Bob Katz Interview, Part 1 – Weiss Engineering – Pro Audio & High-End Hi-Fi
But I talked to Eric about his incredible cutting system and asked him, “If the very best that vinyl can do is to duplicate the original master, what’s the point of vinyl?” He had an answer to that. He said — “You know, vinyl customers are the ones that we seek. Because they pay attention to the artist’s music. They spend time in their living rooms, carefully put the record on, and listen from beginning to end. They don’t skip around like so many of us do when we listen to streaming”. And a light bulb went off in my head — that’s why we still have vinyl. For people who care and who do what I like to call slow listening. So there’s your answer.
The emphasis is mine. Slow Listening. I like that. I don’t know Bob Katz, but in this interview he speaks very highly about Doug Sax, who mastered nearly all of my albums for Epic Records, from Solo Para Ti until Innamorare, plus the one for Sony Classical. Doug Sax was the best. I loved going to his shop. All that custom gear… Question to self: How can slow listening be encouraged? Is there a ritual one could create? Something connected to the packaging? Can this somehow be achieved in the digital world? How?
Get yourself a voltmeter. If you’re going to compare this preamp to that preamp or this headphone amp to that headphone amp, make sure that the output levels of the two units exactly match within a tenth of a dB. Because if not, the louder of the two will probably sound better. In fact, I find that if you get even a tenth or two dB louder it gives the impression of having more depth and dimension. So whenever I read a review an audiophile has written where they don’t mention they matched the level, and they say “Wow, this new piece of gear has so much depth, and the sound stage is incredible” — I think maybe it’s just because it was louder. I don’t want to seem facetious or obnoxious about this. But it is absolutely 100% true and a known psychoacoustic fact.
That paragraph is gold. We have a very good memory for visuals, but our memory for audio sucks. We can compare things easily enough but wait a moment too long and the impression is gone. If the next impression is louder it will appear richer and better. Psychoacoustic Qu’est-ce que c’est… fa fa fa fa fa
When mixing — emotions govern your mix. And they should. If it sounds good, it is good. Say you’re mixing a bass instrument, even if it’s louder than you’ve ever mixed a bass instrument before, but you like the way it grooves — that’s good. So do what sounds good.
Exactly! That happens to me all the time. It’s what happens when you work with an amazing bass player! I swear, Jon keeps getting better.
>Question to self: How can slow listening be encouraged? Is there a ritual one could create? Something connected to the packaging? Can this somehow be achieved in the digital world? How?
IMO … by creating art projects that are carefully crafted and exist in physical form, as was discussed yesterday. I don’t think it is possible in the “files/streams” world. That world has already been sullied by the collective mindset and corporate debasement. But that’s obviously just my take. When I play a CD it is very much like I do when I play my vinyl. I believe that I engage in “slow listening” when playing CDs as well.
>So whenever I read a review an audiophile has written where they don’t mention they matched the level, and they say “Wow, this new piece of gear has so much depth, and the sound stage is incredible”
Most audiophiles have little understanding of circuit design, and what is controllable and what is not. Which brings me to a severe misunderstanding I have seen QUITE often is the audiophile commentary stating something along the lines of (paraphrasing) : “… well, this is a. cheap amp made with cheap parts, so it’s going to sound cheap …”
This is false. There are only parts. The electronics industry (speaking as an EE now) just make parts. If you buy high precision resistors (say) and implement them in your design, the premium you paid is only covering the additional cost at the supplier for bin-sorting those to a 1% nominal. No one sits around making 1% parts unless they change their manufacturing process to make metal film 1% instead of carbon 1% resistors. Doesn’t happen. Electronics component companies are too busy trying to realise whatever razor-thin profit margins they can and just ship product.
Any difference in the actual sound of a preamp or power amp design is the consequence of the design itself. Not the parts used, not the “handmade” aspect to it (robots are so much better at repeatability than humans are) not the PWB / PCB / Tag Boards (for point-to-point wiring) used.
*It’s the circuit topology.*. The circuit topology affects EVERYTHING. This is particularly true in the analogue domain. A piece of well-designed equipment implemented using commodity parts will have the same response characteristic as a well-designed piece of any other type of equipment using metal-film resistors, no electrolytic caps in the signal path, tag-boards, etc, etc, etc … the inverse is true too: handmade stuff that is poorly designed will just sound … meh, and provably so: just look at the FFT (harmonic content) on the analyser.
Apart from that it’s just human imagination and magical thinking… I would mention that having a voltmeter will only take you so far as part of the characterisation process: you really need an oscilloscope capable of an FFT too, because not only will the voltmeter not tell you about the Fourier components (harmonic content) present/absent in your signal but it won’t tell you about noise either. The human ear loves certain types of noise (especially noise that has even-order harmonic content).
Finally … since I am on my soapbox … a vacuum tube design, and a discrete BJT design, and a discrete FET design, and a purely solid state IC based design ought to sound *identical* if done equally properly in all design cases. The end-user should NEVER be able to tell what technology was used to implement a design, and if they can, the designer failed at their job. That was long, and I’m not even done. :^)
Ok, sound engineer guy!
Haha. Serious question, I’m looking to update my home listening. I’m starting from scratch, again, building a system, what would you pick? I know that’s a loaded question, because of the plethora of available pieces, but a “simple” solution to a complex issue.
I’ve been lamenting the piecemeal listening for a while, and finding a vintage vinyl copy of, The Wall, made me think is should return to a home dedicated system.
good post