Home Critic's Corner

Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry.

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Critic's Corner ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

RE: Perhaps I wasn't clear but...

>> Which is something I didn't get until a couple of years ago despite Charlie having made that claim years ago. :) <<

Thanks for the shout out. When I was at Avalon I just designed from first principles and measurements. Although I made sure that they sounded great to me, my listening skills were limited. At that time all wires sounded the same to me. I couldn't hear the difference between footers under equipment.

As one gains more and more experience, one hears new things and learns new things. I was completely shocked when my arm/cartridge setup (Talisman Alchemist III mounted in a Premier tonearm - imported by Sumiko) mounted on the Conrad-Johnson Sonographe turntable was moved straight over to a Sota Star Sapphire. You could have knocked me over with a feather, as the 'table made far more sonic difference than the arm, and at least as much as most cartridges. At Avalon I left most of the detailed decision up to Neil Patel. But I would watch and listen and learn.

Fairly soon at Ayre I realized that some of our customers had better listening skill than I did. And I also realized that the only way to satisfy those customers would be to have equal or better listening skills. Fortunately designing circuits provides a great opportunity to do just that. Does it sound better with twice the power supply capacitance? If not, one can save a lot of money!

As a manufacturer one has the luxury of changing just one variable at a time. We have built up complete stereo amps where the only difference was the PCB material and A/B'd them. We have built up CD players where the only difference was the temperature coefficient in the resistors in the analog output stage and A/B'd them. I spent 30 hours a week for four weeks straight just listening to different coefficients in the digital filter and comparing NOS to 2x to 4x to 8x to 16x.

I was lucky enough to work with a guy with some of the best ears in the world, Gary Mulder. He listened for completely different things than I did - kind of like how Art Dudley listens for "flow" or "momentum", while he cares not one whit for "soundstaging". Gary worked at Ayre for a dozen years and now builds some of the best-sounding electric guitar amps and accessories in the world (see link below). We were able to learn from each other, as we had both been careful listeners for decades and were able to bring our knowledge together.

There aren't many whose ears I trust, but it turns out that one of Ayre's assembly technicians (who worked his way up to Assembly Manager and now COO) has incredible listening skills also. Any audio company without a great set of ears is going to have a hard time satisfying their customers - unless they are just marketing based like Bose or Beats. (Even they have to understand the sound that their customers want.) But having worked shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best ears in the business for multiple decades has helped me become a much better listener.

And that's what I think a magazine reviewer should be, as well - far above average in their listening skills. An average reviewer will be able to satisfy an average listener. But if that customer listens a lot a learns more, he will find he was let down by that reviewer. On the other hand if Harry Pearson recommended a great budget system to a friend or family member, you can be pretty sure that they would enjoy that system for many years. If they ever "outgrew" it because their listening skills improved, they could always give the system to their teenage kid or get a good trade-in on it, as good sound never goes out of style.

But someone who thinks that a $2000 Benchmark sounds identical to a PS Audio that is designed and built completely differently is likely to think that the new $350 Pro-ject DAC (which uses pretty much the same chips as the Benchmark) sounds just as good. And if he tells his readers to just buy the $350 one because it sounds the same to him, he may satisfy some of his readers who also have just average listening skills. But he will be of zero use to some one who has trained their ears to be better.

It's kind of like musical instrument teachers. I was wildly fortunate to find an excellent violin teacher for my two kids. Not only could she keep them motivated and have fun during the lessons, but she also had the skill and talent to keep pushing them as they improved. Yet I doubt she would be of much use to Yehudi Menuhin or Fritz Kreisler (once they were adults).

Yet Menuhin and Kreisler could easily educate beginning violinists - they simply just didn't have the time. But if they were writing for a magazine, they could write for all skill levels. And a skilled audio reviewer should be able to review for all price levels.

Maybe that should be a requirement for the reviewers - that they have one reference level system that they use as (drum roll, please) as a reference. Then when reviewing reference level components they can switch out one component at a time. And keep a completely different lower-cost system to compare how components work in both.

One of the problems with going monthly is that nobody has time for that any more. How many times have you read JA when he is reviewing an amp with speakers that are also under review? (Once is too many times, in my opinion). Remember when a significant component would be passed among two or three different reviewers in the old TAS under HP? That's not a bad idea either. But it's not a way to put out 12 issues a year and churn both products and ads.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Signature Sound   [ Signature Sound Lounge ]

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
FAQ

Post a Message!

 Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]