Once those semi-hammered people managed to steal a bunch of beers, they would become fully hammered and decide to take control of said ghetto blaster. It was bad enough fighting off drunks with their attempted sieges of my beer cooler ( who me and my friends would defend valiantly, or I would simply hide my beers in the toilet tank), I had to endure a ghetto blaster cranking out 100 dB at 300 % distortion blaring unbearably shitty music selected by drunks.
Most audiophiles that I know don't have those types of parties because their high end audio systems aren't designed for that kind of blaring. Like myself, they usually have a near heart attack should anyone venture within two feet of their stereo. The thought of drunks lunging at their multi-thousand dollar phono cartridge or treating their speakers like exotic beer coasters is too much to bear. Drunks can't hear midrange anyway, so they should be kept away from volume controls of any type.
I still go to parties, but I no longer drink and the volume levels of the music are usually at background levels. I usually spend my time on balconies smoking cigarettes and avoiding discussions about audio.
All this brings to mind a fundamental question. What is a stereo supposed to do ? Most people will readily answer that it is for playing music, unfortunately they have been misled. Audiophiles are lucky because they know otherwise, but preaching to the choir has its limitations. The real answer is that mainstream stereo equipment is designed to reproduce sound and nothing more, if one were to be brutally honest, one could say that they were designed to make noise. Noise, after all, is unwanted sound.
Long ago, as consumers, we lost our way. Non-audiophiles have been misled by large electronics corporations for decades. These tenets still hold true today. The erroneous belief that high performance can be achieved for a few hundred bucks, lots of knobs equals better sound and an equalizer will make a sound engineer out you are still in the collective consciousness. Don't even get me started on equalizers, but I will reserve that for another post. I still have recurring nightmares about those ridiculous marvels of crappy engineering.
The other unfortunate perception that the big players seem to have ingrained into the average stereo buyer is that high end audio is a scam. I have been hitting my head on the wall (figuratively) for years trying to explain this.... to little avail sometimes. It is simple however, you get exactly what you pay for. High bucks means high performance. Period. Unlike watches, where a cheap-ass digital watch is more accurate than a $10, 000 Patek Phillipe, a high end audio isn't ( or shouldn't be at any rate) purely a status symbol. In all fairness, I must admit that I have heard speakers that cost as much as that fancy watch, that I absolutely hated ( Infinity Intermezzo, pictured below).
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| Can be converted to a banjo. |
That might just be me being picky, but I have listened to a lot of gear over the years. It might boil down to taste, but I think it boils down to musicality.
I have been a Linn ( made in Scotland of course) disciple for many years and that might help explain it. I don't wear funny hats or indulge in secret handshakes, but have I developed a strange affinity for bagpipes over the years.
Linn and its founder, Ivor Tiefenbrun have their own particular philosophy towards audio and sound reproduction. That is sometimes enough to send many audiophiles in fits of apoplexy. Not unlike Harley Davidson, everyone seems to have an opinion about Linn. It's almost like some strange kind of cult, either you're a believer or your ready set fire to the non-believer's cars.
One of my old bosses at a high end audio shop used to positively despise Linn. He would get himself into a lather and mix in Italian curse words at the mere mention of that name. I think it stemmed from some inane argument that he had with Ivor back in the 80's. It was pretty funny when I stored my Linn stereo ( 7 large boxes emblazoned with Linn logo) in the back of the store for few days while I was moving to another apartment. Maybe it was a little bit mean on my part, but his reaction was priceless.
I will discuss the Scottish way of doing things in a later post, but a lot of people, my friends included, have an odd reaction when they first hear a Linn system. Some flat out don't like it and a lot of them are perplexed as to why there is no perceived bass. In most cases, it's the first time that they have heard a musical system. There is plenty of bass, whatever is on the recording and more importantly, what key the song is in, come out faithfully from the speakers. Instead of the one-note boomy or thumping bass that a lot of people are accustomed to, they can actually hear the notes that the bass player is playing and that can be disconcerting at first. The alarming lack of knobs on these plain square boxes also seems to throw them off ( what, no rigor mortis oscillator, or grunge accelerator ? Yeah, they're right there next to the Johnson rod).
That pretty much is the essence of audio right there. The job of a good stereo is reproduce what is on the CD, record or digital file exactly and faithfully without adding or subtracting anything and without coloring the sound. Much, much easier said than done.
Simply stated, there is a lot of information on those files, records and CD's. Information that can be easily be obliterated by people putting their greasy paws on records or treating CD's like scrap metal ( I still cringe when I see dozens of CD's stacked together like playing cards). So hopefully you treat your stuff well, and your records and CD's survived many of the aforementioned drunken wing dings. If they did, you would be surprised what's on those discs. I will go into detail about the digital equivalent of a trash compactor that are MP-3 files in some later post.
All of the information that recording engineer put in the recording is still in there. If he ( or she) put crap in there, yes, that's in there too.
Records, CD's and lossless digital files have an incredible amount of resolution. The only thing required is equipment good enough and accurate enough to retrieve said information.
Recordings from the 50's, even thought recorded in mono, can reveal lots of detail and information if played on high end equipment. Even though Les Paul invented multi-tracking in the 50's, a lot of music was recording in a "live take", meaning that the entire band was in the same room at the same time. Ceramic microphones, tube consoles and in some cases, direct to disc recording contributed to some fine sounding recordings.
While the large record companies were able to afford state of the art equipment others had to make do. Sam Phillips at Sun records made some of the most memorable recordings around ( that's Elvis for you non-believers). The raw, visceral and immediate sounds of Sun Records were mainly due to Phillips' vision and the fact that he would open a couple of doors in the studio to create echo. I want to experience that firsthand.
Things started going south in the 70's. Social commentary aside, this when the industry as a whole was making the transition form tubes to transistors. The results sound terrible, due to the fact that this was an untested technology, the transistors were the size of slugs and the engineers had access to copious quantities of drugs ( I'm guessing).
The long-time mantra of many high end companies and advocates alike was for home audio systems to sound "live". Live as in the musicians are in the same room as you. That's not what I want, I want to hear what went down in the studio on the day of the recording.
Have you been to a dive bar to see a band recently? The P.A. is usually horrific and often manned by some self-proclaimed technically inept soundman. There are bright lights, freely flowing booze, a bunch of your buddies and other distractions. Sure it's fun, but do you want that at home ? It would sound horrible and you would need ten large screen TV's each showing a different sporting event to complete the "live experience".
The vast majority of my friends are musicians and they are welcome in my home anytime. Other musicians, maybe not so much. I've been to a few punk rock house parties over the years and the last thing I would want in my living room is a bunch of obnoxious guitar players, monster Ampeg cabinets, beer and puke stains on the carpet and unsolicited visits by the cops at 3:00 am. Live experience indeed.
If you want to upgrade your sound system, or are in the market for an entirely new system, the main piece of advice that I can offer is to use your ears. As I have previously stated, it ain't gonna be cheap, but deals can nevertheless be had on the used market if you know what your looking for and can get past the weirdness of craigslist sellers and their sometimes unnatural attachment to a piece if gear. Even though the changing market has seen many high end shops go by the wayside, there are still some out there. They are staffed by knowledgeable people who are usually passionate audiophiles as well. Unlike big box stores, they won't make stuff up as they go along and try to buffalo you into buying an extended warranty.
The best advice that I can offer is to follow Ivor Tiefenbrun's philosophy of music, Linn components and what to listen for. Simply ask yourself if you are able to " follow the tune". Or I could come over to your place, just don't be surprised if I happen to show up with couple of bagpipe players.
Most people treat music like sonic wallpaper/ background noise. They don't really listen and as a result don't care. What I have done for people who are interested in listening to music is put together a budget system, often from used components. They end up with an inexpensive system that beats the snot out of a "system" from a big box store. Some even become audiophile converts.
ReplyDeleteWhy tell this story? Better to do something (when you can) instead of just complaining. If each audiophile did this for one of their friends there would be many more people with decent systems. Beside when you visit you will be able to tolerate the sound!