we all are continuously looking for some elusive sound, right. But do we know exactly what are we looking for ? We may not be having the faintest of idea. Exactly what do we try to achieve through our music systems ? Soundstage ? Resolution ? Emotions ? Bass ? Musicality? Or something else that we don’t even know what we chase.
As a late 90s teenager and being in a non music affected family, while I never could listen to vinyl but had a moderate sized rack full of cassettes. With a Philips hifi system and a personal Walkman, I used to listen for continuous hours and hours and hours. backstreet boys , n sync, michael jackson, MLTR, boy zone, savage garden, used to be favourites, Kumar Sanu and Nadeem Shravan music made up the very golden years of my boyhood. Kishore Kumar was God. By the time I reached early 20s I had memorised lyrics of at least 2000 songs, more than academic syllabus. Time was good there was no worry about sound quality and even if there was worry then there was no money. Put the hifi system in bass boost mode and all was heavenly. Even sw radio vividh Bharti and Doordarshan sounded good to me. I remember all the nuances of songs from that time. AV max was the magazine to look for and drool over. Age of dvds was coming, all that sounded dream.
then came age of mp3s and computers. 100 songs crammed into one CD, fabulous idea. That too CD quality ( did not know CD was better than mp3.). Now with having access to computer at home, trash like computer speakers seemed like hifi sounding, better than any tapes I had. Winamp was the software of the day and equaliser was always in a v shape. collections of mp3 cds was increasingly day by day. Felt an urge to build a big database of songs that could last a lifetime.
college ended and with a job at hand, away from home now came the time and opportunity for improving sound quality. All audio was still on computer, so creative speakers and sound card was the first purchase. I also got a Sony portable CD player for playing mp3 cds. Sound was still kind of high on treble and bass. But still no realisation what was being missed. Sony Walkman mobiles were a trend and sort of better sounding. A cowon portable player coupled with sennheiser earphones were best of friends. Audio was still sounding good to ears. With few job changes and years, with some more money in bank, now started looking for audiophile level speakers to get ultimate sound. Bought a Dali speaker and Marantz amp. Well when it played at home I was so disappointed maybe because of coming from v shaped equaliser sound, but kept on the patience for learning to listen. I also got a basic arcam dac. this was the time when brain started tingling, it asked why after spending so much money is it not sounding that good. Suddenly sound of any of songs did not seem right. Now the greed to have greatest sound was more than ever as I had spent more than ever. Some months afterwards, I spent even more than triple amount of money, I got a naim amplifier and audiogd dac 19 at same time and also stands for bookshelves. this was first tryst with good sound. The dac was warm and melodious with r2r sound (whatever that was). Voices and instruments now appeared very realistic and I realised that only DACs to be considered from now on will be r2r‘s only. was very happy with the sound, led zeppelin and pink floyd used to sing fabulously and with all energy. But there was an empty space somewhere still. Bollywood 90s music and golden era songs sounded thin and literally I lost all interest in them somehow. I made up my mind maybe the recordings were not good so that’s why they dont sound that good. You know audiophile literature.
few years more and being tired with less bass of bookshelves I had, I got a floorstander which proved to be too much for naim to fire energy. It was not even matching with naim sound. Disappointed and dejected, I had no option but to change the amp. there was no money to go for naim high end, so I trusted the only other good brand I was so much impressed from, audiogd. I now got an all audiogd system and put all stakes on my luck. The pairing was not bad initially, but it was too soft and off the lines to my taste, I was never a jazz person. Then I made lot of cable changes, power cable changes and tried all sort of changes one can imagine in a 2yr span of ownership. I kept patience and more patience to listen and accustom to my ears , suddenly voices seem heavenly on the system, especially old Bollywood ( 90s was still crap, vocal and jazz was fabulous, rock was not so good). There was everything in the system, resolution, separation, treble, analogishness, lowest noise floor I could imagine though bass was less and I am not a bass head so that was fine fine also. still something in the mind had an itch and always thought that dil mange more. Sound was good but some how heart never set itself to a convincing level, it was set to an elusive sound which never seem to appear or vinyl kind of sound which was talk of the town.
Then suddenly something happened yesterday ( I wont reveal as I donot want to sound silly). since then I have been browsing over all my 90s Bollywood collection and all I can say is that I have never thought that Kumar Sanu would sound like what he used to be when I was in 90s with my Philips hifi and cassettes and neither it was my intention for him to sound like that (come on we are talking about audiophile Grail; not some 90s sound why would I want my system to sound like that). The system was sounding almost like what my cassette player (well almost like) used to sound like, first time I heard exactly same sibilances and decays with so warmth after two decades. I listened to tu hi re and feel of the sound brought back my old television in front on my eyes and even smell of that time. same happened when I listened to ye Haseen waadiyan. from Maine pyaar Kiya to tum bin any song from that era and I was transported back to history. Resolution, dynamics, treble, bass, soundstage, I don’t know what the hell happened to them but suddenly they did not seem to matter. I did not want or expected my system to sound like this, It was exactly like how Anton Ego felt when he tasted the ratatouille and then gave up the career as a critic. I felt like heart is listening now instead of ears. You know that when you listen to songs till 3o clock at night. The thread is just to inspire others to not cease to believe and work on the system and suddenly one day will realise that there is light at the end of tunnel and it may not even be an audiophile tunnel. You never know what will hit you. There is nothing like when it hits and then nothing else would matter.
As a late 90s teenager and being in a non music affected family, while I never could listen to vinyl but had a moderate sized rack full of cassettes. With a Philips hifi system and a personal Walkman, I used to listen for continuous hours and hours and hours. backstreet boys , n sync, michael jackson, MLTR, boy zone, savage garden, used to be favourites, Kumar Sanu and Nadeem Shravan music made up the very golden years of my boyhood. Kishore Kumar was God. By the time I reached early 20s I had memorised lyrics of at least 2000 songs, more than academic syllabus. Time was good there was no worry about sound quality and even if there was worry then there was no money. Put the hifi system in bass boost mode and all was heavenly. Even sw radio vividh Bharti and Doordarshan sounded good to me. I remember all the nuances of songs from that time. AV max was the magazine to look for and drool over. Age of dvds was coming, all that sounded dream.
then came age of mp3s and computers. 100 songs crammed into one CD, fabulous idea. That too CD quality ( did not know CD was better than mp3.). Now with having access to computer at home, trash like computer speakers seemed like hifi sounding, better than any tapes I had. Winamp was the software of the day and equaliser was always in a v shape. collections of mp3 cds was increasingly day by day. Felt an urge to build a big database of songs that could last a lifetime.
college ended and with a job at hand, away from home now came the time and opportunity for improving sound quality. All audio was still on computer, so creative speakers and sound card was the first purchase. I also got a Sony portable CD player for playing mp3 cds. Sound was still kind of high on treble and bass. But still no realisation what was being missed. Sony Walkman mobiles were a trend and sort of better sounding. A cowon portable player coupled with sennheiser earphones were best of friends. Audio was still sounding good to ears. With few job changes and years, with some more money in bank, now started looking for audiophile level speakers to get ultimate sound. Bought a Dali speaker and Marantz amp. Well when it played at home I was so disappointed maybe because of coming from v shaped equaliser sound, but kept on the patience for learning to listen. I also got a basic arcam dac. this was the time when brain started tingling, it asked why after spending so much money is it not sounding that good. Suddenly sound of any of songs did not seem right. Now the greed to have greatest sound was more than ever as I had spent more than ever. Some months afterwards, I spent even more than triple amount of money, I got a naim amplifier and audiogd dac 19 at same time and also stands for bookshelves. this was first tryst with good sound. The dac was warm and melodious with r2r sound (whatever that was). Voices and instruments now appeared very realistic and I realised that only DACs to be considered from now on will be r2r‘s only. was very happy with the sound, led zeppelin and pink floyd used to sing fabulously and with all energy. But there was an empty space somewhere still. Bollywood 90s music and golden era songs sounded thin and literally I lost all interest in them somehow. I made up my mind maybe the recordings were not good so that’s why they dont sound that good. You know audiophile literature.
few years more and being tired with less bass of bookshelves I had, I got a floorstander which proved to be too much for naim to fire energy. It was not even matching with naim sound. Disappointed and dejected, I had no option but to change the amp. there was no money to go for naim high end, so I trusted the only other good brand I was so much impressed from, audiogd. I now got an all audiogd system and put all stakes on my luck. The pairing was not bad initially, but it was too soft and off the lines to my taste, I was never a jazz person. Then I made lot of cable changes, power cable changes and tried all sort of changes one can imagine in a 2yr span of ownership. I kept patience and more patience to listen and accustom to my ears , suddenly voices seem heavenly on the system, especially old Bollywood ( 90s was still crap, vocal and jazz was fabulous, rock was not so good). There was everything in the system, resolution, separation, treble, analogishness, lowest noise floor I could imagine though bass was less and I am not a bass head so that was fine fine also. still something in the mind had an itch and always thought that dil mange more. Sound was good but some how heart never set itself to a convincing level, it was set to an elusive sound which never seem to appear or vinyl kind of sound which was talk of the town.
Then suddenly something happened yesterday ( I wont reveal as I donot want to sound silly). since then I have been browsing over all my 90s Bollywood collection and all I can say is that I have never thought that Kumar Sanu would sound like what he used to be when I was in 90s with my Philips hifi and cassettes and neither it was my intention for him to sound like that (come on we are talking about audiophile Grail; not some 90s sound why would I want my system to sound like that). The system was sounding almost like what my cassette player (well almost like) used to sound like, first time I heard exactly same sibilances and decays with so warmth after two decades. I listened to tu hi re and feel of the sound brought back my old television in front on my eyes and even smell of that time. same happened when I listened to ye Haseen waadiyan. from Maine pyaar Kiya to tum bin any song from that era and I was transported back to history. Resolution, dynamics, treble, bass, soundstage, I don’t know what the hell happened to them but suddenly they did not seem to matter. I did not want or expected my system to sound like this, It was exactly like how Anton Ego felt when he tasted the ratatouille and then gave up the career as a critic. I felt like heart is listening now instead of ears. You know that when you listen to songs till 3o clock at night. The thread is just to inspire others to not cease to believe and work on the system and suddenly one day will realise that there is light at the end of tunnel and it may not even be an audiophile tunnel. You never know what will hit you. There is nothing like when it hits and then nothing else would matter.