Important Note

 Kindly note that the new series SOUNDS of MUSIC, a set of guidelines for the budding audiophile has been moved to:

https://sounds-of-music-guide.blogspot.com/

Kindly follow at the new url.

Reader questions and doubts will certainly be taken up on merit for further discussion and clarification in upcoming posts.

Happy reading!!

SOUNDS OF MUSIC

 

SOUNDS OF MUSIC

Guidelines for the Audio Adventurer

These observations on the sounds of music reproduced in a home setup are mostly the result of years of foolish adventurism, waste of good money, and the realization (with the passage of years) that you need to be honest with yourself if you are to discover the sweetness of the fruits of your own labour. They may not be the best, but they satisfy a real need in an enjoyable manner. Which ought to be the basic idea propelling all our endeavours.

To Each Her/His Own

Except perhaps in the army, people rarely choose to "follow". So the attempt here will be to outline some basic points and highlight some warnings/cautions, and point to certain available options. For the enthusiast this ought to serve as a base from where to explore his/her own preferences and selections and also to make those choices in an intelligent manner, rather than in a haphazard manner.

Establishing the Base Lines

Before attempting to communicate effectively we must "fine tune" our language and agree on meanings. What do we mean by fidelity? Could fidelity be low... high ... or at an undefined "high end"? It is precisely this confusion and the carrot of perfection dangled before the enthusiast that have sustained the audio/hi-fi industry all these decades. Think about it, if there really was a "best" amplifier, a speaker matching that goodness, and recorded music sources on a par with that, ultimately nothing else would sell. And the world (at least the world of hi-fi!) would have been a better place. Sadly, that is not the reality.

My take on fidelity is simple. Don't go for complex definitions; but take every opportunity (not very easy in these tech-driven times) to listen to music... LIVE music... singers, male and female, acoustic instruments being played, small groups jamming together with nothing more than say a tabla, guitar, flute, violin or a harmonium etc. Soon you will learn to identify the "signatures" of most of the singers and the instruments. 

You should be even able to recognize the difference in the sounds of two different tablas--played by the same person, or otherwise. This, in my humble opinion, is the first step to understanding what fidelity is. Not much point in learning by heart phrases like frequency response (can you define that correctly?), transient response, total harmonic distortion ... and such stuff. Do all that later when you are able to use them as tools to better your approach.

Tools of the Trade

The first set of tools for the audiophile come totally free: a fantastic pair of stereophonic transducers, and an amazingly high powered data processing system. Every one of you is the proud owner of a pair of ears and a brain. But they are not perfect, in that they cannot "capture" or record an acoustic event for later reproduction and enjoyment. Too bad.

However, today the enthusiast is lucky to have comparatively inexpensive digital stereophonic sound recorders. For somebody planning to spend at least 25k on a basic music system to begin with, investing say around 10k

in a good digital recorder as a tool to perfect the system is a bargain, I think. Of course, the important thing is to have at hand a good recorder (begged or borrowed, not stolen!) so that your live acoustic experiences could be "captured". These "records" will serve as your touchstones for judging the system that you are putting together.

One, Two, Four, Eight ?

If one is good, two can surely be better. So goes our logic. So four could no doubt

upstage two. And eight..! Oh, my such was the channel wars that companies went through in the previous century. We started with sweet old Mono, graduated to Stereo. And then came Quadrophony  for those with more (four times!) money! Today mostly it is eight channel home theatre equipment (7 + 1channels, no less) that blasts our poor ears and brains.

The more the merrier! But the big question is: does the system "speak the truth" ?

Look at a simple question. Do we have a mono tabla...  a stereo tabla? ... a mono piano? ..violin...guitar?? Right from the small hand-held ganjira to the huge drum set, and all the other instruments that man had invented over the years, produce sounds and tones of one sort or other. For arguments sake, let us say it is easier to "capture" a simple instrument with "fidelity" or "truth" or realism. Get hold of a friend who plays the ganjira, record him/her; record somebody strumming a guitar, playing a violin...

At home play it over a single speaker and amp and see what you get. Examine how closely you can get to the "original" sound. As lesson two, use two channels for playback (thank God most digi recorders are stereo) and do some critical listening vis-a-vis realism. Mostly two channels are likely to give you a better experience --under some well-defined conditions. Great!

Distilling Good Sound

Now begins the art and craft of "distilling" the recordings and extracting realism from your "canned" acoustic events.

* * * * *