The Insane World of High End Audio! Is it All a Scam?


This 15 minutes of youtube video by "cheapaudioman" say a lot and hide a lot...

He review low cost products ...

His analysis of audiophiles world here seems fair to me...

But nowhere in all his videos and in this one  he mention "acoustics" as the basis of audio hobby, the anker of any system  and gear piece  evaluation and satisfaction...

He  always talk about the gear... Probably acoustics for him as for most is only acoustics panels purchase...

My point is not that the audio world of audiophile is a scam with scammers...

Not at all.

It is ignorance  of what is acoustics basics that makes people victim of their own decisions  and a potential prey for honest or dishonest sellers..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeqbFYaJisQ

128x128mahgister

What sounds good to you? That's all that matters. Trust your ears. As you progress through this hobby your senses will evolve.  Always trust your ears.  You are the only one that can educate yourself. Enjoy the music.

Perhaps you are educated and know who Helmholtz is and why he is the father of modern acoustics and what his main tool was before electronics: mechanically tuned resonators ?

Keep sarcasm and think...

Ok... starting to sound just a tad wacky now...a bit shun mooky...a bit crystalline kookalicious...maybe some stalactites and stalagmites are next in this acoustics intervention, eh?

There is many devices in mechanical acoustics... This is one thing...

 

There is other devices completely secondary compared to acoustics devices...

Audiophiles called them "tweaks" ... I explored everything by the way in the last 12 yeears but never bought tweaks (save Schumann resonators )... i had opinion if i can justify them by facts or experiences ...

For example Schumann generators works but it is a mere tweaks and the effect is real and subtle but do not compared to the main tools from acoustics science..

I decided i will not spoke anymore of my non-acousticals experiments because they are secondary and funny experiments and because narrow mind use sarcasm to mock others... i dont like that...

Acoustics science rules audio not tweaks or separated gear pieces costly or not...

 
 

 

 

Sound is like a beast..

It exist in a volume...

To understand and perceive this "volume of sound" qualities in all his aspects you need to understand a minimum of acoustics concepts with your ears in your room. Then you need to modify your room to feel how the perception change with it.

If not you will feel that the sound come directly from the recording by dac/amp/speakers into your brain...A superstition we can observe among audiophiles who forgot the speakers is more a part of the room than just  a part of the amplifier and dac....

And if you dont like the sound , you will invest in a often useless upgrade, instead of optimizing or modifying your gear and room. if you like the sound,you may say it is my "taste" without knowing that it could be way better at low cost...

Acoustics has nothing to do with "taste"...

 

 

What sounds good to you? That’s all that matters. Trust your ears. As you progress through this hobby your senses will evolve. Always trust your ears. You are the only one that can educate yourself. Enjoy the music.

I sure know what a tuned resonator is, higher end studios tend to use them as they can be made more discreet....had one in  a former house, found something more broadband and better in recent times.

When you said you had a 100 Itty bitty ones that served as a "mechanical room equalizer", it started to sound a lil kookalicious.

On the same note, the effect of one can be clearly measured.  I suppose you didn't get that far or did you? Or did the effect of a cluster 100 whatever...of them do a number on ya?

Egyptian priests used resonators to "equalize" room temple sound... Before Hemlholtz..

I had 100 because i conducted experiments for many years with no cost materials from tube 8 feet high and large and straws and all dimensions in between.. I tuned them by ears...it takes me 2 years to complete 7 day/7...( Acoustics was my hobby then ) Way more fun than throwing money on a new dac because we are unsatisfied...

 

One single straw as part of a resonator mouth located at the right place create an audible effect...The location of the resonators matter too not only their dimension and cross ratio.. I also use them in a way to make a kind of mechanical crossfeed too for the speakers with some near the drivers...( i could not suppress crosstalk anyway in my room then i turned this impotency into and advantage i designed my version of mechanical crossfeed)

 

Now i dont own my past room, i must had sold my house but i used Helmhotz principle to modify my now small speakers vent hole because they are badly designd on all speakers for esthetical reason and cost...I modified my headphone too ...

For the measures:

you know that timbre is not a simple addition of pure frequencies because the ears perceive sound in his own time dimension. Timbre is a set of large band...

I used my ears to tune to my liking all my resonators in fonction of the timbre i wanted for the musical instruments like we tune a piano...My ears "measures" them one at times..each one compensate for others... There is a trade-off...

 

 

When all was completed my stereo system completely vanished..

My prefered opera Kurt Weill 4 penny opera soundfield was around me with natural timbre...

The singers walking and singing i was able to "see" their head turning...And sometimes singing next to my chair or near my shoulder...

Dr . Choueiri call that the spatial attributes of sound...H3e described them in his articles..

if you think that you can have this with one resonators or 2 sorry no...It is why without knowing what i did at the begining i add one at a time, each time gaining better S.Q, with each tuning.

but if you buy the BACCH system it will do this in a perfectly controlled way...

I called my resonators set a mechanical equalizer because it is exactly what it was...

The equalization process was tuned for my ears not by an electrical means...

The BACCH system will be better for sure but i know what it will do because i made it mechanically...

But some aspects cannot be made mechanically, as the measures of HRFT, or the control of the crosstalk cancellation etc...

It is why studying acoustics reading about sound perception is more valuable than reading reviewers who most of the time dont know really more about acoustics concepts than the customers who listen to them ..

It is why people invest big money in this hobby often without knowing what they do as an obsession..

i prefered to inform myself...

I was fascinated at some point by theoretical acoustics... What is sound... I discovered not only Dr. Gorike genius reading his patent about my headphone, not only Dr. Choueri genius insight into spatial aspects of sound control but a genius in pure acoustics theory i read in ectasy... He explain sound perception like no one else ... This is another story... I posted about it in a thread about spiritual aspect of music...( i posted many scientific articles about acoustics there but very few were interested in spite of the fact that there is a revolution in acoustics  and sound perception right now)

In life i am mostly interested by mathematics,linguistic,philosophy and acoustics and their relation...

I sure know what a tuned resonator is, higher end studios tend to use them as they can be made more discreet....had one in a former house, found something more broadband and better in recent times.

When you said you had a 100 Itty bitty ones that served as a "mechanical room equalizer", it started to sound a lil kookalicious.

On the same note, the effect of one can be clearly measured. I suppose you didn’t get that far or did you? Or did the effect of a cluster 100 whatever...of them do a number on ya?