Friday 2 September 2011

On transparency

What is transparency? I posed myself the question when thinking about the recent changes to my system. On the one hand, it took a while to detect the impact the Audiophilleo was having, and yet now that both the Custom Hifi Cables power supply and the AQVOX USB power supply are in place, the positive benefits of the Audiophilleo are much more clear.
 
So transparency refers to the ability to detect changes in the system, either a change wrought by the introduction of new equipment, or from repositioning, tweaking and the like. The more transparent your system, the better you should be able to  detect the positive impact you can make through simple adjustment and polish. It’s unlikely you’ll go backwards unless you’ve reduced transparency with a change; excellent transparency means easier tweaking.
 
Transparency in this context is distinct (to my mind) from  realism, detail and naturalness. I’ve had a go at building a brief taxonomy below…
 
Naturalness – does it sound like electronics were involved in reproduction? Caveat: not to confuse naturalness with cloying smoothness
 
Detail – Can I hear more of the finer points of a performance? Caveat: A brighter system can expose more detail but won’t be satisfying, it is just throwing more ‘edge’ at the brightly lit parts of the sound.
 
Realism – Does everything – soundstage, detail, tonality, naturalness – combine to give a real sense that the performer is in the room with you, or that you are transported to the venue? The caveat for me here is: a natural system is the only one that stands a chance of making that happen for me; I have heard plenty with excellent soundstage, deep bass, plenty of detail but somehow unable to escape the sense of being a recording.
 
There is a nice parallel between detail in sonic terms and in photography. Those of you who have Photoshop or an equivalent product may have used the detail slider to tweak their images. Whack it all the way over, and the consequences are something artificial and horrible. It cannot recover a shot that is not in focus to start with.
 
Detail in this case is enhancing ‘acutance’ or the perception of difference between brighter and less bright edges; a tweak is well worth applying, but major use of the detail functions can ruin an otherwise brilliant image by making it harsh and artificial.
 
So it is with audiophile sounds – in a compressed, constrained system you might find a more aggressive and bright sound more exciting and more in balance with the system overall, but not in mine nor in many other audiophile’s systems. Detail works in the midrange and bass as well as the treble, and somehow the ‘edge’ of the sound pressure wave from the pluck of a double bass can be enhanced to make the double bass seem more real, but that enhancement has to apply across the frequency range and not just in the treble ‘a la’ detail slider.
 
Here I fully acknowledge the superiority of Avantgarde Trios over my Duo Omegas; their freer and more dynamic bass simply allows more detail to emerge without any effort with the same electronics. The Duos have an active sub unit that is perfectly fine, in fact extremely good, but lack the excellence you will inevitably gain from horn bass. Ah, well, one can dream….
 
Back to transparency  - With an increasingly sympathetic choice of components, the transparency of my system has improved to the extent that I can more clearly hear elements of the recording as well as of how my changes are affecting its reproduction. It strikes me that the Tron amps are very transparent and completely natural in sound; the Duos are also highly transparent to both dynamics and detail and have a mostly natural tonal balance, and by focusing on the digital front end I’ve been able to push the system towards a coherent overall transparency that lays the groundwork for further change.
 
Next steps: focus on tonality. I’m looking for more warmth and richness from the overall system, and I’m expecting to achieve this through judicious choice of cabling, possible changes to the front end (new DAC? Different cartridge?) and further tweaks to speaker position and décor. A dedicated mains spur and earth spike is also on the cards in the New Year; I’ve heard the benefits and they are entirely positive, being similar to those wrought by the DacMagic power supply from Custom Hifi Cables, but across the entire system of course. Until the current transparency had been achieved I wasn’t confident I could get the feeling of natural, unforced sound to emerge at the same time as a touch more warmth and tonal richness; it felt like I would probably smother the detail and naturalness I can now hear.
 
So maybe the lesson is: first make your system transparent, then adjust its’ tone, fiddle with soundstage and detail retrieval and so on.

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