Audio people know how “live” music sounds and what impact it has to listener. Well not all of them know, and a large number of them never visited concert halls and are familiar with music only by the chest pressure that they experienced at pop-clubs but still, most of audio people do familiar in one way or another with live music: would it be quarters during the expensive corporate parties, lounge orchestras at fancy clubs or the acoustic bands at weddings or funeral…. Now the question is: what audio people know about reproduced music and what options they have to educate themselves about what is possible in audio?

I do not think that audio people have any opportunities to learn about possibilities of audio and to educate themselves what would be possible by extreme reproductive means. As the result audio people quite blindly subscribe new marketing campaigns without own ability to understand a scene of own actions and motivations. Truly, even if you a person lives a large urban environment surrounded by a circle of big cities with countless opportunities, then s/he still has very limited chance, if any, to be exposed to a playback that might demonstrate what is possible in audio (let do not even think about a person who lives at middle of I would say Montana or Minnesota)

Really, we all know that a network of dealerships does not demonstrate good sound. There are lots of objective reasons for it but it is a well-known unfortunate fact that no one dealer’s showroom is good enough to educate about the capacity of real audio. The situation is little better with the manufacturer’s showrooms but only very slightly and they all as well do not really push envelops of possibilities, even within the limitation of own products.  The semi-privet listing rooms of industry professionals: manufacturers, editors, reviewers are usually insultingly horrible and although many of them love to expose thier playback results to visitors but you most likely will experience in there very laughable Sound. Ironically the situation is not different with privet parties. There are many circumstances, objective limitations and other conditions that objectively limit privet parties to peruse a possibility threshold of sound reproduction. In addition, the quality of general audio crowd is so primitive that the more the privet person accomplished in audio the less s/he has interest to share the results of his/her achievements with a wide mass of audio hoodlums.

So, where a person who is interested to learn about “Crucial Audio” might learn? I do not think that there are opportunities for that person.

I think that all leads to an interesting conclusion. I would propose a business venture that might be quite successful and surprisingly will serve a pubic interest at the same time. Let parent a hypothetical person who has an interest to make his/her living by means of Audio. Let pretend that s/he has knowledge, skills, expertise and ability to build up, to serves, and to demonstrate a hypothetical envelop-pushing “Crucial” playback at the most evolved levels. Why this person do not build audio-demonstration room somewhere at metropolitan region, use it explicitly to demonstrate to people what is possible in audio and to charge people for the delivering of those experiences?

It would be a best investment for an ordinary audiophile-Moron ™ if s/he schedules listening hour and paying I would say $500 had a chance to see what is possible (I would pay!). This might be really audio-life altering experience and it would be hugely beneficial for all future audio views. Unfortunately those types of “believes expanding rooms of Critical Audio” do not exist and no one even thinks to go to this direction. It is very pity and without this the audio people have no really ability to learn how audio might sound.

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

I disagree, Antonio. I feel that if that “Stressed Playback Demonstration” be conducted then a listener should not even be aware neither what components-topology were used nor what kind principles were utilized to accomplish the result. What should be avoided is a situation when a person heard something that he greatly appreciated and then stupidly run to a store and buy those black boxes – I have seen it many-many times and I always felt disappointed when it happened.

Sure questions come later but who said that the answers should be delivered and who said that answers even exist? If an average person with a standard audiophile background would experience a great playback installation then this person NEVER able to identity the ingredients that were responsible for the system greatness. Here is an important part: whatever the ordinary audiophiles know or understand about audio  (no mater how little it is) has NO RELATION with the practical methods that should be used to accomplish those "great installations".

In fact, I do not believe that it possible to teach anyone to those "methods". You see, the key word in here is self-evolvement and an ability of a person to sense the things, to educate her/himself how and what to listen while they listening and his/her ability to react accordingly. I do not think that those things could be taught; they could be reached but not taught. Those skills and answers come from within and could be only self-developed. It like playing stings or building up a taste: you can certainly be trained but until you exercise at your own you never reach a high intensity of those “skills”.

Therefore, I think those “Stressed Playback Demonstrations” should juts reveal what is possible (and this is enough!!!) and then the person should be abandoned to be on his/her own. Any further assistance from the side of those playback builders would unavoidably inject the builder’s ego and it is a completely unnecessary not to say evil thing.

Antonio, be advised that I personally do not believe that those Stressed Playback Demonstration Rooms could exist in the format that I proposed: there are many objective reasons why.  At least they could not come up from the people who are plugged into audio industry. There are many self-regulating settings that severely limit audio professionals and hugely condition them,  and in the end unavoidably removes any audio potency from their hands and heads.

Rgs,
The Cat

Romy the Cat wrote:

I disagree, Antonio. I feel that if that “Stressed Playback Demonstration” be conducted then a listener should not even be aware neither what components-topology were used nor what kind principles were utilized to accomplish the result. What should be avoided is a situation when a person heard something that he greatly appreciated and then stupidly run to a store and buy those black boxes – I have seen it many-many times and I always felt disappointed when it happened.

Romy the Cat wrote:

Sure questions come later but who said that the answers should be delivered and who said that answers even exist? If an average person with a standard audiophile background would experience a great playback installation then this person NEVER able to identity the ingredients that were responsible for the system greatness. Here is an important part: whatever the ordinary audiophiles know or understand about audio  (no mater how little it is) has NO RELATION with the practical methods that should be used to accomplish those "great installations". In fact, I do not believe that it possible to teach anyone to those "methods". You see, the key word in here is self-evolvement and an ability of a person to sense the things, to educate her/himself how and what to listen while they listening and his/her ability to react accordingly. I do not think that those things could be taught; they could be reached but not taught. Those skills and answers come from within and could be only self-developed. It like playing stings or building up a taste: you can certainly be trained but until you exercise at your own you never reach a high intensity of those “skills”. Therefore, I think those “Stressed Playback Demonstrations” should juts reveal what is possible (and this is enough!!!) and then the person should be abandoned to be on his/her own. Any further assistance from the side of those playback builders would unavoidably inject the builder’s ego and it is a completely unnecessary not to say evil thing. Antonio, be advised that I personally do not believe that those Stressed Playback Demonstration Rooms could exist in the format that I proposed: there are many objective reasons why.  At least they could not come up from the people who are plugged into audio industry. There are many self-regulating settings that severely limit audio professionals and hugely condition them,  and in the end unavoidably removes any audio potency from their hands and heads. Rgs, The Cat

Antonio J. wrote:

But having some ideas of the sonic attributes that accomplish that "feeling" would be very helpful. So you couldn't help that someone listening to such a system wanted to build a clone of it.

Antonio J. wrote:

Undoubtedly you're right, this would be just an exposition to "what can be done" and it would work for people with the same kind of background, interests and goals of the person setting up the SPD. If that system is setup for the best possible reproduction of recorded symphonic music and the eventual listener also wants to listen to huge choral works, perhaps it wouldn't work as good for him. This person should get his system to optimize his experience with the kind of music he wants to listen to.

Antonio J. wrote:

The problem as I see it is that building these kind of "Ultrasystems" requires an inner growth and acquiring some skills and knowledge that in these times we're living people is not ready to spend on them.

Antonio J. wrote:

All they want is "plug and play", they want the results and don't want the hard work behind the results, which are so personal and self conditioned that aren't transferrable from one person to another. There are some very basic principles which can be tought, but little else. It's something comparable to learning to play a musical instrument, you can learn the fingers postions and movements, you can learn to read music, but nobody will ever teach you to feel what you're playing and how to transfer your own emotions, intentions and essence into what you're playing, unless you go into formulaic tricks.

Antonio J. wrote:

Being exposed to a SPD would be interesting, but as you see it and I understand it should be, it might produce more distress and frustration than being as blind as most of us are now. It would be as frustrating as exposing a person eating survival pre-cooked food all his life to a delicious meal with belluga, the finest sirloin, cakes and wines you can find on Earth, cooked by the best cook, and after that leaving him back again to his survival food. Just a nice experience, but nothing that really can help you to get a better life each forthcoming day. You should be tought to cook, to get the condiments and to find the markets to get the food to be cooked. With that knowledge you'd be able to cook for yourself things closer to that delicious meal, or even better if you can do it completely adapted to your own taste, but without the basics, you can do very little. How could one learn the basics of "true music through audio"?

On one hand we have that "evolved music reproduction" is something that one achieves as an act of inner growth and by having established some goals or intentions which if resolved, can offer a different musical reproduction from the commercial audiophile systems can. But on the other hand we have that some things, like correctly reproduced bass, or a correct stage integration, and probably many conceptual audio features which might be explained and be even measurable, help to obtain that kind of excellence. If this is true, then there should be some basic principles to help anyone interested to get the desired results. Of course the exposition to "correct music" is necessary to understand and define the goals, but also those things should be explainable.

Regards,

AJ