LightninBoy
Addicted to Fun and Learning
You are young and successful. You've owned some gear, auditioned more at the high end dealers, read all of the articles. You think you know your shit and your ears are golden, maybe even platinum. Then it happens - you are proven so wrong about something that it shakes your faith in your ability to perceive sound. If you lean towards one side in the objective/subjective spectrum, maybe it even challenges some of the dogma on your side and makes you see things from the other side for a moment.
I've had a few of these, but one in particular has given me an appreciation for those who seek euphoric sounds that are not on the record. The song "In the Morning" my Norah Jones has a neat (Hammond?) organ intro. It sounded *so cool* in my HT room. A couple of the notes rang with such clarity, I thought I could reach out and touch that organ. I'd listen to that over and over again - even demo'd it to a few folks and they all reacted to the same passage. Then one day I was doing something behind the speakers when that song started. And that's when I heard it - a rattle from my right speaker when those glorious organ notes hit. Turns out the (metal) back plate was a little lose and was resonating at those notes. It sounded so clear and real because it *was* a real instrument in the room: a metal resonator. Well, it was an easy fix to tighten the back plate and it stopped resonating. That organ intro still sounded great, but gone was the "magic" when those couple notes played.
I still think of this experience when I hear people extol the audio virtues of tube gear that are intentionally designed for euphoria. Or the sound of vinyl, where the limits of the medium create a specific, and for many a nostalgic, sound presentation. Also, when I hear folks talk about speakers that have cabinets that purposely resonate. I'm still firmly in the objectivist and "high fidelity to the recording" camp, but having that humbling experience enables me to grok the other side.
Anyways, I've been yapping on this board like a know it all for the past few weeks. But I'm not alone. So lets all take the collective piss out of ourselves and talk about when we've been humbled about all this audio stuff. Who's next?
I've had a few of these, but one in particular has given me an appreciation for those who seek euphoric sounds that are not on the record. The song "In the Morning" my Norah Jones has a neat (Hammond?) organ intro. It sounded *so cool* in my HT room. A couple of the notes rang with such clarity, I thought I could reach out and touch that organ. I'd listen to that over and over again - even demo'd it to a few folks and they all reacted to the same passage. Then one day I was doing something behind the speakers when that song started. And that's when I heard it - a rattle from my right speaker when those glorious organ notes hit. Turns out the (metal) back plate was a little lose and was resonating at those notes. It sounded so clear and real because it *was* a real instrument in the room: a metal resonator. Well, it was an easy fix to tighten the back plate and it stopped resonating. That organ intro still sounded great, but gone was the "magic" when those couple notes played.
I still think of this experience when I hear people extol the audio virtues of tube gear that are intentionally designed for euphoria. Or the sound of vinyl, where the limits of the medium create a specific, and for many a nostalgic, sound presentation. Also, when I hear folks talk about speakers that have cabinets that purposely resonate. I'm still firmly in the objectivist and "high fidelity to the recording" camp, but having that humbling experience enables me to grok the other side.
Anyways, I've been yapping on this board like a know it all for the past few weeks. But I'm not alone. So lets all take the collective piss out of ourselves and talk about when we've been humbled about all this audio stuff. Who's next?