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Why do bad things happen to good systems?

Why do bad things happen to good systems?

As audiophiles, we have all experienced this. Despite all our care, attention, and diligence, that textbook high-end supersystem just sounds flat, drab and uninspired. You might have spent years building it, months tweaking it, and weeks trying to extract what should be possible from it, but it just doesn’t gel. It just doesn’t sing like it should.

Worse, someone comes along with a hoary old system that shouldn’t work together under any circumstances, and it trounces your high-end masterpiece. I’m not talking about a well-cared for classic system from audio’s golden age; the kind of system that, were it made today to the same standards might still best many of today’s finest (that in itself is a topic worth exploration). No, instead, that yard-sale special made of the cheap and nasty products that should sound like a car-wreck and sound magical. Or the transistor radio that sounds more like the real thing than a high-end extravaganza.

We could just as easily flip this on its head; “why do good things happen to bad systems?” but the end result is the same.

So what goes wrong, and how is it possible to make it go right? Fortunately, in most cases, spending your way out of a crisis is not the best solution, and should be considered a last resort.

 
  •  Is it me? Many of us create an absurdly high standard for audio reproduction. The best audio system on the planet is never going to improve upon the original recording, although some single-ended triode systems are able to imbue a sense of sonic beauty on any music they touch. Great music on a good system can transport you (metaphorically, at least) to higher planes of musical enjoyment, but we periodically need a reality check. This is why listening to live music is so important; not only does it give us an idea of how the original instruments sound, it prevents us from thinking too lofty thoughts about music, that our replay systems cannot achieve. The acid test here is listening critically to a few different systems in different places. If one of them meets your demands (and it’s not your system), find out what they are doing right and what you are doing wrong. If none of them meet your criteria, are you sure you aren’t setting too high a bar?
  • Go back to basics. Over the years, we slowly introduce our own idiosyncrasies into the audio chain. Each one is there for a reason, but they gradually accumulate, and can work against one another, undermining the sound of a system. Every few years, it’s a good idea to pull them all out and start again. This doesn’t mean throwing out the system from front to back, more like that great cure-all for the computer age – have you tried turning it off, and turning it on again? Remove all the resonators, resonance controllers, blocks of exotic or not so exotic wood, magic bricks, magic clocks, conditioners, and cables. Go back to everything in its untweaked state, and install the system as if it were new, using the instructions provided in the manual instead of “I know better”. My predecessor in this role remains a strong advocate of the systematic approach to audio, in particular using cables from the same ‘family’ (or, as he is wont to say ‘a coherent cable loom’). This approach makes its case fairly succinctly in listening tests, but it also suggests a haphazard approach to system tuning results in a haphazard sounding system. By removing all the system tuning and starting again, you can see just how haphazard the system really is, and possibly start down a more systematic route at a later date.
  • Clean machines. A system that has 20 years of accumulated wear and tear is always going to sound a little tired, but there are ways of waking it up. Contacts in particular benefit from a regular twice yearly clean. Whether that clean involves a quick brush with Deoxit or similar contact cleaner, or simply plugging and unplugging interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords a few times, the results can be profound. Also, and this requires a little more care, the screws holding your drive units in your loudspeakers in place can loosen over time. Tightening them with an allen key or a screwdriver can make a big difference. Just be careful; use the right tool for the job, don’t overtighten and either thread the screws or split the cabinet, and remember your metal tool is very close to a big magnet; grip your screwdriver tightly lest it plunge through a loudspeaker cone. Consider too sending your equipment away for a ‘CLA’ every few years. A term borrowed from the photographic industry, a CLA (sort for ‘Clean, Lube, Adjust’) is a periodic spring clean. At its most extreme, this could involve replacing components (such as capacitors) that have gone out of true over time, to liberal use of canned air and isopropyl alcohol, to remove built-up crud from daily use.
  • Is the room right? We can spend too long working on the electronics, and not enough time working on the room. Arguably, a good system is simply the sound of a loudspeaker interacting in a room, and if this room-to-speaker interface is not correctly sorted, all manner of sonic disasters can ensue. Perhaps most important (and often most overlooked) is whether the loudspeaker is right for the room. Shoe-horning too large a loudspeaker into too small a room, or vice versa, is typically a mistake. But so is using a loudspeaker designed to work three feet from the rear and side walls up against the back wall. A combination of reading the manual and working out the right loudspeaker for the task is important. This often becomes an issue when moving house, because what worked in the last place has no guarantee of working as well in the new one, if the room is significantly smaller or larger. Regardless of room dynamics, most rooms benefit from some form of acoustic treatment, typically bass traps in the corners of the room, and absorption of some description on the first reflection points on the side walls (and in theory, the wall and floor).
  • System mismatches. Despite trying to make this a no-cost for the user feature, there will be times when the problems are too severe, and more drastic measures are required. There are two obvious solutions when faced with dysfunctional system; repair, or replace. Can you recognise the offending component and replace it on its own and bring the system back to life, or is it time to start over? There’s no easy answer here. I’d suggest in both cases, there’s a common answer. Ask around. Find those who have a similar system to yours and discuss the issues you face; if they have found a way around the problem, the same could apply to you. If you share the same problems, then at least you all know where the problem lies.

This is still one of those times when the personal touch is important, and a trustworthy dealer (and no, that isn’t an oxymoron) who knows both your system and its limitations is useful, too.

 

There’s one last option. Give yourself a music break. Sometimes, your system sounds bad simply because you pick at it like six year old with a scabbed over graze. You never listen to more than a few bars of a piece of music without jumping up and changing something. If you recognise yourself in this, stop. Don’t play any music for a month. When you return, pick a long piece of music you know well, but not so well it’s become a test recording. Play it from beginning to end, with no gaps, no adjustments, and no leaping off your seat until the end. If, after that, the system still sounds wrong, start with the five steps above.

In most cases, the problems in a good system lie with a poor installation, bad interaction between room and speaker, and dirty contacts. Fortunately, most of these are inexpensive ‘fixes’ that do not typically require component changes. All they cost is time; your time.

It’s time well spent.

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