Critical listening and altered states
Oh, my aging brain! ;o/ I didn't intend to post such an incomplete (and possible cryptic) message. What I mean to to ask was whether you view "sweetness of tone" as inherent to the violin and regard any stridency as an artifact of poor audio performance or whether you have deliberately configured your headphone system to present a "sweeter" tonality simply because it's what you prefer, esthetically. |
Very good question! thanks. I optimized my K340 (6 modifications ) in 6 months of experiments and thinking... I dont liked it so much after buying it , i experimented with it because i had no other choices after the selling of my house and my first dedicated room. One this is said i do not "reconfigured" the K340.. The K340 has a dedicated cell for bass, a dedicated cell for highs frequencies.. I cannot reconfigure that without destructing his amazing properties linked to the right crossover point at 4,000 Hertz and to his dual acoustic chamber with 5 tuned resonators. I only optimized it helping his working pieces to reach their peak potential...( --suppression of the protective thick grid, --right pads which is very important because the size of the pads and their acoustic properties are critical matter for the dual chamber optimal working,--equalization,--right amplification is critical,control of resonance and vibration with 2 different materials,-- a dac cleaner than warm )
Now when i spoke about the Highs as "honey" i was referring to exceptional recording of violin acoustically... (Tacet Vivaldi tube only recording for example ) With a bad recording i will not get this "flying" wings of angels with violin... I had other recordings of violin way less spectacular...The highs are not as spectacular...They are only good without any stressing effect... But i had none with stridency and stressful sound... Stridency of violins result most of the times from the gear synergy or bad design in my experience...Or someimes but more rarely from bad recordings i guess.. I remember the horrible highs of my planar Hifiman 400 driven by two dacs and 2 amp very popular 10 years ago which were strident and horrible, unnatural, especially badly driven... Also my low cost Stax presented unnatural highs... But not the Stax SR5 gold though which was good in tonality and timbre...Not as natural as the K340 at all though... Naturalness of timbre is the most difficult factor to get right with headphone... I never succeed with any of the three types of headphones i owned (10 headphones) only the K340 did it for me, once i learned how to use this complex headphone, criticized once by reviewer who think that they can plug it on anything and call it job done..( they described the integration of the 2 cells are unsuccessful. I know now why they experienced this ) i think AKG discarded it after few years because it was too costly to produce it and make big profit and too costly to optimize it and improve it... They created another flagship the K1000 (apparently no deep bass but good spatialization). ( Kennerton official few years ago say to me they do not go on with the idea to create a real good hybrid because of the ratio cost/profit for research and manufacturing and the K340 is not a portable headphone with a low impedence etc )
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@mahgister ...an image search, and it's yours. ;) Cover up that delicti corpus that age threatens all with....;) Somehow I've managed to pass on the pudge ...127 @ 5'7", down from 150's @ 5'11"...always preferred nimble over strength, although the latter has usually been enough.... The carriage rattles 'n prattles along....music keeps the witless knitted to varied degrees..... I like my bad habits....they seem to have kept yours unruly mostly heaped up. |
My goal with high end audio has always been to induce high levels of ASC without the need for other stimulants/mind altering additions. Perhaps this has something to do with my experiences with hallucinogens at live concerts in which visual stimuli far overwhelmed aural stimuli. I can't recall a single thing about the music or sound, all my memories wrapped up in the visual, specifically, sometimes the performers became the actual, physical instruments they were playing. Hallucinogens worked best for me out in nature, nature's vast visual stimuli was totally engrossing, again can't recall any aural stimuli. Best trips by far for me was in relatively quiet environments, nature best provided that.
As for creating new and/or better ASC experiences, perhaps that's the very thing that drives at least some audiophiles. We continually try to improve our systems in order to derive some greater connection with the music. In recent years I've been quite content with the performance of my system and connection to the music. Every listening session results in total engagement with the musicians, the sense of living, breathing performers in the room doesn't take much if any effort. In retrospect I can recall all the years in which it took a fair amount of 'mind tricks' in order to reach deep engagement levels, the result was stress which foreshortened listening sessions and formulations as to how I could improve my system. Every listening session these days is a unique experience directed by the Roon robot (random play mode) which chooses the next artist on play list. I'm being taken on a mind excursion trip in whichever direction the robot and artist choose to take me. I'm liking this vs me being the director, so I guess this relatively new ASC experience.
I'm at point where my system can provide a SUSTAINING ASC experience, while the memories or lessons learned from using various mind altering substances can last a lifetime, they can't provide a 'natural' or sustaining ASC experience, they are 'manufactured' experiences in the sense they physically alter our brain chemistry. While it is true all ASC experiences result in brain chemistry changes, better for emotions/feelings to change it vs various physical substances. |
