My way
Do I really walk the talk? Some readers are teasing me about the fact that I’ve never written anything about my own system, and they’re clueless if I really do or apply the things I’ve written about audio to my own acoustic nest.
Timothy Marasigan of
Hold your horses, guys! In the first place, I don’t believe that there is indeed a perfect system. I have always maintained, at the risk of sounding redundant, that each of us enjoys music differently. One thing that should be clear though is that a sound system is just a tool to appreciate music. It goes without saying that the type of music you listen to dictates how your system is set up.
The younger generation enjoys iPod music, the kind that one can chill out to while doing something else. Multi-tasking is an oft-heard and used concept these days. How my 14-year-old daughter can do her homework, play a computer game or hand-draw anime images with her graphics tablet, while listening to the latest songs she downloaded on her iPod, puzzles me no end. Does she, like all other young people, really care about the music at all? Maybe.
But, like me, if you belong to the old school that believes music should be seriously appreciated, perhaps I can share with you how my system is built and how it delivers the music I want. First, let me tell you that a sound system is not a trophy that should be bragged about. Just like people showing off their pricey, shiny cars, most audiophiles often fall into this trap. When the pogi factor takes priority, the inevitable consequence is audio burnout. Buying expensive sound equipment doesn’t always result in good music.
When I started beefing up my system, I was already focused on what type of music my system should convey. This is the most important aspect of how you can enjoy the music through your system. You don’t want to be one of the wandering audiophiles — those who change their gears as often as they change their clothes, those who never really know what they’re looking for.
Personally, I like classical and jazz music. With these genres, I need a full-range speaker system, one that can give me the sub-low and the super-high. Aware that classical music is replete with passages that travel the whole bandwidth, I had my speakers custom-built to suit this particular sonic preference. I could have just bought a pair of loudspeakers and stuck them inside my music room. However, I didn’t want to be held hostage by the specs (and the price) of such speakers.
It is always wise to build your system around your speakers. Having them first makes it easier for you to choose the amplifiers that should power them. Since I chose high-sensitivity speakers, low-powered SET (single-ended-triode) should be enough to make them sing. With that issue resolved, the next steps (choosing your preamplifier, music sources, etc.) are a lot easier.
Room acoustic accounts for 60 percent of how your system will finally perform. Wayward sound in an untreated room can only give you disappointment and headache (from listener’s fatigue). Others make the mistake of upgrading their hardware, unaware that the problem lies in how their respective rooms are constructed. I had my music room treated by my good friend Vicente Lim, a low-key Binondo trader and an audiophile who painstakingly studied how to make rooms audiophile-friendly.
It’s money well spent on my system. My electronics are locally and China-made (two pairs of Cayin 9084D monoblock amps, a pair of Cayin 800MK monoblock amps, Cayin SC 6LS and Isabelle Harana preamps, Cayin Phono 1 and Cayin CD17A), except for the crossover, dBX Driverack 260, and my vintage turntable, Luxman PD-444. My speaker system was custom-built in Dau, Pampanga and is composed of all-vintage drivers: two pairs of 15” JBL-D140 for the woofers, a pair of Altec 290 horns for the mid-section, and a pair each of JBL 075 and Aurum Cantus for the tweeters.
My system, in a tri-amp configuration, seamlessly delivers sweet music to my ears. Building and setting up an audio system is very much like finding the woman to marry and grow old with. I built my system my way, and I’m happy with it. Some audiophiles believe that the search for music nirvana is never ending. I disagree. It is their failure to define what they want that makes their heads spin and sends them on a dizzying, dissatisfying musical journey.
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For comments or questions, please e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.
