the hi-end doctor
are you an audiophile who owns a good hi-fi system or a hi-end one?
If so, do you know that the sound and performance of your system (regardless of its price and components) can be incredibly enhanced by a perfect setup? Just moving the speakers, adjusting your listening position, or properly introducing a top subwoofer, can definitely make a world of difference!
You should know, even if completely ignored by magazines and hi-end "gurus", that more than 50% of the sound of any system depends on its setup. A professional setup, carried out with electronic instruments, is paramount to optimise the interaction between the speakers’ emissions and the environment.
It's easily verifiable that the same hi-fi system, when placed in different rooms, produces different sounds. This occurs because the environment modifies the frequency response of the speakers. A perfect setup can also mitigate intrinsic problems of the speakers, which are very common, regardless of their price!
For these reasons, the setup of a system in its room is essential, especially nowadays, because the latest generation of so-called "hi-end speakers" are sadly getting larger and larger and are often placed in rooms of normal or small dimensions! This is a huge mistake that must be avoided in origin, but, if done, it must be fixed, or at least minimised, with a very accurate (and rather difficult) setup!!
Upgrading from a casual (or incorrect) setup, which is the norm, to a perfect one, can result in a sound transformation that ranges from very significant to tremendous, as if you have changed your entire system!
are your speakers proportionate to the dimensions of the listening room?
A speaker emits its own sound, but the final sound perceived by your ears in the listening position depends on the dimensions, materials, shape, and contents of the listening room, as well as its location relative to the walls, and its dimensional match with the room. Therefore, when considering the purchase of a pair of speakers, your first and foremost considerations should be: where am I going to place them? Are the speakers of choice dimensionally suitable for my listening room?
Consequently, you must choose speakers that are compatible with their future location in the room and appropriate in proportion to the dimensions of your listening room. For instance, avoid buying floorstanders, or large speakers, if your room is quite small, or if you're constrained to place them in the corners or close to them! However, selecting the right speakers based on these principles is just the right start. Indeed, after placing them in the listening room, you must have them customized and tuned to achieve the flattest possible frequency response at the listening point.
To implement this essential recommendation, audiophiles must finally realise that solving sound problems requires technical and effective interventions. So, dear hi-fi lovers, stop buying incredibly expensive (and often absurd) accessories for the sake of tiny improvements (if any) and the joy of the retailer. Instead, take the bull by the horns and have the job done exhaustively by a very skilled professional equipped with a spectrum analyser!
sound perfection is not correlated with the price
Have you ever read in a hi-fi magazine that some very expensive "big boy's toy" is a joke and sounds ... not so well (to put it mildly)?
The simple answer, without a shadow of denial, is NEVER. This fact should make you reflect because it's very far from reality! Audiophiles who read and trust hi-fi magazines have been subliminally taught to believe in a putative hi-fi equation: "the higher the price, the better the equipment (and consequently its sound}". Well, ... nothing could be more misleading!
In my professional life, I have auditioned many systems costing from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Honestly, the only thing I can say is that I’m deeply sorry for the "poor" (only metaphorically, of course!) owners!
With just a fraction of the money they have spent (or rather, thrown away) and an accurate setup, they could have enjoyed a far superior listening experience.
So, stop believing that you have achieved the perfect sound just because you have squandered a fortune. It could happen (by a fluke), but in my fifty years of experience, I cannot recall this happening even once!
you could be an unwitting victim of "setup crimes"
Visiting audiophiles, I have often encountered “outrageous” setups, resulting from the inexcusable technical unpreparedness of the staff at the “hi-end temples” responsible for setting up the new expensive systems in customers’ rooms. To help you grasp this alarming reality, I’ll share two emblematic cases below.
More than twenty years ago, I met a man with incredible musical culture. Calling him “music addicted” is an understatement: classical music is an essential part of his life and soul, or better yet, his only religion. He rarely misses concerts around Auckland and often travels overseas for a “good one” or Wagner’s Ring Cycles! When I met him, he had a system worth around $125K, featuring American speakers as costly as a concert harp. Each speaker consisted of a large bass cabinet with two passive woofers on the back and a separate, pyramidal, omnidirectional unit for the mid-high frequencies, positioned on top of the bass cabinet. The speakers were bi-amplified with two very expensive amplifiers (tubes for the mid-high and solid-state for the bass), connected to the speakers by “elephantine” cables. However, upon listening to the system, I immediately noticed that the bass sounded "strange,” with a feeling of emptiness and inconsistency. As I always do in these cases, I connected the spectrum analyzer and the “pink noise” generator. The instrument showed that the frequency response of the bass range, coming from the passive bass units (audaciously and outrageously called “subwoofers” by the manufacturer), was very odd, but peculiar to something I knew well. So, I followed up on my hunch about the cause: I disconnected and removed the mid-high units and turned the bass units upside-down to check the connections (it seems that positioning the binding posts on the back panel, instead of underneath the heavy cabinets, was beyond the manufacturer's “humanity”!). As suspected, I found that the person who set up the system had connected the so-called subs in phase opposition. Please believe me, even if it sounds incredible! I fixed the “small" mistake, and the sound obviously improved. But when I gave the owner the chance to audition a pair of serious speakers with real active subwoofers built-in, at nine times less the cost of his speakers, he was stunned! So stunned, in fact, that he asked me, “how can they sound so good? They are very cheap compared to mine!” To which I replied, “it’s no wonder at all, but the appropriate question, if anything, should be if it's plausible that a pair of speakers could cost almost as much as a Steinway Grand Piano (model M)"! Faced with the evidence, he realized that in hi-fi, price and sound perfection are not related at all! Not being a hi-fi lover, but a seeker of real sound, he followed my recommendations without hesitation. He replaced not just the speakers, but everything necessary in the system to achieve “the Sound”. He trusted me completely, and after a perfect setup of the new equipment, he was rewarded with the sound he’d always dreamed of. We also became very close friends! This second occurrence refers to a system worth around $250K, comprised of high-end English electronics (not the stuff of my wildest dreams, where each component cost as much as a luxury car), along with the same brand and model of speakers mentioned previously. This time, the “professional” who set up the system positioned the speakers very close to the back wall and didn’t consider the listening point, which was in the very middle of the room. The obvious result was a disgusting bass range. By moving the speakers one metre forward and the listening point about three metres back, the spectrum analyser showed a significant improvement. The sound metamorphosis was evident, with a much more acceptable bass range and better mid-high frequencies too. However, the owner didn’t agree to replace any part of the system (he had to move to another country in a short time). Even though I managed to improve the overall performance of the system, it was impossible to achieve “the Sound” due to the limitations of the components, despite their absurd cost. Well, these are just two examples of a pathology that is anything but restricted! The tragic reality is that I have encountered a large variety of incorrect and even "funny" setups, accompanied by technical "errors" and "horrors"! So, be aware that you too might find yourself "swimming in the same waters"! For this reason, to ensure that no "setup crimes" have been committed against your system, I strongly recommend having it inspected by a highly qualified professional.
More than twenty years ago, I met a man with incredible musical culture. Calling him “music addicted” is an understatement: classical music is an essential part of his life and soul, or better yet, his only religion. He rarely misses concerts around Auckland and often travels overseas for a “good one” or Wagner’s Ring Cycles! When I met him, he had a system worth around $125K, featuring American speakers as costly as a concert harp. Each speaker consisted of a large bass cabinet with two passive woofers on the back and a separate, pyramidal, omnidirectional unit for the mid-high frequencies, positioned on top of the bass cabinet. The speakers were bi-amplified with two very expensive amplifiers (tubes for the mid-high and solid-state for the bass), connected to the speakers by “elephantine” cables. However, upon listening to the system, I immediately noticed that the bass sounded "strange,” with a feeling of emptiness and inconsistency. As I always do in these cases, I connected the spectrum analyzer and the “pink noise” generator. The instrument showed that the frequency response of the bass range, coming from the passive bass units (audaciously and outrageously called “subwoofers” by the manufacturer), was very odd, but peculiar to something I knew well. So, I followed up on my hunch about the cause: I disconnected and removed the mid-high units and turned the bass units upside-down to check the connections (it seems that positioning the binding posts on the back panel, instead of underneath the heavy cabinets, was beyond the manufacturer's “humanity”!). As suspected, I found that the person who set up the system had connected the so-called subs in phase opposition. Please believe me, even if it sounds incredible! I fixed the “small" mistake, and the sound obviously improved. But when I gave the owner the chance to audition a pair of serious speakers with real active subwoofers built-in, at nine times less the cost of his speakers, he was stunned! So stunned, in fact, that he asked me, “how can they sound so good? They are very cheap compared to mine!” To which I replied, “it’s no wonder at all, but the appropriate question, if anything, should be if it's plausible that a pair of speakers could cost almost as much as a Steinway Grand Piano (model M)"! Faced with the evidence, he realized that in hi-fi, price and sound perfection are not related at all! Not being a hi-fi lover, but a seeker of real sound, he followed my recommendations without hesitation. He replaced not just the speakers, but everything necessary in the system to achieve “the Sound”. He trusted me completely, and after a perfect setup of the new equipment, he was rewarded with the sound he’d always dreamed of. We also became very close friends! This second occurrence refers to a system worth around $250K, comprised of high-end English electronics (not the stuff of my wildest dreams, where each component cost as much as a luxury car), along with the same brand and model of speakers mentioned previously. This time, the “professional” who set up the system positioned the speakers very close to the back wall and didn’t consider the listening point, which was in the very middle of the room. The obvious result was a disgusting bass range. By moving the speakers one metre forward and the listening point about three metres back, the spectrum analyser showed a significant improvement. The sound metamorphosis was evident, with a much more acceptable bass range and better mid-high frequencies too. However, the owner didn’t agree to replace any part of the system (he had to move to another country in a short time). Even though I managed to improve the overall performance of the system, it was impossible to achieve “the Sound” due to the limitations of the components, despite their absurd cost. Well, these are just two examples of a pathology that is anything but restricted! The tragic reality is that I have encountered a large variety of incorrect and even "funny" setups, accompanied by technical "errors" and "horrors"! So, be aware that you too might find yourself "swimming in the same waters"! For this reason, to ensure that no "setup crimes" have been committed against your system, I strongly recommend having it inspected by a highly qualified professional.
a professional is as good as his tools and skill
To set up a subwoofer properly, optimally position a pair of speakers, or solve the tragically ignored (but paramount) problem of different sound emissions from the left and right speakers when positioned in places with different background layouts (refer to the third article in the school of hi-fi page), a spectrum analyser MUST be used. Its use is crucial to determine the correct settings precisely and see what really happens in the frequency response when you change something, or just move a speaker.
For a serious audio technician, nowadays this instrument is as essential as a CT scan machine for a doctor! However, the discouraging reality is that audiophiles continue to trust "doctors" (actually, "shamans") who don’t even have a stethoscope and who prescribe aspirin (yes, but packaged in gold foil) to cure cancer! It’s sad, but this is the plain reality of the high-end audio market, and it happens not just in NZ, but worldwide (exceptions are always possible and welcome).
I don’t know of any shop or "esoteric temple” in New Zealand that is equipped with a spectrum analyser, but I hope I’m wrong! However, I must point out that it’s not enough to merely own a spectrum analyser. You must know the correct way to use it, be able to interpret exactly what it “tells” you and know the correct steps to fix the problems it reveals. To develop this skill, It takes many years of practice and good knowledge of acoustic physics. Just to say, after 50 years of experience, I’m still amazed at how sometimes learn something new and often incredible too!
here is where I can provide a very useful service
The knowledge I have gained so far guarantees excellent advice on what needs to be done to improve the sound of your system drastically. Ridiculous and expensive accessories (the “aspirins” packaged in gold foil) produce, at best, very little results. Audiophiles must eventually realise that its majesty, the Sound, is not a questionable religion, but is subject to the strict laws of physics and acoustics, always and without exception! I offer the benefits of my extensive experience to audiophiles who are keen on truly improving the sound of their systems in simple and effective ways. You'll pay a very reasonable price for my services (much less than the cost of an esoteric accessory), and moreover, I accept payment only if you are completely satisfied with the result. However, it's fair of me to point out that while I always manage to improve the sound of any system, I cannot achieve the Sound if the acoustics of the room are prohibitive and/or if the components of the system don’t have the potential to do so. Sorry, but I don’t perform miracles yet!
someone might classify me as arrogant
Due to the “Italian way” of presenting the topics on this page, which might be too plainspoken for the “polite” Kiwi, you might doubt me, thinking that I’m just one of the many charlatans who dot this market! So, to dispel any doubts, please visit the testimonials page and read the comments. Indeed, if you contact me, you have absolutely nothing to lose, on the contrary!