Does anyone use wood for vibration control?

Hi Geoff

I like Michael, I think he’s witty and easy to watch, even though I didn’t watch this entire video. My writing room is kind of like his listening room "stuff all over the place". However even my writing room seems to be a little more organized then Michael’s listening room.

I see what you are saying about the LPs and CDs and immediately made my own listening judgement call as soon as Michael walked into his listening area. On a professional level it would be a disqualifier for me to take his critiquing of components and music seriously. I would classify Michael’s room more of a music collectors room than a listeners room. That’s not a slam on Michael, just a different part of the hobby than I am a part of. I will make this comment though, If I sat down and listened to both his system and your system (with exception of the body effect) I would bet that I would choose your system over Michael’s.

I know that I am on you Geoff about using your ear buds as a reference for in room listening and I hope you can understand why, it’s not in-room listening and I’m never trying to do anything but talk about real time, on going, in-room listening. However if you are making a comparison between your in-room listening and Michael’s I can totally understand why you would make some comments you make, you don’t have to be listening to see the potential problems Michael is living in the middle of.

Any comments Michael would make about soundstaging would score a zero among the level of listeners I deal with. At the same time there are many Stereophile type hobbyist who are collector/listeners and not stoundstage enthusiast just as there are many other off shoots of this hobby and industry. It’s truly a to each their own type of experience.

thanks for your post, it sheds a lot of light on Michael’s preferences and mostly for me that Michael is an entertaining and gifted magazine writer more than a soundstage expert.

Michael Green

Oh, I should also add, as a purist listener, CD cases and LPs should be no where near the listening room. That's just fact and if anyone has taken the time to remove them out of the area they will tell you the tremendous benefits to not having them around.

"Anyone who calls listening to music a "hobby" is engaging in a quite different endeavor than am I. Focusing on soundstaging is like watching a film for 3-D effects."

Honestly I wasn’t aware of this so much before bdp24 but yes I now see clearly that we (you and I) belong to two different camps of the hobby, industry, happening, lifestyle or whatever it is that you or anyone wishes to call it.

I am most definitely a SoundStager and believe this is the heart and soul of playback. I also believe obtaining the real space of a recording is the proper way to hear it in it’s fullest regardless of any particular parts and pieces someone may want to extract from the recording. That said, from now on I will try to make note of this as much as I can when acknowledging you.

As I have said to you directly before I hope we can get to a place where you don’t feel upset that I refer the event by different names. I think you know by now I have done nothing else but music my entire life and would say I have embraced every inch of it. I’m happy for your excitement and passion for your type of listening and lifestyle, but please keep in mind that it has been my quest to live and study the whole with all of it’s variables and disciplines.

Just as I respect that Geoff is a "direct to ear" listener I respect you as a non-soundstage listener as I would respect Michael as a collector type of listener. Each has their own sensibilities and passions and are obviously driven by healthy egos. For myself I enjoy all the variables and explore every part is if it is part of a big universe without judgement of right or wrong but more choice to go wherever we wish. Personal taste is a beautiful thing but there also needs to be those who can take this all the way in any direction, stopping along the way to take in preferences but having the ability to move on to the next exit when it is desired.

Michael

"At the same time, many people, if not most of those, who watch basketball do not have basketball courts at home."

Absolutely positively correct!

However there are more people who explore the "whole" of playback than you would think. Keep in mind that most who tune have no need or desire to be part of an audiophile forum. My clients over the years learn the art and technology of tuning and then move beyond the stereophiles of the world. If you read the members threads on TuneLand you will see that they get to a certain place in their abilities and move on to the rest of their listening years with the knowledge that they can do anything they wish. Some do stick around to help others get started but the vast majority send me Christmas emails and good greetings usually with the title "I'm still tuning and love it".

Once you learn how to tune this becomes a different type of adventurous lifestyle for you. Most of the guys and gals who tune keep in touch with me through PMs to let me know they want to try something I have developed or share with me, and sometimes the forum, things that they have been doing that works within their own world. These folks have stepped way past the sales world of Stereophile and HEA tradeshows and have developed their own version of the Tune that they have fine tuned just for them. It's like a family of the worlds most explorative listening members. Folks who have traveled so far beyond plug & play you wouldn't even recognize they were from the same hobby as the ones still looking at component collectables.

MG

Yep, two different worlds! I prefer the in-room system obviously, and the in-room listening experience. Audiogon looks to me like a mostly in-room system forum, at least most of the threads I see you on, which is why I question some of your input as being up to date or relevant. It’s ok, I just think the reminder to folks needs to be often that you are not basing your comments about in-room system listening as actually something you practice yourself.

For example with the OP

"What kind of wood have you found to be best?"

It doesn’t appear to me that you use any wood with your Walkman so for the guy using an in-room system with many different materials how does your Walkman fit in.

I also disagree by a long shot with your Quick Summary - More music, better sound. It might be better than Michael Fremer’s clutter but not a well tuned in-room setup, not even close to the full body listening experience. But I say this having all of the above to base that on.

MG