Guitarology #6

The Truth Is Out There

And now for something completely different. This month I’d like to talk not about playing but about listening.

A long while back, quite by accident, I developed an interest in hi-fi. I’m not talking high fidelity esoteric BS here, but the premise that one wants to actually hear what was recorded in the way that the artist and the recording team spent much blood, sweat, and money to achieve and to be truly involved with the recorded performance. Now that may sound pretty obvious, but I am constantly bewildered by the incredibly naff listening systems the vast majority of musicians and even producers and engineers have in their homes. In fact, I’ve only ever known one muso who has a really quality system and he’s a drummer! Go figure.

This becomes even more bewildering when one listens to a decent system and realizes how much information is actually in the CD and not usually being heard. This lost information is the difference between two dimensional and three dimensional. Accessing this information grants one the ability to actually step inside the recording and walk around in there. Compare, if you will, the emotional impact and understanding between someone talking to you on the telephone or them standing in the same room.

A few basics that I’ve discovered, bang for buck you should pretty much forget the all in one Darth Vader Signature systems. For many reasons, not the least of which is the ability to upgrade easily, separates are the only way.

For most people, especially musicians, there is a perception that the quality of speakers is the main factor in the quality of a system. Speakers, however, can only reproduce what is put into them and so the most important part of the chain is in fact the front end, and by the way all CD players are not created equal.

Regarding integrated (preamp/power amp) amplifiers, LCD displays of dolphins or nubile young ladies do nothing for the sound. If the manufacturer has spent money on loads of buttons, knobs and cute displays they have not spent money on quality components and design. In hi-fi less is more.

As to speakers, the budget end of the market is incredibly competitive and so there are always some really good designs to choose from. All in all, we don’t need to be talking about loads of money. Speaking of budget, the other advantage of separates is being able to pick up bargains. Just for example, the system I assembled while living in Holland:

Nakamichi OMS-3 CD player retail $1200 local auction $70 Marantz double cassette deck retail $400 clearance sale $250 Denon PMA-735R amplifier retail $500 January sale $150 Tannoy PBM 6.5 speakers retail $600 demo units $200

I actually paid more for the cassette deck than I would have liked, but I needed a quick replacement. The Nakamichi was well cool. The auctioneer couldn’t pronounce the name and no one except me knew what it was!

There are even a couple of things you can try with your current system. Number 1 is speaker placement. Get ‘em off those breeze blocks, up from the floor, down from the shelf. Speaker stands are possibly the best value for money upgrade one can make. This is one of those theories that I read about but just couldn’t quite believe until I tried it. The idea is to isolate the speakers so that the energy goes into the air not whatever their sitting on. Purpose made stands use little spikes that the speaker sits on with the frame sometimes weighted with lead or sand. Being way short of money I created stands for my desktop monitors by filling beer cans with granite sand with a piece of acoustic foam between speaker and “stand”. The bottom end became much more solid opening up space in the rest of the range giving tons more definition to the over all picture, all for about $5. Sweet. Also you can play around with distance from speaker to wall. Different speakers react in different ways. Some like it close. Most like some space.

Another thing is speaker cable. That thin aluminum stuff is awful no matter what you’re using. Hi-fi shops have some high end cable that’s priced like an F-18 component. The principle seems to be lots of copper wire. I had a bright idea one day and bought some electric cable from the local do-it-yourself shop. Not lamp cord but the stuff you use to wire a house. What I got was pretty thick solid copper wire. It’s a little fiddly to work with in that being solid, not braided, it’s quite stiff. In fact I had to split the outer insulation holding the two cables together so I could work with one piece at a time. However, it sells for like 10% of the cost of high end audio cable and as far as I could tell did the same job. Once again, tightening things up and just allowing the information to flow, a distinct audio improvement for a cost of about $15.

I should also point out that all of this holds true to an even greater extent with any recording set up you may have. Try using an audiophile preamp instead of the mixer outs to monitor and then stand back in amazement at the transparency. Bit the bullet and get the best interconnect and speaker cable you can afford and hear how the bass tightens and the definition sharpens.

There’s lots of other stuff like how the components work together and such, but I can barely scratch the surface here so I tell you what, go down to a real hi-fi store. Not one of those flash-o-matic shops with stressed out sales guys working on commission but an enthusiasts shop with nice people who know their stuff because they love it. Take along a couple of your favorite CDs. Something you’ve listened to a lot. Arrange to have a listen on even a modest system in a proper isolated listening room. I guarantee you’ll be stunned at what you’ve missed. You’ll hear things you never even knew were there.

The upshot of all this is inspiration. The psycho-acoustic (what a cool word) nature of things is that the level of emotional involvement in the listening experience is increased so dramatically you’ll fall in love with music all over again.....really. That’s my New Years gift to all of you.

Courage

(c) 2005 Steve Power

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