I’m NOT an audiophile!
A dangereous sentence, I know… still I honestly consider myself more a music lover who uses audio to reach a better appreciation and enjoyment of music.
Nothing new, indeed…
… but new is what happened, yesterday… my studio is - thanking 16th century building know-how - naturally air-conditioned with a room temperature of 25° Centigrade, also in these hot, 33-35° C days… as I learned, the best listening sessions happens with cold, dry weather and outside temp of, say, 10/15° C…
Yes, beside all pseudo-scientific or technical arguments and arguing, I felt in the last week or so, sort of “disaffected” from my Gotorama music system… something sure not weather-influenced;-)
By chance, I was mostly grooving on cool, old vinyls, “Blonde on Blonde” or “Bringing it all back home”, both gorgeous mono pressings, Traffic 1st disc (mono again), Bob Dylan’s (again) live at Brandeis University (mono, of course) and some Bukka White and Son House’s blues discs on Takoma and Columbia or Duffy Power's "Innovations" on Transatlantic label, again and again a mono wax with John McLaughlin, Danny Thompson, Terry Cox... yeah!
Yesterday I decided: disconnected Elodis’ TGE bass-horn and its Hiraga 30W from TacT’s - which I switched OFF - and returned to my previous, ALL analog rig – i.e. Thomas Mayer’s 4-ways crossover, also for low-end way and full Mayer's combo - i.e. the mighty four chassis pre-amp - first disc, after the above changes was Jonathan Wilson’s last masterpiece (love "Silver Moon" track!)… all, ALL four sides (!) and some Joe Pass trio… and Anja Garbarek white vinyl with Mark Hollis producing and arranging and Robert Wyatt’s voice… Bjork's "Biophilia" and Jefferson Airplane’s “Thirty seconds over Winterland”.
It was something quite strange and subtle, BUT nonetheless real… I found myself stopping reading and concentrating on music, looking at the clock which was - weirdly enough - moving in half-an-hour steps… and I found an happier and more relaxed me swinging and tapping hands on my leg and whistling and, yes, also singing unison with the artist…
I'm still shocked, as the aesthetic - i.e. the beauty of the "digitalized" system - is completely different from the 100% analog rig: I mean, the perceived psycho-acoustic musical experience happens at different levels...
It's like I'm experiencing "with-ears-only" (TacT in-place) and "with-my-five-senses"... less fatiguing, more physical, yet reaching, how can I say... heart, mind, soul, I dare... sooner, better, straight and unfiltered like Arjuna's arrow;-))) in Mahābhārata.
Reconsidered last listening sessions vs. yesterday evening… was quite nervous and uninvolved if not listening to viola da gamba or lute or ECM disks, NOT enjoying so much any rock or jazz or vocals, female or male…
An uninvolvement case, I’d call it… now I know it.
Being a straight, honest dude, I followed my thoughts and guts feeling and returned on my steps… for music love, as the nine-some cleverly designed digital pre-sets on my TacT RCS 2.2 XP are still in my system, only temporarily turned-off and not in-use, BUT my musical pleasure is far, FAR more important than listening to a (someway) cold sounding - on some music it was – but flat frequency response system.
… not by chance, last supremely enjoyable and pleasant and cool and… WOW! disc was the live by Jefferson Airplane at Winterland… “Feel so Good” was - de facto - the track I had a musical orgasm with, where the digital-free system was singing and elegant, pouring purest music, not audio, anymore… Jack Casady’s Alembic bass and Jorma’s electric guitar and voice, the audience… super-duper!
Music… no cables, no gears… only music... and clock stopping and time having a different "weight", again.
A four-way, multi-amped system singing like a wide-band single speaker… and me, myself and I feeling happy and funky…
… again… that sense of wobbling inadequacy and unfriendliness... wooosh: gone!
… a final consideration: this early morning I reached my studio in the fresh, zest air, re-connected TacT’s, etc. and had an half an hour tasting with some harpsichord and Bach’s organ, both vinyl - i.e. a Telefunken and an Astree… and I was in tears… a different level enjoyment, an airy, subtle pleasure…
Different yet the same from yesterday gutsy, macho, beefy gorgeousness… with no petulant, lazy self-inflicting wrong sound for a given music choice... my system, now I know, owns two souls: one "perfect" and another "perfectly imperfect".
So what?
Nothing… it’s life… honestly, it’s not schizophrenic-audio, but - yes - yin and yang… it’s bycicle and motorbike, motorboating or sailing, sex and making love… recording with a Revox G-36 and Neumann U67 tubes mike or with digital gears and B & K mikes… black and white, rain and sun…
Yin and yang…
Satori.
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