I do feel that during the last 3-4 years there was a major shift in my perception of audio.  If before the people who do not share my interests in audio just entertained me with own stupidity then a few years back I begin to feel that they started to annoy me.  Lately they not only annoy me by I feel a tangible revulsion forward to them. Sure, no one forces me to socialize with the people that I do not like but for whatever reason those people think that if I have speakers, amplifiers, cable elevators, turntables and DA converters than I am some kind of college or brother of them and consequentially that I might be interested in all that accumulated crap that they are boiling in their heads. I receive all sort of emails with people talk about audio and offered me to collaborate but they have no idea how little interests I have in them. So, I think it would be a good idea to define what kind of audio I am interested and what kind of people I personally find stimulating in audio.

I practice what I call Applied Audio and this is not an opposite of theoretical audio. In my definition the “Applied Audio” means that I have a very firm and well-formed objective what and how I would like to consume my auditable experiences in my listening room.  I do not buy or build audio and consume resulting sound “as is” but I am actively navigating the sound in my listening room to what I feel it has to be to comply with my personal objectives.  That is the Audio that I practice – the proactive rendering of my sonic objectives using various audio techniques as expressive creative tools. Unfortunately the absolute majority of audio people do not follow this interest and despite that I and they use the same speakers, amplifiers and turntables and cables but we have absolutely different drives, what they do with own results and the most important  - how we think about audio.

It is absolutely irrelevant to me what audio element is “the best”, more prestigious, have higher cost or value, have a “synergy” with this or that brand. It is kind of irrelevant for me what is being produced and where the prices go. I of cause do monitor the field but the really is that my observation of the field has very little relation with my audio practice.  To me thinking about a specific trumpet, violin or bassoon phrase from Die Walküre, or from Brukner 8, or from Brahms 3 and to think how my audio effort might interpret this specific phrase is what audio is all about. I have no use or interests to deal with audio people who do not share my interests, who do not have own vision how music shall sound and do not adapt their own visions into their practical efforts.

That is what I call Applied Audio. Anything else in audio is juts worthless crap in my view, not worthy my attention.