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The Method of Tuning

System Playback has been evolving ever since the first stereos came out. Folks who have success can’t imagine listening to a system that has not been tuned, folks who haven’t been as successful in their listening tend to go off on their "snake oil" rants. People who buy from the "Recommended Component" list have their Plug & Play approach. The guys using measuring have their camp certainly, and there’s several other audio types out there that have their beliefs to add to the mix. Who’s correct? Well if we can remove our personal egos from this question, they (we) all are correct. The approach that you take as a listener is as legitimate as the next guys, to you. We try pushing our particular belief system on others because we are passionate about it. We have our likes and dislikes and we also have our own reasons why something does work or our blames why it doesn’t. The audiophile world has as many chapters as religious believers has denominations. It’s just the way our minds are built, you grew up on skippy, you peter pan, and you jiff. The audiophile world forgets sometimes just how many opinions and beliefs there really are, until they meet up on places like these audio forums and begin to mix this big bowl of ingredients together.

I’ve started this thread so I can share what I have learned through watching all these mixers turned on and being stuck in the bowl with each other and also from the point of view of someone who has "Tuned" many thousands of you, and have picked up on your own personal developments as masters of your own systems. So before we get going let me tell you something important. No one on the planet of listening "does" audio the way you do. You are unique, and you are a specialist when it comes to your audio adventure. You are all a salesman, because you want others to have that same level of success you enjoy. Audio reviewers, recording producers, component designers and end users are all in the same boat. You might have one or the other on a higher level than the rest, but that really has little relevance when your sitting there with your system and it’s just you and it.

What I would like to do with this thread is level the playing field and talk to you about the oldest technology in all of music (both playing & replaying). Tuning is the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other and every single one of you (us) Tune. We may want to call it something else that sounds more HEA (high end audio) ish, but no matter what we choose to call it, it’s all about taking the audio variables and making them work together. This is what I have been doing all of my personal and professional life. This is also what you have been doing ever since you started to play or playback music.

Just some ground rules for this thread.

First have fun. No one gets anywhere in music if their not enjoying it. If your a sour puss, don’t be surprised if we call you out as one. Personally I don’t mind or care if your a sour puss or not, but speaking for myself, I only have so much time in the day, and if this thread gets too sidetracky & tacky I’ll have better things to do, like making music money, which is a ton of fun.

Second I’m a designer/manufacturer. I am Michael Green of RoomTune and Michael Green Audio. I would imagine over the years 10,000-15,000 Agoners have used my products, maybe more maybe less, maybe only 2 people here have bought some of my stuff. The point is we sell audio products and if someone happens to buy them from this thread don’t get all bent out of shape, sales happen. Also if other designers come up and share their ideas, again try not to get all bent out of shape. Every single one of you are going to have and or get ideas from this thread or about this thread, or about the length of my hair (lol). As far as I am concerned everyone who has a stereo system has a product they want to sell, either physical or intellectually. So? It’s all part of the same soup as far as I am concerned.

Third I and others who come to this thread are free to post long posts. Some topics are not one sentence topics, and this will probably be the case here simply because we will be talking all things audio. And I should throw this in, let me the OP decide if something is off topic.

And last, if I disappear don’t take it like I don’t care. I’m a busy son of a gun and sometimes need a week or 2 to get caught up. Lately I’ve been posting and boring you a lot up here, but when the bell rings for me I’ve got to answer. I work on the US during the day and overseas during the night so that only leaves room for cat naps at best. Everyone here is important and I respect that, and I apologize in advance for my tardiness at times.

I’m ready for some fun are you?

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

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michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio OP
643 posts
 

Let me start off by telling you a couple of things about audio. Audio isn’t a solid mass without motion. 1hz-30,000hz is motion. It’s called lots of names, signal, oscillation, frequencies responses, variable dynamics and dozens more. Whatever your favorite terms are they probably apply. The point is we are on a moving, spinning and timely space. Because music is on the lower end of the frequency scale you are going to have motion and audio itself as part of that motion as an energy source. Now I don’t really care how some of you want to debate what the audio signal actually is. I’m more interested diving right in and you showing yourself that audio is motion. Best way to show you that audio is motion is something you all have already done. Take a component of yours (can be electronic or speaker or whatever) and move it from one surface to another and listen to how the sound has changed. It may be very little or it may be a big change, but a change happened. If you didn’t hear a change we’ll get to that, but most of you can hear the difference. This is your simple test to prove to yourself that audio is motion.

Since audio is motion (you heard it yourself) that means that audio conduits are tunable. No need to over think it, motion and the movement of motion means variable, and that means tunable.

So lets knock out our first fact.

The components you have at your place (environment) taken to a different space will perform differently. Again maybe slightly and maybe a lot. Go ahead and do it. Setup a system in one room at your house and then take that system and set it up in another space. It’s going to sound different. Your system performs Acoustically, mechanically and electrically different when it is in a different environment.

think about that one and I’ll be back

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Hi Michael. May I ask, what (band/genre,etc.) is your music preference? Curious because - among other reasons - the music I prefer and listen to regularly is live (recorded) Grateful Dead and extended family. That stated, you mention tuning as being the most basic and the most advanced technology in making fundamentals and harmonics work in support of each other. Joni Mitchell is within the scope of Grateful Dead extended family, and she regularly and purposely tuned her guitar "out" of tune. It sounds spectacular, actually. To your statement about audio being in motion, unless this is applicable to my listening while driving, no, the simple act of moving my amp, DAC or whatever from shelf one to shelf two has no effect. If you get confused, listen to the music play. Best.


michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio OP
643 posts
 

So Michael, your telling us stuff we already know.

Yep, this is pretty easy stuff, no mysteries and no debate. Every time any of us move our system around we get a new sound. Now lets get into something else.

Lets play 5 different songs. They all sound different right? Each one of them has a unique arrangement of notes and everything that associates with notes. Now lets take 5 different recordings from different LPs (can be CD vinyl or whatever). Notice that the recordings all sound different? So, each song sounded different and each recording sounded different. Now if you have eaten your wheaties move that system into another space. Play the same 5 songs and then play the same 5 LPs. Yep your right, they all sounded different than in the original space. Go ahead, move your speaker placement around, they still sound different. Bring the same audio furniture into the room, they still sound different. Go ahead and build 2 identical rooms next to each other, and yep rats, they still sounded different. No matter how many different configurations you play with something is different.

Take a look at your music collection. Every single one of these songs sound different, and every LP and every system location sounded different. The reality of playback is if you think about it, there are billions of variable variations. The chances of us playing our whole collection on one stereo to our liking is impossible. We can spend the rest of our listening lives replacing components and we will never come to a completely satisfying set of results. Why? Because audio is variable, audio systems and environments are variable, and we ourselves are variable, and what's more the Earth is variable.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

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