Soul-Fi

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I was just reading a piece in this weekend's FT HTSI [don't judge me - I'm aware of the irony and implications] about Hi-Fi speakers. Rhodri Marsden basically saying what every sane music lover says: whatever sound floats your boat is good. His point is that the music comes first. It also begs the question: what is fidelity? For nigh-on seventy years, the quest has been to squeeze the sound of a full symphony orchestra, and maybe even a full chorus, let alone a Great Pipe Organ, onto some recording medium, and then expect a chain of electromechanical or even digital kit to reproduce it faithfully. Not going to happen. Never was, never will: the psychoacoustics of a human's interaction with the acoustics and dynamics of the concert hall alone will scupper that ambition. As for capturing and reproducing the sonic fury of early Black Sabbath in concert, don't even bother trying.

I've lived through the six or so decades of struggle and debate over fidelity, quality, truth and whatever, regarding sound reproduction systems; I have yet to experience anything like that of a live music event, classical, rock, folk, EDM or whatever, via 'Hi-Fi'. But that's to miss the point: they're different classes of audio environment entirely: the common ground from which they serve to entertain is the content, not the acoustics. The common factor is human perception and the enjoyment of music, whatever genre you listen to. You can build a system that will impress, astound or even frighten you; but it won't be the same as the source.

It's no accident that some of the greatest pop hits over the decades have been mixed for suboptimal delivery systems: from woofly old valve radios, through tinny transistor portables, to mobile phones without buds. A good engineer will extract the dynamics from the music in the mix, no matter what. And let's face it, my first exposure to the glories of both Cream and Wagner were through the medium of humble record players. It's odd that this morning, before I picked up the papers, I was already considering the idea of building a boomy old-school mono system, to try and recreate my favourite domestic sound systems: my old mate Pete Bates' corner record console, and the one from Winson Street: both 1930's designs: bassy and woofly, but passionate. Might just crack on with that one...

Comments

  1. Anonymous15 October 2023 at 07:34

    Don't stint on the cartridge mate! In my experience the single most important link in the chain and "Shit in Shit Out" is Oh so appropriate in this context (as well as a LOT of others:)
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

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