Listening Bias
I thought it might be handy for those following my writing at Positive Feedback Online to know what my listening biases are to aid you in interpreting and decoding my reviews. Just to alert you, my listening perspective is somewhat of a minority opinion in the Hi-Fi community of North America, but will be more familiar to those listeners in Turkey, Africa, and Japan, who tend to be more familiar with timbral ways of listening. My hierarchy of importance is aligned more closely to how well a Hi-Fi rig plays the musical content of recordings (I know, it’s a heretical concept), rather than how it ‘sounds’ in the more traditional audiophile ‘sonic’ sense.
As a result of my being drawn towards the musical content of recordings, I tend to be a bit more of a timbral listener than is typical for a lot of Westerners, meaning that the reproduction of the textures, colors, and tones & overtones in the music are really important to me. To this end I look for timbral realism at the band level (the band’s signature ‘sound’) and at the individual instrument level (the unique ‘voices’ of instruments). I want them to sound recognizably like themselves in tone and texture, so that their full tone color can develop, which I think helps lend a feeling of beauty and expressiveness to the music. I like the melody (the tune you ‘whistle while you work’), harmony (treble & bass accompaniments to the melody) and rhythm (the steady beat that determines the tempo) to have a life-like flow and connectedness in how the musicians interact—just like in real life. I want dynamics (variations in loudness) to evoke that which I hear in life for an emotional connection to the melody and rhythm. For loudness I like my music playback to be similar to live loudness levels, which for the kind of music I listen to the most, jazz, usually means 80 dB or louder. Finally, I want tempo portrayed so that both the mood and speed of the music are conveyed through it, just like it is with music in real life.
I consider the sonic performance of a Hi-Fi rig on the non-musical artifacts of the recording process to be of value, but of less importance to me than the performance on the musical content of recordings (as above). So things like transparency (being able to ‘see’ into the recording), soundstage (the three dimensions of the recorded space in width, height and depth), soundspace (the acoustic ‘space’ of the soundstage), and imaging (the feeling of solidity and localization of instruments & musicians on the soundstage) are important to me, but they are not my primary focus – the musical content is.
So I like my cake (the musical content of recordings) with a little frosting (the sonic artifacts of the recording process) for a balanced taste treat. Too much frosting and not enough cake puts me off. So that’s me, and you might be different, but at least now you know how.
Jeff,
This is, without a doubt, an interesting view. Counter-intuitive in the traditional audiophile context. Yet, as I weave my way through the jungle of audio, I seem to find my way meandering toward a similar conclusion.
After stepping out into this valley of insanity, I’ve configured the following set-up:
Amp – Pass Labs XA30.5
Pre – Wyred4Sound STP SE
Phono – Ray Samuels F117 (battery)
Turntable – Rega P9
Cart – Dynavector 17D3
Speakers – Zu Audio
But now I am looking to upgrade the phono stage, and would like to consider Tubed products to balance out my system. One product that interests me is the Leben RS-30EQ phono stage, which I understand will need a step-up transformer to work with my MC selections. That said, I find your directional bias interesting, and wanted to pick your brain on this match.
Thanks!
Hi Jonathan,
It does seem that music wins out in the end, although it can take a while to navigate the jungle of audiophilism before that happens … the first step is to recognize there’s a problem with that approach.
That’s a nice Hi-Fi system you’ve got there, and I think that the Leben RS-30EQ would be an excellent match to it. I’m using an Auditorium 23 step-up tranny when I use my Denon 103 MC, and it’s terrific, but most of the time I prefer my Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM without a step-up.
I think for step-up transformers tailored to a specific cartridge the way to go might be to get one from Bob’s Devices http://www.bobsdevices.com/ . If I remember correctly, Art Dudley reviewed one of Bob’s trannys in the last couple of months, and my buddy Stephaen has one from Bob that he seems favorably impressed with. The word on the street is they sound great and that the price is very fair.
Thanks for posting, and let me know how things work out for you.
Best,
Jeff
Jeff,
Thanks for the kind words about my equipment. It’s really my first, serious effort to delve into “hi-fi”. And, perhaps not something I should be proud of, I have put this all together during the past 12 months. Thankfully, I’ve not jumped in too deep, but find myself looking for that peace that comes from listening to music and not equipment…
Originally, and perhaps ignorantly, I was running a class D amp from Wyred. With that, everything just seemed sterile and lifeless. That drove me nuts, which is why I found myself looking at the Pass product. And while I was seriously interested in a tubed amp, I just felt a little under prepared to figure that whole field out. As such, we just chose the most tubed like SS product… Still, as soon as we plugged the Pass in there was an appreciable improvement in the tonality of the whole system. I will likely make a switch to a tubed amp or mono blocked amp, but for now, this is where I’m at.
For now, I’m tweaking 2 critical areas – the phono stage and then the speakers. I figure once I finalize on these two, coupled with my P9, I can really begin to find that synthesis that I am striving for. But, as you work your way through all of this, you find you start quickly identifying weak links…
That being said, I’ve already put my phono stage on waivers, and have acquired the Leben RS-30eq and A23 SUT, which are both on order. And now I’m going back and forth with waiting on that to determine if the Zu’s are the next to be “waived”, but at the same time, I just can’t imagine they’re anything like the upper Tannoys. Which is why I’ve been seriously looking at the Yorkminsters, and now, the Canterbury’s. In fact, I may end up ordering the Canterbury’s this week, because it will take upwards of 2 months to build and ship.
That said, can you see anything (aside from Smith’s book, which is on order) that you might suggest I look at to seek out the musical vibe?
Other than Jim’s book, nothing really comes to mind. Sorry about that.
Best,
Jeff