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Editorialpeteraczel | 13 February, 2006 20:14 The Realities of Audio: an Old Man's Musings Three months from now I’ll have my 80th birthday. I’ve been writing on the subject of audio for 50 years, 30 of them for The Audio Critic, and at this point I am something of a burnout. Specifically, I’ve lost all patience for the wide-eyed wonderment of reviewers over the latest and greatest audio gear. The realities of audio are exceedingly simple, not at all complex or mysterious. Audio is an old technology. Not much has happened over the last 50 years. For example, the stereo recordings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner that Lewis Layton made for RCA Victor 50 years ago are every bit as good as anything recorded today, so how much progress could there have been? Even the transition from analog to digital technology was basically a forward step in method, not necessarily in results. My burnout condition results in total boredom when I hear about a new seven-channel receiver or a new loudspeaker with forward-firing drivers in a rectangular box. It takes something a little bit different to get me even mildly excited. Loudspeakers like the B&O BeoLab 5 or the Linkwitz Lab “Orion” can still jolt me out of my ennui. So can a $180 high-powered amplifier like the Behringer A500. Products like that are rare, however. Most have no distinguishing attributes, no matter how hard the admen try. I see little or no reason to review me-too products, although every once in a while I do. Allow the old burnout to make some curmudgeonly generalizations here that may turn out to be more enlightening, especially to new readers, than any specific review. To wit: No piece of electronic gear, no matter how “cool,” will change your audio life. Whether it’s the latest digital circuitry or the most retro vacuum-tube design, the sound will remain just about the same—you will not discover unsuspected new beauty. More convenience, greater efficiency, better ergonomics, slicker functionality—maybe (especially with up-to-date digital technology), but no greater beauty of sound. For that you need a new loudspeaker. Not one with forward-firing dynamic drivers and a passive crossover in a closed rectangular box, no matter how costly. That vein has been mined and is now exhausted. Look for active (powered) speakers, maybe open-backed, maybe with special dispersion devices, maybe electrostatic, maybe line sources, maybe DSP-corrected—there are a number of possibilities. I can’t promise they will all be good but I can tell you that you won’t find astonishing new sounds coming out of “monkey coffins” (i.e., rectangular boxes with conventional drivers). Think about it. Doesn’t it stand to reason that the last link in the audio chain, the thing that actually produces the sound waves, is the limiting factor of sound quality? The trouble is that the new loudspeaker capable of changing your audio life is likely to be large and difficult to fit into your home décor. Your better half may say, “Over my dead body!” So, instead, you’ll lug a shiny new amplifier home in your hot little hand and swear that the sound is infinitely better. Poor deluded soul… As I said, the realities of audio are simple. Only some audio journalists make them complicated. MenuSearchRecently... |
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