Aplomb Gone Crazy - An Evening Event At A High-End Retailer
May my ears forgive me...........................
My local high-end retailer had an event the other evening, a table of generous food offerings, a program slip describing what equipment was in which room, free wine and beer............hard to pass these events up.
Confession, I have not been playing my system much at all for the past couple of years, and when I do often it is just background music on my back-up CD changer. In other words, my ears are pretty fresh, even for a 57 year old guy.
Here is the trend I've been noticing, and in my opinion has gone a bit too far, I'm it calling - Aplomb Gone Crazy.
To describe; remember the first drum you heard in person? How about that first drum kit the cool kid in school had? There is something about percussion instruments that separates them from most other instruments, that whack sound, the impact of a sound pressure wave, the so-called in your face and through your body "aplomb". Maybe I'm using the wrong word, but nothing sounds more confident than a primal drum being beaten upon..................and drums are bass, let's face it.
That's why they call it a freaking drum beat.
So........(getting to my angst)........when other instruments attempt to mimic that energy via an enhanced loudspeaker or arc-welding capable amplification, well.......they just don't sound like themselves. Not like live acoustic music anyway.
Sure it was great when self-powered subwoofers first came out for home theater application and to take advantage of then new Compact Discs. Man-o-man that bass had impact, bang, boom, pow!
Then some self-powered speakers attempted to take that into the upper bass and midrange levels, but were all rather technical sounding (to my mid-fi ears of the time).
So getting to that trend I'm attempting to describe, it's been growing whatever it is, and it is a bully at times.
It bullies my ears into surrealistic 3D stereo that is more poignant and dynamic than live music at times.
Sure you have heard it in the bass before, and of course tweeters that etch and score your ears in unrelenting ultrasonic attacks.
Now it's finally arrived in the mid-range. And it's not the sweet voice of Holly Cole on mini-monitors powered by tubes in a small room with near-field seating. Nope, this is an in your face, any instrument in the mid-range sounding as dynamic and punchy as the most powerful Timpani drum at it's focal point.
I do not think this is the way music is supposed to sound, it draws attention away from the music and draws attention to the speakers themselves.
If you have not heard this, then you may not have heard $60,000 speakers paired with $60,000 amps turned up to impress.
I think that with any new tool, it takes art to refine it's use. The tools in this case is the technology superseding the craft. Like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant there just isn't much finesse being exhibited.
I hesitate to list the names of the guilty, but can say this is 100% my subjective opinion and you are free to call me an idiot.
Sonus Faber - it is these loudspeakers I suspect are the source of my bewilderment.
McIntosh - solid state amps
Audio Research - KT150 tube amp
I know what McIntosh sounds like, I do not fault them.
Audio Research should be congratulated, they finally allowed tubes to bloom like they should and stopped choking the life out of them attempting to sound like solid state.
Sonus Faber, at one time my favorite box speaker because it didn't sound like a box and was just so darn musical. WFT happened?
In many ways Sonus Faber has made an amazing achievement, a true break through in dynamics, long hailed as the last crippling threshold to obtaining the sound of live music.
On the other hand...............instead of creating a sexy seductress they created a Brunhilde.
http://thenorsegods.com/brunhilde/
I do no blame the speakers completely, they would not be able to reach their goal without accomplices. The quest for dynamics with little regard for anything else is the culprit, the speakers just took it to a new level.
Maybe old fatigued ears need this kind of in your face juicing, mine recoiled from it.
May my ears forgive me for what I put them through.
May my ears forgive me...........................
My local high-end retailer had an event the other evening, a table of generous food offerings, a program slip describing what equipment was in which room, free wine and beer............hard to pass these events up.
Confession, I have not been playing my system much at all for the past couple of years, and when I do often it is just background music on my back-up CD changer. In other words, my ears are pretty fresh, even for a 57 year old guy.
Here is the trend I've been noticing, and in my opinion has gone a bit too far, I'm it calling - Aplomb Gone Crazy.
To describe; remember the first drum you heard in person? How about that first drum kit the cool kid in school had? There is something about percussion instruments that separates them from most other instruments, that whack sound, the impact of a sound pressure wave, the so-called in your face and through your body "aplomb". Maybe I'm using the wrong word, but nothing sounds more confident than a primal drum being beaten upon..................and drums are bass, let's face it.
That's why they call it a freaking drum beat.
So........(getting to my angst)........when other instruments attempt to mimic that energy via an enhanced loudspeaker or arc-welding capable amplification, well.......they just don't sound like themselves. Not like live acoustic music anyway.
Sure it was great when self-powered subwoofers first came out for home theater application and to take advantage of then new Compact Discs. Man-o-man that bass had impact, bang, boom, pow!
Then some self-powered speakers attempted to take that into the upper bass and midrange levels, but were all rather technical sounding (to my mid-fi ears of the time).
So getting to that trend I'm attempting to describe, it's been growing whatever it is, and it is a bully at times.
It bullies my ears into surrealistic 3D stereo that is more poignant and dynamic than live music at times.
Sure you have heard it in the bass before, and of course tweeters that etch and score your ears in unrelenting ultrasonic attacks.
Now it's finally arrived in the mid-range. And it's not the sweet voice of Holly Cole on mini-monitors powered by tubes in a small room with near-field seating. Nope, this is an in your face, any instrument in the mid-range sounding as dynamic and punchy as the most powerful Timpani drum at it's focal point.
I do not think this is the way music is supposed to sound, it draws attention away from the music and draws attention to the speakers themselves.
If you have not heard this, then you may not have heard $60,000 speakers paired with $60,000 amps turned up to impress.
I think that with any new tool, it takes art to refine it's use. The tools in this case is the technology superseding the craft. Like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant there just isn't much finesse being exhibited.
I hesitate to list the names of the guilty, but can say this is 100% my subjective opinion and you are free to call me an idiot.
Sonus Faber - it is these loudspeakers I suspect are the source of my bewilderment.
McIntosh - solid state amps
Audio Research - KT150 tube amp
I know what McIntosh sounds like, I do not fault them.
Audio Research should be congratulated, they finally allowed tubes to bloom like they should and stopped choking the life out of them attempting to sound like solid state.
Sonus Faber, at one time my favorite box speaker because it didn't sound like a box and was just so darn musical. WFT happened?
In many ways Sonus Faber has made an amazing achievement, a true break through in dynamics, long hailed as the last crippling threshold to obtaining the sound of live music.
On the other hand...............instead of creating a sexy seductress they created a Brunhilde.
http://thenorsegods.com/brunhilde/
I do no blame the speakers completely, they would not be able to reach their goal without accomplices. The quest for dynamics with little regard for anything else is the culprit, the speakers just took it to a new level.
Maybe old fatigued ears need this kind of in your face juicing, mine recoiled from it.
May my ears forgive me for what I put them through.
