To understand how to obtain the right sound, it's necessary first of all to make a comparison between the live sound and the right one reproduced with a stereo system.

The live sound

The right sound

Now we can see the characteristics of a stereo system reproducing the right sound:

One has to know which kind of frequency is used to listen to. I explain in detail: the human voice is centred in the medium range of frequencies, also called telephonic range. This range has an extension from 200Hz to 3000Hz, almost a decade. In this range there are the most of the sound that a person can hear. The quantity of sounds with at higher or lower frequency (than this ones) is extremely rare. This is the real world, it can be measured and we can verify it in a very simple way. If we take a balanced disk and we listen to it just with a cut at high frequency tweeter, for example 5 kHz, we recognise that there are just a few sounds. The same thing can be done with a woofer at low frequencies (under 100Hz, for example). In many stereo systems, however, there is not the right balance. Frequently there are many high frequencies and/or low ones. These are not balanced systems, they have not the right sound. Unfortunately, this false balance is what many reviews and builders advertise.

 

Our present systems

We have to be impartial when we listen to music by our system. Frequently, to make a judgement we are asking to friends and relatives but the question is if we are sure that their point of view is coming out without any restriction. This is independent from the fact that the sound is right, wrong, good or bad. In case of an observation from the over-mentioned persons, we are ready to justify it from the capacitor or the cables. We have to look at it from a different prospective, less maniacal and more natural.

 

How to obtain the right sound

It's not possible to think to obtain the right sound from your system changing just one component but it's possible to get in touch with it step by step while you are choosing the right component for your system. Here, some advices in order to choose the right components:

It's very important to understand which philosophy (I mean the approach to the reproduction) is behind the components we are interested in. I think that it is important to observe if the producer have the whole range of product in his price list in order to understand if he is interested in the final result of his machines. This is just a sign and not a proof.

Following these few advises, one can notice that the most of the world-wide well-known and industrialised manufacturers are not offering in the market systems with the right sound but just advertising objects. The listening comes after. The person must not listen to that particular part or to the system, but to the music! The listening have to transmit emotion, possibly the same emotion one can feel at a live concert. The concentration must be on the music and not on the detail or on the particular taking our attention.

 

How to understand

After having made a mod to our system, we have to understand if the results is driving us to the right sound. An excellent method to verify the hypothesis is to go back to the starting point after some hours of listening to the new configuration; this second change will clarify any doubt. Obviously, the person needs to be calm and relaxed as much as possible. The method of the double blind has never convince me at all. During these years I have recognised that this way to listen to music is not applicable with success to audio. All this occurs because the listener is not relaxed enough, so he is constricted to listen or not the differences. In my opinion this is not the right approach. This is not the right way to perceive the right sound and, in addition, in scientific field it works in a different way.

 

Summary

The Audionautes point of view can be summarised as follows: