The Method of Tuning

OK, ready? Now I need to cover this. This is a biggie and can change the hobby for you.

Folks ask me all the time why I choose what they would call "Mid-Fi" over High End. They get upset that I like the sound of inexpensive products over the mega buck ones. Well hopefully I can answer this with enough detail. Have you ever closed the door on your Maserati and realized you’ve just left the keys in the car? You walk around it scared to death your going to damage it getting back in. You notice you’ve left your phone in there as well. And your standing in a parking lot that you know if your wife finds out your going to be served.

Well, think about that for a minute. High end audio is full of folks who have never setup their system to the max. Their scared to death of the warranty being void, so they never undo the shipping state of the unit. There goes a third or even half of the performance. At best they plug & play their system together as if it does magic tricks, like tuning itself to the recording playing. And, after spending all that money don’t even dare to challenge the WAF. That’s called locking your keys and phone in the Maserati
and worried your wife will find you in that parking lot. Your thinking "well at least I have a class A recommended system". My friends (I say this as nice as possible) that’s not an active system able to play all music. That’s an audio museum that a few times a week gets taken out for a ride down virtually the same road every time.

Having an expensive system, has very little to do with sound performance. Please no tomatoes! Don’t get me wrong, that system may very well be the best audio system in the world.....in the designer’s home, with the designer’s ears, with the designer’s favorite music. And, before you shoot me, maybe you happen to have the same hearing, home designer and favorite music collection (as your designer), but what if it comes up that there is the slightest of chances you want to be able to focus on the hall of that live recording just a little bit more than the acoustical guitar? You know it’s on the recording, cause you’ve heard it before. Are you going to plug in another amp, move your speakers all over the place, change out the cables, feet....? The question is really, what if you had an infinitely variable system? For myself, I don’t need components with big over built chassis, I don’t need heavy dampened speakers, I don’t need huge crossovers to fix my complicated drivers. I don’t need thick cables to carry the fragile signal or stands made out of space age materials. I certainly don’t need huge capacitors and transformers (I’m only using 1 cap in my speakers). I don’t need to keep adding dampening materials to my room. The brakes squeal till the car comes to a halt, Wait A Minute! Why do I need a complicated system if audio isn’t that complicated?

My friends we have completely over built this hobby into a plug & play nightmare. HEA has gone way overboard and turn the hobby into EE fix it’s. They’re not needed! If you think about it, they’re not even wanted. We’ve got guys who only understand amps dictating to guys who only know speakers, playing in rooms that are over dampened, with equipment that only has one volume control trying to play recordings that all are recorded differently. And to boot we all have different hearing. It’s not complicated that we need, it’s simplicity. If you have a variably tunable simple system, you will out perform that Maserati sitting in that parking lot, every time.

The big overbuilt HEA is fun, it's cool, it's manly, it's also not needed to get great sound and to play more music. In fact the over build fix it part of the hobby has taken over the hobby itself. All of these complicated crossovers wouldn't be needed if the room and speakers worked together. You can see the logic here right? The reason folks are leaving the HEA part of the audiophile hobby is because they are finding that simplicity with a variable method out performed their expensive system. Like I've been saying this is happening in real time. The more people convert to simplicity and control over their hobby, the more they are moving away from pricy band aids.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

On this thread it's time to compare 2 systems to see who's would be the best at playback.

System (A) or system (T)

System A consists of any combination of discrete componentry plus "factory tuned" speakers we choose with a $1,000.000.00 limit.

System T consist of a limit of $200.00 for receiver or integrated amp, $50.00 for CDP. $6,000.00 for tunable speaker/sub combo and another $6,000.00 for wires, cables, platforms, tuning blocks and acoustical treatments.

A couple of times on this forum comments have been made that there is no way the budget system can out perform the all class A million dollar all star system, but in doing the actual setups over the last 20 years system "T" has been chosen over 90% of the time (the 10% never took the challenge serious).

Your thinking "how can this be"? Well look back at what an audio system is. An audio playback system is an electrical, mechanical and acoustical audio chain (including environment), that host a variable signal. The signal itself is tunable because it is being hosted by physical conduits. When you have a system that is variably tunable playing a variable signal you are able to "tune" the system in to the signal, and the signal into the system. It works just like tuning instruments. When your looking at strictly performance, the best sounding componentry are the pieces that get along with the fundamental forces and not against them. A system for example that is in-tune and 3db up doesn't need over built crossovers, or chassis or heavy parts, it simply needs to play and play in-tune with the recorded code. If you tune your system to your recording and room, you will have an accurate reproduction of the performance.

HEA's version of playing music isn't necessarily the highest level of performance. In fact in most cases the HEA mega over built high buck systems have limitations that you don't find with "system T" types. One of these limits is when we are dealing with signal/field interactions. Another one is vibratory structure matching. And a huge one is speaker/room interfacing. HEA created a world that isn't needed to playback recordings more accurately and musical. Remember, not too long ago folks were saying "Kill Vibrations", "make a dead room" and "shield magnetic fields". All of these subtract from a recording's signal. These aren't necessarily bad things if your trying to focus in on a particular part of the recorded code, but if your wanting to open up that same recording you will need to be able to go in the opposite direction. In other words we're squeezing and opened up the signal to give different results in our soundstage. But where HEA went overboard is when they made units that squeezed the signal so much that it started creating sonic holes in the soundstage among other problems. In the end of all the squeezing you end up only being able to play fewer and fewer recordings with a believable sound.

You can take these same recordings and put them on a low mass system and tune them in to the point where you can virtually create any size stage you want and as well as much focus as you wish.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Bad recordings Vs Non-playable recordings.

Back in the early 90's I traveled around showing reviewers how to tune in recordings. You might be surprised to hear this from me but go back and read about it in the Audiophile rags. Yep, Stereophile, TAS and the others didn't know recordings could be tuned. Or should I say that systems could be put in-tune to a particular recording. I spent 3 years traveling & tuning, showing folks that simple systems could out perform the more expensive over the top built ones. Some of you might remember me coming to your store. When I was allowed, I would do my talk in the ultra high end rooms, but also did a simple setup in usually smaller out of the way rooms with inexpensive systems the store had. I'm not sure the store owners were very happy with me at times, but the response to these setups, one sold tons for the store, and two showed another more practical side to the hobby. I remember back then the industry would try to separate the "audiophile cheapskate" from the HEA recommended components, but the truth of it was almost always the less expensive systems (made tunable) beat the tar out of the big boys. Back then I wasn't setting out to put down the expensive components, I was simply making the best sound. This became a source of conflict between me and the HEA to a degree, but I always knew things would work themselves out in the end. Ultimately audiophiles are going to come home to their first love, their recording collections and their favorite ways to play them.

Did you ever think about this, why do folks go to such pains to cry "Bad Recording" whenever their system can't play it? In the last 15 years this has gotten really out of line, to the point where folks have created their own out saying "my system is revealing" to the point that it can pick out bad recordings. My friends this is an HEA myth from hell and if you are stuck in it you could use an audio priest. Yep, there might be 1% of copies or recordings that have fallen between the cracks. And I'm not saying you might have bought that 1% in your life. What I am saying is, beside factory defects, chances are almost every recording in your collection is just fine. So why all the bad sound? That's a question you should be asking HEA. The answer is a simple one, if a system is not able to play a recording successfully it means that recording has not been "Tuned" to that systems setup.

If we took a field and built 1000 identical rooms and put a different system in each room, and took your "bad" recording and played it in those rooms that recording would sound bad like you've described in some rooms, but probably to your surprise that same recording would sound between Ok to audiophile approved in some of these rooms, maybe many of them. And I guarantee would sound fantastic with the tunable systems. How is this possible? Or the better question is, how has HEA failed to discover and teach you this reality? How can HEA sell you a component that is limited in playing back music? If you think your one sound system is able to judge recordings come on up to the check out counter, your done. HEA has successfully sold you your cats meow. But you know what, most of you would be lying through your teeth. Most of you are still going round in that HEA revolving sales door hunting for the next component. That's ok if your a component collector. But what about if you want to play that recording and your system is not allowing that to happen? Well some of you have bought several copies until you find one that works for you. But lets say the store is closed and your stuck with the bad sounding one? Again most of you are going to say, it's the recording and you would be right, at least half right. One of these things is not working. Either the recording is not working with your system or your system is unable to play that recording. That exact recording played on another system will sound fantastic, happens all the time, all day long.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net