Author: Ross Andrews

Disrupting the audiophile world

The studio model for media creation is clearly taking a hit from various online companies (See this link for nice details), and I love to imagine what will be the real disrupting force in audiophile land. I wrote recently on the merits of MQA and hardware disruption by software all over the world. I also think we are going to experience a more discrete form of hardware in the near future. Again this will be replicated easily, but there is still a need that I can see.

Specifically, i think there will be delivery of perfect sound direct to your ears wherever you are, whenever you want it, all in a non-intrusive fashion. (Let’s face it, headphones are a pain in the rear still). I’m picturing some sort of microchip for the ear or brain which transmits high-res files to the inner ear, all while on the move. Something like this, but for entertainment purposes only.

Planned obsolescence

I already have a Marantz receiver. It decodes, amplifies and networks more audio signals than I will ever need. And yet…

http://www.whathifi.com/news/marantz-unveils-2016-home-cinema-line

…And yet i want another one this year with the slight upgrades all around.

The marketing machine in Audiophile-land, and in tech in general, means there is always something better about to be released. It’s easy to burn through money because of the stream of upgrades. Planned obsolescence.

Key then is to understand your needs versus your wants. I don’t need another receiver. I just want one. And so the marketing machine loses its potency.

The right system for the right room

I have different environments in my house which let me unleash my obsessive, audiophile twitch to different degrees. Much depends on who is sharing the room with me. My wife and young daughter are busy, and have little enthusiasm for beautiful speakers, separate amps and pre-amps, and careful consideration of source. Instead they want instant sound to a somewhat gratifying level (mostly from the TV). So it is a soundbar and sub, and/or bluetooth speakers all the way in rooms that we share.

My office is a different story, and requires a computer based digital sound system largely driven by a DAC and a headphone amp. In this room I am the chimp with cans on my head. Nobody else is listening and I can geek out on settings to my heart’s content. I can listen to obscure stuff too. All on the cans.

My final space which allows for a different setup, is the listening room, where i can set up the more fragile and complex equipment such as LP players, stereo speakers and preamps. This is a hard sell in a busy household because space is at a premium. But for now I am winning the battle.

Life being as busy as it is, most of my serious listening happens at my computer nowadays. No complaints, distractions, or interruptions. At the computer i am just a chimp, with some cans on and a big old smile on my face.

On Seth’s words – Chimpwithcans as an audio project

Seth Godin is a huge inspiration for this blog. One of his most enduring messages is the project vs. job idea.

I love the idea of accountable projects vs. jobs that encourage deniability. Seth just riffed on this in his latest post: Your job vs. your project — Seth Godin’s Blog on marketing, tribes and respect

For Chimpswithcans, I have chosen to write my own blog and to deal with material that I love (audiophilia, music….and occasionally chimps perhaps). It means that there are no rules other than the ones I create for myself. No boss. A whole new world.

This blog is about audiophile culture, music, and technology surrounding this. It is my project and it will get better and better, day by day. There is a growing audiophile community in my hometown (Cape Town) that I hope to serve.

I will give reviews, opinions, thoughts, desires, facts, beliefs on audio and I look forward to it every day.

Audio Hardware vs. Audio Software

I believe that of all the innovations this year in hifi and audio, MQA will have the biggest impact on the music industry this year. Not a new speaker design, or a new material or even a new motherboard. Those things are hardware, easy to replicate and almost perfected.

Software is eating the world and MQA software could be a way to add scarcity to music once again.

Interesting times.

Limits and Listening enjoyment

Sometimes it is most pleasurable to work with limits. When I was a young boy, I played SimCity games on the computer for a while. I learned of a cheat that meant you never ran out of money. Even if your city was invaded by aliens, hit by tsunamis and earthquakes, looted by the criminals and polluted beyond repair – the money kept rolling in.

This cheat quickly ran out of appeal. Far more exciting is to work with what you have and try to fight off the baddies with little to no chance of survival. Sure your city crumbled to the ground most often – but once in a while the enemy retreated, the civilians loved you as a mayor – happy days.

I find listening to music to be similar. I have a NAD 3020i amplifier which is almost as old as the LP’s that I play. My speakers are small Q Acoustic 2020i’s. I know there are infinitely more expensive and powerful setups out there, but still i have never enjoyed listening to music so much. The limits of my setup means that I have to experiment with alignment of speakers, with LP needles, volume settings, and pushing the amp and speakers to breaking point. Working with these limits opens the door to miracles. Perhaps it is my brain tricking my ears into the effectiveness of some tweak, or maybe its something as simple as the amount of sleep i have had, or the food i have eaten, but sometimes it all just sounds perfect.

I suppose my biggest point is that most of us don’t have the very latest and greatest equipment. But limitless resources and equipment does not necessarily give you happy listening. Working within ones means and limits, and recognising when it all comes together is my secret to listening enjoyment.

What to think of the abundance

Why do we care if a streaming service has 25 or 30 million songs available (Tidal vs. Spotify vs. Apple Music)? Soundcloud’s new paid for streaming service claims far more than this. On any of these platforms there is simply too much music to get through in one lifetime.

So what is actually important? Curation, sound quality, engagement.

The service that gets this formula right is on to a winner.

I think in the future there might be a macro level split in offerings between legacy recordings, and those by artists currently still working and touring. They might need to be approached differently.

The touring aspect – live music – is the most scarce resource in music at the moment. Software is eating the world otherwise, making recorded music ubiquitous – and in need of curation to add value.

Sound quality might be fixed by MQA, but that will require a whole new sound system that is compliant with the standard. I’m not sure this will work as intended – the investment is too big.

It’s an interesting time to be alive in terms of music. Nobody has it right, but everyone is trying.

 

 

 

To be an audiophile Part 1: Origins

How does one become an audiophile? What does it mean to be an audiophile? I’ve been pondering the personal origins of my hobby, my passion, my obsession lately.

My own ardent interest in high-fidelity sound kind of snuck up on me. If I really think about it, this hobby makes no sense at all – I can’t afford it, clearly marketing and placebos are all around me tricking my brain. My younger self would have ridiculed my current self for hankering after another DAC, for considering cables worth more than my TV, or for the stream of images of outlandish speakers that dominates my newsfeed – and yet…

…and yet when I have the right set of headphones on, or when I have speakers, a bunch of cables and a new amplifier to set up from scratch, or when I get lost in reading hundreds of vinyl covers – it all makes perfect sense.

My first clue into the origins of my own audiophile conversion comes in the form of playing live music. I played in bands for most of my teenage years and early 20’s. Music was my haven, my happiest place. I have always found peace listening to music and actually playing it gives me something that is quite hard to describe – but it is something like the feeling you get when you hit a massive drive off the tee at golf, or when you see a long lost friend for a good catch-up session. It feels so good.

So the first clue to my own audiophile origins lies in the source material – music as a form of media has always made me happy. Extraordinarily happy. But I enjoyed playing and listening to music for 30 years without caring one bit about the quality of its reproduction, and without knowing what a bitrate, a tweeter or a soundstage was.

Uncovering the true underlying reasons for my obsession is going to require a deeper analysis: The technology, the marketing, the current music industry trends, the psychology, the biology. I will try to attack them in this blog, and you are welcome to join me.

Chimp with cans.