The Method of Tuning


System Playback has been evolving ever since the first stereos came out. Folks who have success can’t imagine listening to a system that has not been tuned, folks who haven’t been as successful in their listening tend to go off on their "snake oil" rants. People who buy from the "Recommended Component" list have their Plug & Play approach. The guys using measuring have their camp certainly, and there’s several other audio types out there that have their beliefs to add to the mix. Who’s correct? Well if we can remove our personal egos from this question, they (we) all are correct. The approach that you take as a listener is as legitimate as the next guys, to you. We try pushing our particular belief system on others because we are passionate about it. We have our likes and dislikes and we also have our own reasons why something does work or our blames why it doesn’t. The audiophile world has as many chapters as religious believers has denominations. It’s just the way our minds are built, you grew up on skippy, you peter pan, and you jiff. The audiophile world forgets sometimes just how many opinions and beliefs there really are, until they meet up on places like these audio forums and begin to mix this big bowl of ingredients together.

I’ve started this thread so I can share what I have learned through watching all these mixers turned on and being stuck in the bowl with each other and also from the point of view of someone who has "Tuned" many thousands of you, and have picked up on your own personal developments as masters of your own systems. So before we get going let me tell you something important. No one on the planet of listening "does" audio the way you do. You are unique, and you are a specialist when it comes to your audio adventure. You are all a salesman, because you want others to have that same level of success you enjoy. Audio reviewers, recording producers, component designers and end users are all in the same boat. You might have one or the other on a higher level than the rest, but that really has little relevance when your sitting there with your system and it’s just you and it.

What I would like to do with this thread is level the playing field and talk to you about the oldest technology in all of music (both playing & replaying). Tuning is the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other and every single one of you (us) Tune. We may want to call it something else that sounds more HEA (high end audio) ish, but no matter what we choose to call it, it’s all about taking the audio variables and making them work together. This is what I have been doing all of my personal and professional life. This is also what you have been doing ever since you started to play or playback music.

Just some ground rules for this thread.

First have fun. No one gets anywhere in music if their not enjoying it. If your a sour puss, don’t be surprised if we call you out as one. Personally I don’t mind or care if your a sour puss or not, but speaking for myself, I only have so much time in the day, and if this thread gets too sidetracky & tacky I’ll have better things to do, like making music money, which is a ton of fun.

Second I’m a designer/manufacturer. I am Michael Green of RoomTune and Michael Green Audio. I would imagine over the years 10,000-15,000 Agoners have used my products, maybe more maybe less, maybe only 2 people here have bought some of my stuff. The point is we sell audio products and if someone happens to buy them from this thread don’t get all bent out of shape, sales happen. Also if other designers come up and share their ideas, again try not to get all bent out of shape. Every single one of you are going to have and or get ideas from this thread or about this thread, or about the length of my hair (lol). As far as I am concerned everyone who has a stereo system has a product they want to sell, either physical or intellectually. So? It’s all part of the same soup as far as I am concerned.

Third I and others who come to this thread are free to post long posts. Some topics are not one sentence topics, and this will probably be the case here simply because we will be talking all things audio. And I should throw this in, let me the OP decide if something is off topic.

And last, if I disappear don’t take it like I don’t care. I’m a busy son of a gun and sometimes need a week or 2 to get caught up. Lately I’ve been posting and boring you a lot up here, but when the bell rings for me I’ve got to answer. I work on the US during the day and overseas during the night so that only leaves room for cat naps at best. Everyone here is important and I respect that, and I apologize in advance for my tardiness at times.

I’m ready for some fun are you?

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

128x128michaelgreenaudio

Tj, it is great to see you!!

Tj is a "Tunee" (we call ourselves), a member of TuneLand and someone who has recently installed his Tunable Room. Tj is a serious audiophile using Sonus Faber, Audio Research, my stuff and other goodies. What he has to share is possibly more important than me, because he has that 3rd person experience that I think is so important when a designer is presenting something.

So Tj this should be lots of fun.

Yes, I am referring to the Acoustics and also the whole audio chain.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Hi Adrian

Here is some reading you might find helpful while I'm doing this thread.

http://tuneland.forumotion.com/t268-the-audio-code

Also while your on TuneLand, you can read up on listeners Tuning their systems in real time pretty much all the way back to 2004, when I started the first TuneLand forum.

One thing that I have always found interesting is, even though there were many reviews on me (and products) and many reports of me at Reviewers' homes or recording studios tuning, somehow HEA as a whole hasn't made Tuning a declaration or connected the dots that Plug & Play is just the beginning of this hobby. And it's not just about me, but think about how many manufacturers and DIY products and projects there have been, and are, that allow hobbyist to change their sound. And another interesting thing to me is, when people try stuff in their systems to see what it does most of the time they're not thinking about the big picture of "everything affects everything else". Plugging or placing something in the audio chain is only the first step in working with our systems as a whole. There's a thread that goes from the beginning (studio) to the end (ears & brain) that is fragile and extremely flexible. Too much of something will make distortion and too little will do the same. That's why I'm going to get into things like the Recorded Code, Audio Code, Audio Chain and Audio language. Any of these can be easily confused. Like for example, a common problem for folks when talking about the audio code many don't understand that the word analog is used as an audio signal term and an audio language term. Analog and Digital are audio languages, but as soon as that language starts to travel through a conduit hosting it, it is now analog the signal. There's a ton of this stuff in our hobby that get intermingled and with that topics and debates can spin all over the place and they don't really need to.

We have 3 basic parts to audio Acoustical, Mechanical and Electrical (the audio trilogy) and they really aren't all that difficult to understand and put to use. But the nature of many EEs get things screwed up, and fast. I've worked with some EEs and they get it and others that have never had a clue how the audio chain works as a whole. But we hopefully will cover all of this here.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

To make it more graphic if I am correct, air pressure waves are similar to water? watch a small wave reflect off the hard surface it meets? And the gets jumbled up in corners or other obstacles? I hope I am on the right track...
Hi Michael

First of all great to see you here !! I for one have been listening to what Michael have been saying over the years about the methode of tuning. Its amazing as I began this hobby mamy years ago from a basic understanding and concept of listening and tuning my system based on first reflection, moving  speakers away from boundries etc etc. I guess most of us here have read and performed this many times. Only when Michael started talking about pressure zones/laminar flow and on how its affecting our system that took me of to another world of tuning in this hobby. Im sure hell thankful on how much you have contributed over years and giving an in depth understanding on the methode of tuning.

Now to answer about what Michael has been saying that music is always in motion, correct me if im wrong but I believe you are talking about bubbles of pressure zones within our listening area which are affected by objects that are placed within those zones. If that area is of high pressure area (near walls, tri-corner regions) the effect will be more pronounced and if that area is not so pressurized there will still be an audible change but the impact maybe lesser. Now I never realized about it untill I started paying more attention to it after reading about it more on your website. Just by moving my platforms slightly forward or back it had a profound effect towards my soundstage. Over the years of messing around my listening space using your concept has brought out the best listening expereince I have ever had in my system. Some of those recordings that sounded pretty awful now just sounds amazing.

This is where it truly got me thinking on what actually affects the most in our listening expereince (equipments or tuning) !! 

Michael,

Thank you for your posts. Saves me buying a book, or hunting down previous posts on similar subjects. I don't mind folks having their say either. I personally (I hate those 2 words together), would like to see if I can get the most out of my system. Even if I am in Australia, I can listen (to my music), read your posts (and learn), and if needs be, do business if I think it will help. Oh, And I love all music, but I am a baby boomer so I have the 60, 70 and 80s preference!

Adrian

What is your amp and DAC? I have never heard an audio component not change sound when moved from one place to the next. Nor has any client I have or any person I know, but that's ok. If your setup is playing all your recordings to your liking you are in a good place.

Musical Fidelity M6si amplifier and Schiit Yggdrasil DAC. And yes, my setup is playing all of my recordings to my liking. 

Yep, life is good!

However, most of the folks who contact me want to go deeper into their listening experience.

Let me give you a recent example. A fella from south america (recording artist) has been looking for a system that lets him focus more on the acoustical guitar and certain drums and cymbals overtones and space. With a tunable setup he was able to do this plus a lot more that makes his contentment level even more rewarding.

As I said in my OP all is ok, but everyone has their own all. You having yours makes me nothing but happy for you. At the same time I doubt this particular listener down there would be very content without having the flexibility he is now experiencing.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

We can spend the rest of our listening lives replacing components and we will never come to a completely satisfying set of results. Why? Because audio is variable, audio systems and environments are variable, and we ourselves are variable, and what's more the Earth is variable.
Or we can spend the rest of our listening lives just listening and being content with the fact that it's one more day we find ourselves alive.

Hi gdhal

"Hi Michael. May I ask, what (band/genre,etc.) is your music preference?"

mg

Everything.

" Curious because - among other reasons - the music I prefer and listen to regularly is live (recorded) Grateful Dead and extended family. That stated, you mention tuning as being the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other. Joni Mitchell is within the scope of Grateful Dead extended family, and she regularly and purposely tuned her guitar "out" of tune. It sounds spectacular, actually."

mg

Yep, I love Joni too. 

"To your statement about audio being in motion, unless this is applicable to my listening while driving, no, the simple act of moving my amp, DAC or whatever from shelf one to shelf two has no effect. If you get confused, listen to the music play. Best."

mg

What is your amp and DAC? I have never heard an audio component not change sound when moved from one place to the next. Nor has any client I have or any person I know, but that's ok. If your setup is playing all your recordings to your liking you are in a good place.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

So Michael, your telling us stuff we already know.

Yep, this is pretty easy stuff, no mysteries and no debate. Every time any of us move our system around we get a new sound. Now lets get into something else.

Lets play 5 different songs. They all sound different right? Each one of them has a unique arrangement of notes and everything that associates with notes. Now lets take 5 different recordings from different LPs (can be CD vinyl or whatever). Notice that the recordings all sound different? So, each song sounded different and each recording sounded different. Now if you have eaten your wheaties move that system into another space. Play the same 5 songs and then play the same 5 LPs. Yep your right, they all sounded different than in the original space. Go ahead, move your speaker placement around, they still sound different. Bring the same audio furniture into the room, they still sound different. Go ahead and build 2 identical rooms next to each other, and yep rats, they still sounded different. No matter how many different configurations you play with something is different.

Take a look at your music collection. Every single one of these songs sound different, and every LP and every system location sounded different. The reality of playback is if you think about it, there are billions of variable variations. The chances of us playing our whole collection on one stereo to our liking is impossible. We can spend the rest of our listening lives replacing components and we will never come to a completely satisfying set of results. Why? Because audio is variable, audio systems and environments are variable, and we ourselves are variable, and what's more the Earth is variable.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Hi Michael. May I ask, what (band/genre,etc.) is your music preference? Curious because - among other reasons - the music I prefer and listen to regularly is live (recorded) Grateful Dead and extended family. That stated, you mention tuning as being the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other. Joni Mitchell is within the scope of Grateful Dead extended family, and she regularly and purposely tuned her guitar "out" of tune. It sounds spectacular, actually. To your statement about audio being in motion, unless this is applicable to my listening while driving, no, the simple act of moving my amp, DAC or whatever from shelf one to shelf two has no effect. If you get confused, listen to the music play. Best.


Let me start off by telling you a couple of things about audio. Audio isn’t a solid mass without motion. 1hz-30,000hz is motion. It’s called lots of names, signal, oscillation, frequencies responses, variable dynamics and dozens more. Whatever your favorite terms are they probably apply. The point is we are on a moving, spinning and timely space. Because music is on the lower end of the frequency scale you are going to have motion and audio itself as part of that motion as an energy source. Now I don’t really care how some of you want to debate what the audio signal actually is. I’m more interested diving right in and you showing yourself that audio is motion. Best way to show you that audio is motion is something you all have already done. Take a component of yours (can be electronic or speaker or whatever) and move it from one surface to another and listen to how the sound has changed. It may be very little or it may be a big change, but a change happened. If you didn’t hear a change we’ll get to that, but most of you can hear the difference. This is your simple test to prove to yourself that audio is motion.

Since audio is motion (you heard it yourself) that means that audio conduits are tunable. No need to over think it, motion and the movement of motion means variable, and that means tunable.

So lets knock out our first fact.

The components you have at your place (environment) taken to a different space will perform differently. Again maybe slightly and maybe a lot. Go ahead and do it. Setup a system in one room at your house and then take that system and set it up in another space. It’s going to sound different. Your system performs Acoustically, mechanically and electrically different when it is in a different environment.

think about that one and I’ll be back

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net