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Assembling a Good Audio System – black art or not?

I guess few here would argue with the thoughts below but I would be interested on further comment as there are still many in audio clubs who treat this concept with scorn adopting the "If you cannot measure it - it doesn't exist" attitude.

Theoretically it should be possible to mate any reasonable quality component with another to achieve a satisfying result. Maybe this is so for average mid-fi components (maybe because they are so mediocre) but has not been what many of us have experienced.

The term commonly used to describe this is “synergy”, a black magic meaningless term to those happy to rely on instrumental measurements and not their ears. And, IMO herein lies the trap – those instrumental measurements are obviously incomplete and do a poor job of correlating with the sound as described in the link below.

Taken a step further this synergy between components is sometimes altered by different interconnects. This can be scoffed off by attributing it to a placebo affect, and this might well apply in some cases, but it is being closed minded to say it is ALWAYS the case.

I have experienced disappointment in a number of cases where a well respected component has just not sounded as good as has been touted by others, and have also been pleased NOT to observe the negatives others have ascribed to a component.

Obviously there is more going on than the specifications of a component indicate so that the best possible handshaking between component A and component B is never guaranteed. They may be simple electrons involved, but it appears they encounter some unexpected hurdles in their action while in the process of reproducing quality sound from recordings. With the vast number of condensers, resistors, ICs etc involved this should not be surprising. Maybe a component can be designed so that the action of the electrons within that component are consistent -> a good result, but that does not appear to guarantee a good interface with another component.

So yes, IMO, there is a certain amount of illogical “black magic” associated with all this.

John

No cure possible or is solicited for this audio, video and classical music obsession. I love it!

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Topic - Assembling a Good Audio System – black art or not? - John C. - Aussie 19:08:28 03/01/06 (69)
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