What is the art of sound?

[TKK]

Therefore, such a faculty for discernment using yor ears is vital to the success of building the kind of system that, with the right kind of music, will move you to tears, plant a big grin on your face, get your feet tapping and/or keep your attention for any length of time. If you do not place much importance on the process of actually listening for yourself and making your choices based on what you hear then perhaps there are other sites that will meet your needs better than this one.

Steve, on that there can be no disagreement.

Personally, I can do without neutrality; I don't know what it is since it seems it's different with each of us, at different times, even at different venues, and one would think something like “neutrality' would be incontrovertible. The kind that is being bandied around in audio journals and all manner of audiospeak seems to point to the kind of peppermint cool, driven from a wide but distant perspective and threadbare tonal dynamics. Think early Spectral electronics and their sponsored recordings.

I can also do without the lowest distortion figures, total harmonic or in any of its other disguises, and many solid state electronics from the early 70s' namely, DB and Electrocompaniet, to current kings of that heap, Halcros, come to mind. They feel like like we just came off some skin bleaching treatment and there's no hair to raise.

I certainly can do without a total lack of colouration, if it means icy, glazed, white versus visceral, pompous and burnished glow. The early Sugano's Koetsus from the 80s were coloured so beautifully than real, yet only they could erupt the surrealism in our precious vinyl and make us limp and weep.

So I go in search of not the highest and not the truest of fidelity but that which sets a flutter of excitement as I advance the volume from a whisper.

I need to feel jovial – the system has to have a rhythmic pulse and a desire to rip open from compression. I'll take brashness over coyness, speed over lethargy and light over darkness.

I need to emote – the system has to to be able to express, and to that it has to be supple and subtle, from the lowest to moderately high volume, and not strangely so, that appears to be the province of high efficiency transducers and simple (low power) electronics.

But most of all, I find especial delight with stereo systems built on small meaningful budgets, assembled and fitted with passion, not obsession. With lots of music to go around.

[Steve Toy]

A superb post. I used to agree on the neutrality front but have recently found that neutrality in terms of frequency spectrum that is also correct in phase makes for very believable and convincing reproduction of passionate music performances; I see no trade-off in expression.

I agree with measured distortion figures though for they only tell a small part of the story.

[Marco]

Hi Kee,

A superb summary of your 'art of sound'. You display an excellent ability to distinguish that which separates real music from a processed cardboard cut-out of such, and a genuine understanding of what it takes to produce a system that evokes emotion and stirs one's passions. This recipe defines the true 'art of sound'.

Well done!

Marco.

[DevillEars]

Greetings one and all,

I guess my 'philosophy' around "The Art of Sound" is based on the assumption that the only "Art" aspect lies in the music itself and how it appeals to my (baser?) instincts.

All else is simply a means to an end - be it the physical media or be it the reproduction chain.

From an 'enjoyability' perspective, one needs to take into account other personal factors such as mood, level of exhaustion, etc. This can tend to influence the choice of media at any given tiime.

Also from an 'enjoyability' perspective is the final sound produced - does it satisfy all of one's requirements for enjoyment. And it is this aspect that - for me anyway - that governs any changes to the reproduction chain.

Right now, I am happy with the sound of a system that has been described as "something old, something new, nothing borrowed and something blue".

So, in the words of someone from the transatlantic colonies: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Finally, the reproduction chain and its composition and placement within a listening environment provide the only area other than music for any aspect of "Art" (and this is more of an arcane art than any really artistic sense).

Achieving some sort of synergy in a system is not a scientific process - its an empirical one with a high degree of 'hit & miss' - as is placement.



Dave

[Steve Toy]

Achieving some sort of synergy in a system is not a scientific process - its an empirical one with a high degree of 'hit & miss' - as is placement.



Indeed. Hence the art of sound. It is indeed an empirical process as the final sonic characteristics of the system cannot be predicted by looking only at what can be measured.

The music itself is the art as is the reproduction of it in recorded form.

[Dave Cawley]

But not always, if your amplifier is incapable of driving your speakers you have a scientific explanation on why it doesn't sound right. Amplifiers with poor current drive and early SOA protection will struggle to drive some of the new complex, reactive and low load loudspeakers.

Dave

[DevillEars]

But not always, if your amplifier is incapable of driving your speakers you have a scientific explanation on why it doesn't sound right. Amplifiers with poor current drive and early SOA protection will struggle to drive some of the new complex, reactive and low load loudspeakers.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Specifications will tell if the components are 'compatible' (i.e. whether or not they will work together), so I don't have an issue with what you've written in that context.

Where we differ lies in the achievement of some form of synergy (where the 'whole' is unexplainably better than the sum of the component parts).

It is this aspect - where everything just 'clicks' - that cannot be predicted or explained by any scientific approach and is achieved via serendipity...

What a scientific approach CAN provide is early identification of combinations that have little or no chance of achieving synergy due to electronic incompatibilities.

Isn't nature wonderful?



Dave

[anthonyTD]

But not always, if your amplifier is incapable of driving your speakers you have a scientific explanation on why it doesn't sound right. Amplifiers with poor current drive and early SOA protection will struggle to drive some of the new complex, reactive and low load loudspeakers.

Dave

the answer to that one [IMHO] is to look at the available specifications of said speakers and amplifiers and this should give you a good indication of how well or not the two will perform as a unit, it wont tell the whole story but is a good starting point.
A...

[Dave Cawley]

Exactly chaps! And that is why I said "not always" glad we agree on this one!

Dave

[Welder]

Oh great, found a post where I also can talk a load of meaningless bollocks
(What do you mean I always do that)

A few thoughts on the Art of Sound.
There are two sorts of HiFi, the type that when you’ve finished admiring all the shiny boxes and saying “wow I bet that cost an arm and a leg” you leave saying “Yep, nice kit mate”.
Then there is the sort that makes you want to cry or dance. I like this sort best.

Two sorts of HiFi enthusiast; those who buy music to listen to the HiFi and those that buy HiFi to listen to the music.

Time for some of you to stock up on bricks me thinks
I have never heard a HiFi system I can bear to listen to the majority of classical I like on. I don’t care if you’ve got enough valves to heat a housing estate and a turntable made from titanium floating in nitrogen. Not surprisingly, I don’t have a lot of classical music files preferring to go and listen to it live.
By the time the recording studio has wiped out the high frequencies with recording mics that don’t go much past 16KHz, the recording engineer has wiped out everything below 20KHz, the recording equipment has sampled the wave given by some pure chance it wasn’t a digital recording in the first place, etc, etc, it makes all this Art of Sound getting close to the live performance a bit of a nonsense really. You can’t reproduce anything like the sound/experience of a live “classical/acoustic” performance using today’s, or even yesterday’s electronic music reproduction equipment. No ifs, no buts.
HiFi is only really suitable for electronic music.

(Stands back up shaking the brick dust off, stumbles on a couple of breeze blocks that didn’t quite make the distance and carries on)

Right, that’s that sorted then. Glad you all agree.
So what does the art of sound mean to me; emotional involvement.
Don’t listen to what my ex Italian girlfiend (nope, it’s spelt right) tells you about me being typically British and not knowing a bloody thing about emotion; I got emotion, lots.
When that latest CD arrives through the post and EAC has done its stuff I sit in my special chair with an expectant grin on my face and get ready to be entertained. If it’s good, I’ll shut my eyes and get lost in the performance. Sometimes a particular piece of music won’t grab me immediately and it goes to my “listen in another mood pile”. Other times I just slip away to somewhere where there are no bills to pay, problems to be sorted, no noisy traffic or annoying hum from the fridge freezer; just me involved in someone else’s performance.