General Asylum

Posted by Monstrous Mike (A) on July 28, 2003 at 11:45:21

In Reply to: Physical basis of synergy? posted by rhizomatic on July 28, 2003 at 09:24:07:

I don't know if you guys are tired of me bringing up my naval engineering experience but here goes.

A naval war vessel is a very complex piece of machinery. It has been said that a nuclear aircraft carrier like the USS Nimitz is the most complex peice of machinery ever designed by man. We Canadians don't have this level of ship but our destroyer/frigatess did cost upwards of one billion each when built.

While working on this project (construction of 12 new frigates), I never heard the word "synergy" once. Not one single time was the word uttered (that I heard) nor did is appear in the extensive glossary of terms in the engineering books for the project. Integration of components was a large problem as were interface compatibilities not to mention cabling in general.

So in answer to your question, I do not believe synergy has the physical characteristics you are alluding to. What you seem to want to do would in my mind be "fine-tuning" by changing cables, etc.

I think synergy in audio is a little more esoteric in that there are subjective and pleasing aspects like your system blending into the room, where your listening position is, speaker placement, colors of components, colors of walls and furniture, lighting, how you mount/hide the audio equipment, the shape of the room, genre and volume of the music, etc., even down to what type of chair you sit in.

So I guess what I am basically doing is separating the equipment and the environment. The equipment is going to produce sound. And it is going to produce sound according to the specifications of the components right from the source to the speaker cones. But the evironment you play it in is going give the final pleasure. If you like your system, your room , your music, you are going to be in a good mood and this will enhance your listening enjoyment.

Perhaps synergy is a set of cold, hard physical components with no life of their own being blended into a warm, welcoming listening room that takes the objective sound coming from your speakers and changes it to subjective music when it reaches your ears.

Does that make any sense to anyone?