Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Paul S wrote:

Although we sometimes speak of a piece of hi-fi gear as "intelligent", what we usually mean is that it is not "locked" into a particular mode of expression…

Well, to make audio elements to be adaptable is very complex but possible. The beigest problem in this is not the technical disability of audio to be adaptable, or to demonstrate deferent behavior under different let say dynamic of frequency conditions.

The beigest problem is that audio hoodlums in their unfortunate majority do not recognize it as an issue.

Even to acknowledge that audio do not handle specific type of music signals appropriately do require quote high level of listening intelligence. When I mean “to acknowledge” I do not means to say that it does not sound good but to identify what specifically is not right. The 99.9% of audio people not only enable to do it but they also consider that it (believe or not) politically incorrect to think about sound in term of dissatisfaction.

For those few who do acknowledge that something is specifically wrong it is very hard to figure out why it is so. The reality is that in most of cased there is no answer “why”. The answer “why” exists only in functional systems that do something correct and therefore there is an answer “why” they do something wrong. Audio by nature is incorrect functional system by nature and therefore there is no definitive answer “why”. You can give very precise answer why some voltage is not there, or some pressure is not there or some any another measurable parameter is not there but you not necessary will be able to give an answer why some tube, soldering point, cable direction or cartridge VTA change the subconscious emotional or esthetical feedback a listener get from listening. 

I gave a very simple example as we are not taking about the full emotional feedback as the Morons love to whore about in audio reviews. I am talking about very definitive and very minute fragments of sound retroaction what a specific micro-sensation, under a very specific narrow playback operation condition do not make to the listener. Pretend that you have a very specific reaction of let say “punished sentimental kindness” to a very specific musical fragment. Let say it to be the clarinet and viola duet in the second movement of Penderecki’s Clarinet Quartet. You get a recording and your playback delivers the “similar” feeling at 90dB but does nothing to you if you play it softer. Where will you start? Most of audio people do not even acknowledge the problem but if you do they what would be the audio action you can make to address the problem? The most complex would be how to fix that “punished sentimental kindness” at soft volume but do not hurt anything other characteristic behavior in the same dynamic and the same frequency range.  It is very complex and there is no definite answer in this or even developed knowledge in this. To make the playback to react dynamically  and to adopt own operational paradigms in respect to incoming music is truly very complicated and very few in audio are able to operate at this level, not only the level of accomplishments but the level of demands.

I would say that nobody ever in audio was able to operate at the described level of accomplishments and I am quite confident that I know about all more or less serious audio movements even made public. As in physics the Unified Field Theory formed by Einstein does not have an accepted agreeable conclusion in audio there is no unified audio design ideology. It is not only no audio design ideology but there is no unified audio assessment principles and many other basic postulates with wish any sensible discipline could not exists.  Sometime in past I had a conversion with a guy who involved somehow in music and did composing, playing, conducting. I explained to him that his music field from some perspective is much less complicated then audio field. It might sound ridicules for some uninformed people but in reality it is exactly what it is. In music there are definitive pre-existing answers and definitive way to reach the answers. You go study music, perhaps do it for years and years and if you are a talented person and work hard then you become a good instrumentalist. If you in addition to it is an intelligent and sensitive person you will become in addition a good musician. If you an artistic person then you might become a few chose from your musical feels who push the field forward from one or another perspectives. In all of that there are well established and universally recognized aspects of what you do and what consequences of your actions are. It does not happen in audio.  There is no structure learning, training, educating or evolving or reference point in audio.  There is no even methodology available of any kind, so to immensely complex field with zillions of unknown and with no unified way to deal with even know and with no even accepted language to take about ether known and unknown….

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site