Hi listeners
In this industry I have always tried to stay on top of advising by listening, and listening to everything. The no stone unturned type of thing. You've read about all the places I have had and the systems and tuning that went into them in order for me to come up with designs that take us forward. I do a lot of reading about what others are doing and look at their sites as well as try their products. I don't get into the dampening tests as much any more cause this is something that I have figured out a long time ago and studied it deeply. I have found transfer tuning to be far more accurate when finding the specifics. Even so I test my ears by doing things that shrink the stage or throw something out of pitch ever so slightly so I stay sharp.
My rooms and homes have over the years been more like listening labs than houses. My belief is you have to "know it all" to make decisions on the tiniest of details and the studying never ever stops. You have to treat yourself as tough as the folks you talk to and when ever that voice says go listen and double check, you do it without pretending some thing is because you think it is. You have to roll up those sleeves and keep jumping in the fire. Through the years I have always tried to find other designers, reviewers, engineers in the business that have the same belief. I mean how can you know about speakers without knowing rooms, and how can you know about the room without knowing amps, and so on the list goes. When I see a brilliant musician I see someone who is deep in practice and repeats the tune over and over. He doesn't sit there and assume or sure enough the piece will be slightly off and he will know this even if he got one over on the crowd. He or she knows when their chops are down.
I bring this up because I have been shocked over the years to hear people in the industry talk about audio issues but in their own practices are not actively engaged in the very things they talk about. I use to let this pass, but sometimes when I hear or see the talk it sets me back for a moment when I find out that there is no walk to the talk. Someone for example who might be making firm comments about acoustics yet only listens to headphones. Another one is people talking about test who have their test equipment in the same room as where they listen, making judgements on how things sound vs the test results. How can you do a test on speakers in a room if the equipment and a bunch of other things interfearing with the room/speaker performance are in there with the speakers? Or how can you do drawings on how sound works in an empty room when your room is lined with bookcases?
In my book these types of things border on scams.
How can a reviewer of audio be listening and writing on a component when there are other components sitting in the same room with the components being reviewed? Racks and speakers and amps and tables and rows of records all in the same rooms with the writer. Is there something wrong with this picture to you? There certainly is for me yet the hobbiest follows these folks blindly.