High-end audio is about enjoying recorded sound with the maximum possible fidelity. It seeks to convey the full emotion and impact of recordings, providing a fulfilling experience, and immersing you in the artistry of performers, actors, producers and film makers.
We can consider an audio system to consist of the following components:
- Audio Recording: this is the input to the audio system, containing the audio signal. It can exist in any of a number of different analog and digital formats.
- Source Components: these devices form the first link in the audio chain, through which the audio signal from the recording enters the audio system.
- Source Selection and Volume Control: this allows you to choose from among your available sources, and set the volume at which you listen.
- Amplification: this increases the power of the very weak signals produced by source components to a level at which they can drive loudspeakers or headphones.
- Loudspeakers and Headphones: these are the final devices in the audio reproduction chain, which convert the audio signal into the sound you hear.
- Cables: these connect the system together, conveying the audio signal, in various forms, from one component to another.
- Room: this is the environment in which loudspeaker-based audio systems operate, and in which you listen.
- Infrastructure: this is a set of things, such as electrical power conditioners, equipment stands and racks, and a range of accessories, which are not part of the audio reproduction chain, but which are necessary for audio reproduction and which affect its quality.
These components can be distributed across many physical devices, only a few, or even just a single one (and the room, of course).
Audio playback is everywhere: radios, phones, computers, TVs. This ubiquity gives the impression that reproducing sound is simple. And it is … if you just want to catch the news, have a conversation, hear a catchy ring tone, or play a tune in the background while you hum along. However, if you want to be transported through time and space to enjoy a Bill Evans gig at the Village Vanguard, or dodge the bullets and flying concrete with Neo and Trinity in the lobby, that’s a completely different matter.
Our hearing system is complex and extremely sensitive, detecting infinitesimal differences in the sounds we hear. This sensitivity has been crucial to human survival and development. However, it makes it is very difficult for us to trick ourselves into believing that a recording is a real sonic experience. It’s important to recognise that audio systems are systems, interconnections of components that interact to deliver the desired output. These components themselves have complex, non-linear1 behaviour and they interact with each other in several complicated, non-linear and reflexive ways. All this complexity doesn’t matter for casual listening. Practically any audio playback device can allow us to hear and understand speech, recognise, follow and enjoy a tune, or watch a movie. However, when we seek a truly immersive listening experience that convinces us, however briefly, that we’re actually at a live performance ... then it matters, it really matters!
This is what high-end audio is all about.
Developing a high-end audio system is a process of ongoing refinement. However it isn’t a sterile technical pursuit. Rather, at its very core is the deep enjoyment of audio experiences, music and movies, shared with family friends and fellow audio lovers. We thrive on the insights and experiences of others, and use them to guide us, even as we share our own thoughts and discoveries. The Serious Music Blog affords us audio travellers a meeting point, where we can learn a little, swap stories and audio gems and plan the next step on our audio journey.
1. Non-linearity: A system is linear if its output depends on its input in a simple, easily predictable way. Non-linear systems have more complex input-output relationships, which are usually less desirable.
© Wayne Butcher