The Method of Tuning

Now, if I can address this statement...

"Your solutions, as viewed online, unfortunately use these additional devices which are “banned” for some of us 😁"

HEA is heading quickly into this new chapter. I believe there is no way, or should we want to, stop it. What this also does though is change the landscape of component and speaker design. For many years HEA has been designing products on a "Fix it" basis. With the new paradigm some of the old theories and maybe even myths get to fly out the window, that's the part I'm mostly interested in. Follow me on this.

On a moving planet, subject to the four fundamental forces of physics, there really are no such things as "inert", "isolation", "discrete" and others in the truest sense. These are terms that HEA designers have thrown at you for quick fix compulsive sales. If you setup a test lab right now with me we would discover, and fast, that "everything affects everything else". Your not going to isolate your component from this planet, because your on this planet. You can dampen your signal or you can tune your signal, but your not going to isolate your signal. In the truest sense of the word, if you would build something that was "inert", that would mean that the only thing that it could rest against would be something else that was "inert". A set of real inert speakers for example would crash through your floor and probably end up somewhere under the surface of the Earth's crust. Now the next one is a real doozy. "Discrete", I hardly have the words to describe how this term has misguided the HEA. Discrete should never had been made into an audio term. I understand the need for terms and my terms sometimes get tortured by others. Like the word "code" , but, audio does not work off of the principles of discrete nor can they because as soon as an audio language (analog or digital) starts interacting with a mechanical conduit it turns to signal, and signal takes on the character of the fundamental forces. In audio there is no discrete.

let me give you an example on this one

Someone the other day said something like he would never use an Equalizer and thankfully I didn't need to respond because one of you answered him back saying "what do you think a crossover is". Our audio chain is made up of parts. Once these parts are energized they interact with the language to become signal (I call it code and will get into why). When that happens everything in the audio pathway becomes an equalizing influence.

What I hope to do is reach a common ground between all of us. There's really no reason for debating over things that don't even matter. What does matter is letting a more realistic side of the hobby to shine through and be used. As the "Tunees" have found, and you will too, it's time for a practical empirically science based hobby to replace all the parts and pieces that got us here. This hobby, more than most, has a tendency to over engineer itself, leading to a world of fixing the fixes. There's no need for this. Physics is only difficult if you make it so.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Thank you guys for letting me do this thread at my own pace, speed and way. Sometimes in this hobby of forumizing the temptation to jump in and be a part doesn’t always go as planned. There’s a sidetrack waiting around every corner and opinions and ideas generated by others that are just going to bust out of the chest like an episode of alien. I just want you to know "it’s all good". I’ve been doing this since 1981 everyday so believe me, I’m in no hurry. As you have ideas, comments or been there done that moments, it’s all part of mingling. If I had more than one brain I wouldn’t know where to put it, so having your brains on this thread is welcome.

So this next part gets a little tougher, but it has had to happen sooner or latter.

HEA is cool, it looks cool, it sounds cool and it’s in a way like a status trophy (for guys mostly). It’s just plain cool! But what happens when the paradigm shift takes place and it becomes all about the soundstage? For example, what if someone told you, you had to place your equipment in the closet so that you could hear the soundstage better? Some of you are freaking out right now, I can see you lol. Your running to your key board to tell me where to go lol. Well, what if you walked into your room and all you saw was the soundstage. You and your wife sitting there enjoying the concert, either looking at a screen/wall to go along with the stage or just the soundstage by itself? I need to tell you that day happened a while ago, but it’s being refined to the place where the connection between audiophile and videophile has met. In fact in a short time from now you will be able to take in your concert by means of hologram, yep right in your living room.

But lets back up to now. What if you were asks another question, what if you were told you would get a better sound and able to play more of your music collection by mounting speakers on the wall? Do you know that most of you who have floorstanding speakers in a room with furniture are loosing at least half of your soundstage and music content? I get emails every week saying "what can I do" from folks who are trying to make a dedicated room speaker work in a living room environment. So that’s two simple things right off the bat, do you have the right room and do you have the right room setup. Why spend years trying to do something that wasn’t meant to be, simply because something got a great review at someone else’s place? One thing we need to rethink is we are not going to force physics.

OK I realize I’m jumping around a little but it’s important to paint these pictures.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Hi grannyring

Yep, I’m a terrible guy, I know. LOL.

Here’s a simple test you can do in your home, and I have many do, as they take one of my field trips. Put on a piece of music and enjoy it in your listening seat for a while. Now go back to that same piece and start it again only this time listen to it standing up. In most listening rooms with furniture and carpet, when you stand up you hear a completely different opening effect than when sitting down. Tell us what you hear if you want, but no need if you don’t. If you play that piece and slowly repeat sitting down and standing up you are going to hear how the room is reacting to the speaker/room/ear combo. You’d be absolutely amazed at how many people get a hold of me to make the speaker/room/furniture judgement call with them.

I did one of my field trips at a fairly well known HEA audiophile here in Vegas not too long ago. He had me come over to check out his gear and stuff that he had been working on, cool guy! He put on a cool piece of music and invited me to evaluate his system (let him know what I thought). I think he was expecting me to sit in the sweet spot and do all my thinking from there.. So, I listened and took in some cues. After I heard what was going on, I got up and started checking out his space so I could see (hear) where what I was hearing was happening. It took me about 3 minutes to see what was holding the recording back and what was working well, at least enough to get started. He invited me back to the chair to listen to his digital setup. I basically did the same thing. I believe that really puzzled him and it seemed maybe no one had ever done that with or for him before.

Grannyring, I think that so many HEA folks have got that mental picture of a system in their minds that they somehow forget what is going on with the physics of replaying a recording. The common sense factor gets thrown out the window, and somehow they try to create some kind of system that defies the natural laws of our world. My job as a designer is not to create a system of HEA looks or, if I may say, a Stereophile-ish cookie cutter stereo. My designing is all about reproducing the soundstage, and how to do it in a repeating consistent way. Looks of course is a big part of the hobby and I work with a lot of interior designers, but the hobby of listening comes down to one thing, that stage. It’s easy to get so into this thought of a HEA system and completely miss what a stereo is intended to do. Many of my system designs are obviously used in a dedicated sort of way with one listening chair and a SAM directly behind the listener, but not every audiophile lives inside of a Michael Green Audio environment. And many listeners end up frustratingly spinning their wheels when their soundstage is waiting for them.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net