the hi-end doctor
are you an audiophile who owns a good hi-fi or a hi-end system?
If so, do you know that a perfect setup can incredibly enhance the sound and performance of your system, regardless of its price and components? Just moving the speakers, adjusting your listening position, or properly introducing a top subwoofer can 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 in the listening room.
It's easily verifiable that the same hi-fi system produces different sounds when placed in different rooms. This happens because the original emission of the speakers, interacting with the environment, gets modified. Thus the final sound perceived at the listening point is the result of this interaction. Therefore, a professional setup with electronic instruments is paramount to flatten, as much as possible, the frequency response at the listening point. This is a necessary and sufficient condition to get as close as possible to the true sound of the source and to be able to use the adjective "hi-fi" for the system in question. Otherwise, the system behaves like another musical instrument, with all that entails. Indeed, most audiophiles don't realise they possess a beautiful musical instrument instead of a hi-fi system!
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!!
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 skilled technician equipped with a spectrum analyser!
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 the entire system!
are your speakers proportionate to the dimensions of the listening room?
The speakers emit their 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 their location relative to corners and walls, and how well their dimensions match those of the 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, you must have them customized and tuned to achieve the flattest possible frequency response at the listening point.
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 and subject to debate!
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 53 years of experience, I cannot recall this happening even once!
you could also 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 delivering and "making sound" (as "setting up" is too serious a term) the newly purchased expensive system. To help you grasp this alarming reality, I’ll share two emblematic cases below.
More than twenty years ago, I met a man of 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 "technician" 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 "negligible" mistake, and obviously, the sound improved. But when I gave the owner the chance to audition a pair of serious speakers with built-in real active, electronically controlled subwoofers, at one-ninth the cost of his speakers, he was stunned! So stunned, in fact, that he asked me, "How can they sound so well? 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 whether it's plausible that a pair of speakers could cost almost as much as a top-range Harley-Davidson"! Faced with the evidence, he finally 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 distinctive 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 a better mid-high too. However, the owner didn’t agree to replace any part of the system because 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 limits 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. While you're at it, take advantage of the opportunity, and ask him to perform an instrumental setup of the system as well.
More than twenty years ago, I met a man of 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 "technician" 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 "negligible" mistake, and obviously, the sound improved. But when I gave the owner the chance to audition a pair of serious speakers with built-in real active, electronically controlled subwoofers, at one-ninth the cost of his speakers, he was stunned! So stunned, in fact, that he asked me, "How can they sound so well? 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 whether it's plausible that a pair of speakers could cost almost as much as a top-range Harley-Davidson"! Faced with the evidence, he finally 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 distinctive 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 a better mid-high too. However, the owner didn’t agree to replace any part of the system because 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 limits 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. While you're at it, take advantage of the opportunity, and ask him to perform an instrumental setup of the system as well.
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 employed. Its use is crucial to visualise the sound and see what happens in the frequency response when you change something, or just move a speaker.
For a serious audio technician, 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 foils) to cure cancer! It’s sad, but this is the plain reality of the hi-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 merely owning a spectrum analyser is a good start, but not enough. Indeed, 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 a good knowledge of acoustic physics. Just to say, after 53 years, it's incredible how I still sometimes discover something new and often very interesting too.
here is where I can provide a very useful service
The knowledge I have acquired in a lifetime in the service of "Its Majesty, the Sound" guarantees excellent advice on what needs to be done to drastically improve the sound of your system. Ridiculous and expensive accessories (the “aspirins” packaged in gold foils) produce, at best, very little results. Audiophiles must eventually realise that 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. My consultancy has a very reasonable price (much less than the cost of an esoteric accessory), and I accept payment only if the customer is 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!