Tag Archives: stereo systems

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

While there are a few blanket statements that ring true in life, most great stereo systems do sound better than the regular stuff most of us listen to. However, like in Paul’s example, some folks have inflated egos and don’t recognize that there are other things they haven’t heard and if they did, they night just change their minds. Like I’ve been saying for the last 30 years, we don’t know, what we don’t know and that includes high end audio.

Blanket statements

As soon as I read this note, I had to smile.

“I spend a lot of time in the studio under extremely treated conditions and listen through some of the highest-graded speakers. Once you learn how to listen through them, you can never go back to consumer-grade and so-called audiophile speakers.”

What a lovely and concise blanket statement. I particularly love the “so-called” jab.

What’s instructive about this note is its form. In the first sentence, the writer establishes his credibility. In the second, we get the conclusion that, given his experience, makes perfect sense.

Hard to argue with (which of course is the point).

How many of us believe that most people have actually heard a properly set up high-end audio system?

In the fifty years I have been immersed in what we do, it has been rare to find anyone outside our small group of kindred spirits that have actually sat down in front of what we consider a great audiophile system.

Blanket statements and sweeping proclamations are short and to the point.

And they are usually more opinion than fact.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

Do our systems age?

As humans, we all know what it feels like to get older and experience wear and tear over time. We may find ourselves slowing down, experiencing aches and pains, and needing more rest than we did in our youth.

Is it any different for our stereo systems? Does metal, silicon, glass, rubber, and all that goes into building a high end audio system get worse over time?

Just like the human body, electronic devices have components that can degrade over time. Speakers are, of course, the most obvious. Surrounds, capacitors, and all those moving parts age. In fact, all mechanical mechanisms fade over time.

But electronics?

We’re all familiar with the degradation of capacitors, but consider that modern silicon-based systems grow “old” similarly to how our brains get stuck and slow.

Remember back to your shiny new computer or iPad. Blazing fast for quite some time. Then, with updates and plugins and use, we get slower processing speeds, longer load times, and increased lag when running programs or applications.

Just like humans may struggle to keep up with the demands of physical activity as they age, electronics often mimic us as they try to keep up with the demands of modern software and technology.

It might seem strange to anthropomorphize the machines and technology we interface with but, as they become more and more complex, they become more and more “human” in all matters.

Including getting older.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

I can think of a few things that are maybe better to assess timbre, like a great piano recording, but if you assess timbre by using the human voice, both male and female, piano and perhaps an organ recording with really low bass, then you’re going to learn all you need to know. Fortunately, we can use many recordings to access timbre.

I’m really looking forward to receiving Octave’s Otis Taylor SACD. Love that guys music and Octave Records is a venture worth supporting.

We’ve known it all our lives

In my recent post, Timbre, I brought up a number of examples of instruments that have unique timbre.

But, one of the problems we have in evaluating how well our stereo systems properly reproduce timbre is in the recording itself. How was it miked? What kind of player made the sound? How do you know the recording captured the true nature of the instrument’s timbre?

The truth is you don’t.

So, what to do?

Well, aside from only buying your music from Octave Records🙂 you can choose to narrow your evaluation material to one instrument we’re all familiar with.

The human voice.

Research has shown that even in the womb, fetuses are able to recognize and respond to their mother’s voice.

Once born, infants show a preference for the sound of the human voice over other sounds. Studies have shown that even newborn infants prefer to listen to their mother’s voice over the voices of other women, and they can distinguish between the voices of different people.

As children grow and develop, their ability to recognize and distinguish between voices improves. By the age of 6 months, infants can recognize the voices of familiar people, and by the age of 1 year, they can recognize the voices of strangers as well.

All this to suggest that for as long as you have been alive (minus that first year of training) you’re an expert on vocal timbre.

There’s nothing better for identifying proper tonal balance and timbre than the human voice.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

Success meter

If you’ve ever been to an audio show, you know the differences in stereo systems and loudspeakers can be extreme.

In one room, if you are fortunate enough to get the center seat, you’re required to put your head in a vice in order to enjoy perfect imaging.

In another room there’s a wide sweet spot that, while not as specific as the last room you visited, offers a broader perspective.

Still another room hasn’t any real bottom end but man! has it got dynamics.

And then there are the rooms that you do not even go in.

Room after room sounds remarkably different. Each room touts its system as state-of-the-art—something that clearly cannot be true unless there are a lot of possible states or the art category is very broad.

When we set up for a show, I am most pleased when I see lots of grins on the faces of listeners.

Repeat visitors are a blessing as well.

Once I am pleased with the system’s performance, it is the joy on people’s faces I watch for most.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

I agree about using subwoofers and thats why I have always had two of them with all my stereo systems, including the ones with full range speakers.

How much are we willing to miss?

There are very few systems that are truly full range. The shortcomings of rooms and speakers often preclude simple setups from delivering all there is on a disc.

Take Music Room Three at PS Audio. The spot in the room where the FR30s disappear and one finds themselves totally immersed in the music happens to also be one of the worst places for low bass. Move the speakers around to capture those incredible low notes the FR30s are capable of and some of the holographic magic is lost.

I for one am unwilling to forego even a smidge of holographic magic and near-perfect tonal balance to gain any of the missing low-end.

Should I just stick to music that hasn’t those lowest of notes? Or, should I stress over missing them?

For me, that question is instantly answered when I put on a track that moves the floor and puts a smile on my face as the system reproduces without hesitation the lowest of notes.

I have to have it all.

But, how to get there?

Simple. Supplement the main system with a subwoofer. Or, a pair of subwoofers.

In our case, all that is missing happens from 28Hz and below. A single REL Predator placed dead center on the rear wall does the trick nicely.

If your musical choices tend to lean towards chamber music or light jazz then none of this really matters.

It’s just good to know how much we’re willing to lose.

 

 

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

Reaching equilibrium

If I am to enjoy a morning breakfast of blueberries, yogurt, and granola there has to be a proper balance between the flavors. My preference in berries runs towards the firm and tart which means that in order to reach a perfect balance there needs to be a bit of sweetness. Too much in any one direction and the meal is less perfect.

The same idea of equilibrium—reaching for that perfect balance—applies to our stereo systems as well. Too much emphasis on the top end at the expense of the lower frequencies skews the balance towards an unwelcome brightness.

As much as we might believe that our setup work and equipment choices are focused on achieving the traditional audiophile values of transparency, effortlessness, tonal purity, slam, and musicality, a lot of those goals are really all about achieving equilibrium within the system.

We’re far more likely to notice something out of balance than we are at spotting a particular standout characteristic.

Some of the best audio systems I have ever heard had achieved a near-perfect balance of all the elements.

Nothing pointing to itself.

A perfect equilibrium.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

100% agree with this.

 

Getting down to tastes

When we hear a HiFi system that is just plain wrong there’s little discussion about its merits. We can all agree it needs some help.

But when stereo systems are good enough to be called great, the differences between them come down to a simple matter of taste. Perhaps system A is to your ears a bit lean in the bottom end. Or the opposite. Or any number of differences we might quibble over.

And that’s the point we’re all hoping to achieve.

Differences that engender a mere quibble: To bring our system’s performance up to where we can confidently say our differences boil down to a simple matter of taste.

What a great place to be.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

In the AV world, I use to sell racks that were made of steel,  huge and very heavy, to hold all sorts of electronic gear. In addition, sometimes these racks make it very hard to get to the wiring, when trying to do service.

Now, with everyone streaming audio and/or video, even for a 7.2, 9.2, or even an 11.2 system, where the equipment is hidden, bascally all we need are two shelves, one for an AVR and one for and Apple TV or Roku and surge protector and that’s about it. I’ve been doing installs using a $40 wire rack from Lowes and is enough, small and light!

Stereo systems are a different matter with a preamp, amplifier, streamer and maybe a disc player needing additional shelves. Some very expensive stereo equipment, like a preamp, can actually have three boxes, one for a separate power supply and two more, one for left channel and one for right channel. Ditto for power amplifiers. Some even four with a separate power supply for each channel. Crazy stuff that doesnt always equate to better sound quality.

The 19″ rack

As long as I am getting nostalgic I might as well ruminate about the 19″ rack.

When we first started PS Audio in the mid-1970s and well into the late 80s, all separates had 19″ face plates with rack mount holes. Today, none of them do.

The standard back then was derived from the pro-market where everything had to fit into a rack. Chassis were 17″ wide, and faceplates were 19″ wide. The unit’s height was determined by units called 1U, 2U, etc. The Us were shorthand for Rack Unit and each rack unit was 1.75″ high (44.45 mm). So, a 2U high unit was 3.5″ tall, and so forth.

Almost no one I knew ever had an actual rack to put their equipment in. The rack mount era was just the way it was and few of us questioned it.

Slowly but surely, a few brave companies started inching out of the trend producing 17″ wide equipment without the extra 1″ ears and holes mandated by the convention we started with. They were the “odd man out”.

Before you knew it everyone lost the rack ears and today I’ll bet you’d be hard pressed to find any company not in the pro field selling equipment with those old rack ears.

Things change over time and in this case I must say for the better.

 

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

The pictures in our head

When we critically listen to music on our high-end stereo systems we are constantly comparing the sound we hear with the pictures in our head.

We all have a very well defined “picture” (model) of how the human voice sounds. When we hear a recorded version of that voice we mentally compare notes to figure out if it is accurate.

The pictures in my head are unique.

Developed over a lifetime.

I am certain most of you can figure out where this is going.

If each of us has a slightly different picture of what’s real and what’s not then, when it comes to judging the recorded audio qualities of music, we will all have a slightly different opinion.

Which is exactly what I find to be true. Yes, we can all agree on the big picture of a particular work, but when it comes down to the details we’re mostly in disarray.

And that’s the way it must be.

To each of us we’re right.

The pictures in our head tell the story.

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

Maybe, some time ago, I would have cared what others thought about my system, but after hearing a lot of other stereo systems, including some big dollar ones,  those days are long gone. As long as I’ve lived in Asheville, I’ve only heard one single criticism of the sound of my stereo and my opinion of this is its born more more out personal feelings, than sound quality.  As long as I want to listen, which I do every day, I’m happy!

Listening to critics

We’re all a bit worried about being criticized.

What if those we respect don’t agree with us or have differing opinions?

What would happen if you played for someone your favorite track on your perfect setup and they were unimpressed? Or worse, pointed out problems?

We all love it when our friends and family swoon over what’s important to us.

And we all know and tell ourselves that at the end of the day it is us that we’re working to please. That the opinions of others don’t really have an impact on our decisions.

But we know that’s not true. Not really.

It’s kind of lonely being the only person that agrees with you.

Perhaps another way to think about the critics is to flip the whole idea on its head. That it is indeed we that we’re working to please first and, if we’re happy with the results, maybe our critics are focused on something different than we are. For example, I might be focused on the ecstasy of the high frequencies while another hones in on a small problem in the bass. They aren’t focused on what you are.