GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Audio For Dummies ™
In the Thread: UHF capable tweeters and the moronic conclusions

Post Subject: What are we coordinating/integrating?Posted by rowuk on: 9/17/2012

The discussion of topology is interesting, but what in fact are we addressing? The factors that have been mentioned are:

1) Sound, which in this case seems to be dependent on "either you get it" - or don't
2) Topology, which in my experience has so many facets that it explains very little about what reaches the listeners ears
3) Geometry of the recording (where does what sound come from) which could be documented at the time of recording and used as a template for reproduction later
4) awareness of the listener to what they hear - a constant process that mandates that we never will hear the same thing, the same way twice!
5) effects of electricity. This amazes me because power regeneration is no mystery and must be solvable - even at amplifier level!
6) power handling which may not be significant in home applications, but DOES influence the construction of the drivers used. More power handling capability will "change" the sound of a driver as the heat must be dissipated somehow (heavier voice coil, more gap, metal VC former....)

This is all interesting, but how does it fit into the process of helping audio dummies? Perhaps we can look at some of the integration issues like Romy mentions with paper MF and Ion tweeter and his sit down test, maybe we need to address distortion and how a multi way system that has a driver per decade cannot have appreciable levels of anything except 2nd or 3rd harmonic distortion. In fact, tweeters with no "fundementals" to reproduce or subwoofers with no "harmonics" should be EASIER to get right - assuming that the passband is of sufficient quality. Maybe a lot of what we hear is in fact the dispersion of the HF/MF/LF system and the accompanying room effects. Maybe a lot of what Romy or Harlanov hear is determined by what they have conditioned themselves hear in a specific way? Maybe we are all victims of our own "conditioning" and need to address this first?

What IS amazing to me is the fact that there ARE very fine recordings out there created with "not approved" studio monitors and sub-standard electricity and amplification. Perhaps those engineers are in fact, artists and find "the Sound" without the special attention that seems to be necessary later in the consumer chain.

These concepts are very difficult to put into perspective as the line between love of music and love of the improvement process can but not must be mutually exclusive. One thing that I have learned here is that at the end of the day (week, month....), if you can't enjoy the fruits of your efforts, you are the real dummy.

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