Glass half-full audio components vs glass-half-empty kind

[viren bakhshi]

Dictionary definitions:
Tone - musical sound of a specific quality, of definite pitch and vibration.
Timbre - the quality given to a sound by its overtones, distinctive to a singing voice or musical instrument.

These are musical terms, pertaining to the sound of real instruments. Reproduced music should also be judged in these terms. The invented audiophile language with terms like transparency, soundstage, does not describe music.

So, in a sense, nothing is half full, or half empty. A reproduction system is either musical, or it is not. With human subjectivity at play, you can have levels of musicality. To keep that in check, the only absolute comparison is that of real, live music.

Also, an amplifier does not differentiate the genre of music playing through it. All music is complex, all music should flow through. Real instruments have definite tone and timbre; synthesizers mostly do not.

 

[prem]

I agree with Viren that there is something wrong with a system that does not get tone and timbre right, irrespective of the music played.

 

[Analogous]

system

Let’s not forget it’s a complex system that has to deliver these sonic delights we all crave. This includes the source transport, electronics, speakers and room set up.
Synergy between electronics is difficult to define, but we recognise high quality music playback immediately when we hear it.
@essrand in your articles you had mentioned a preference for electronics all from the same company? Could you please discuss how you went on to choose speakers? And room set up too?

 

[Analogous]

I agree with Viren that there is something wrong with a system that does not get tone and timbre right, irrespective of the music played.

@prem, I am still gobsmacked at how within a few seconds you could figure out if the timing of an Amp-DAC was off or right.
Usually it takes me a few months and it’s by realising how much foot tapping or rocking happens when I listen to music. I believe the best setups get us moving or jiving or swaying or nodding in time with the music even if we are not the dancing type!
A lot has been written and spoken online about PRAT (eg: Naim is revered for this)
Do reveal the secret

 

[prem]

There is no secret Analogous. In my childhood, I used to listen to live Carnatic music very frequently. Live helps you understand timing and interplay between instrumentalists and singers.

Because of my early exposure, i am more comfortable setting up a system using violin, tabla, mrindangam, flute and vocals

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

There is no secret Analogous. In my childhood, I used to listen to live Carnatic music very frequently. Live helps you understand timing and interplay between instrumentalists and singers.

Because of my early exposure, i am more comfortable setting up a system using violin, tabla, mrindangam, flute and vocals

I was forced to learn carnatic music for 3 years in the late 80's. There was a superhit movie called "shankarabharanam", and that got my mom dreaming of turning me into a musician. What followed was 3 years of torture that I, my guruji and my neighbors endured. Till my guruji quit, with the parting words " I cannot make a koel out of a crow".

So, I think you have a special knack and ear for music prem

 

[Analogous]

I was forced to learn carnatic music for 3 years in the late 80's. There was a superhit movie called "shankarabharanam", and that got my mom dreaming of turning me into a musician. What followed was 3 years of torture that I, my guruji and my neighbors endured. Till my guruji quit, with the parting words " I cannot make a koel out of a crow".

So, I think you have a special knack and ear for music prem

I am thinking of learning percussion, central-south American type. If I can locate a teacher nearby

 

[prem]

I was forced to learn carnatic music for 3 years in the late 80's. There was a superhit movie called "shankarabharanam", and that got my mom dreaming of turning me into a musician. What followed was 3 years of torture that I, my guruji and my neighbors endured. Till my guruji quit, with the parting words " I cannot make a koel out of a crow".

So, I think you have a special knack and ear for music prem

I didn’t try singing. I only listened

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

I am thinking of learning percussion, central-south American type. If I can locate a teacher near by

By all means you should try

 

[essrand]

Let’s not forget it’s a complex system that has to deliver these sonic delights we all crave. This includes the source transport, electronics, speakers and room set up.
Synergy between electronics is difficult to define, but we recognise high quality music playback immediately when we hear it.
@essrand in your articles you had mentioned a preference for electronics all from the same company? Could you please discuss how you went on to choose speakers? And room set up too?

Sure, I can talk about speaker choice in a future article, but a short answer is that I chose Devore O/96 about 8-9 years ago after long merry-go-round with speaker while living in the USA (don't think that would have been possible in India), and even now haven't found anything else that could make me sell these speakers. But getting the right amps to make these speakers sing took a long time.
Room setup, hmmmm, still learning about it. Got lucky to find a big room to house my Devores.

 

[Hari Iyer]

To explain tone and timbre, if we produce a 2000 hz note on a guitar and a piano, then the harmonics associated with that note, which help us distinguish if it is a guitar or a piano is called as Timbre. It is usually associated with the aftertones of a tone, like the decay or harmonic structure, that help us identify the exact instrument playing it.

Coming to the tone itself, it is referred to the exact pitch of that note. The pitch of every note can be considered as a combination of the lower section ( say bass ) and the higher section ( say treble ). When we change tone control on a amplified signal, the pitch changes with the frequency being the same. For example, we can lower the tone control on a guitar amp and it will sound more heavy and bassy. Increasing the tone, will make it more lean and bright. And both the above pitches, are generated from the same guitar at the same frequency.

Thus, different types of guitars, producing the same note can sound different, due to differences in pitch, which we call as tone. And difference between a guitar and a violin or a piano at the same frequency note is timbre. Though usually, both the terms are used in conjunction, to associate how accurate the reproduction of a instrument on a system is. And the ability to distinguish a complex musical passage, with several similar instruments playing at very close frequencies is called as texture. That is getting a combination of tone, texture and separation right.

Does your setup do justice to what is mentioned above?

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Does your setup do justice to what is mentioned above?

I dont think Iam there yet sir

I will need my source ( streamer + dac ) to do tone and timbre perfectly. And then a chain that can honestly reproduce that. I think my current source is not exactly great at tone or timbre. It does have other strengths. So a new dac will be needed I guess