Does Your System Pick Your Records for You?

While I was reviewing Krell's CAST system, I was struck by how completely uncolored the components were. Working as a system -- employing the CAST connection scheme that actually turns the CD player/preamp/power amplifier into a single electronic circuit -- the Krell offered transparency and a hyper-detailed presentation like no other system I've lived with.

Of course, most of us don't buy our systems entire, we have to build them up over the years. This presents its own problems -- the biggest being component matching.

When we assemble our systems over time, we generally have to make compromises. Is the preamp a bit warm? Perhaps a different cable or a faster power amplifier will balance it all out. Are the speakers a tad weak in the bass? Let's try a high-current amp. We have become so used to "fixing" the sound this way that we frequently forget we're even doing it.

But while almost everybody realizes that all these decisions cumulatively give our systems their personalities, few of us recognize that those personalities actually influence the music we listen to.

Oh sure, if you have minimonitors (or original Quads), you may realize that you don't enjoy listening to head-banging rock or Brucknerian symphonic -- in fact, you probably wouldn't have those speakers if you did -- but there are other more insidious influences you might not recognize.

Take insensitive loudspeakers, for instance. If you've got a pair of speakers that have a sensitivity rating of 88dB and a low-powered amp, you might find that you never listen to your big blockbuster records. They don't sound right.

Or let's say you bought a pair of speakers that are somewhat reticent in the "presence region." You know the type, the ones you keep turning up to make 'em sound "alive." You might not realize why, but if you own speakers like this, you'll find yourself listening less and less to solo acoustic or intimate recordings. And if you're not careful, you'll find yourself listening to less and less variety in music. Do this for long enough and you might mistake your dislike for what your system does to certain types of music for your personal taste.

It has been my experience that when a music lover really makes an improvement in his or her system, he or she discovers a taste for a wider range of musical genres than was previously evident. My advice to anyone looking for a new component is, in fact, to apply the "little bit of everything" test. Listen to some large-scale classical, some solo instrumentals, some opera, some acoustic jazz, some heavy rock, some R&B -- anything you have ever enjoyed, whether or not you listen to it now. You might discover a lost passion.

Or you might kindle a new one. My friend George Stanwicke ("Analog George"), who currently imports van den Hul cartridges, used to use a zydeco CD to demo stereo systems when he was a salesman. I owned the disc and I liked it fine, but I was puzzled about George's reason for making it one of a very small handful of demo CDs.

"It's the accordion," George said. "If you ask a customer what he likes, he'll usually say something like 'anything but accordion.' But they've probably never heard an accordion on a really good-sounding system before -- what they don't like is, in fact, 'Lady of Spain.' The accordion is just another instrument which can be played well or played badly."

How true.

So, if you find yourself limited to just one type of music, don't assume you're getting pickier as you get older. Ask yourself if your hi-fi isn't starting to get a little too bossy. Maybe it's time to make a change.

...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com