What do you think of my 25 laws of audio


The Laws of High Quality Audio.

1. The bigger the sound system the better.
2. The more powerful the sound system the better.
3. There is no such thing as a sound system that is too big.
4. There is no such thing as a sound system that is too powerful.
5. You will always find that no matter how big you build the system it is never quite big enough.
6. You will always find that no matter how much power you have there never seems to be quite enough.
7. No matter how deep and powerful the bass sounds, it will always seem to be not quite deep enough and not quite powerful enough.
8. No matter how clear and detailed the treble sounds, you will always feel that it could be improved.
9. Achieving audio perfection is absolutely impossible no matter how much money you spend.
10. No matter how much money you spend you will always feel that the system is not quite as good as it could be.
11. If you think that your system sounds perfect then there must be something seriously wrong with it or something seriously wrong with you.
12. All your friends think that your system sounds much better than you do.
13. The longer you listen to your own system the worse it seems to sound.
14. Any dissatisfaction with a new system, no matter how slight, will always become greater as time goes on.
15. Any new pieces of equipment added to the system will always sound excellent initially but nowhere near as good when you get used to them.
16. Regularly listening to poor equipment for extended periods is good because it seems to make good equipment sound much better.
17. Regularly listening to good equipment for extended periods seems to make poor equipment sound absolutely dreadful and probably worse than it really is.
18. Any person’s opinion on the sound quality of a system is completely worthless because someone else will have a different opinion.
19. Any alterations you make to the system to improve it, no matter how extensive, will never improve it to the extent you wanted it to.
20. No matter how good your system sounds, there will always be someone else with a system that sounds better.
21. You will always detect a difference between the sound qualities of two identical systems and never know why they sound different.
22. Any attempt to match different makes of equipment together will never work out quite as you originally intended.
23. Improving any individual part of the system will always make some other part of the system seem worse than it was before.
24. If you build a big listening room you will be very pleased with the result, but when you get used to it you will convince yourself that the room needs to be bigger.
25. An infinitely huge attempt to achieve perfection would at best only produce a system that was infinitesimally close to perfection, but still not perfect.
chiefmegawatty
My experience's have shown just the opposite of most of your Laws of audio.... In fact the smaller, more simple systems sound better.

About the only one I agree with is #9. Thats very true indeed.
There's too much focus here on big and power and not the real magic in the music that so few audio systems out there are able to portray. Interesting as I too only see a hint of validity to #9 and perhaps in #24 but "wonder" rather than "convince" would be my word of choice here.
I also disagree with most of the "Big and Powerful" stuff. It's like adolescents comparing, well you know what. Though it does dovetail nicely with your moniker I guess. You should check out some SET amps sometime and see/hear that sometimes smaller is better. Happy listening!
Post removed 
Your list is pretty funny.

After 16 and 17 : a trip into the woods for two days or more will delight you with the quality of your system on your return.

And I like number 20 : no matter how happy I am, there is always someone happier than me. And conversely. When I compare, I get into all sorts of trouble !
Chiefmegawatty, my man, you seem like a dude who is interested in Real Ultimate Power.

Which is totally sweet, and by totally sweet I mean AWESOME!!! Ninjas are sooooooooo freaking sweet! They'll flip out and kill you, and not think twice about it. :-)

John
Good job John, the R.U.P. website is a good example of getting your point across without 25 laws.
John,

I just saw "Real Ultimate Power" for the first time on Friday night. I about wet my pants! Haven't had a laugh like that in a long time. It doesn't even matter if it is real or a well conceived hoax, it is really funny either way.

Enjoy,

TIC
Is it just me, or do most of those actually mean pretty much the same thing?
If you really believe 1-6 you need to move to Trinidad @ Tobago, as any soundsystem has, at the minimum, 15" woofers and it only goes up from there, the biggest I saw was an entire Semi-trailer sized soundsystem outside the bar at Maracas bay.
P.S. oh and I am very satisfied with both power and volume with my Eagle 4 hooked up to my modded JBL L-200s.
Chiefmegawatty: With a toungue and cheek sense of humor, you have summed-up the totally nuerotic behavior of this hobby! Bravo! By the shear fact that some readers are remotely taking you serious, is further testimony to their own form of nuerosis. Sad part of it is, there is more truth to your statements than many of us would care to admit to. Excuse me now, for I must go and listen to my $29.95 Emerson boom box for awhile, so I can appreciate the countless hours/dollars I have spent on my megamusicsystem.
Tim
Well if you want big and powerful I use to own professional 4343 JBL Monitors 4 ways weighted in at about 200 pounds each,could vibrate a 3 story window facing on an apartment complex,and rocked hard for folks out in a middle of a football field used as a parade ground.Those were the days alright.
I am having a hard time hearing now I wonder why!
I had to sell them in the early 80's because I was loosing my hearing.What was that you said? Huh Huh?
I agree completely. Your list merely skims the surface, though. Consider adding another 50-75 laws to flesh it out a little.
Hi Chaps,

I was only really having a bit of fun.
I didn't mean to offend anyone.
Please forgive me if I have done so.
Post removed 
I live in Bristol, UK and I have been building up a big system slowly as the money allows.
I am using a line-up of eight Tannoy 15" Dual Concentric speakers in big cabinets driven by a stack of 500W power mosfet power amplifiers.
The sound is rich, lush and powerful with superb imaging
and extraordinary bass extension and impact.
The bass can cause modulation of your own voice and de-focuses your eye sight, I am not joking.
If you think I am mad, then I think you are right.
The original idea was to try to build a system of studio sound quality which is capable of high sound pressure levels.
I find very loud, very deep bass quite some experience which I would recommend to anyone to try.
Best way to describe it is like a "shudder" that makes you feel kind of strange and makes your trousers flap against your legs. Normal/average Hi Fi doesn't seem to produce this kind of sound unfortunately.
Hi Tvad,

Well I have been pissed off for many years because I was born a British person.
I dearly wish I had been born in the USA.
I love everything about the USA and I hate the UK.
The UK was a good place to live 40 years ago, but is now a horrible place especially if you love engineering and science.
Post removed 
Hi Tvad,
I suspect you are referring to types of enjoyment
and pleasure other than the audio type.
Just curious do the Tannoy's have horns?.The big JBL's had I think 2340 compression horn drivers that would put out extreme high SPL Levels.It also had a seperate enclosure for the 15 inch bass driver and a seperate enclosure for the 10 inch midbass driver.
Chiefmegawatty
"Well I have been pissed off for many years because I was born a British person.
I dearly wish I had been born in the USA.
I love everything about the USA and I hate the UK."
After all of the USA bashing coming out of the EU, you're statement is quite refreshing! But remember that EVERY country or society has its positive and negative points. If you like engineering and science, try a PAC-rim country or India. Our "educational" system is turning out a generation of morons, who will be unable to compete in the global science and engineering fields in the near future!

God Save The Queen! And may God bless us all! Cheerio!
Dear 76doublebass: Dat's wat I talking bout Mon! Big ass JBL's with Steel Pulse pulsating out "Chant a Psalm" or "Steppin Out" Now dat be a righteous riddem Mon!
Chiefmeggawatty: wish I had your system back in college when we threw reggae dance parties. Anyone from Rochester NY in the early 80's remember Scorgies and bands like the Itals or Bahama Mama? some SPL's!
The Tannoy's have an exponential compression HF horn that is concentrically mounted behind the bass drive cone and fires through the dust dome of the bass cone.
The HF compression diaphragm is mounted at the rear of the drive unit magnet and is spaced back from the bass cone by one half wavelength at the crossover frequency of 1 Khz.
The HF compression driver is connected out of phase to the bass cone due to it's half wavelength displacement.
All frequencies therefore leave the drive unit in phase and as a point source due to its dual concentric design.
The HF compression driver also has a phase compensating multiple throat for reduced distortion and wide dispersion.
Tannoy dual concentric speakers are used in 80% of the worlds recording studios.
The coaxial/concentric design does make them sound rather
special and lovely.
Don't take my word for it, try a pair and see what you think. I am certain you will not be disappointed.
The flagship model has the whole 15" drive unit mounted in a giant 500 litre compound horn loaded cabinet.
Sadly these are £15,000 per pair.

The USA has absolutely amazing and fantastic engineering.
Here are the examples to prove it.
Saturn five, landing on the moon, space shuttle, space station.
All absolutely amazing and superb achievements of engineering and science.
I have nothing other than total admiration for the USA.
All americans I have met in the UK have been really friendly, great fun, and generous.
I am with the Chief on this one. The ultimate listening sweet spot, I say: From inside a cannon during the 1812 Overture.

We here in the land of the Burning Bush salute you and please, let’s have God continue saving as many queens as possible. Hello?

8>(
I agree especially if you have a fairly large room. I am always trying to replicate live music and am not sure it will ever happen. To get big dynamics and big soundstage you need big electronics
Yes, a big room makes a huge difference even to a moderate
system.
I think that trying to produce realistic sound in an average
British house is an absolute waste of effort.
The houses are just too small.
Modern British houses are getting smaller and smaller. Eventually it will be difficult to fit humans inside them,
never mind Hi Fi equipment.

Plinko: Is that because you think they are SET in their ways? Actually, most SET proponents are extremely open-minded: there's even a poem written by one in praise of experimentation entitled "Try Ode."
Yeah, imagine if it was Moses and the TWENTY FIVE COMMANDMENTS. We'd have a world full of sinners for such blasphemy as farting in an EMPTY elevator.
Well, actually Gunbei, it did start out as 25 commandments. Moses couldn't carry all the tablets, so he just brought the top ten. From my religious philosophy classes in high school, I do recall that farting in an elevator was number 23. It's been several years, so I'm not positive about that though. :-)
Jmc, your memory is indeed faulty. Although XXIII on Moses’ original Tablets, farting was only a sin if done using a blowtorch while building a Golden Calf (which already was a “Top Ten” no-no), so XXIII became expendable. Elevator flatulence has been a perfectly acceptable custom in many cultures. I believe it was also mentioned in Otis’ patent application.

8>(
Hi Fatparrot,
Thanks for that very interesting information.
Exactly the same thing has been happening here in the UK
since about 1985.
Three is a strong "dumbing down" going on in our educational
system.
Being an engineer I find this very sad indeed.
For anyone interested in finding out more about Tannoy dual
concentric loudspeakers, visit the following:
http://www.hilberink.nl/speaker.htm

There is a lot of information on this site.

Comments welcome.
John,

I think you're wrong. According to Mel Brooks, there were 20 original commandments, heheh.

Dean
Dean,

Mel Brooks is a comic genius, not a serious religious researcher such as myself. :-)

John
How terribly, terribly sad. Get outside, people. Experience the world.

This was done tongue-in-cheek and it's mindblowing to me that there are so many people that a) took it seriously, and b) had issues or corrections for it.
Chief, I especially agree with 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15. And it's a good laugh too. I wouldn't mind you thinking up another 75 rules. Although I shouldn't like your system, since it is opposite to mine, it sounds impressive.....