Get Better Sound (by Jim Smith)

[essrand]

After months, and with some/many irritants along the way, I managed to procure a copy of Jim Smith's Get Better Sound which arrived yesterday. Spent last night and this AM reading through the book (only 20% through) and already feel like I have graduated from kindergarten to primary school of my audiophile journey.
Have others in this forum, read this book? Thoughts?

I know many people in this forum have the wisdom in this book already through their journeys, so thought I would start this thread to discuss and further understand and deepen some of the knowledge I am gaining from this book.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Haven’t read the book... but checked out on Amazon just now. Pretty pricey stuff… but I guess even if a handful of his tips work and save you an upgrade, it’s paid off.

I know many people in this forum have the wisdom in this book already through their journeys

True. And people keep sharing what worked for them here. But it goes well with members when an authority tells it, understandably so. Like for example, from one of the Amazon reviews “Never realized that taking off my glasses while listening would enhance the cymbals and concert ambience.” Brought back memory of this thread below I’d initiated where I wrote “I can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with specs on the nose”. Could connect with the ‘concert ambience‘ part of that reviewer‘s comment.

For those who wear spectacles

Wondering what others wearing spectacles do while listening to music do. Removing them is a hassle because you got to put them on again to change the CD/vinyl, select next track/album while streaming, read liner notes, etc. On the other hand, some (like me) can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with...

www.hifivision.com

I look forward to some shared knowledge (especially the parts you tried and found useful) from the book. ‘Watch’ing this thread.

 

[essrand]

Haven’t read the book... but checked out on Amazon just now. Pretty pricey stuff… but I guess even if a handful of his tips work and save you an upgrade, it’s paid off.

True. And people keep sharing what worked for them here. But it goes well with members when an authority tells it, understandably so. Like for example, from one of the Amazon reviews “Never realized that taking off my glasses while listening would enhance the cymbals and concert ambience.” Brought back memory of this thread below I’d initiated where I wrote “I can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with specs on the nose”. Could connect with the ‘concert ambience‘ part of that reviewer‘s comment.

For those who wear spectacles

Wondering what others wearing spectacles do while listening to music do. Removing them is a hassle because you got to put them on again to change the CD/vinyl, select next track/album while streaming, read liner notes, etc. On the other hand, some (like me) can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with...

www.hifivision.com

I look forward to some shared knowledge (especially the parts you tried and found useful) from the book. ‘Watch’ing this thread.

Perfect! I am planning to post the "tips" from the book that I find illuminating and also confirmed from my experience, or by general lore from experienced forum members.

 

[essrand]

Tip #42: Why digital room "correction" might not be a good thing.

A few years back I bought a Lyngdorf all in one amplifier with digital room correction. Going from 300b SET amp to a class D integrated was quite a change.
It didn't work out (for me). Despite posters on forums raving on this amp. Perhaps a wrong speaker/amp or tube vs SS, but I can attest that room correction did not work for me in any meaningful way.
This article explains why it might be so.

 

[essrand]

The book has been revelatory.

Doing speaker positioning using tips from the book. For the first time after 2.5 years of struggling am I getting my Nagra amplifiers to sound halfway decent.

He recommends doing listening chair positioning first, speaker positioning second. An inversion of common folklore on speaker positioning. A simple tweak, but brought a "paradigm shift" in the bass response of my Nagra which I always found lacking and was blaming the amplifier. sigh!

 

[sydney]

any more tips ....
BTW i2 ordered the book now

 

[essrand]

any more tips ....
BTW i2 ordered the book now

As I go through the tips and implement them, I will report on this thread

Looking forward to your impressions once the book arrives.

 

[essrand]

Worked on tip #74, getting treble right and #75 this afternoon, inch by inch forward and backward, to really latch on to that point where you "play the room" as Jim Smith says.

"Moving the speakers closer to each other improves the density of the sound." True story. Do try it, if you find your system a tad thin. Just an inch or two closer made all the difference for me.

 

[siddharthdas]

Tip #42: Why digital room "correction" might not be a good thing.

A few years back I bought a Lyngdorf all in one amplifier with digital room correction. Going from 300b SET amp to a class D integrated was quite a change.
It didn't work out (for me). Despite posters on forums raving on this amp. Perhaps a wrong speaker/amp or tube vs SS, but I can attest that room correction did not work for me in any meaningful way.
This article explains why it might be so.

DSP has changed soooo much. It's magic when you can use it properly. DSP cannot fill nulls. It can just about do everything else. Of course, as with all things, YMMV. Considering ths sound source for most of humanity is predominantly digital, everything can be done in the digital domain before final DA conversion and amplification. Everyone's particular situation is probably different, but other than physcial room corrrection, everything that can be done in a analog domain can be done both transparently, and likley, better (more flexibility and easy to experiment). It may however turn out that the reality of someone's listening environment may just not work for DSP correction.

The book has been revelatory.

Doing speaker positioning using tips from the book. For the first time after 2.5 years of struggling am I getting my Nagra amplifiers to sound halfway decent.

He recommends doing listening chair positioning first, speaker positioning second. An inversion of common folklore on speaker positioning. A simple tweak, but brought a "paradigm shift" in the bass response of my Nagra which I always found lacking and was blaming the amplifier. sigh!

Well makes sense for most part only because except in a dedicated listining environment, you may not have much of choice. Not sure how placing speakers later solves for boundary interference, gotta get them off the nodes.

Worked on tip #74, getting treble right and #75 this afternoon, inch by inch forward and backward, to really latch on to that point where you "play the room" as Jim Smith says.

"Moving the speakers closer to each other improves the density of the sound." True story. Do try it, if you find your system a tad thin. Just an inch or two closer made all the difference for me.

Alternatvely, unless they are too far apart, just toe them in. Distance between speakers matters, if the listener isn't uniformly and symmetrically illuminated by each speaker. That'll leave a perceptual hole in the center. Ideally if you look from behaind the speaker and perpendicular to the speaker plane toward the listener, the vertical plane formed by your lie of sight should touch the listener's ear that's closer to you. Better to know why something happens than just some heuristic. That way when something works, you know why it does. or not if it does't.

Haven’t read the book... but checked out on Amazon just now. Pretty pricey stuff… but I guess even if a handful of his tips work and save you an upgrade, it’s paid off.

True. And people keep sharing what worked for them here. But it goes well with members when an authority tells it, understandably so. Like for example, from one of the Amazon reviews “Never realized that taking off my glasses while listening would enhance the cymbals and concert ambience.” Brought back memory of this thread below I’d initiated where I wrote “I can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with specs on the nose”. Could connect with the ‘concert ambience‘ part of that reviewer‘s comment.

For those who wear spectacles

Wondering what others wearing spectacles do while listening to music do. Removing them is a hassle because you got to put them on again to change the CD/vinyl, select next track/album while streaming, read liner notes, etc. On the other hand, some (like me) can’t ‘feel’ the music completely with...

www.hifivision.com

I look forward to some shared knowledge (especially the parts you tried and found useful) from the book. ‘Watch’ing this thread.

I like to take "authorities" with a grain of salt. There's so much authority out there in the world of audio, that's just utter junk