| The Savvy Audiophile | High End Music Reproduction/cont'd |
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Finally, let’s not forget that there’s simply no 1980 counterpart
to the vast selection of super high-quality interconnects, speaker cables and
power cords that we enjoy today. What I’m getting at is that never before have you been able to get more for your high-end audio dollar. This alone should be reason enough for people to reward themselves with some well-deserved aural pleasures. If you think about it, the price of a two-week vacation for two will get you into an entry-level high-end system. The vacation will come and go and you’ll have only photos to look at, but the stereo system will provide years of daily enjoyment. As for the standard first objection, “I can’t hear the difference; I say, “Horse Hockey!” Fact is, anyone with normal hearing can be taught to discern the difference between cheap audio and really great audio, and a simple demonstration will bear this out. Ideally, the demonstration involves setting up a cheap system and a high-end system side by side — aural memory is weak, and human beings are not particularly good at remembering what something sounds like if there is too much time lag between comparisons. The better method is to be able to switch quickly between one system and another. It would also be ideal if both systems could have the same CD playing roughly in sync, so that you could easily switch between them to show the differences in sound quality. Finally, it’s equally helpful to use well-recorded and properly mastered source material (most pop music need not apply). The Inner Ear has offered numerous recommendations over the years, so simply thumb through a few back issues of the magazine for some selections. The Sound Starting at the bottom end, have the student listen carefully to the bass reproduction of each system. He/she should notice that the high-end system reproduces the kick drum as a tight and punchy sound, and that the cheap system fails miserably at the task, instead regurgitating a boomy and ill-defined thump. Point out how bass instruments sound. The high-end system will allow him to hear the individual notes of the bass (be it electric, upright or bassoon) with clarity and authority. The cheap system’s “sub-woofer” will blur the notes into a rumbly low-end clump. Low-end systems may give you lots of bass, but mostly between 80-120 Hertz. They seldom have any significant energy below 60 Hertz. Remember, the lowest open note on an upright bass is listed at approximately 40 Hertz. Next up is the midrange, a big place, the area where most instruments live, including the human voice. Hearing the differences between high-end and low-end midrange reproduction is a subtler undertaking. An unbalanced midrange results in poor vocal reproduction. An over-emphasized lower midrange, for example, will make male vocals sound “chesty” and somewhat muffled. Pianos and guitars will sound “tubby.” If the upper midrange frequencies are being favoured, voices and instruments such as brass and strings will sound thin and “reedy.” In extreme cases, the sound will be harsh and annoying. The key word here is balance: the midrange should have as flat a frequency response curve as possible. |
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