Sound


Sound. Isn’t sound the quest? The ultimate goal? The bottom line? The reason or the basis for spending more money? The reason you are never satisfied? The rationale behind labeling yourself an Audiophile? Why I have to own six different Headphones? Does the obsession get in the way of common sense when it comes to an equalizer like the Schitt Loki and now the new Lokias?

 

I mean, I have what others have in Klipsch Forte… they are the first generation… they sound great. Some say Klipsch SOUND “tinny”, horny, or harsh. But hey, when I turned my Loki equalizer knobs back-left, down from neutral as I saw in a YouTube video, and played the “fine tune guy” for some differing musical genders, I can make my Forte I sound like a Forte IV, a JBL L100, Focal, etc. And add to that my SVS micro 5000 sub,  my Cary Rocket 88 tube amp, and the DAC in my  Bluesound Node…I mean, if that Loki equalizer working off “WHAT I HEAR” isn’t good enough… what sounds good to my own ears… why not use one? I find that would end discussions, (for some, arguments), about sound… Simply because tweeking KNOBS are not graphs, they are your EARS! They are your sound, according to your acoustics, and what SOUNDS GOOD to you… I mean, is it pride? Isn’t it true that “Ego is not your Amigo” when it comes to folks arguing about Sound? The book “ Get Better Sound”, (which I have)? Shouldn’t we be talking about “ Tweek to Better Sound”?

What do you think?

 

 

 

woowoo

@ghdprentice 

Years ago I had a rather pricey (for those days) equalizer referred to as a SCAN-ALYZER/EQUALIZER.  Used a microphone to analyze tone and had a thousand levers for fine tuning adjustments, left and right channels adjusted individually.   Based on my results with that unit I would completely agree with you.

Now with a whole new system, I purchased the newly introduced Schitt Lokius a few months ago.  I find it works very well for fine tuning.  This may be because I wanted to add a just touch more treble emphasis to my soft dome tweeters, versus compensate for any weakness in the electronics.  For me it is basically set and forget, same adjustment for all music, not adjusted individually for any particular song or album.

As wolf mentioned:

 No clue how they managed this but you can flip it on and off, take it out for comparison, pour hot lava on it, subject it to quantum magnetic hypersnot....whatever...and it is signalus non interuptus el mundo.

I wish I had learned to speak Spanish.

 

 

Yes, I also try to fix as many of the sound issues with room treatment and speaker placement. With phono cartridge selection, you can also tweak a bit. Tube rolling has also helped. Luckily my Tannoys have high frequency energy adjustment pads that help too. But these are just subtleties that come after the room issues have been resolved.

I'm all in for any way to adjust/equalize without another circuit involved. My system has no tone controls so the room set up is critical to me. But then, I lucked out with an old house with nice formal rectangular rooms.

One of my dreams was to own an Eichler Home. But the open architecture that's become so vogue these days really doesn't help.

Give me a pre 1940s home any day. Heavy plaster walls, l solid wood floors and formal, mostly symmetrical room shapes.

Yeah. Conclusion? Be happy with what exists in your present surroundings? It’s like” How long is a piece of string?”

or the old razor blade commercials that promised they would shave you 25% closer or their brand of blades were 25% sharper. Than what? No one knows… no one really knows the truth of sound either. 
 

Today there are no FACTS anymore, but lots of OPINION… and we don’t use KNOBS anymore to turn on the news. Just my opinion. 

If we cross-examined ourselves, I'll bet we'd be forced to admit that (1) we really dig the industrial aesthetic of audio gear; (2) we need toys like anyone else with discretionary income needs toys, and (3) we really, really enjoy playing with them. There is no end point, nothing that can't be tweaked, never a shortage of new gizmos. A contemporaneous post asks "what are you tweaking this weekend?" Because what other than fiddling with their setups would audiophiles be doing on cold winter weekend days?

A harmless hobby with the added benefit of Awesome, concert-hall sonics that nobody but ourselves will ever get to appreciate.

It’s really true. If you think that TWEAK is the big deke. I mean, what direction do you go? Tweak your speakers… knob them, raise them up, toe them in, pull them away, play on the floor with your sub?

Maybe tweak your room acoustics? Buy a rug? Change the direction?

Or tweak an equalizer?

Gotta play with something… and yes, it all comes down to truth that it’s “ in your head” after all !😂