GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Aporia - Silbatone Acoustics speaker

Post Subject: Relativity, reduxPosted by Joe Roberts on: 1/20/2009

I am in academics. In this world it is no challenge to find people who want to tell me that they are right and everybody else is wrong.

The problem with any scholar stuck in his/her theoretical bubble is that there is no room for that person to change and grow.

I thought I was quite clear about my evaluation program: Put it on. Play some music. Does it present a compelling emotional experience of musical enjoyment for me? If yes...GOOD! If no, maybe somebody else will like it.

This for me is the CORE musical evaluation. All this other hogwash about bandwidth and whatnot is physics, not music. Sound, not music. Missing the main point of musical reproduction, musical enjoyment.

True that I have not yet figured out how to write this evaluation program in an outline form. Actually, I gave up trying because one sentence is enough. If you try to catch the butterfly, you kill it.

My main point is that if you have not heard "X," your long distance review of "X" is highly suspect. "You" here is not pointing to our feline host...doesn't matter who it is.

I have heard a lot of speakers. I used to experiment 24 hours a day. I had a 10x20 storage full of gear, parts, and tubes. I wasted my youth playing with audio gear when I could have been doing drugs and chasing women.

So what I found most interesting about the Silbatone speaker is that it sounds VERY DIFFERENT from any other speaker I have heard. It explodes the notion of "single-driver" speaker as sounding this way or that. It was a NEW experience.

The main point of this Silbatone design is to surprise people who think they know all about single-driver speakers, and it worked on me.

This surprise experience is one of the great thrills audio can provide. This was the thing that once drove me to write.

SE triodes, horns, and, yes, single-drivers and Western Electric--they are all surprising technological accomplishments. That is why I featured them in Sound Practices. The aspect of "forget what you thought you knew" and "stay open" is a more important lesson for life and audio than any topology. The other point I tried to hammer is "you have to listen to your system, so who cares what so-called experts think."

I could name names, but a lot of people who thought I was an idiot or some kind of criminal, and told me so, went on to spread the very message that pissed them off enough to get their attention. The point is not to be "right," or even
to get the "best sound," but to be happy and creative.

I looked around the site and I think there is some useful perspective here, but no final answers, nor should there be. Romy, good job for getting people to think...now, let them think and experiment. The goal of any teacher should be to have students who move far beyond them and leave the teacher in the dust.

As for a trip to Boston, it is cold enough in Virginia. I feel sorry for the Indians who lived here before central heating.

The notion of meeting up for a penis swinging competition is a dreadful thought. My tool is happy where it is, safe and warm in my shorts. I would only accept if there were promises of good food and non-audio conversation involved. Otherwise, I am more happy retired where the chances of interesting non-audio conversation are much higher.

Thanks to Romy and the forum,

Joe

Ps: I did meet a few interesting folks thanks to this appearance. Happy about that.

Also, I'll be checking my Google stats religiously, but I think 6moons has goodsoundclub beat for linkage.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site