Sonic's System

Nice

I've always been able to hear the rear wall energy in your room. So it's nice to see you start to play with this PZ.

Hi Michael and Robert

Since I got the DRTs on top of my bookcases Sonic has been having a mixed experience. The sound is huge and I have great girth in the images. Only thing is the sound has changed. I am now hearing new details but also subtle changes that make familiar recordings unfamiliar. For instance I've associated Marni Nixon with a light bright soprano voice and Emma Kirby too who has a very pure high range. Now they both have a "chest tone" that I have not noticed or heard before. On some recordings I can hear great details in the bass but some instruments that I have heard for years as relatively small have expanded in size. A hurdy gurdy is now the size of a bass viol. On small jazz ensembles, the instruments have grown big but a sense of small cafe intimacy is gone.

It is like a remike and a remix going on. So my room is filled with music but musick I am tonally unused to....and it is getting more noticeable daily as the system settles....

Other thing is with all the pressure coming alive, I can now hear where the low-pressure points are. There is one just to the left of the main rack. Any images there are small and tend to pull towards the two adjacent higher pressure zones.

I put some wood in that area and the pressure modified and came up....then I saw I had added some mass on the side of my soundstage zone where there was nothing before... Michael is right about needing to balance the equipment like it was sitting on a board on a single pivot. Is this the effect, Michael?

If this were the case, my equipment area will be at present severly tipped to the right and forward.

Then Sonic thought "maybe the room should be balanced." If you take all the relative masses in my room, it would be tipped back to the rear wall (because of the weight of the bookcases) but with a right-ward roll -- more mass on the right.

Maybe to balance things out, I need to get the mass better distributed.

Dunno what I am talking about yet. But the DRTs have messed with my mind and now I am thinking of weight distribution in the room. Sonic must be going crazy.

Robert, less courageous but going crazy I may be.

Sonic

Hey, Sonic,

I had wanted to say in my last post that my hunch was that you would wind up taking down those DRTs, but I had no real tangible reason to back up my hunch so I remained silent.

But, let's look at your results. You speak of your recordings sounding as if they were remixed. Is that a bad thing? I usually look forward to that effect. In fact, I'm counting on it when my room goes "Green."

On the other hand, the results do bother you and you are the one who needs to be pleased with your system. This must be what Mr. Green calls "newness sound," which sometimes immediately appeals or, in your case, mystifies to the point where you're not sure if you like it or not.

My vote is: give it a good couple of weeks WITHOUT ANY FURTHER CHANGES. I am also into "tuning" television picture adjustments and the advice there is the same as Mr. Green has given for sound: let yourself get used to it.

If after a couple of weeks, you are still suspicious of the results, backtrack and see if things were really better before your latest experiments. I get the feeling that you rush changes without a good amount of settling time. Remember, 3 days is only minimum. I say this to remind myself as well as all tunees.

Hi Guys

Audiophiles and studio engineers have gotten use to shrunken mid bass and mids. Sad but true. There is a ton of music in the mids that have been over looked that you are now hearing. Place your hand on your chest and sing to yourself. It's a shame that most of the listening world has place the sound up into the nasal cavity instead of letting the truth come out.

I say "let the truth set you free"

there are marvels in the mids

Hi Michael and Robert

I think my reaction is more to the sight of those DRTs on the bookcases rather than the sound. They cast shadows that make Sonic feel that something unconventional is being done in the room....more mental than anything. The sight of them make me uneasy.

But Michael, you are right that real music has more mid-bass than audiophiles are accustomed to. There is also more energy in the 3 to 7 kHz range too, I think. I'll persevere and keep the DRTs on the bookcases and see if my mind settles with the system.

Sonic

Hi Michael

It has been several days since I put the FS DRTs back on top of the bookcases and played lots of music to let the system settle. After more than four days of hours of burning in....Sonic has to conclude it isn't working. The DRTs cause the sound to get slow and sludgy in the mid-bass and rolled off in the treble. It gets worse (or more obvious) as the system settles. I couldn't put up with it, so down came the DRTs.

Robert, your hunch was right after all. It wasn't just the visual dominance of the DRTs....

With the removal of the DRTs, the sound livened up and brightened up considerably. After 24 hours, the easy fluidity that I like about Michael's tuned musick came back.

Sonic then thought about extending the envelope. I used the bases of the DRTs with spikes and placed them on the left of the main rack (where I refered to placing wood pieces to balance out the mass) and the sound got nicer. Wood is good especially if it is RoomTune wood.

These two bases will become mini-plaforms for things Sonic is planning to introduce into the room/system. Then I made a Pressure Box again -- 17.5" x 15" x 12.5" which with the tube corresponds to a 27 hz resonance.

The Pressure Box made a subtle difference with improved girth. I found it works nicely just ahead of my listening chair but also on top of the bookcases. But after my experience with placing things on the bookcases and where that led me, Sonic has put the Pressure Box on the floor. Got a nice projection. Music played over the weekend included Eric Satie's Ogives and Gymnopedies, Chet Baker and Duke Jordan live, Copland's Rodeo, Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie (Jazz at the Philharmonic sessions), Handel's sonatas for violin and harpsichord and Clemens non Papa.

Yes, this is sounding good again thinks Sonic.

Wish I were there!

Hi fellow Zonees

That Pressure Box has done it again.... ....the five-day syndrome....what does Sonic mean?

Zonees following Sonic's erractic audio adventure will remember that I have used pressure boxes on and off. From the notes I kept, the same thing happens each time. Day 1 the introduction of the pressure box makes me (and other listeners) jump up and say "hey...this makes a big difference for the better!" Day 2 good listening.....Day 3....sound is nice but nothing to crow about.... Day 4...an urge to tune something is being felt, the sound could be better...Day 5 the sound is small, cardboardy and lifeless......toss out the Pressure Box and things start moving back towards the light. In the Day 5 collapse, the box has to be removed from the room. Shifting it to another place like another corner in the room stills leaves the colouration and flat sound.

This is the about the sixth or seventh time this happened. Sonic's notes and records show that the transition for the worse happens on the fourth or fifth day.

Any explanation for this Michael?

A thought -- as the pressure box is a helmholtz resonator, it will have the effect of damping pressure variations when placed in a Pressure Zone. It will not amplify pressure in a given zone. The opposite happens if I understand the physics right.

When the pressure rises, the resistance in the box port will slow the rise and damp the pressure peak, when the pressure falls, the air trapped in the box will run out thru the port and ameliorate the pressure drop. So if the pressure varies like a sine wave, the effect of the box will be to produce a smaller sine deviation or flatten the hills and valleys into a flat line.

This is how the helmholtz resonators in a car air intake damp intake noise and have a small effect of boosting midrange torque by presenting more consistent or a higher average pressure at the throttle body and intake manifold.

Wasted a week of sound and music....

Sonic

Hey, Sonic,

Which way do you have the port oriented when you try the box? Up, sideways, facing toward you, away from you? Do you always have the port in the same position? Have you ever left the box in place and merely flipped it one way or the other, changing the positioning of the port?

Do you think that maybe I ask more questions than a game show host?

Naah...your questions reasonable are, Robert.

Yes, Sonic has tested port orientation. When it was on top of the bookcases, port faced into the room though I felt facing port towards the ceiling seemed better.

On the floor, I have tried port facing towards the speaker area and behind to the wall. No difference that I can say that could not be attributed to imagination.

And it might be imagination. The box dimensions are small relative to the size of a pressure zone. So the port orientation should not be critical because it is always "in the zone" affecting the pulse.

Anyway that Pressure Box is now history (recycled) for reasons both theoretical and observational as far as Sonic is concerned. Good riddance.

Sonic is now working at integrating another components into the system using Harmonic Feet.

A priority is now to get the Maggies tuned, using a back brace of some sort both to reduce the front-back wobble as well as to open a grounding path to route vibrations from the top down into the ground. I discussed gronding the Maggies with Michael and he send me some drawings abd hesaid he was doing something with Quads but I haven't heard from him on this anymore.

Sonic would also like to hear from Mr Green on my observations with the pressure box's repeatedly frustrating dead end.

On a broader tuning front with the bookcases, special voiced wood on the back is still an option but I am not certain on how to clamp the many wood pieces to the bookcases. It could look freaky.

Also gotta be cautious. Economic recovery is slowing, the last US jobs data is not encouraging, unemployment only fell because people de-classified themselves as "unemployed", Europe is trouble, China growth in doubt, global stock markets unstable....just sentiment or hello double-dip recession.....jury out. Need to watch expenditure so taking baby steps for now.

Anyway there is lots of optimisation possible in my system. Hope the Tune is doing well in terms of sales and projects. How are things, Michael?

Sonic

Hi Michael and Robert

Hope to hear from you soon, Michael on my questions in my last post.

Though Sonic is cautious about the economy in the immediate future, I have been setting up a low-cost alternative system since late May. Here it is -- my Pioneer 8w integrated tube amp, Samsung CD player, Quad FM3 tuner and Fostex 126E drivers in a tapered quarter wave tube speaker arrangement.

Lots of fun and a good diversion as Sonic grapples with the Tune.











Sonic

Hey Sonic,

I just saw your post on a diversionary system with an 8 watt Pioneer tube amp paired with Fostex 126s. The 126 based speakers are very popular here in the US, but they do not throw as big an image as your planars. I always feel like I am closer to the back of the auditorium using the 126s. I have a pair of rear-loaded, folded horns using the 126 which really likes my 245 tube amp and my EL84 based PP tube amp, but does not work well with my 9 watt EL34 tube Single Ended integrated. This very special EL34 tube based integrated is magical with my SAP Duets 8” Coax Radian driver paired with a MGD passive sub. When I can keep the humidity below 42 or 43 in my listening room, the tune does not get much better.

I am interested in your Pioneer 8 watter as we do not see many Pioneer tube amps on this side of the pond. Is it a push-pull or single ended amp? What tubes does it use? As I receive daily posts from the Hong Audio club, I am hearing more and more about vintage tube amps. I know many believe in HK that vintage tube amps are much superior to what is produced today.

Since this is a holiday weekend here in the States, I will be spending some time listening to classic vinyl only. I have to admit that I do listen to digital during the week, but weekends are devoted to vinyl.

Happy listening!

Up to my inner ears with tuned wood

Glad to see you all having fun.

I'm having fun in a different way these days, voicing wood in beautiful Las Vegas NV. Weather has been perfect for voicing and I believe I have been voicing perhaps the best sounding finishes I have ever done. The tonality of this wood is outrageous and just walking through the room with all of it leaning against the walls is an experience I usually love but this is something special. So if I seem a little preoccupied I don't mean to be it's just that I'm in my own little heaven. I start voicing about 6am and don't stop until I drop.

Sorry that the pressure box has turn into a challenge for you. No doubt part of the problem is humidity. I have become the master of "sound & air" since I made the move here in 2004. Curing here is like setting things in God's kiln. The myths of audiophilism disappear pretty quick here when paying attention. I have not ever bought into the math game of audio any way (seen and heard too much) but my belief in nature and instruments has gain my respect more than ever. Math is the act of trying to explain nature, but nature just "is" and often defies math, or should I say teaches the mathematicians that they need to be flexible. Math is at best a moment and science is at best an exploration. Nature however is a source of wisdom not rushed.

Hello Garp

That's a Pioneer SA-400 -- it is p-p using 4x 6BM8 tubes and 3x 12AX7 -- rated at just 8W. It is a fairly simple unit and the bias is not adjustable. I found this one at a nice price in excellent condition with all the original components that still test out to spec without noise etc.

The Fostex speakers are nice, rather midrangy and the image they throw is hardly room filling, far from the semi-tuned system. The Maggies throw images and ambience through walls. There is no comparison but I just hit the appropriate mental switch and can adapt.

The bass is a little deficient and friends are telling about the TQWT baffle step copnesation add-on circuit to improve the bass and flatten the impedance at resonance. Do you use this or have you any views on it?

Sonic

Hi Sonic

The wall would only need 6 clamps to hold it in place. 2 on either side and 2 on top. All of the connecting bolts are in the back.

How do you like the efficiency of the speakers? Do you feel like the music is effortless? Finding the right speaker to modify is a challenge because of the locked in characteristics of the drivers themselves. The cabinets I have seen so far are making the problem worse.

In a couple of weeks I hope to start putting the 8" full range drivers up against the 60s. With me here in the desert I'm re-voicing the classic series for people. BTW just to let all know I will have a pair of Chameleons and 5s both re-voiced for sale soon. The re-voicing improves the speaker by about 30 percent I would say. I will also have some PZCs (re-voiced).

Hi Sonic

In reply to your email I though I would do a drawing seeing that pictures tell a thousand words.

When assembled the unit is one piece covering both bookcases. This puts the main tuning centered behind your head.

Here's a look at the back of the unit and the bookcases with the attached tuning wall.

Hi Michael

That looks promising -- Sonic means it looks neat without lots of rods and things sticking out.

This week I been pretty much just listening to music and not adjusting the system. Lots of Sainte Colombe viol music along with Bill Evans. This weekend I plan to move the CD cabinet from the side wall to the center of the rear wall so that both walls of the room are symmetrical. Beyond that, I think the system is about there given the tools at hand. Unless Sonic attempts to optimise things by moving things 1/4" about. One thing to do is to test the angling of the side FS-PZCs that have been pretty much there since I put them in that spot.

I know that as a room is tuned it gets more sensitive and smaller and smaller moves are audible. What Michael said about humidity is probably right. We had a few days last week where my hygrometer registered levels higher than normal even with de-humidifying on. And the sound was either variable or hi-fi like...or was it my ears. But Sonic isn't one to keep the de-humidifier on 24/7. Power is expensive in Singapore not to mention that it isn't environmentally responsible to keep things running or on all the time.

I had the opportunity to hear a very nice analogue system -- Thorens 124, SME 12" arm, a variety of cartridges MC and MM, and cassettes (!) recorded from LPs played through one of the smaller JBL pro-monitors. The room was small and sparsely furnished but there it is again...the sound of analogue. There are ticks and pops plus the limitations of cassettes even if it is played on one of the top TEACs (hiss, limited bandwith).....but there is something real in there somewhere. You know Sonic has long felt that Dolby B noise reduction introduced as much colorations and dynamic compression problems as the noise it eliminated. It could be the circuitry used for the compander but there appears to be coloration, something not right to my ears. Of course at 3.75 ips, the hiss will be too much but 7.5 ips up Sonic thinks that no Dolby is better. I am so glad that LPs and tape are sorta making a comeback and with a new generation of listeners. Sad that there was a whole lot of people of lost out from 1980 to around 2005 who were tuned off a deep involvement in music because of them shiny discs that touted perfect sound forever (far from perfect and some CDs rotted...I had a few in my time including a box set of Beethoven Symphonies played on early instruments...forever? Hah! not even a decade).

Maybe going (back) to analogue LPs and tapes are a way for me...but Sonic must be careful, because if I am right there so much digital in the recording process that while we once had AAD and ADD, what the industry has done is now gone ADA or DDA...am I right Michael? If this is true and LPs still sound better even if the source recording was done in the digital domain is there a chance that the lure of analogue is just agreeable colorations or something in the vinyl that recovers musicality or creates the apparent sense of musicality. I remember a Steve Hoffman interview a long time ago where he said that while LPs may sound nice, they do not sound like the analogue master tapes they were cut from.

Sonic

Hi Michael and fellow Zonees

So over the weekend, my system has been stable. Sonic has found that interface in tuning is very important. For instance I got best results with MW slices between equipiment and grouding devices: preamp> MW slice > Harmonic Spring > MW slice > shelf/table top. Metal to metal contact doesn't work to my ears....the sound gets hard and ringy. Similarly when top tuning when the lid of the equipment is on, there needs to be MW in there to balance the flow. MW pieces create a warmth and musicality was we drain vibrations and ground the equipment.

Tunees may want to order and experiment between Magic Wood and Michael's new balsa slices. They create difference. The Cable Grounds with the Brazillian centre bar are very good.

Again, we need to keep things loose. Springs for top tuning should be clamped just so they can move easily with a bit of friction when pushed with a finger. If they feel tight, they are too tight for sure. And cables should hang loose. Too many Cables Grounds per cable can over harden the sound. There is so much flexibility in tuning.

Sonic's system looks much the same (so no pix this week) but I might re-introduce a pair of EchoTunes to the rear corners to lessen the horn effect out of the corners.

Been listening to my systems for hours and each gives Sonic something to enjoy. But the semi-tuned room and MG1.5QR set up by far gives a view into real life musical performances.

Good music listened to this weekend: Mozart Divertimenti KV 136- 138/251, Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orch.

Sonic

Need to elaborate -- the interface layer is also necessary with Harmonic Feet and MTDs. How thick the wood you use needs experimenting. In Sonic's system, a combination of 1/4" between the equipment and the Spring/Harmonic Foot then a 1/8" thinner slice to the shelf surface works nicely.

For top tuning I most often use a 1/8 MW at the junction of the Spring and the upper shelf but it is a tough set up balancing everything, centering the wood piece on the top of the Spring or MTD, then getting the tension right especially when space is limited (and you are all thumbs). But persevere, there are musical rewards to be reaped....

Sonic

Hi Michael and Zonees

A little more:

a. On the interface layer Sonic talked about, metal to metal contact always sounded poorly -- hard and fatiguing.

b. Sonic also gave thought to the periodic experience of my system sound going off and I have to get out my crescent wrench and spirit level to rebalance the racks, ensure top tuning pressure is just right and that no rods touch the sides of the holes in the shelves. Then I have to make sure all cables were clamped at the right pressure (very low pressure), cables are not twisted/tensioned and electrical/signal contacts are clean. This is not a pleasant job at all...at least for Sonic... but the sound comes back.

Then thought Sonic -- a lot of audiophiles out there also find that after a few months of nice music, their system sound goes off too. But what do they do? They don't re-tune. They go out and buy new cables, cartridges and more equipment and tweaks.

This doesn't deal with the core problem that it was their system settling and gradually going out of tune. They really didn't need new equipment. All they had to do was to know their system, have a set up that allows Tuning and free up the musick.

Sonic

Hi Michael and fellow Zonees

Sonic recently had a listening re-calibration experience and I need to think (or Tune) my way out of this….here’s what happened:

I was playing a CD of music I am familiar with in both analog and digital forms. On this orchestral-pop recording there is a counterpoint figure played on a glockenspiel but mixed back (soft). You can just hear it but it gives a high frequency sheen and ring. I have not played it for a long time on the Magneplanars and my system. And I now couldn’t hear the glockenspiel line. Sonic panicked…am I going deaf? Then said I “you got 3 systems, play this on another set.” Using the Samsung, Pioneer and Fostex TQWT speakers, I was so relieved – there it was ringing nicely. The Fostex system was small and hi-fi like but I could hear the bell…the spectral balance changed, but I wasn’t really going THAT deaf…the Maggie system for all its tuning was rolled off.

No surprise when I listen at 35 degrees off axis. For sure the Maggies sound musical and what treble there is beautiful and sweet. So I tried using baffles round my bookshelf wall to build pressure at my listening position.

A little better but not quite satisfying after what happened next. Sonic got myself invited to a JBL fan’s place. This is a serious system -- JBL Project monitors (K-series I think), valve amps with digital and analog front ends. What an experience….(this is no criticism of the Tune)…from a musical audio system, I went to something where transients had impact – bass, mids and treble. The playback was not exceptionally loud (me preventing the owner from overdoing things). This was no sweet sounding system but a window into a group of musicians playing with strength and force. I could feel wavefronts coming at me from orchestral fortissimo passages and rock music. There wasn’t that much depth and soundstage dimensionality but the presence is something else. Like they say “a window on the performance”.

Then Sonic feels I got to retune. How do I get the Magneplanars and my sort-of tuned set up to give that slam I heard with the JBLs?

I heard that track with the glockenspiel on axis of the Maggies and yes, the treble increased and I could hear more now but after the JBL, this pales. It is just a “tink-jingle”….I am going to see first if any gear in my system has degraded, then maybe use a Musical Fidelity V-DAC but the objective now is not to get soundstage spread, girth and surround but something much more fundamental – to get that transient response that defines something played by real musicians with real instruments and not just a sweet approximations.

Sonic

Hi fellow Zonees

Sonic did find something that had degraded -- it may not be the complete answer but after I put it right, there was more treble, high frequency detail with cymbals starting to have "splash" and size.

It was the softer, rough looking harmonic springs below and on top of the Sony CD player. These springs (which I used to refer to as "spastic" because some of them came with crazy windings) settle and shorten when placed under even moderate weight. The three springs under the Sony has settled unevenly so the player was no longer level. The shortening meant it was not top tuned either - the top spring now not in conatact with the upper shelf.

Sonic replaced these with four "conventional" plated Harmonic Springs and it was so much better. But...the softer springs did sound more musical (Michael says they deliver a ton of music) and they give a little more "wholeness" to the soundstage. Michael's earlier springs give a more punchy sound at least in my set up and this is the direction I am liking more nowadays.

I may start to reintroduce the harder Harmonic Springs a little at a time and report on progress. Still looking for any other places that things could degrade. The sound is good again. Whew...but Zonees may want to try both varieties of Springs from Michael because they make an audible difference and depending on your system, one type or the other or a mixture of both may conduct the musick to your ears.

Sonic

So right!

The hand made springs are so weight sensitive. I love what they do in a few regards but they must be used with caution and care.

Hi Zonees

Here's the use of Harmonic Springs that Sonic arrived at thru this week:

a. CD player -- Gen 1 harder Harmonic Springs 3 under, 1 top tune

b. Preamp -- 3 pcs Gen 1 Springs under, 1 softer crazy Harmonic Spring top tune, stretched by hand to get the right tension (sliding with just a spot of friction)

c. X-30 -- like the preamp

d. Amps -- soft Springs (no change -- tried the harder springs under the main amp but the result was a soudnstage that had more depth but the plane of sound was moved further back from the plane of the speakers but happily in a straight line from wall to wall. No U-shape soundstage!)

e. Main amp transformers supported by Michael's balsa wood and Harmonic Feet

d. Subwoofer amp miniclamp rack -- soft springs 3 under, 1 top tune.

Much better -- got more treble and upper midrange transient impact.

Looks like Sonic's system works nicely with a mix of the Springs at this stage of Tune. I've learnt that as the Tune progresses, some tweaks that didn't work earlier may start giving good results when done in a differnt sequence.

A bit like tuning cars -- in stock form put a big carburettor (OK nowadays an ECU with a racing fuel injection and ignition map) on your engine and you're likely to lose power or get disappointing results. But once you increase the compression, change the cams, manifolds and exhaust, the uprated ECU or bigger carb/jets will give you lots more horsepower. So it is with the Tune, each tweak builds on the earlier, and the order in which things are done are imprtant.

Now Sonic is off to revisit some Tunes that previously did not work on the Bookcase Acoustic Wall and placement of Shutters.

Been listening to ensemble works by Muffat, quartets by Charles Ives, Bachs works for solo baroque cello and I am getting enough ambient field to satisfy. Much more than this it will be like an old curiosity written about in the old Audio magazine called Surround Stereo -- where a four speaker set up replayed R and L channels front and rear (the rears had the same signal as the front).

An audio nerd showed Sonic an old 4 channel (ambience recovery) system referred to as the Gerzon setting. A mono summed centre channel, L and R speakers nearly at the sides of the listener and a rear speaker fed a sum and difference signal. The set up looked from top down like a Maltese Cross. It is said this worked wonderfully with Quad electrostatics (the old ones that the Dahlquists DQ10 copied), except you had to sit a little back from the side R-L speakers and the system was very convincing but any distortion on the LP and tape was very evident (this was in late 60s or early 70s at Oxford University, England). No CDs at this time. But digital sound was mooted since the 60s except the hardware technology could not support the filtering and high speed switching.

Funny that great listeners like the late Peter Walker and many great musicians preferred digital to analog.

Sonic

Corrections from Sonic:

The "Surround Stereo" was actually "Spatial Stereo" and the magazine was High Fidelity not Audio. The idea was first published in 1965 and Leonard Feldman reportedly got good results from this. For sure this was a complex idea for many reasons. If the front and rear speakers were different models but driven off the same amp, the different impedances could cause frequency response anomalies. There was a suggestion that the rear speakers could be off lesser quality -- but this was not so. They had to be identical.

In describing the Gerzon system, the rear speaker was fed a difference signal. The front spaker a sum and then we had left and right siganls into the side speakers.

According to the reviews I read, the Gerzon system was wonderful with reverberant and well-recorded orchestral works. It didn't work well with commercial recordings and for less than perfect tapes, it highlighted hiss, drop outs and distortion.

Fortunately, the Tune gives us 360 degree all round musick and is not a microspoce of recording flaws.

The great thing about the Tune is fundamentally why it exists -- to give music lovers the experience that is captured in our software and that can be released thru our equipement and in our rooms. The Tune overturns the lies or ignorances of "high end audio". The Tune is more than equipment, settings, even tweaking with exotic woods and funny gear....

Sonic