Hi Murali,
Goodluck on your abroad assignment, hopefully you will also get confused soon while returning to our home country what to bring:lol:
Regards
Thanks, everyone.
Luckily, I believe I am beyond that stage of "getting confused" what to bring home. It all started as a nice hobby a few years back when I had some money to splurge around and the more I read and listened, the more I began to understand and therefore, could narrow down my options to what exactly I wanted. Right or wrong, I first settled on the speakers which I believed (and still do) should be time and phase accurate so that they produce the best possible soundstage and imaging. Subwoofers came next (sealed enclosure), to take care of bass which I believed (and still do) are the way to go instead of spending time and efforts in moving around the mains (my mains stand about 6 ft in front of the wall) to settle for the impossible task of getting both mid-range and bass correct. Next came electronics which I believed (and still do) should employ absolutely no negative global feedback (probably a bias as an engineer who gives maximum importance to science and technology). Then came all the accessories like cables, racks and stands etc which I believed (and still do) should "just disappear" rather than coloring the signals.
The most elementary lesson I learned was that it was the signal originating from the source that decided the final outcome of the speakers. All that the downstream (pardon me for the word, I am an oil industry professional) amps and cables do were to add or subtract or do nothing from this signal and reproduce a signal as close to the original as possible. In fact I have been surprised to hear from a few experts that the audio chain is continuous and when I try to explain to them that no, the amplifier produces another signal from the incoming signal using the power supply, I sometimes get criticised. It took me some time to understand the importance of massive capacitors and power transformers, negative feedback, band widths etc.
When I bought the Audio Research preamp, I was initially skeptical about its design for a frequency extension upto 200 kHz (10 times beyond our 20 kHz maximum hearing level), but having heard it, I now suddenly notice how such frequency extensions add the real body and weight behind the music. In one of the Chesky demonstration discs, they mention about hearing the singer and presence on front and sides and that is exactly what I mean. Then suddenly I understand the quality requirement of decent interconnects and speaker cables which should maintain that sort of frequency range.
I can go on and on but don't want to make you bored.
It is a wonderful world of music where we indulge in, much better than drugs and other such options. And it is universal too.
Happy listening.
murali
