I do an odd thing for a living. Strategically and creatively, it's my job to discover the things that differentiate businesses from their competitors while appealing to their customers, then find ways to communicate these benefits in interesting, compelling, memorable ways.
My job is to make you look, then make you remember.
A recent client's business model, differentiator and key benefit was transparency. How much the business makes, how much it saves, how much of that savings they pass on to their customers, and most importantly, the processes and data through which they accomplish all of the above, are shared openly with their customers. They are transparent. The face they present on the surface is utterly clear, offering an uncolored, unaltered view of the substance of their business model.
Personally, I think of transparency in audio much the same way. The recording is the substance of the matter; it's why everything else exists. Therefore, the goal of every every media/component/system is to be that transparent surface that offers a clear, uncolored, unaltered view of that substance.
In my perfect world, a world in which all audio designers have the same goal, they'd be terrible clients for me, because they would deliberately and strenuously avoid differentiating themselves from each other. All amplifiers would sound alike. So would all DACs and preamps and cables and servers and...well...speakers and rooms? Even I can't dream that big. But for electronic components, I don't think the dream is all that big. I think we're a lot closer than many of us want to believe. And I think as often as not, when we're not very close to transparency, it is because we have deliberately, strenuously differentiated from it.
What do you think?
Tim
My job is to make you look, then make you remember.
A recent client's business model, differentiator and key benefit was transparency. How much the business makes, how much it saves, how much of that savings they pass on to their customers, and most importantly, the processes and data through which they accomplish all of the above, are shared openly with their customers. They are transparent. The face they present on the surface is utterly clear, offering an uncolored, unaltered view of the substance of their business model.
Personally, I think of transparency in audio much the same way. The recording is the substance of the matter; it's why everything else exists. Therefore, the goal of every every media/component/system is to be that transparent surface that offers a clear, uncolored, unaltered view of that substance.
In my perfect world, a world in which all audio designers have the same goal, they'd be terrible clients for me, because they would deliberately and strenuously avoid differentiating themselves from each other. All amplifiers would sound alike. So would all DACs and preamps and cables and servers and...well...speakers and rooms? Even I can't dream that big. But for electronic components, I don't think the dream is all that big. I think we're a lot closer than many of us want to believe. And I think as often as not, when we're not very close to transparency, it is because we have deliberately, strenuously differentiated from it.
What do you think?
Tim