Blog With Blade

Only a small part of music is how it sounds, the rest is how it makes you feel...

Blade Audio is one of the UK's leading high end Hi Fi specialists. More than this, David from Blade, shares our conviction that most Hi Fi systems are dramatically underperforming in purely musical terms. That no matter how clear, dimensional, controlled, smooth, deep ... a Hi Fi system is, it can still be, at a very fundamental level, deeply flawed in terms of the musical experience it gives. Most Hi Fi magazines by concentrating on individual pieces of equipment are of little use, except to persuade you that musical nirvana is waiting with just one more black box upgrade.

What Blade Audio and we at The AudioWorks know is that a fundamentally enjoyable system can only be arrived at by looking at every aspect of the factors that affect the end result. This includes equipment placement in rooms, room acoustics, power distribution and cabling, equipment isolation, signal and speaker cabling. In fact, so overwhelming are the effects of care (not necessarily expense!) taken in the set up of the system that a well set up cheap system will always outperform a badly set up much more expensive one.

We hope that you may find the documentation of our experiences in the pursuit of (musical) Hi Fi heaven interesting.

Larry

Blog:

Location, location, location

"OK" I hear you say, "we already know the importance of spending a little time and care plonking speakers in the right place". Nothing new here, so why start off this blog with a lack lustre fanfare and damp squib? Well we're not talking speaker placement, we're going to peek at the mildly inconvenient, sometimes impractical, often overlooked, but potential (vast) gains of locating the hi-fi equipment (rack and electronics) within a listening room.

What? Move my system? Domestic bliss will be shattered, my cables arn't long enough, there is nowhere else to site it and besides that, I don't believe it will make any difference. Well, I said this may be inconvenient, impractical, often overlooked - but (big BUT), sometimes the location of a system defines whether you get music in your room or not. Sorry and all that, but we have come across a number of homes/installations where until the system was relocated - music was a dogs dinner - no matter how much money you chucked at the system.

How many of you recognize these 2 statements?

System between speakers may result in a slightly less stable/precise soundstage and image since treble bounces off the equipment.

System in a room corner will sound heavy/muddy since bass gathers in a corner and resonates the electronics.

A few, most, all?

Well, I'm not going to dispute these, but want to take you further out on a limb where the examples are not so neatly explained, yet the results can be very much more dramatic. The most common inconvenient scenario we've found is the 'system between the speakers' killing the music. Please read again. I didn't say the system caused some soundstage and imaging imprecision - I said it killed the music. Rhythms and tunes confused, music unable to scale, with less emotion & pleasure than a stale vol-au-vent. Before everyone panics and starts throwing those vol-au-vents at me - I'm sure this is not a 100% rule - many will have their system between the speakers with no problems. Even so, we have found, on more than a few occasions, when a system is not musically performing and cannot be helped through persistent (and expensive) reworks of mains, cables, isolation & components - relocating the system from between the speakers (almost as a last resort) - transformed it. I spent a few minutes deliberating how to communicate this transformation - was music more interesting? Was it clearer? More tuneful? Equal to buying the best CD player you could (not) afford, blah blah blah? There is in fact no need to select nice hi-fi scenarios. Moving the system resulted in music. Before that, there was no point listening to it.

Other examples/experiences of relocating systems to rescue music include:

From a corner or alcove/bay to 2 or 3 feet along the wall.

From stacked tightly against a wall, to 12 or 18 inches further out.

Weird one this - moving a system away from a boundary of two different floor materials (e.g wooden floor joining concrete hearth).

My own recent gotcha is with the (extravagant) Focal Grand Utopia speakers. Due to changing speaker cables, I sited my system between the (half ton!) speakers in my room. Sounded Ok - but not great. Changed speaker cables for better ones. Sounded no better (actually worse). Chucked £17,000 of MIT Oracle at it - depressingly, it sounded pants. Removed dCS Puccini (expensive player) and plugged in dCS Scarlatti (don't ask how many £s) - lack of music made me want to slash wrists. Relocated system to one side of speakers - linked up longer (but way, way cheaper) cables - music emerged. So what was all this about? In this case - the more musical energy the system generated, the more harm it did to the music, a pattern we have found when there has been a fundamental problem with set-up. Worth remembering/recognizing.

I'm pretty sure many of the regular AudioWorks fan club will not be surprised by these musings since Larry has shared similar experiences with you (and me). What is very reassuring, is Larry and I have very similar experiences with diverse systems; and it's likely that anyone experimenting with an open mind may gain fabulous musical rewards that are not achievable by throwing money (away) at the system. If you suspect there is more music to come from your system, move the equipment out or along the wall a little within the lengths of any cables - you have nothing to lose. For those who are already enjoying their music - experiment a little - you could be shocked in a very positive way!

Posted by David Rapaport at:
00:25 on 13-02-2009

Travelling Up North

Yes, motorways and weather allowing, I will be in the shop Friday and at the show Saturday. Not sure if my ears are worth trusting at the moment, as I've been burning-in a pair of Grand Utopias at silly volumes.

Looking forward to the show, not looking forward to Larry's (and Rick's) little digs about the lack of contribution to this blog - but I think its deserved!

David

Posted by David Rapaport at:
15:28 on 26-01-2009

Northern Sound & Vision

Well, the Northern Sound & Vision show is nearly upon us, and things are starting to get a little frantic. Good news is that we have an area which should be pretty representative of what the shop is about. A number of our suppliers will be showing full systems available from ourselves, and Hi Fi Plus (3 rooms) will be demonstrating 'The AudioWorks' systems before and after fettling with cables and supports.

Now, what has this to do with Blade Audio I hear everyone cry. Well the answer is, I am hopeful that David will be on hand to help us out! For people who would like to meet with the legend himself, he will probably be lurking in the dCS, AudioWorks or Hi Fi Plus rooms.

Larry

Posted by Larry Ogden at:
13:58 on 26-01-2009

Blade blogging....

Thank you for the generous introduction Larry.

As you are well aware, I hold you personally responsible for this musical journey which started when you spent the time to help me understand the difference between listening to hi-fi and achieving/appreciating performances the artists intended. Anyone who frequents The AudioWorks will not be surprised by this, but what I do find surprising, is how few fellow traders actually hold the same values (and/or capability) as you. In fact, is there anyone else out there?

Before we start to swap notes and hopefully add value and enjoyment to this blog, I need to confess how Larry and I met - and how my journey did not exactly start smoothly! Like so many of us, I started playing with hi-fi in my teens. Never satisfied with any of the systems, more and more money was thrown at dealers, components, tweaks and voodoo. Hundreds (thousands?) of hours were spent on endless forums looking for an answer. Found opinions, didn't find much help. Truth be told, I had no idea what I was looking for.

Purchased JMlab Mezzos in 2002 - after all, they had been well reviewed. Chris Fares set them up. They sounded OK, not great. Chris then added this ordinary looking MusicWorks block and injected some magic into my room. Looks very ordinary, but it does something good I thought. Chris then took it out (was his after all) - and bye bye music. Yikes!!!!!! Chris kindly gave me Larry's number. Larry even more kindly drove 400 miles to build on the experience I heard.

That's where the problems started. My whole (hi-fi) world changed. No, it was destroyed. Everything I thought I knew, everything I listened to, was wrong. Larry didn't say that, I worked that out when Larry turned my hi-fi into a musical performance - for the first time. This was achieved with care, good ears and a knowledge of system set up.

So Larry was thanked for his hard work and great results, I took on board what he demonstrated to me, and became an 'informed' dealer. NOPE. I disgraced myself! Believing that an equal or better musical performance was achievable by reverting to the standard practice of system building (well reviewed boxes, 'trendy' accessories and forum/magazine opinions), the fruitless quest continued, Despite exhausting myself and tens of dealers, starting up in the trade (with some success), the wonderful music 'nourishment' Larry so skillfully provided eluded me. 3 years later, tail between legs, I asked Larry for his help once more.

God knows why, but he obliged.

Since then we have shared ideas, music, experiences and values - which, of course, will fuel this blog.

Posted by David Rapaport at:
17:39 on 23-11-2008