My history with treble.

I could write a dissertation. I’ll be brief. In the ‘70s one of the rules of thumb was to be carful when auditioning speakers not to mistake excess treble as greater detail and a positive attribute. While I did not buy any speakers that were too trebly… I realize in retrospect that for the first twenty years or more I continued to discover what real natural treble sounded like, and it was not what I thought. Part of it was that, getting treble right is about really good equipment… which I often could not afford… was sparsely available in the solid state arena… although it definitely was in the high end tube arena.

So, let’s cut to the epiphany. So, late 80’s. I had ~ $5K components… top of the line Pass preamp and amp. One of the things I noticed was that the treble energy was going down in my systems as I upgraded. I was doing a really deep dive into interconnects. The better ones were further attenuating the treble. But when it did it sounded better.

Slowly I came to realize that what was happening was the better equipment was removing high frequency hash and distortion that I thought was “treble”. I had been in concerts (like The Who, Jefferson Airplane (yeah, I am that old), Moody Blues… and dorm room parties. I thought distortion was treble.

I remember buying this incredibly well received power cord for digital. It further reduced the “treble”. I remember how it just took away the last of the tin in the treble. I remember my dismay. Then I played Enigma’s first album. On one of the cuts is the sound of a single strike to a big bell. I was just shocked… it was so real… so midrange instead of shhhh. Then I started listening to cymbals… of my god, they sound like brass! I have been listening to trashy treble for twenty years.

I think this was the moment I realized I didn’t actually know what real music sounded like. I started to go out and listen to real instruments. My systems took a big turn towards better in every way. There have been lots more epiphany’s along the way… but, this is how you learn.

The audiophiles journey is a long one of learning. I am sure some folks took shorter paths than I have. But these fundamental changes in my perception of what sound quality and reality have been the most rewarding and profound. On the other hand, you often can see me running out of some high end audio store with my hands clasped over my ears while some guys are slapping each other on the back congratulating themselves on how great some system is that has ear splitting detail and distortion being played at 90db. .