buncha stuff goin’ on. none of it labelled with eyeball oriented signage for clear delineation.
Meander through ..it banging around... sensing the possible shape of walls and barriers and whatnot.
wandering down a unknown hallway, almost completely blinded, with an unknown destination that is nebulous, where you don’t know the length of the hallway, or even if it is a floor you are standing on, or where the hallway is located, exactly.
Retreat to a Descartesian mean. I exist, therefore I am. And take it from there.
Is the recording neutral?
Do i I have a large quantity of source material that is considered to be neutral and well delineated in detail?
And, in that media, do I have a playback mechanism for the info proper, that allows it to come out unencumbered of coloration (cartridge arm/wire, set up, etc) , either in fuzzing or smearing or leaving the fine bits out (dark smeared), or is that device clean and natural as can be, is it perfect as is possible?
To understand that the best which is possible.... is something slightly darker and slower coming out, than going in.
That is how electronics work, when done as best as is possible. Insanely key and important point. None more important.manufacturers know that people seek more detail, more info, and then the crappy equipment that screeches a bit, get the revealing ratings, and sells well. but only to the people building skewed systems, to some degree. The 90’s high end audio boom was full of this awful sounding nightmarish scenario. Lots of big advertisers. 300 page stereophiles issued with a gazillion full page adverts.
And if it, the next stage of devices... if it reveals more hf detail than is indicated in the balanced levels in the recording, then it is false detail that is obscuring fine sound stage information. falsified and edgy, and on the next stage, it can move to screeching it out.
Note that a system set up with all revealing bits (each part stated as ’revealing’) , is the most horrifying sound to be heard outside of nails on a blackboard being done by tortured children. Pain. Just pain.
Thus.. the next core mistake, is to cover up the coming screech from the over cooked detail presentation of one component, via ’dark’ cables or ’dark preamps, or dark integrateds, or dark speakers.
Big mistake, backwards motion right there. A compression of dynamics with mud on one end and muted screech on the other.
This takes you to the cerwin vega part of the ’thump-screech..thump screech!!’ end of the pool.
One is always searching for clarity, yet to not be wooed by ’hearing something new’, when it is actually dangerously close to being noise, complex micro distortions... which are on the verge of being a problem. Pay close attention here. this is the point of self manipulation on the subject of detail presentation.
A well sorted system along those line is dynamic at ANY and ALL volume levels, and has ’plosives’ to spare, coming out the wazoo.
it has ZERO screech and at the same time is extremely harmonically rich and complex, with huge dynamics and insane transients, and micro detail. Where you can focus on any part of it, just like you can with live instruments in the real world.
It can rip your face off in total comfort, just like live acoustic instruments. No stress, no pressuring, no ear overload... just pure musical bliss, at either 75db, or 110db. No tonal changes in the volume levels shifts/changes, nothing. The damn thing sounds live and never has any presentation problems that bother you.
This is how Teo builds it’s systems, analyzing things individually and in the whole, down to the circuit boards, the solder, the mechanics of it all, the parts, the arrangement on the boards, the entire package, the speaker design, the room design, build and the acoustics, and the last thing we did but published FIRST...the cables.
It is why every time Teo is involved in a room at a show, the room gets the best reviews and is, overall, on the record, about 90% of the time, considered as or one of best of show by the audio press.
When companies start not having us share room with them, they invariably lose that best of show rating on their next outings.
so, in the end, now that some might have an idea of where I'm coming from, and the idea and embodiment of perfection in all of it (Making components, parts, materials, systems, rooms, etc), and huge dynamic swings at the same time and that it has to start with the source as perfected as possible, ..well..how about that under-priced hand built MM cartridge out there? What might be the thinking and execution behind- and in it?
