First of all I would like to thank you all for accepting my comments as sincere, and it is great that I was not perceived as one of these self-privileged brochure smart audio-snobs, which I do not think I am. I get my kicks and satisfaction by leaving a job, knowing that my work has deeply touched and enhanced someone’s listening and viewing pleasure, because I know the feeling of discovery and amazement as well. I will never forget setting up a pair of (hard to make em sing- they cost too much-hand me another tube- puppy something) for a professional piano player, and the first song I put on by Cole Porter quickly brought her to tears, her old system never did that to her before.
Most readers are correct to point out that speaker and room interaction are paramount. I set up 3 pro sound studios, one BIG one in NY where I made minor adjustments to the main monitors toe in , where I heard them merge into a single focused image of a voice in front of me. The engineers were amazed at how their monitors just disappeared into the room, and sound was emanating from mostly behind them in a u shape arc, clearly revealing the stereo spread. I was surprised to find these pro’s not too aware of high end, then again this was not their “shpiel” it was mine, they know their job very well, and that’s to mix, not to set up speakers, or worry bout wires & acoustics.
I first recognize the room characterizing, and then look at the speakers, the amount of bass energy, size of drivers, ports , what they do, metal tweeters/ soft domes, each of these factors will play a role in placement, and then it is quite simple for the trained ear to hear the distance and toe in needed, which will always result in some symmetry between the listener and the speakers. Bringing the speakers closer will fill in and focus the center and the bass, very much like a lens in a photo camera., while narrowing the reverberant and the out of phase field. Too much of this and too much frequency overlap will result, leading again to a muddy mess. It is a balance act, where once symmetry is achieved, everything just snaps into focus, crystal clear, like a switch.
As far as cable name dropping, sorry, much experience, and too much hype product mixed in with the good stuff. Cables I mentioned are all indeed very different, they all have a different job to do. In a system that lacks realism and is plagued with glair and solid state like hardness, I plug in the MIT which is like a long cap, and walah! It’s real I tell ya. On a laid back system, something like mit would shut it even more down, hence I go with something more lean and faster sounding. Or if I have a pair of hard speakers, and a solid state monster, a pair of cardas in the mix, is like adding a good tube amp to the mix. So like I said before , each has to find his own special magic formula.
Only other thing I see, and I am guilty of from time to time is in over tweaking, I just can’t help myself. A lot of tweaks out there result in what is first perceived as a favorable improvement in fidelity, but most of the time is a short-term illusion that really results in loss of speed and the seamlessness in the music. We all know what it is, one way to induce this effect is, grab a brick and place it on your amp, cd, whatever, the sound WILL change, and at first you hear, tighter more round bass, the highs are really distinct and come from a very black background, and sometimes a sense of depth comes in. But after a while you become bored with your new system sound, because if you notice, every recording will bare too similar of a sound, something is wrong. Removing the tweak, restores the bass slam, the speed of transient snap, and the highs and the note decay seems to last longer! As in real life. If a recording was recorded bad, then it should sound bad, but a good recording will then sound very different, and VERY good, because the system is not imposing (compressing is the right term here) the signal . Sometimes a little bit of this tweak is good for a really “loose” sounding system (the cheaper the components the more tweaking helps) Plugging an amplifier into any power conditioner will in most cases have the power interface with a more resistive load with less ability to deliver current, and hence the volleyball bass effect., as I like to call it. Right away I stop, take a pause, recall what the big bass drum sounds like from the ampatheatre as well as row 3 listening to the Philharmonic at the Old Academy of the Arts, downtown, or from the best I have heard before, or me waking a drum head at my uncles pawn shop and I realize a drum is huge, fast and very resonant, with energy and slam, the initial strike being 1000 times the energy of the decay to immediately follow in a gentle exponential mathematical progression downward, this is where all systems suck, they just don’t have the speed and swing yet, and the sad part of it, even if they did, most of the source material lacks this information, I and my old country engineer father call presence, that would bridge the gap finally between live and the playback experience. I have not read a brochure in many years, so if I sound like one, I guess then not all of them are marketing BS. Great site for reading tech stuff, CARDAS and MIT. Their papers are solid scientific work, that has been used practically for over a decade, and as a consumer I like that, that’s why I don’t mind plugging companies that are true to their product integrity, and have awesome customer support, and are around to stand the test of time, AR,MF, Rowland, ok I will stop. I’m just here to give some experience away. Also putting things on paper helps me sort out my own thoughts, then I can come home, and just listen to the music, and be taken away someplace every time, and still say wow, before turning off the lights to the room.
