A great concept—sound enough to serve as the foundation for an independent democratic nation. Yet what’s sound in one sphere doesn’t necessarily apply to sound in another, namely the rooms in which our systems reside. As much as we audiophiles may wish to declare our independence from room resonances, image smearing from first-order reflections, slap echo, and every other environmental and speaker-related factor that can handicap system performance, no mere declaration will make it so. Not all rooms—and not all components—are created equal.
To reference American mythology, Dorothy may have closed her eyes and clicked her ruby-red heels together three times as she declared, “There’s no place like home,” but she knew exactly what home felt like. Audiophiles who have only heard our components in compromised sonic environments have only a general idea of what their systems can sound like under optimal conditions. There is no there when you don’t know what “there” is in the first place.
Finding the way home
This story is from the August 2021 edition of Stereophile.
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This story is from the August 2021 edition of Stereophile.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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