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What Does Holographic Sound Like?

And how do you get there? This is an interesting question. I have finally arrived at a very satisfying level of holography in my system. But it has taken a lot of time, effort and money to get there. I wish there had been a faster, easier and less expensive way to get there. But I never found one.

Can you get to a high level of holography in your system with one pair of interconnects and one pair of speaker wires? I don't believe so. I run cables in series. I never found one pair of interconnects and speaker wires that would achieve what has taken a heck of a lot of wires and "tweaks" to achieve. Let alone all the power cords that I run in series. Although I have found one special cable that has enabled the system to reach a very high level of holography -- HiDiamond -- I still need to run cables in series for the sound to be at its holographic best.

There are many levels of holography. Each level is built incrementally with the addition of one more wire and one more "tweak". I have a lot of wires and "tweaks" in my system. Each cable and each "tweak" has added another level to the holography. Just when I thought things could not get any better -- which has happened many times -- the addition of one more cable or "tweak" enabled the system to reach a higher level yet.

Will one "loom" do the job. I never found that special "loom". To achieve the best effects I have combined cables from Synergistic Research, Bybee, ASI Liveline, Cardas, Supra and HiDiamond -- with "tweaks" too numerous to mention but featuring Bybee products and a variety of other products, many of which have the word "quantum" in their description.

The effort to arrive at this point with my system has been two-fold. Firstly, finding the right cables and "tweaks" for the system. Secondly, finding where to place them in the system for the best effects -- a process of trial and error. A lot of cables and "tweaks" had to be sold off in the process. I put "tweaks" in quotation marks because the best "tweaks" in my system have had as profound effect as the components on the sound. The same for the best of the cables, as well. For me, cables and "tweaks" are components.

Have I finally "arrived"? I have just about arrived at the best level that I can expect within my budget -- there are a couple of items on the way. In any case, I assume there are many levels beyond what my system has arrived at. But since I'll never get there I am sitting back and enjoying the music in the blissful recognition that I don't know what I am missing.

I should mention that there are many elements that are as important as holography for the sound to be satisfying, IMO. They include detail, transparency, coherence, tonality, and dynamics, among others. My system has all of these elements in good measure.

Have you had success with holographic sound in your system? If so, how did you get there?
sabai
akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,274 posts
 
QUOTE: "... Hmm, my experience is it is not all that complicated. Recipe: 1) good quality gear.."

Mapman nailed it : Short & sweet.

That "gear" includes the hardware, speakers and cables that actually "work" with each other to create that expansive soundstage that extends well past the walls L-R and deep front-to-back as the speakers, as point sources, simply disappear. Once you get it, the music is now engaging and "floats" even well off-axis.

The problem is that most of the available kit compendium is an alchemy that lacks that synergy to create it.

Regrettabbly we all know that frequently one man's steak is fare that tastes like **** to the next guy. (particularly in this forum) . Happily, when that 3-D holographic soundstage is there, we all see it immediately; we instantly know it; and all those personal and subjective differences vanish and the listener is simply "engaged" in the music.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Rlwainwright,
If you had read closely you would have seen that I was talking about holographic sound in my comments about cables.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Jeffreybowman2k,
There are no power strips in my system. Please see the posting in this thread with the details about how I run cables in series.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Akg_ca,
Another way of looking at holography is to look it the same way we look other sonic parameters -- such as low level detail, for example. We would never say "we instantly know it" when it's there. There really is no "it". There are degrees of low level detail that make for more or less refined sound. The same principle applies to many sonic parameters.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Akg_ca,
You stated, "Happily, when that 3-D holographic soundstage is there, we all see it immediately; we instantly know it ..."

Actually, with my approach you may discover there are many different levels of holographic sound. Higher levels can be attained by making incremental improvements to the system. This takes time and effort, but for me it has been more than worth the time and effort taken.

Mountainsong,
Yes, if you look at it that way, it takes a lot of "painstaking" work to reach a higher level. In a sense, it's like everything good in life. No pain, no gain. But, in the audio world, I would not use the word "pain" to describe this process. For me, taking "pains" with my system is a labor of love.
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