If the room is the big worry, why not go for the Kii3, Goldmund Wireless, Emerald Physics, Spatial, FM Acoustics ASP or a Linkwitz ASP speaker setup? There is a wide range of budget there and tech to deal with adverse room interaction mechanically and in the analog or digital domain.
If You Were Starting Over...
- Thread starter MDP
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topspeed
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All valid points, Ventura, and I'd imagine that even the most dedicated or well heeled audiophile realizes that obtaining the absolute sound is indeed chasing the proverbial pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow. However, the journey can be just as involving and gratifying and I don't think cost has anything to do with it. Yes, many members here have esoteric gear with commensurately eye watering price tags, but so what? If this is your passion, why shouldn't we be able to invest what we want in it? Think of it this way; the number 1 selling car in the States is the Toyota Camry, which is a perfectly fine mode of transportation. I'm a car guy (hence the moniker) and can't imagine owning this appliance on wheels. It has no soul. I'm not trying to get from Point A to Point B, I'm trying to enjoy the experience of the journey. Audio is the same way.
Determining the differences of the SAME source is an interesting question. I happen to have DSOTM on SACD, Redbook, and Vinyl. Now, I've been a drummer/musician since I was 6, which a loooong time, so I will invariably cue in to the sound of the kit on any recording. I can state unequivocally that vinyl gets more right with the natural tone, attack, and decay of a drum kit than any other form of playback. I'm not saying this is always true, but for this particular recording, to my ears it is.
Determining the differences of the SAME source is an interesting question. I happen to have DSOTM on SACD, Redbook, and Vinyl. Now, I've been a drummer/musician since I was 6, which a loooong time, so I will invariably cue in to the sound of the kit on any recording. I can state unequivocally that vinyl gets more right with the natural tone, attack, and decay of a drum kit than any other form of playback. I'm not saying this is always true, but for this particular recording, to my ears it is.
Ventura_Rodriguez_Vallejo
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Hi, Topspeed (no mistake this time
).Thanks for your well structured answer.
The analogy with cars you do is almost perfect. I'm not a car guy as you, but most of my friends are, and I use exactly this analogy to shut up them when they start to question my "waste" of time and money with audio gear, even though all (well, almost) can hear the difference of sound and realism between my equipment and their audio chains.
I'm not a musician, but my mother was. A pianist in fact; so, since my earliest infancy I heard a real piano at home, and I guess I always took that sound as an everyday thing, no different than the toasts with marmalade for breakfast.
But the point of no return came when I was 11 old. My mother took my brother and me to a concert of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Odón Alonso, a prior Conservatory friend of her. I remember that evening with tears of joy. The program included Beethoven's Fifth. Oh, my God! What a punch in the soul of a boy! What a glorious sound! For the very first time, I heard a full symphony orchestra in the flesh, not throw a poor radio monaural receiver. Since that unforgettable moment, I WAS an audiophile (by then, I already was a music fan). Casually, a few years later my brother became a drummer, as you are, and I have heard him many, many times playing, one or two meters of distance from him in the essays, as well as his colleagues with their Marshalls, Peaveys and so forth. (By the way: I was his first group sound "engineer" - glups! -).
Since that revealing moment, I've assisted to concerts (not only classical) as frequently as I've had the opportunity. And since then, and parallel to it, I started my search for the perfect sound (that what you so well describe as the gold pot at the end of the rainbow). I absolutely agree with you when you call it a fascinating and passionate journey. But, returning to the analogy with cars, I suspect there's a small contradiction in your statement: there are obvious differences between the Toyota and, say, a Porsche Carrera, not the least their respective prices; but when you return to audio gear you say that money is not necessary important. I'm afraid that money IS A VERY IMPORTANT item if you are trying to own a decent audio equipment (I mean one that satisfies your expectative, supposing it high), only if you take into account the many times one, in his search, change components, cabling, new paradigms (open reel to cassette, analogue to digital...). This is a costly hobby (for those who consider it just a "hobby"), we like this circumstance or not.
I do not exactly agree with your order of preference related to the formats when it comes to percussive sounds, but this is your personal taste and, in any case, a different debate (please, don't derive from this that I am an over-any-other-option-digital-to-the-final-triumph guy; in fact, the best source I've heard was a 1/2 inch stereo tape master running at 30 inches per second in a professional Studer recorder, a take made with no mixing or eq, and using just two mikes).
The journey is important, as you say, but one can end lost in it, too. From my point of view, the only reason (and reasonable) of being for High Fidelity is this second word: FIDELITY. But..., fidelity to what? Again, only to the real thing (what else, if not?). I'm sure everyone hears in a different way and because of this fact the only way to satisfy the ears of all is to provide them with the physically objective sound. The personal hearing of each will do the rest of the job. I know we still are very far from the end of the journey. And it is important avoid deceptions (and expensive) misleadings in the travel.
Thanks for your patience (and excuse my poor English).
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