billy is a great rarity or doesn’t exist at all. A strawman to use for the sake of argument.

You can keep an eye on what’s going on in audio and do upgrades from time to time and still be very happy with the sound you have now. I think that audio is progressing and it makes sense to keep up with what’s new.

 

Very good description! thanks ...

These anxieties resulted in my own experience  from the inability  and incapacities to face the problem  save throwing money  and more upgrade toward an acoustic ideal the consumers had no idea about conceptually and experimentally...

 It is why acoustics  is my cure and the only cure to upgraditis... ( acoustics knowledge is not passive treatment of room but a science about sound experiences)

Fred is actually enjoying the beauty, wonderment, emotional richness, mental stimulation, perhaps even transcendence that music provides.  
Billy is a ball of anxiety, angst and minutiae-scrutinizing madness.
That’s the issue and “the angst.” 

It was not really a hobby for me to have a really good sound experience, It was a life or death question almost, a passionnate obsession.

Because i was retired and i had time more and more to listen to music, i was not happy with a mediocre sound on all acoustics aspects..

 

Then my hobby self transformed from listening the music to listening my system...😁

Not a pleasant experience at all. because this focus may kill musical enjoyment .😁

 

Then without being conscious of it i begun to read about "tweaks"... At first minerals and quarz tweaks ... Then i explore all minerals effects on sound... i bought many stones... It was more fun than changing cable and more instructive...😊

 

Then i explored vibrations and resonance controls in my non satisfying 9 headphones of many types... I succeeded in modifying them all for the better ... But i was not satisfied...I takes speakers experiments anew after selling my Tannoy which were too big and after few trying experiences with few brand names i settle for the best Mission speakers.

I was not happy with them either anyway...😁

Then the real hobby begun, i read about acoustics concepts in scientific articles and few books and this inspired my set of tempting new experiments...

Each new concepts inspired me for a new experiment.

I discovered my new hobby : acoustics experiments in my dedicated room full time each day...

This last 2 years...

I used a balance of reflective-absorbing- and diffusive surfaces and devices... All homemade for cost reason ... 😁

I used secondary but very powerful devices at low cost as a grid of Schumann generators.. Ionizers too ...My own shielding device for cables and gear and speakers...

I used a very huge grid of tuned by ears and hands 100 Helmoltz resonators at the end of the process... Size of them and their parts being critical, and i used specific location distribution in the room ... The grid was like a snake head and tail near each of the speakers drivers and around the room and near my listening position. i used a foldable screen (wood one) with the right surface materials as an acoustic lens ...

In short at the end my soundfield was ambiophonic, holographic detailed as headphone with completely out of the head soundstage ... All my headphones were like trash can compared to this...

For the first time i listened to the original recording acoustics trade off choices of the recording engineer in so much details that differences betwwen albums were stunning...

Even bad albums were interesting because i could hear the acoustics original choices in my room as if i was there, it works specially well with many well recorded one ... My room was no more a nuisance or an impediment ...

 

Then i loose my room ... And my speakers ...😂

 

 

I was so sad i quit audiogon for a year...I had nothing to say anymore... 😂

 

I came back after extensive experiment on a select headphone i never optimize completely before and which was promising.... It takes me 6 months working on it : the AKG K340 the only world hybrid with an acoustic set of resonators inside... very hard for me to understand its working i even read the Dr. Gorike patent 😊...It was not easy to optimize it and make it shine... But i succeed3ed and this headphone now gave me a speaker like sound "outside of the head" if the recording is made in Great Hall or church or well done in studio...

 

But i wanted speakers too ... The problem i did not have money as usual for buying costly good one... The only one i had was the one i hated for 12 years since i bought them. They had universal good reviews but were trash to my ears i never used them for music.😁

But acoustics and Helmholtz helped me ...😊

Speakers are resonators and with a porthole they are perfect Helmholtz resonators... But Why the porthole designers present us with a neck of zero lenght ?

For marketing and esthetical reason not acoustic reasons ... 😁 Some creative designers use internal labyrinthic porthole... This inspired me ...

Then i modified them by adding a complex bundles of straws of different size behind inside the porthole from 3 feet lenght to few inches with slight variation in diameter... i used my ears as for my room resonators for the tuning...the fun part...

The improvement were going from trash to TOP speakers with 80 hertz instead of 50 hertz now ... no frequencies bad interaction ...A timbre natural and detailed... A soundfield encompassing which beat all my headphones save the mighty AKG K340 modified which go from 25 hertz and is my first audiophile tool of choice now...

But the tweeter guide wave form i modified it too... At the end i also tune the speakers with damping load, vibrations/resonance materials under them and around them a shield of my own design.... others homemade tweaks too with min erals and shumann cheap generators...

i designed them for near listening in a dedicated acoustic corner of my basement... It was perfect ...

At the end i could listen music on them and they beat almost my past speakers or rival them on many acoustics aspects...

Think about it : low cost active modified chinese speakers : M-Audio AV40

 

Lesson : I had learned acoustics, i did not  need other hobby now save listening music 5 hours each day....I walk , cycle and read ...

 

Acoustics rules audio not price tags ...