[stevenkelby]

Can you share the equipment you use with us?

[JerryLove]

You wouldn't put a big piece of foam, fiberglass, hunk of metal or poly in a piano unless you wanted it to sound like the dampener pedal plus some.

I've seen many grand pianos that do indeed have a big metal plate in them. The strings hold approximately 20 tons of tension when the piano is in tune. The tension must be supported by the back frame construction (a combination of the metal plate and back posts).

That said: A piano is a device of sound production, and a speaker is a device of sound reproduction. The reason for deadening is obvious and similar to the reason one deaden's a room (and if you want to know why that's done, listen to music in a tile bathroom... suddenly you will beg for foam)

It's not hard and doesn't take much to kill the specific musical note or for that note to loose it's distinctive personality. This doesn't only go for the loudspeaker but the components and all the conduits in the audio chains pathway.

You've lost me again. How is a 2.2khz wave to a loudspeaker "killed"?

I would say 90 percent of my time is removing dampening away from the signal path to open the sound up enough to reproduce a musical note being played by a full range of instruments.

So you are claiming that dampening in the speaker causes a 2.2khz signal to appear at a different frequency?

You know that's physically impossible, right?

What does happen when you remove damping from a speaker is that the signal bounces off the back of the cabinet and returns to the driver (which is nearly acoustically transparent) and now comes out a second time out of phase with itself (potentially causing reinforcement / cancellation)

If I have too much dampening in the signal path I will only hear a very squeezed close up view of the instrument with a very small halo that is usually shifted up in pitch or really dulled out.

You've lost me as to what you mean by "signal path" as you now seem to be discussing recording. Certainly you can have selective frequency filtration; but that's not the introduction of new frequencies nor the movement of existing ones. For that, I'd worry more about what the walls in the rooms are doing.

I still haven't heard anything that discusses "tuning"... the alteration of frequencies. What I have heard is references to absorption.

Taking a grill off a speaker, for example, will change what you hear by removing some high-frequency filtration; but it will not "tune" anything.

It is, in fact, relatively trivial to establish tune. All you need is a source with a specific frequency, a speaker and amp, and a mic and osciliscope. The frequency played should match the one recorded. (and it does). (there some other interesting way; but that's the most basic).

There is nothing in the (normal) music reproduction path that needs tuning. There is no way for any of that gear to unintentionally shift frequencies. (exceptions include phonographs and tape players).

[michael green MGA]

Hi Jerry

I think you would be better off coming to one of the tuning seminars or demos. If your lost with the terminology you could ask your questions while the tuning process is going on.

[michael green MGA]

Can you share the equipment you use with us?

Hi Steven, wow where do I begin. I have 3 systems going right now in 3 different types of rooms. My setups are not the usual so it's kind of hard to give a list. I have zero stock products as they all are stripped of their chassis, dampening, cable ties or anything that held cables or things that bolted parts to the chassis. As far as naming any of the audiophile stuff I'm gonna pass simply because as I get in to talking about what and how I tune I don't want anyone to think that I am suggesting that their products are not fine out of the box. The vintage or mass market things who cares, no one is going to take issue with me about those.

The last while I have taken my systems down to 2 components. The fewer components the more open your system is. For all 3 systems I am using my favorite source at present. Tricked out magnavox 2100 players. This search has been going on for ages but finally a year or so ago I found a true full range, full body sounding player that doesn't sound digital, tweaked and tuned. You can torture me but I will never tell the models of CD players, DAC's, transports and other sources this little gem has knocked off their throne. So because it is so dependable sonically all 3 systems get the "Maggie". Two of my systems are using old gear stripped to the max and they get interchanged depending on what I am doing, but the products that I started with are Marantz, Pioneer, Technics. Now their parts are spread out all over tuning platforms. The most recent addition which has completely shocked me is a receiver (was a receiver) made by Sherwood. The Sherwood 4105 stripped and tuned is one killer amp. I have a ton of great things to say about this unit from it being nearly stock to now. This receiver is a work of art and I've been telling everyone to pick a couple up and tweak them.

The rest of the systems are of course all of the tuning products. I would post them, but I'm still not clear on the rules here and don't want to come off self promoting. When your a designer that builds everything it's hard to talk about other things cause all of your systems are things you have designed or modified.

OK, I'm ready, Receivers? Well like I said some things are not going to be mentioned, but when you strip down your components to the core they all look the same. Parts and pieces. The magic is what you do with these parts and pieces and how little you make them interfere with the signal. My whole objective is to open up the signal as much as I can possibly get it, then tune the parts back in to their best performance. Sounds nuts? Keep reading. This means a lot of the audiophile parts are out because they already have a locked in sound. Their performance is based on what you match them with where as the tuning system is based on how open the sound is to start with.

Here's how my systems work. All the parts to my system have their own job. And their job is dependent upon all the other parts to the setup. First a foremost my rooms sound fantastic. You could walk in and record in any of them cause there are no voicing problems. You can listen to a string bass live or on a recording and it's going to sound like a string bass. I have zero direct absorption in the rooms. I believe strictly in barricade burning when treating a room. This way your not going to get dead spots in the sound yet there is no over hang. I like my rooms voiced about the same as I voice a studio for a piano, right in the neighborhood of 2 db up. This takes any stress off of the amplifier and the drivers. You will hardly ever see my speakers move cause the rooms are that tightly tuned. Secondly I go as direct as I can to the circuit box without bends or crimps in my electric cable if I can avoid it. The more relaxed the cable is from the fuse box to the components the more open the sound. Yes I tune my fuse box. If I don't have a direct shot at the fuse box I at least make sure my wall outlet is very loose. On mine I use no plates just the wires hanging out of the wall. If I use outlets they are very minimalistic. Years ago I use to endorse audio grade outlets, my bad. I was young and deaf. Outlets that are over built and tight fitting send the frequencies up through the roof. My plugs for the power cable are almost nothing. Just 2 posts and screws to hold the power cable. Both of my components are hard wired with my very minimalistic cable. Both the stripped down components sit on their own voiced and tunable supports and then on a platform. Everything in the system is as minimalistic as it can be and spaced to get the best performance and to avoid the energy coming off of those nasty transformers. Spacing of cables inside of amps are very important and I spend a lot of time getting this right. Difference is night a day. Same with interconnects and speaker wire. My interconnects only touch the RCA jacks and never touch the ground or equipment rack or platform. Also I don't use barrels on my interconnects. My main speakers are hard wired and I only use drivers that can be controlled with only a cap and resister. If the drivers don't get along I don't force them. I do not like the sound of inductors. That usually means doing mechanical mods to the drivers, but when the balance is right between the speakers cabinet and amp there are heaven's bells playing.

Some of you are saying this guy is nuts. How can he listen to a system without all the things we know we need to be there to make the system work right? My answer is simple again. In our industry we have created a bunch of fix-its to try to control vibrations instead of using vibrations to do what they do naturally, make music. Instead of fighting with the different parts of my system I have created a method that makes all the parts get along in harmony when tuned, and the results are well ask the guys who use methods.

If you break down the parts that it takes to create a stereo system you are going to come down to the part's host and the signals conduit. Both of these parts are tunable just like a string and the body of a guitar. You take the methods used in instrument designing and apply them to an audio system and your going to find an open dynamic rich sound that you never thought could happen.

It's not that hard to try some of this stuff on your system, and if you would like I'll help you. Some of you are just fine where you are and you think this guy is whatever "been there heard it". But if there are some of you that want to try some free things on the system you already have let me know and I'll guide you through it. It doesn't hurt to explore.

Remember in many ways this industry is a very young one and people are learning more about it and the way it works all the time. Sometimes in young industries we create stories that fit what we think is happening to later on learn that maybe some of these stories are more fiction than fact. Fact my friends is what you do. A couple of posters here say things that would lead us to believe that what I'm saying is conjecture. If this were the case I wouldn't be here talking to you. My days of proving stuff goes way back in the audiophile journals. My ego is well fed and as you can see I'm not an arguer. My proof is in the listening rooms. I'm not talking about a small crowd of brain washed folks. I'm talking about many people who have after finding these truths for themselves don't even get involved in the high end audiophile part cause their too busy listening than debating. As much as I love to turn people on to these things you will find I'm very much that way as well.

I hope you do explore these things and see for yourself if I'm telling you the truth or not. Many years ago one of the audio rags called me the Johnny Appleseed of audio. I love this hobby and have been doing my home work for many years figuring out the whys and whats and years ago found out there is a completely different approach that we have not explored fully. As I said in an earlier post, what makes the same frequency sound different when played by different instruments?

[Rocket_Ronny]

Hi Michael:

Can you share the types of speakers used, if not their names, and how you place them in the room and in relation to the listener?

Was also wondering what sizes of rooms the systems are in?

Thanks,

Rocket_Ronny

[stevenkelby]

Fascinating, thanks Michael. Lots to think about.

Steve.

[michael green MGA]

I don't know about you guys, but I completely over did it for Thanksgiving . So glad these meals are only once or twice a year.

Steve, you are not alone. You would be surprised at how many people have moved to tuning a simple system. Keep in mind that I had 5 high end audio stores of my own and carried everything, so for me to say something this bold there has got to be some teeth. Plus my job was and has always been tuning listeners systems in since the early 80's and I have witnessed the products move into a state of stuck-ness in real time. Most of all I saw the audiophile being forced to equipment jump trying to find the right combo and getting close but not quite able to nail it.

gang

From the survey that my company did of our clients a few years ago, the average audiophile buys 6 total systems (source, pre, amp, speakers) over a 20 year span. Reason they gave us was not taste change, it was dissatisfaction with their sound. I have been to hundreds of homes that looked like dealer showrooms with equipment everywhere. The storage areas stuffed with opened and unopened audio equipment boxes. I have also dealt if tons, and I mean tons of folks who at first tell you they are very happy with their sound, to only tell you later all the problems they are having getting it to sound right. My friends have told me to open up a therapy center . As funny as that is it is also very sad, esspecially in light of there being a much more successful way.

Again I want to say that not all products are guilty but all the products I have seen and used, at least need to be home trained to your environment and the industry as a whole has not quite got this part down yet. Here's one of the big problems in this. Your home is a particular sound host that is completely unique unto itself. let me demonstrate with a very simple example. Take your setup and move it to any other room in your house. Notice the huge change in sound? Your thinking this is all acoustical right? Wrong, your entire system has completely changed in it's vibratory code. The power in your wall is different, the rooms construction is different (meaning the mechanical transfer of this area is different) and the acoustics are different. The actual way your system vibrates is completely different now that it is moved, and because signal is vibration the signal has changed. Nonsense? Not in our tests and the tests of over a thousand listeners all over the world. Let me pick on me to prove this point. Right now there is a client (very good ears) that has a system in Singapore where my full range cones are not working full range. How can this be? After exploring his mechanical code we have found that his system is rejecting the cone in that particular use.  The fix? Highly resonant wood that I voiced and sent to him. How much did his system change? Ask him.

Your systems are vibrating tools and anyone who tells you different has not studied this part of audio, period. There is not one single part of your audio system that does not vibrate and if there was your planet is vibrating so that means he "and" his system is  . Sounds a little shaky sorry had to throw that in. Well, this isn't measurable? Hello when was the last time you were in charge of building anything commercially. I have to study this stuff all the time when consulting for construction of studios. So that's why we buy isolation products? Isolation products do not isolate, they do not sorry to say decouple. If two surfaces are touching they are coupling not decoupling. This is a "huge" audio myth. None of these cones or pucks, stands, composites and anything that touches anything else is a decoupling device. Not one of them defies the laws of gravity do they? Some how in our twisted little misunderstood world we have developed a fictional truth. I have tried every way posible to use these products and get them to decouple and it has never happened. These products clearly add their flavor to what ever they are attached to. But we are being told it is isolating? Nope, it is either adding to or taking away from the signal. A person may like or dislike this effect but be clear it is a coupling effect. Your systems are indeed vibrating and the audio design community are just barely on the edge of using this to shape your sound.

But isn't vibration distortion? Nope, vibration is energy. There is not one part of your audio system that is disconnected from energy. No matter how slight or how robust the amount is, it is effecting your sound. Well should we get rid of it? Nope, this is the biggest down fall in all of the industry. One, there is no getting rid of vibration, and two it is connected to your signal path and if you get rid of it you are getting rid of something in your signal path (music). I have tons upon tons of documented experiments on this issue that you can view any time you want. Vibration in our industry has been made out to be a pest, and it's the worst thing the industry has ever done. Energy always is looking for a way to be a part of something, from the smallest particles make up, to the largest mass. OMG, I just sounded like a scientist. No but I sure have been studying with them. Want to argue this point BTW, no thanks, did my homework, you can do yours.

So ok, our parts are vibrating and thats a good thing your saying? Yep. Isn't too much vibration a bad thing? Yep, just like too little is. How do we know what is too much and too little? I have done it through passing signal through parts to see how the lack of vibration or the plus of vibration adds to or takes away from the signal. You have done this with every part in the audio chain? Yep, every little stinken rascal. If you haven't heard this word before let me introduce him to you. Audiophiles meet "vibratory code".

Every part in your audio system has a vibration signature (vibratory code) that makes it sound diferent than any other part. Line up 40 different brands of resistors with the same value. They all measure the same yet they all sound different. If not why are you guys buying the exspencive stuff? Don't hand me the quality control thing, I've been to the manufactures myself and have hand picked their A-est of A stock to use in the comparisons. Well it's because it is a better part right? Wrong according to the engineers they will sound exactly the same, according to the scientist they are all vibrating differently even though the measured out put is meeting the test formula (ohms, watts what have you). So lets try something here, can you guys make me some of your stuff with longer leads? Sure. I tested longer leads on the same measured resistors. Major difference in the sound. Test spec reads the same but the sound is definitely different. What if I shorten and lengthen the leads? The sound changes quite a bit, in fact kind of sounds like when tuning the strings on a Guitar. Oh, that's why you say tuning?  So what happens when you add a piece of wire to the resistor and do the shortening and lengthening listening test?  So, what happens to the sound when you connect the other parts to the circuit and do the same shorter and longer thing?  your saying you can virtually change the sound of the signal by changing the distance between the parts? What else can you do to change the sound? Different circuit boards used and their sizes changed the sound dramatically. In fact before too long you could shape the sound on a varying scale by transferring the energy from the boards into tuning rods that went to tuning boards then to other rods that took the vibration to ground. How can a rod feet away from the part make that big of an effect? That's how sensitive the parts are and the signal path is.

Ok, so tell us about dampening. When we put many different types of dampening at all sizes and amounts on this signal train the results were much like a piano dampening pedal. The music would get dull, lack of extended harmonics. Some of the sound clustered around certain frequencies. At first you were hearing a tighter sound (kind of rubbery) but after a while you could tell that the instruments were not on pitch some how like they have been detuned or gone flat or sharp. The piano dampening pedal stayed in tune but the dampening on equipment did not. When I brought in my instrument buddies from UMI (United Musical Instruments) they showed me that this was exactly what happens when you do the same thing to an instrument. So we gathered their family of instruments along with others and did side by side comparisons, doing the same things to the signal path as we did the pianos and such and found that the signal path and the way it vibrates is exactly the same as the materials in the instruments. Any signal being hosted by a conduit whether it be electronically charged or not is effected by mechanical tuning. This on the electronic side was a game changer and is now well documented. For over 30 years this has been going on, but I don't think anyone has broke it down into the bite sizes needed for this to catch on more than a bunch of products that add to or take away. I also could see that because there was not enough training, teaching and testing that many of the products and systems headed so heavily toward getting rid of what they thought was an evil the signal of most systems from what I have seen and heard about are suffering from dampening over kill bigtime.

I'll come back and show you just how bigtime.

[michael green MGA]

Hi Michael:

Can you share the types of speakers used, if not their names, and how you place them in the room and in relation to the listener?

Was also wondering what sizes of rooms the systems are in?

Thanks,

Rocket_Ronny

Hi Ronny

Not sure if I can say models on here so I'll just describe for now. There are a host of different rooms and different locations. The biggest room we use right now is 20' X 35' X 9.5' and the smallest 8.5' X 10' X 8'. We also do outside listening (I have two outside setups) and large hall listening. I live in vegas and the lack of rain makes it cool for outside audiophile style listening.

All the speakers I use are free resonant with selective barricade dampening on the inside. Basically hardly anything in them. The smallest of them is a hot roded mod 12" X 8" X 7" and very light weight. I use a paper tweeter on this and a light weight low mass 6.5" poly driver. The front baffle board is hardwood and there is a tuning bar that is on the inside going side to side. On the outside of the cabinet (sides) is a tuning washer and bolt. There is (as is typical with me) only a cap and resistor. I direct couple the drivers to the cabinets with no dampening material. I do sometimes use more parts on exotic models if someone request a weird (driver/crossover) design but really try to get everything to match up with using the cabinets vibration along with the drivers. I have found that by doing this I can take a mini speaker like this and make it a full range monitor.

There is another monitor that comes with or without the hardwood front baffle board. This has a choice of either paper or silk tweeters. The cabinets are made of what we call music ply. A very light weight ply that is great to voice. I'm using the voiced poplar baffle on it but like different choices as well. Depends on the flavor I want. From there is a floorstanding 2 way 6.5" with some cool toys like a mass loading compartment at the bottom. I can mate this speaker to and have about any room. It's the one that has the job of being my reference from the view of getting back to the basics. There's a 8" and 10" 2 way as well. these both are using paper woofers with silk tweeter but I will sometimes go to the paper tweeter. All of these again are using only a cap and resistor. Getting the 10" to behave was a challenge but after modding the cone it's doing just fine. I have a couple of subs but they are really just to show clients as my place here goes way low with the speaker platforms. The platforms are under every speaker presently but I listen with and without depending on how I'm voicing the floors. My places are virtually listening test labs so my personal speakers may be different than a stock model. For example the one in my little room looks like an ugly alien that ran into a lumberyard, but the flexibility of this bad boy is out of this world. I can dial in any part of my soundstage pretty quick with this ugly duckling and to me it has made it beautiful.

I listen nearfield, midfield and farfield. It all depends on what I am doing for who. My personal favorite though I would say is extreme nearfield with a 3D sound stage all around me. With free resonant speakers you have a ton of flexibility with placement because they are a part of the room and the fight between amp/speaker/room isn't there if the room is basic and tuned. More difficult rooms have more limiting placement, but it's still really not that hard. One thing though that I should say is being an acoustician makes it a ton easier to be a speaker designer cause the whole voicing thing becomes more of a game of soundstage place as apposed to good and bad. I feel sorry for folks who have to work around their furniture cause they are missing out on a lot of soundstage fun.

Let's see what else, I use my 22 gauge solid core throughout. And, I hardly ever let my cables hit the floor. I don't like the sound of a lot of the grounds out there but if a person sticks with the wood ones they can get the hang of voicing their speaker cables. I have refined the cable ground a bit sense I first invented it and along with the platforms feel that they are every bit as much of the speakers as the speaker boxes and drivers themselves. I haven't looked around but I'm shocked that I'm the only one I know of that does Speaker platforms. This is a huge part of the audio chain that has been over looked. And I'll make a prediction here. When folks start using speaker platforms is going to be as big of a rage as equipment stands. The difference in sound quality between with and without is bigger than huge. Speakers on their own are very rarely able to make the proper transfer between the speaker and the floor. Many speaker companies are selling themselves short because folks buy their stuff and set them on floors that don't match the sound of the speaker. I've designed and built area platforms for reviewers to put their speakers on but honestly the voiced platform is so much better and people would be able to make judgement calls on the speakers they are trying so much easier. I hope I win an award or get royalties for that tip but this is huge. Watch now your going to see speaker platforms appearing in all of your galleries  . Glad I could help. BTW if voiced wrong they can sound just as bad as good so don't just throw stuff together.

[michael green MGA]

A/B testing

A ton of the hobby is based on A/B testing, unfortunately many are not actually hearing a products performance because they are doing it A/B style. You plug a product in, listen to it, then plug the next one in and listen to it. If the audio signal pathway was that simple it would be great, but based on the A/B you take the product home with you or if you did the test at home you listen a while and start noticing that maybe this matchup was not as good as you first thought. You make arrangements to do the same thing and after a while you start wondering if maybe it is something else and not the area of the system you thought had the problem. Maybe it's not my speakers, must be my amps, maybe it's not my amps, must be my cable and so on the story goes.

Let me share with you a similar story. A bunch of folks bring their products together and they don't sound right, so they get on the phone and order more, nope they do something that the music world has always done. These people are using the same basic things you are only we call the things in our hobby stereos, and they call theirs instruments. What do they do differently than the audiophiles, they tune.

Wait just a minute these are two different products, you can't compare them. Look back at my posts, you sure can and it makes just as big of a difference putting your stereo system in tune as it does musical instruments. The exact same things you look for sound wise in instruments you are looking for with your stereo. We buy tons of tweaks but still after all of these years we have not taken it to the extent that it needs to be. Why is that? Why aren't we building the same things into our stereo systems that we do musical instruments? There's an entirely new chapter waiting to be written but some how it shakes our comfort zone. A big part of our hobby is still our eyes and not our ears. Don't get out your flame pencils just yet, cause you know I'm going to ignore them. Answer me some simple questions before passing judgement okie, dokie.

How many parts are in your system? Don't you mix and match these parts to see what mix is the best? After you mix them don't you still buy tweaks that help you make it better (cables, feet, stands, acoustics)? These things made a change right? I'm not asking if it was a good change or a bad change, I'm asking if it was a change. You bet it did, so why are you stopping there? If all these things can make changes to your stock system, and if mixing and matching makes such a difference my friends, you are tuning! Go ahead look at your system and see how many things you have done to make the sound change. This means one thing, you can change the signal that is inside of these components.

All of us sit there and listen to our music and no matter how much we love it when something plays that we don't like the sound of we either bear with it, or we turn it off and say it is in the recording, or we say there is something not quite right that I want to address sometime to fix it. You know maybe I should upgrade, I heard that this other component does something to the sound that maybe mine doesn't.

Sometime in the future, maybe not this year maybe not next but sometime in the future high end audio is going to tune just like musical instruments. Just like when you bias your amps you are going to have mechanical adjustments on your products that will allow you to mechanically tune it to your taste. You may not want to hear this but your hobby is a variable one, we just haven't put the screws to it at a fundamental accepted level yet. I have been taking apart your components for many years now and those of you who have heard it can see where stereos are going. In fact some of you are reading this and are wondering if you should jump in and say so. Whether you do or not it's cool cause someone has to break ground first.

The industry is heading there and it thrills me. Bit by bit I see the hobby changing and the old school that has covered many of the basics should be applauded, but now it's time to take the next steps. Time to stop worrying so much about distortion living in those vibrations like they are this evil thing. So, are you to say that musical instruments are sitting there distorting when they are playing musical notes. Their vibrating like crazy and there is only one thing that turns this vibration into distortion. When an instrument is out of "tune". Folks, hate to tell you this but our systems are out of tune. When you get them in tune is when you will hear how great they really are.

An audio designer sits at his design place and makes a beautiful sounding product that works with his system where he lives, where his associated components are, where his acoustics are, where his electric is. He knows how good it is and everytime he brings someone over they know how good it is. He packs it in a box and sends it out, and everywhere it ends up going it never sounds like it did at his place. It may sound better but in most cases it's not quite as good. Either way it doesn't sound the same. Why? You start playing with different feet, change the components, everything I just mentioned above except for one thing. You can take a musical instrument and make it at the factory in tune, and send it anywhere in the world and when it gets there it will be out of tune 100 percent of the time, just like an audio component. You can put it on feet, you can put rubber on it, you can change the acoustics, but you are never going to make it sound like it did at the factory. Plus when it gets together with other instruments you can be the best musician in the world and those instruments are going to sound horrible.

All my life I've been working on how to make 2+2=4 in this industry. I can do it all day long with your components and have a whole bunch of folks doing it, but it's not enough. Somewhere we are not getting the message. We on a whole for the last 20 or so years have been acting like a group of guys that I've heard about that took 40 years. I hope you don't miss read me, and I certainly hope you don't misquote me, and I absolutely hope you don't flame me, but the industry with all of it's advancements has been circling the camp for a long time. And to me here's the sad part, it's not that far of a jump to make this thing happen. A few simple steps and we are in a new age of high end.

The key to this whole hobby is making a system for you and me that blows our mind. I would say all of you have the greatest system in the world except for the fact that I'm one of the ones your calling to make it better. Many who want to come up on here and say "mines fine leave me alone", don't even need to waste the ink. I know yours is fine . I also know that there are a ton of guys who have been trying all their life and haven't gotten it right and are still wondering what it will finally take to get that unbelievable golden sound you've always wanted and I'm telling you it's not nearly as hard as you think, but it does take a little rethinking.

Had a guy today tell me (well a couple of guys) if they didn't already tune their system and read this it would be hard for them to take at first. One of them has been tuning in degrees for 2 years now and said it's a lot to grab at first glance. This I know and am appreciative that you guys have allowed me to come up and be so in your face. Believe me I wouldn't do it if I didn't live and love this stuff. I'm not here to sell a new product, and I'm not here to hear myself talk. I've got my own place to bore people on. I'm here because I've really studied this part of audio. I haven't just come up with this at my kitchen table, or freshly built this in my garage. This is stuff I've had universities take very serious, and experts from both the audio world and the music world involved in. All of which have said I can't believe this is not already the norm. I've had to cultivate this in my space and in my own time because I know how critical the forums, press and individuals can be. In fact one magazine said to me years ago "I can't write about this, if I write about stuff that is tunable how would we review". Another said to me after one of my products was reviewed "I can review some of your stuff but not the tunable speaker, if I told people that they could have a speaker that could be made to sound like other speakers my advertising would stop". He missed the point a little I think. My point is that if speakers are tunable (no matter whos they are) it will be much easier to match them to the system and the acoustics.  At this point for me it's about moving us to the next level. We've got the circuit thing pretty figured out with our designers. We just need to make this package so it can get tuned in when it gets some where. Look if I can make a $29 dvd player a $99 receiver and to start with before modded $39 dollar speaker perform like reference system, well. And I'm not pulling your leg here, people are getting rid of their reference systems to get these and have them made tunable, what could be done with our designers best?

[michael green MGA]

Because of the type of work I do and listening tests I'm asked to do a lot of comparisons and also find answers to questions that audiophiles come up with. One of them is in the realm of digital.

Are you able to change a digital signal?

We are told that digital is digital and does not change because of the nature of the signal. We come out of the computer and into our component and the signal at the output is exactly the same as the signal at the input, correct?

We set up many different configurations using many different cables, cable lengths, computers, clocks, re-clocks and every other digital toy sent to us (and will be happy to do yours) and the result we came up with is. With every change made the sound was different. All the parts and pieces associated with digital are highly tunable.

[michael green MGA]

acoustical distortion

Ever go over to your friends house and experience this?

You get out of your car and head toward the door of your listening buddies place. Your ears are adjusting a little cause they were couped up in that tight space with the dampening of the seats and ceiling. he greets you at the door and you step in to a room that sounds different from outside but not as bad as the car. You can hear the boundaries of the room and the pressure is built up as compared to outside but still there is some life to the room. You walk back the hall way and can hear more pressure build up that almost sounds like a tunnel. You get to his room and walk in to this very dead dull sounding room that immediately has it's own character, almost like something was sucking the energy out of the room. The pressure on your ears is a little off, kind of like someone through a blanket over your head. You listen, chat a little bit about audio circle of course, then make your way back to the door. As soon as you get out of the room you can hear the pressure in your ears open up, and more as you get to the entrance room, and finally when you get outside the whole thing opens up like someone popped loose your cork or pressure seal. My friend you have just been listening to acoustical distortion.

Your ears are incredible tools that allow you to sense space and balance. You can use them like your eyes, focusing in on an object that is vibrating. They have together with your brain the ability to paint pictures from recorded pressure being recreated in space. They can adapt very quickly to pressure and are constantly sending signals to your brain. When something is missing from your regular full range they start to tell your brain the new info and your body reacts to that info. One thing they are very good at is figuring out that 6 sided thing we call a listening room. The ear works off of sound pressure which can be tricky to get the mind around esspecially if your using your eyes at the same time. Most people when listening either shut their eyes or relax their vision to the point of falling into some what of a virtual trance. At this point all types of information can get to the brain and the picture becomes very life like. The more natural the room and system sounds the more the picture of the recording will appear. If the room is not sending signals of distortion you can even hear the soundstage off to the sides and behind you.

There are two very important factors you need to know about acoustical distortion. One is that it can happen with too many waves out of tune and not organized in their pressure zones, and the second is the lack of pressure build up needed to complete wave formation.

We know that we are able to hear waves by stepping into their wave length, and we know by putting up a dampening material up to our ears we can hear the waves distort. They just die right out. We can put the dampening material a foot away from our ears and still hear the distortion. As we keep moving the materials toward the wall the dulling effect is still there. It sounds like a dull hole in the music. We can hear some of the benefits but they are small compared to the missing information in the sound stage. With the absortion on the wall there are somethings improved but with that somethings missing, as if part of the signal is missing. There is a way to fix this. If we cover the dampening with a barrier between our ears and the absorption the sound clears up. This is how the barricade system got started. With this system you can absorb the extra energy in the room without it causing that dead or dull sound and also takes the pressure buildup feeling out of the room. The ears feel much more relaxed the music more in tune, the soundstage clean and the room controlled. Direct absorption causes the sound waves to be incomplete in their formation. This makes sense by studying how energy exchanges at a molecular level. When you cut off the "fair exchange" the energy source is altered.  By letting the sound waves get to the walls (where the absorption at the walls are more give than take) they are able to come back into the room and form a sense of pressured balance without loosing harmonic information or being disorganized. In other words your room becomes an important part of your speaker's function and sound. You can not remove the room from the equation but you can make the marriage between your speakers and room become a huge beneficial partnership.

What I have found is you want to use acoustical treatments like stop signs. Let the energy get to the walls, cause the laminar flow, cause the corner loading, but before the loading comes back into the room stop it where the room is giving out an overage. The rest of the room at that point will start to lay itself out mathematically and you will be able to come up with soundstage formulas to begin to shape the relationship between your ears, speakers and room. There are lots of listeners who have become quite good at tuning their rooms and can help you if you head down this path. The key here is to find balance.

[michael green MGA]

That CD is horrible!

Wrong! If you have a bad sounding CD in your collection of a name brand studio like warner bros or EMI or any of the mainstreams recording companies you send that CD to me and I'll give you a list of things that your system may be doing incorrectly.

Many people judge a recording by their system and don't let the recording be a guide for them to find an area of their system they may need to open up. All recordings sound different and your system is not on auto fix mode. I've read review after review of paned recordings that sound bad on the reviewers system but fantastic on a system that is in tune with the recording. There is no need for you to miss out on your favorite pieces of music. If they sound screechy or hard there is a reason and it isn't the recording. Something in your system is clearly out of tune with that piece of music.

Part of the fun of this hobby for me is unlocking a recording on a system. I've done this many times at reviewers homes as well as a lot of private clients homes. I've also had tunees come to my place and do this on my systems. Incredible to watch a soundstage open up before your eyes. The first thing that I notice when this is taking place is the fluffy air that appears around instruments. All of a sudden the instruments are supported by a full range of harmonics that fill in the stage and begin to paint the soundstage picture as if it were a motion picture instead of a polaroid print. Keep in mind we're talking about recordings that on a lot of systems are being tossed.

I read an interview not long ago about this engineer who was talking about recording and the interviewer made a comment about how bad the 80's rock stuff was. That was it for me. Are you kidding I thought. If your system can not play 70's, 80's or 90's rock you are in serious trouble. This means your system is way over dampened because these are some of the most open huge productions ever made. Most of these recordings have so many hidden parts inside of their sessions it's like living in Alice's wonderland.

I notice a lot at audio trade shows that rooms play a lot of easy stuff. Not my room. I usually pick out things that get inside of your brain if a system is half way in tune. I have to cut guys at the shows some slack because they only have a short time to get ready and there is no way their systems are going to be burnt in within 3 days. In my rooms though I always enjoyed the challenge of taking a system to at least a certain level in that amount of time. This is part of the fun, and I also would get a hold of some of the very cool guys to help me find awesome stuff like Glenn Hammett of TAS, Audio Adventure fame. Glenn turned me on to the Extreme label and other really involved music.

[JerryLove]

Sorry. I'm still stuck on the word "tune".

Under what circumstance would a 2khz wave from the amp come out at a frequency other than 2khz, and what physically would you change in order to get it to come out at 2khz again (tuning)?

[bummrush]

And I will send you Aqua lung Jethro Tull and if you tell me that my systems fault for this horrible cd you would be instantly discredited because that cd is nothing but trash bug time

[sts9fan]

In my experience only a certain type of  audio "consultant" post these long meandering stories.

[thunderbrick]

And sidesteps very specific questions, such as "what components are you using?"  Either you answer the question or not.  If not, fine, but explain why not.  The "parts is parts" concept is not going to gain a lot of traction around here.

[sts9fan]

Bla bla bla distortion.  Bla bla bla
Look over here!!

[michael green MGA]

And I will send you Aqua lung Jethro Tull and if you tell me that my systems fault for this horrible cd you would be instantly discredited because that cd is nothing but trash bug time

What problems are you having with Aqualung besides saying it is terrible. I hardly think I'm worried about being discredited . If you can tell me what it is doing on your system I can walk you through a few things if your really interested. We can pick out a couple of the songs and see what it is doing differently on your system as compared to what it does when it is tuned into a system.

[Rclark]

Mr.Green, if you could be a little more direct, it would help your cause here greatly, is what they are trying to say. You keep describing "the problem".

[thunderbrick]

Exactly.  Some Tull CDs are notoriously poor sounding, and to imply that "tuning" a system is the solution is uh, er,  a little puzzling.