The Method of Tuning


System Playback has been evolving ever since the first stereos came out. Folks who have success can’t imagine listening to a system that has not been tuned, folks who haven’t been as successful in their listening tend to go off on their "snake oil" rants. People who buy from the "Recommended Component" list have their Plug & Play approach. The guys using measuring have their camp certainly, and there’s several other audio types out there that have their beliefs to add to the mix. Who’s correct? Well if we can remove our personal egos from this question, they (we) all are correct. The approach that you take as a listener is as legitimate as the next guys, to you. We try pushing our particular belief system on others because we are passionate about it. We have our likes and dislikes and we also have our own reasons why something does work or our blames why it doesn’t. The audiophile world has as many chapters as religious believers has denominations. It’s just the way our minds are built, you grew up on skippy, you peter pan, and you jiff. The audiophile world forgets sometimes just how many opinions and beliefs there really are, until they meet up on places like these audio forums and begin to mix this big bowl of ingredients together.

I’ve started this thread so I can share what I have learned through watching all these mixers turned on and being stuck in the bowl with each other and also from the point of view of someone who has "Tuned" many thousands of you, and have picked up on your own personal developments as masters of your own systems. So before we get going let me tell you something important. No one on the planet of listening "does" audio the way you do. You are unique, and you are a specialist when it comes to your audio adventure. You are all a salesman, because you want others to have that same level of success you enjoy. Audio reviewers, recording producers, component designers and end users are all in the same boat. You might have one or the other on a higher level than the rest, but that really has little relevance when your sitting there with your system and it’s just you and it.

What I would like to do with this thread is level the playing field and talk to you about the oldest technology in all of music (both playing & replaying). Tuning is the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other and every single one of you (us) Tune. We may want to call it something else that sounds more HEA (high end audio) ish, but no matter what we choose to call it, it’s all about taking the audio variables and making them work together. This is what I have been doing all of my personal and professional life. This is also what you have been doing ever since you started to play or playback music.

Just some ground rules for this thread.

First have fun. No one gets anywhere in music if their not enjoying it. If your a sour puss, don’t be surprised if we call you out as one. Personally I don’t mind or care if your a sour puss or not, but speaking for myself, I only have so much time in the day, and if this thread gets too sidetracky & tacky I’ll have better things to do, like making music money, which is a ton of fun.

Second I’m a designer/manufacturer. I am Michael Green of RoomTune and Michael Green Audio. I would imagine over the years 10,000-15,000 Agoners have used my products, maybe more maybe less, maybe only 2 people here have bought some of my stuff. The point is we sell audio products and if someone happens to buy them from this thread don’t get all bent out of shape, sales happen. Also if other designers come up and share their ideas, again try not to get all bent out of shape. Every single one of you are going to have and or get ideas from this thread or about this thread, or about the length of my hair (lol). As far as I am concerned everyone who has a stereo system has a product they want to sell, either physical or intellectually. So? It’s all part of the same soup as far as I am concerned.

Third I and others who come to this thread are free to post long posts. Some topics are not one sentence topics, and this will probably be the case here simply because we will be talking all things audio. And I should throw this in, let me the OP decide if something is off topic.

And last, if I disappear don’t take it like I don’t care. I’m a busy son of a gun and sometimes need a week or 2 to get caught up. Lately I’ve been posting and boring you a lot up here, but when the bell rings for me I’ve got to answer. I work on the US during the day and overseas during the night so that only leaves room for cat naps at best. Everyone here is important and I respect that, and I apologize in advance for my tardiness at times.

I’m ready for some fun are you?

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

128x128michaelgreenaudio

Hi Mike

I just watched Mark’s video and my take away was somewhat different from yours, but that’s ok. From what I saw him saying, red book CD has more than enough info to tune. The other comment I would make about Mark’s video is he doesn’t tune his playback setup, so it’s a little of an apple and oranges thing, which is ok too. Now if Mark and I did a tuning session together that would be more interesting for me at least, but I didn’t see him getting into playback. BTW, I was a tape runner as well so can relate to his style, which is cool. I'm all for recording improvements for the now and future and also love tuning a system to the recordings past. Mark and I are on the same page CD vs Vinyl, I prefer CD Redbook to vinyl (tuning dependent of course).

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

MG

post here when you have updated the Music section in your forums.

Happy Listening!

Michael,

Let me me first thank you for starting such an interesting and insightful thread. I've enjoyed reading every bit of it and have also explored your website and other links posted along the way. However I have never even able to visit your Tuneland Forum site -- for days now I only get "server can not be found". I've tried not only the link provided here but also directly from your website.

Although i I did read something here about work on the site, the reference seemed a bit vague. No worries, could you just confirm it's down and let us know when it's back up and running?
Same here. I have spent many hours trying to sort out why I cannot open up Tuneland as well as other links on his site.  I have given up at this point.  None of my Apple devices can, nor my wife’s Apple devices. However, my son’s Apple devices can? He lives in his own home.  I receive the same error message you mentioned over and over. Too bad.  I find this fascinating and desire to have a tuneable system. I just don’t know what that means in terms of specific details and steps for me and my system.  
Michael: Mark said a lot in his presentation and I’m in agreement with him re: Redbook CD’s being better quality than analog, up sampling adding nothing, and MQA being a transfer protocol - not a “sound better format”.

My point in referencing his talk was his focus on the source being the final constraint in achieving good playback - that some recordings sound better than others by how they were miked, the amount of data collected (bit depth), and mastering. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that tuning a system allows you to achieve equivalent playback independent of the source quality. I struggle with that notion.