Hi Doug,
I read the review you were kind enough to provide
a link for of the BVaudio SR-10 Sound Refiner...
written by Mike Healey...rather inconclusive...seems
it does not work in systems that already have a fully
fleshed out midrange...
His conclusion:
"...Who should investigate the Sound Refiner? Anyone whose
music system could use a boost in midrange fullness and dynamics
(particularly in the lower frequencies) or a little extra smoothness..."
This is really sound shaping isn't it...which is quite alright in and by itself...
The future of audio resides in sound shaping that is easy, cheap, built-in
to the equipment, not dependent on computers, and extremely user friendly...
That is what we tweakers crave...although I for one do not especially enjoy
endless tweaking of components...yet I understood from first hand experience
that to make magic happen one must be very pragmatic and dogmatic in
pursuing the details of any techno-strategy...
That is what we are doing isn't it when we replace stock components with
super components like Black Gate capacitors or the endless parade of upgrades
we all find so invaluable in order to get our systems to move to a higher level
of resolution and richness of the musics harmonic structure we know is
there...hidden and embedded in our CD's?
We who are avid members of AC have become designers ourselves in a
very real sense and in absolute terms...we try to second guess where the
blocks are in our systems to allow them to open up and give us the magic
we crave...and we are willing to purchase an endless stream of products
in our pursuit for the sound we know is possible but not necessarily
evident...until we locate it through our trial and error experimentation...
I am not saying there is not a certain measure of fun in this...
We were all hunters after all...stalking our game with cunning and
patience and skill...our tribe depended on our abilities in the hunt in order
to survive...at least some of the time...during growing season we collected
everything nature gave to us freely and in abundance...roots, seeds,
tubers, leaves, fruits, certain green stems, wild vegetables, including later
our own cultivated crops...but after the fierce period of the ice age where we
hunted huge dangerous animals in large hunting groups, were nature was
buried under the ice...our hunting skills still gave us the sustenance we needed
and was often the difference between life and death...Dad was a provider in the
realist sense imaginable then...
Now we have all been diminished to consumers...degraded by corporate
forces that have co-opted our lives and placed us under their regime...all
very hush hush mind you...a subliminal game going on of hidden agendas...
So what has happened to the hunter?
He has gone underground...temporarily...and re-emerged as an audiophile!
And so we hunt for the sound that will take us back to the zone...the mysterious
places we still remember in our collective unconscious as a sacred dwelling...
it is none other than the earth as it once was...alive! and beneficent! overflowing
with life and mystery!
And so it is not surprising that we spend whatever time it takes to read and study
and hone our skills for research and development in order to find and locate
where the magic is in our musical life...
Why?...because we must continue to practice our hunting skills...we must keep
that part of our masculine life intact...that is what we are...that is our birthright
as providers for the tribe...now retranslated into a "hobby"...and that is why we
often find ourselves in conflict with our wives or girl friends over this hobby...
because we sense that there is something inherently masculine in our
investigations...and there is!
It is the hunter hunting...and we will catch our game...
Warm regards -Richard-
