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Esoteric Hype - The Subjectivist MythAug 19 '02 (Updated Aug 21 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Home Theater Systems
The Bottom Line Megabuck stuff sure looks interesting. But you could get better sound from a lower budget by avoiding the high-end circus.
Note: This article started out as a "rant" and was first written about two years ago, but never published until now. The eventual publication of the "rant" almost immediately triggered a comment, upon which I decided to cover the matter in more detail. The article is therefore quite long, but by no means covers all aspects of the matter: I could probably write a few books about this... It is fairly easy these days - provided you have the spare dough - to spend several ten thousand dollars on consumer audio equipment. Golden-eared reviewers in "High-End" audio mags will tell you things like only single ended Class-A triode valve amplifiers are to be taken seriously - any other amp configuration will "seriously degrade your stereo imaging and three-dimensionality" - and of course a pair of serious single ended triode class A monoblocks with 15 Watts rated output will set you back about $15.000 or so. And I'm not even talking about interconnection cables costing $1000 a pair, $100-per-foot speaker cable, and a plethora of weird accessories supposed to further enhance sound quality by "neutralizing undesired side effects" of all sorts. Those - like yours truly - professionally involved in sound recording and reinforcement hardly ever read high-end audio mags: it may be nice to have a few good laughs every now and then, but too much causes stomach cramps. Just for starters: any recording professional knows that all those precious audio signals, prior to being captured on their respective carriers - be it Vinyl or CD - travel through tens or even hundreds of feet of wiring, and super-premium quality studio cable costs no more than $1 per feet - usually a lot less. It will also have passed through huge amounts of circuitry containing all those highly obnoxious components that every High End reviewer rants about - e.g. electrolytic capacitors, IC op amps and such. Some people will object: What about "audiophile" recordings? Granted. Audiophile recording procedures will attempt to minimize the amount of circuitry between the mic and the disc mastering equipment. But still, there's considerably more wiring and circuitry involved than you might find in an average High End set. Audiophile recordings tend to sound better - more transparent - mainly due to superior microphone technique, and the use of high quality microphones. And you really don't need a megabuck set to hear the difference... I know a good recording even if I have to listen to it through a PA stack. So what's the point in shelling out $1000 for a pair of 4 ft. cables which are to connect your CD player to your amp? Well, to be honest: There isn't. Except for the cable manufacturer and retailer's respective bank accounts. Same thing goes for class A triode single ended valve amps. Try hooking up one of these amps to an industry standard audio test set: You will find its distortion figures comparing very poorly to those routinely measured on any industrial grade amplifier having 30 times (!) as much output power and costing less than half the price of aforementioned typical esoteric amp. They sure do sound nice - because they actually add distortion! Some types of distortion may, in some cases, enhance sound - this is the case with the dominant 2nd order distortion in class A single ended valve amps. But obviously one cannot claim that the result thus obtained is a more accurate representation of "The Source". Now every High End adept will argue that there are certain subtle effects that seriously impair correct audio reproduction, but cannot be measured with today's industry standard equipment. They will however fail to supply more details about these supposed "subtle effects", nor will they be able to produce research results indicating that these effects indeed exist. Nonetheless, these effects provide the theoretic basis for a wide range of accessories supposed to enhance sound reproduction. Did you know a CD player or amp sounds better if, instead of just having it sit on a shelf as usual, you clamp it between two slabs of glass or marble with metal cones or spheres in between? Sure looks interesting, but do you believe it? Am I going to apply this procedure to my clients' mixing consoles, multitrack recorders and various outboard equipment? Don't think so. By the way: In a couple of months I'll be stinking rich. I'll be putting to good use all those worn out valve tubes I routinely replace in various musical instrument amps. I'll be fitting them on neat-looking gold plated diecast aluminum boxes with a small power supply to make the filament light up, and sell the resulting assembly claiming that it will positively influence the sound of any solid state amp when placed in its immediate surroundings, conveying a warm, more valve-like characteristic to the typical cold solid state sound. Bet your whateveryoulike it will sell ($1229.95 suggested retail), and get rave reviews in High End mags. Patent applied for. Now this is where subjectivism enters the picture: People will think the equipment sounds better, in the first place because they have shelled out an exaggerated amount of money to buy it. No one will admit that his $20,000 set really might not sound any better when compared to a well-put-together $2,000 set. No one likes to admit he just flushed $18,000 down the drain. Then there's the phenomenon of "inflation" caused by all those people who don't care anyway since they have so much money and they don't know what to do with it - if any retailer tells them that this model XYZ123 is really the "beez kneez", they'll buy it - no matter what it cost or how it sounds. Of course, other people don't want to be less than Mr. Big Shot, so they'll be buying the XYZ123 as well - with detrimental side effects for their bank accounts. Next time you read your favorite audio mag on what sounds good, what doesn't, and how it got that way - think twice. Those mags have to sell advertisement space and any objectivity goes right out the window. So, now what? If you want a really good sounding set without busting the bank, your best bet is semi-pro equipment. The people who use this stuff want good-sounding, dependable gear because their livelihood depends on it, they aren't going to shell out megabucks for hot air and the manufacturers know this. So here's a few tips: Some small monitor speakers offer amazing sound quality and a lot more punch than you'd expect from such small cabinets. On top of that, they're quite resistant to abuse and usually they can be tweaked to compensate for less than ideal placement. Several models have built-in power amps. These systems are not exactly cheap but similar performance bought at the hig-end shop will cost you at least twice as much. So you own a pair of good speakers - B&W or similar - and need a power amp? Stay away from valve amps then. Most such speakers are not very efficient, so if you're serious about your fortissimo (and don't have fussy neighbors) a few hundred watts per channel are not mere luxury. Valve amps this big exist, but cost a fortune - and produce obscene quantities of heat. They are also very costly to run. Professional grade power amps handle these power levels gracefully, distortion levels are barely measurable, and they're built for eternity. Check out the various offerings from Mackie, QSC, Amcron/Crown: you'll be pleasantly surprised. You may want to have the cooling fan silenced though - fit quieter fans or proportionally controlled ones that run at very low speed as long as the amp doesn't get too hot. There are some fan-less models, popular for use in recording studios. On the other hand, if you own a pair of Klipsch horns or other similarly efficient speakers, go ahead and buy a McIntosh... Learn how to use a soldering iron and make your own cables. Good, no nonsense cables are difficult to find in the stores, mostly it's either dirt cheap rubbish or astronomically priced snake oil. Good quality connectors and cable for a 3 ft. stereo interconnect will set you back $20 at most, and I dare any golden-eared esoteric to distinguish between a well built $20 homebrew cable and a $500 high-end cable in a double-blind a/b test. The difference for a single cable will pay for a good soldering iron and a stack of CD's. Alternatively, you can have a techie wire up your set for a moderate fee. Speaker Cables? Four conductor 12 AWG mains cable works well. This type of cable, seen in cross section, has its conductors laid up in the shape of a square. Connect the conductors at opposite corners of the square together at both ends of the cable, so you get two pairs of conductors. Use one pair for ground, the other for hot. Among audio engineers, this way of connecting a four conductor cable is known as "star quad", and it is also used in situations where weak (microphone) signals must be transmitted over long distances in nasty environments, though they don't use common mains cable for this... As a speaker cable, it works very well: you have a large copper section in a very manageable cable - this is what counts most, and inductive/capacitive side effects sufficiently reduced. Some high-end cables use this trick as well, since it actually makes sense! Suitable quality mains cable costs only about a buck a yard or so. Professionals often use similarly constructed cables that have finer strands, a more flexible jacket and more accurately laid-up conductors. These cables are marketed specifically as speaker cable, cost a little more, but still come nowhere near the cost of "high-end" speaker cables. As for sources, brand names such as Marantz, Denon or National Panasonic aka Technics market several models of CD/DVD players and DAT machines which offer excellent value for money. A few years ago, a shining example was one of Marantz' CD players, affordable at less than $400, and beating "esoteric" models costing five times as much. Regrettably, these days most models are so short-lived that by the time their validity can be assessed they'll have been replaced by "new and improved" models, not necessarily of equal merit. Notable exception is the Technics SL 1200 series of record decks, industry standard for over 15 years. The first to get the "buzz" about particularly well performing gear are those who cater to studios and broadcasters, where value for money is a vital requirement. One such company is U.K. based Canford. Another brand deserving a honorable mention is Revox. Best known for their indestructible tape machines, they also once offered very fine CD players, FM tuners, amplifiers and even cassette decks. Alas, I don't know what to make of their present product range: I visited their site and left in deep despair. However, if you have the chance to pick up some second hand Revox kit, it's probably worth it. Parent company Studer still rocks. Which leaves us with the last essential component to cover - the preamp. Purists don't necessarily need one - you can plug your CD player straight into your power amp, and use the line output level control (present on most better players) as a volume control. Which is about the cleanest and simplest signal chain you can get. For those who want to be able to use more sources, there are a few good clean preamps available at reasonable prices. Another option is to use a small mixing console: Today's top of the line deejay consoles offer very good value for money when used in home systems. They don't come cheap, but most still cost considerably less than the average high-end preamp. One might argue that such consoles are unlikely to offer good performance, but today's better consoles are designed by people who know their stuff and are not inclined to inflict significant compromise upon the quality of their signal paths. The honorable mention goes to Citronic who's consoles have been "abused" in (European) home systems for more than 20 years - but they may be difficult to find in the U.S. Another source for top quality deejay consoles is Soundcraft. OK, now that you've read this: Go forth and multiply (your value for money) and most importantly: Stop listening to your set and start listening to the music. To be continued - maybe... (don't hold your breath)  |
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