sound practices reading club /50

Well… yes, and here we go again. Welcome to the third season of sound practices reading club.

Today we are going to stop the struggle between music and audio; the speakers and the room; you and the audio committee. We are reading The Search for Audio Tranquility by Herb Reichert, from sound practices issue 9. In it, Herb starts off by comparing audiophilia to a drug addiction, then remarks how short the lifecycle is of just about any speaker design. Then it is time for detox, a programme for audio peace—involving classic speakers, and modest rooms and playback levels. Next step is to power that speaker properly and Herb looks at what classic amps had in common—followed by recommended classic speakers, paired with classic amps. Moving on to preamps and front-ends, Herb remarks how tough it is to find some peace there. The article wraps up with his guidelines for navigating the audio minefield.

teaser quote: ‘The guys selling audio magazines know that audio is a drug. So do the manufacturers. The minute you stop concentrating on the music and the little voice in your head says, “Maybe the bass is soft… maybe the string tone is wrong… too strident, maybe I should move my speakers,” you might as well be out on the street selling your bod to get bucks for crack.’

a gift from Joe Roberts, SP editor: from the sound practices CD, here is the original article.

my take
Dealers and junkies, that is the world of high-end audio. When the rush of last month’s fix has stopped working, it is time to visit the man again.

This article has helped me to get a perspective on the mad stream of audio products that is launched in the market every year. I got a pair of Spendor SP1/2s (updated-tweeters version of the BC1) as a direct result. That was 18 years ago; they are still in production.

Although this is the speaker topic, the article has a broader scope. I guess Herb is pleading that for any piece of audio gear that you buy and do not plan to modify, it pays to make a shortlist of classics—from the pool of products that you want to own and can afford to own—and start your selection process from there.

Herb is not only suspicious of the seduction of new products, he ain’t no vintage groupie either. Old does not mean classic—not even when it was in production for 10+ years, back then. Only when in the current market it fetches steadily increasing prices and is simple in its conception, we can speak of a classic. Ah, and it does not hurt that it was built to last. A disintegrated classic is an ex-classic.

Furthermore, the item in question should not go to war with the room. For speakers Herb has made it clear what that means. More general it means that size and aesthetics better be in harmony with the room.

On a related note: a friend of mine recently strung some cheap, modern pieces of gear together to enjoy listening to LPs again. He was very enthusiastic, apart from the sound of his powered speakers (small music-production monitors). He had those already for a few years and they are harsh sounding. What could he do? I thought about it for a moment and answered: get a nice, vintage, tube table radio.

Finally, at the end of the article Herb despairs of the wild-west state of CD playback—in 1995. Meanwhile the dust has settled there and I can offer a slice of CD playback tranquility, in an accompanying blog post.

bonus tracks
In an advertisement in SP issue 8, page 37, Herb gave an early warning for this week’s article. In addition to that, follow-ups and addenda can be found:

- in a review of a Jordan full-range you can read quite a bit more about Herb’s speaker odyssey, and some surprisingly nuanced comments on three of the classic speakers featured in our main article;
- in this poll by Art Dudley you will find Herb, classic speakers and comments where the two cross;
- Herb reviews a follow up to the LS3/5A and a matching subwoofer;
- Herb reviews the Spendor SP1/2, with more tales from the odyssey.

ps: it pays to read again the very first speaker article we featured here: Confessions of a Junkyard Dawg.

Now go and read the article, see you next week.