Failure In Australia

You may recall the story about a man who wandered into a Jinn’s lair. Seeing the man, the Jinn laughed happily and then started weeping profusely. The perplexed intruder asked the Jinn why he had laughed and then cried. The Jinn replied, “I laughed because I was so happy to see a man after such a long, long time.” “But,” persisted the man, “why cry?” The Jinn sighed, “Because I am going to eat you.”

This is the quandary in which ordinary citizens find themselves every day, as they open newspapers and get slapped with more bad news. Consider for a moment.

The former head of Lahore’s Bar Association (no, it is not a drinking body), is implicated in the bizarre torture-murder of a 12-year-old Christian maidservant. The police, bless their black hearts, refuse to register an FIR, and all kinds of accusations, insults, threats begin to fly around. Conflicting claims pour in, confounding the situation. The wretched Christians, downtrodden and miserable as they are, long having been a dispensable minority, come out on the streets. The media has a field day, but pretty much nothing happens, except that things getting murkier and murkier.

The state of sordid affairs leads a Lahore observer to quip that “although the white in the Pakistani flag does represent the minorities, let us not forget that it is the same white which is shafted by the flag post.” Hardly has the maid servant drama begun to subside when, lo and behold! we have Punjab’s exalted Chief Secretary, a man more powerful than you can imagine, who makes a clean getaway from a hit-and-run case. His car, over-speeding (by some accounts) knocks down an elderly gentleman who dies for lack of timely medical aid. The man is a retired colonel and his family and the people rise up in anger and frustration.

That the Chief Secretary never stops, that he boards another car from his considerable entourage and carries on nonchalantly, that he does not call the police, does not hand over his driver and does not allow the registration of an FIR (the police refuse to register one, as in the maid’s case) – these are facts already known to all. What the CS or the former Bar Association head should have done is known to the dumbest ass in Lahore, but it did not happen. The province’s VIPs descend on both homes, utter pious prayers, look solemn, croak out promises of “justice will be done,” make other appropriate noises, announce/dispense cash and are gone at speeds that would impress UK’s Lewis Hamilton, sirens wailing and traffic frozen. Another day at the office.

And then there is Shahid Afridi or, to get it correctly, Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi, him of the team of baboons chattering and jumping about as the Aussies systematically roasted them over large bonfires lit by the baboons themselves. Till mid-Jan this year, the man has played 293 ODIs 26 tests, 57 Twenty20s, is almost 30, if he is to be believed. Yet, in the 5th ODI, in the tense 46th over, he starts to tamper the ball, gnawing at it like baboons do. “I was smelling it,” he says later. Oh please, Mr Afridi. He chews at the seam in the middle of a packed Perth ground with dozens of cameras capturing every moment in super slow-mo.

The terrible cricketing crime is seen by millions on TV. When confronted, as he was going to be, the Sahibzada apologises and says he was tampering the ball so that Pakistan could win the face-saving 5th ODI – “just one match,” he pleads to Geo. Hello? “All teams do it,” the genius next announces. That, of course, makes it right in Afridi’s thin book of rules.

He is banned by the ICC under the rules governing this series for the next two matches and is also unable to take part in a later match vs. England in Dubai. But this is the ICC, not the PCB.

Mr Intikhab Alam, who has to be hoisted up the team bus and gingerly unloaded on arrival by willing hands, condemns the action. And in the same breath, being the eternal compromise man that he has always been, declares astonishingly that he “feels sorry” for Afridi. Sorry? What for? Afridi is a habitual offender. Anyone recall the pitch tampering the Sahibzada indulged in to “help” his side’s bowlers? Intikhab Alam should have fined Afridi on the spot or got the somnolent PCB to do the needful and send him home in disgrace.

Yet, like the former Bar chief and the now-on-forced-leave Chief Secretary, he does not do the right thing, the correct thing, the only thing an honourable man, whatever the consequences, whatever the odds, should do. He compromises and lets time, the great Pakistani opiate, help him get over this little wobble. Escape Plan No. 54. Back home it merely disillusions further the battered, robbed and assaulted ordinary people of Pakistan who know only too well that nothing really ever changes.

In Karachi, only the chief selector, the only half-way honourable man in a pen populated by vermin and scumbags, resigns, citing our disgraceful performance. The PCB head — who has done everything wrong and nothing right, broken rules and taken terrible decisions, or none at all, who is shamed daily by the media, cricket’s disillusioned fans, the entire Senate and the National Assembly which summons him every five minutes and lambastes him – he takes all this punishing blows and hangs on for dear life.

What is in this chair that mesmerises otherwise halfway-decent folk who think nothing of abandoning established rules of conduct, hallowed by time and tradition, as long as they stay put? Even Pervez Musharraf, not much of a thinker, wondered why everyone was forever chussing up to him (as we said at school) and begging him to be appointed head honcho of the PCB? As a body the PCB should have resigned at the end of the Tests, not even waited for the humiliation of the 5-0 ODI whitewash that all of us saw coming. After all, how further badly would Pakistan have fared without the PCB at its back?

But to get back to our Jinn, although in its present state, the Pakistan cricket team, well over 19, is hardly the kind of meat anyone would wish to eat — stale, smelly and rancid, it is best to avoid it. Like the Jinn the Pakistani people are confused whether to laugh or cry over the bizarre events that have unfolded like a bad script ever since the miserable Pakistanis landed Down Under, a team asunder from day one. What has since happened is less and less like cricket and more and more like a very bad joke that has been remorselessly thrust down our throats by the clowns who call themselves Test cricketers. A bunch of highly erratic baboons would have done better than these “seasoned” campaigners and “talented” youngsters, the combination of which was touted as the best thing to happen to Pakistan cricket. Sure.

While I am no expert, I can surmise, like many of us can, that there are four theatres that are in play that together add up to what we call Pakistan cricket. There is the PCB which specialises in being the goofiest organisation known to mankind, there is the team, a bunch of unruly, greedy, under-performing yahoos, there is the team management which is as inspiring as a log of wood on a rainy day. And then there are the yobs in the Senate and the National Assembly who have nothing better to do all day than rant and rave, pronounce judgments and summon all manner of people to appear before them – all this noise leading to nothing. These interfering nobodies are just as bad as all the other components that cause national embarrassment, day in and day out.

This nonsense has simply gone too far. Are there any good men or women ready to bury the rotting cadaver called Pakistan cricket and begin the daunting and frightening task of rebuilding the game, from A to Z (an unfortunate expression, I confess)? My answer is, “No.” Baboons will be replaced by baboons. That’s the way it goes.

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About the Author

 Beds Factory one stop for quality beds, mattress and Mattresses.

About time for a mercy rule, eh?

Should the IIHF or whoever makes the rules for the Olympics institute a mercy rule? As I’m watching Woman’s Hockey (Canada vs. Slovakia). It’s now just getting to be a complete joke. (Oh look! Another Canadian foreward blew by a Slovak defenseman!) Should they institute a mercy rule in Men’s and Woman’s ice hockey in the Olympics? Or do goals actually mean something in the standings?

Yes! Bulgaria lost to Slovakia, yes the same team that was just spanked by Canada, 82-0!.

In case your eyes didn’t see that correctly, Slovakia’s Woman’s Hockey team beat Bulgaria’s Women Hockey team 82-0 in the preliminary’s to get to the Olympics in 2008!

How much is too much is the answer, and there is also a level of respect you have to show 82-0 is definitely disrespectful and I am glad Canada kicked their butts.

Jokes Episode 2 “men vs women”

Effective Digital Recording

Digital recording promises to be the technology which helps us to get rid of the tiresome work of recording long conversations / interviews on tapes and to no longer burdened with boxes and boxes of 90-minute tapes. Now you can record interviews right onto your computer or your laptop. We can now process our interview recordings / conversations digitally, by adding effects, mixing, and so on, plus edit to literally dozens of “generations” without any loss of quality.

One fine morning, I had to record a telephonic conversation over tape- recorder. I feel this work to be a cumbersome and I wanted to get off this brain eating problem. When I was about to connect my tape-recorder to my phone line, I was puzzled a bit and realized that the jack on the device that connects my tape recorder to the phone looked to be a perfect fit to the slot on my computer’s multimedia sound card. I started connecting the unit into my sound card and it really worked and in no time and I was able to record the whole conversation digitally.

I was over-whelmed with joy that, digital recording has certainly made my job a lot easier and freed me from the burden of lots of boxes of 90-minute tapes. I bought a digital audio recorder, which would render all my works for recording.

Effective Recording with Digital Audio Recorder:

You can work on or record a long audio file up to 2GB size (for a 16 bit file). This will allow you to work on a file of 3 hours and 20 minutes duration in CD quality Stereo. When hard disk space is limited, it alerts us in advance and allows you to clear files to continue. You can load a complete CD’s content into one file and edit it directly.

Digital Audio Recording overcomes the grind of conventional tape recording such as, play-type-rewind. Digitally recorded interviews are easy to transcribe and allows in slowing down the play back. Digitally recording the interviews are particularly valuable to Web journalists and other online writers. Digital recording allows the readers to hear the source for themselves. Prior to the conduct of the interview, you should ask for permission to hit the upload button to the person who appears for the interview.

To record the interviews, all you need is telephone-recording unit, a computer (PC) equipped with a sound card and an audio-editing program, such as FlexiMusic or Goldwave.

Part 1:
You connect your phone to your computer. Plug one end of the phone line into the recording control device and the other end to the telephone. Now plug the jack into your computer’s sound card on the back of the computer. Your hardware is now ready to carry out your recordings.

Part 2:
Now it is the turn of installing your software program that records and saves your digital audio recording. There is a lot of editing software available in the market which fulfils all the requirements for effective recording. You can choose any program of your choice.

Presently, I use FlexiMusic Wave Editor; it is economic shareware and user- friendly software. It is free to use as a trail version. If desired, this can be purchased at an affordable price of $ 20.

After downloading and installing FlexiMusic Wave Editor you have to adjust the settings to get into your work.

To Start Up:

Once your hardware and software settings are made correct, you’re ready to record the interviews. But before you start up, you’ll need to create the file to save your recordings.
Run the FlexiMusic Wave Editor; Click the File menu, to choose New. On click to the New Menu, a dialog box (create new wave file) will open where you can select the sample rate, channels (stereo & mono) and the bit rate. You can choose the standard values such as sample rate (44100), channels (stereo) and bit rate (16 bit). Then click OK to set these standard values.

Now Recording:
Under the Tools menu, choose Record option or use the Record tool button (red disc), to Open the Record Audio dialogue box, this will pop up out to the FlexiMusic Wave Editor- Record Audio Window.

Recording window:

From the Recording window, select the source of your audio signal and set the volume for recording.

Windows Volume & Play Controls:

On clicking the Recording Source and Volume button, this will open up to the Windows Operating System recording control box. Here you can select the proper channel that is, the means through which you hear the audio such as Stereo mix / CD / Line in / Mixer / Aux / Microphone / Wave / or any other. Now click the Playing devices and volume button to adjust the output play volume of each channel separately.

After making sure of all settings, then back to the FlexiMusic Wave Editor- Record Audio Window, where you can find Start button to carry out recordings.
1) Now you are ready for recording, for instance, if the recording is through phone, a dial tone can be heard. Prior to an interview, it is better advisable to check the line and your recording program to make sure that everything is set right. Click the Start button on the Record Audio Window.

2) Things that are to be taken care prior to recording are,
Avoiding background noise, it’s all around us . . . and it can spoil your recording from the start.

Choosing the Best Sampling Settings, when we work with sound on computers, we need to change it to a digital form. . I would suggest aiming at a sampling rate of 44100 Hz, because, the more samplings the computer records, the better the sound.

Adjust Volume Levels to Avoid Distortion; Keep an eye on your recording levels. You can observe the recording volume going up and down in the vertical white bars that which indicates the Recording Volume level. If you see the color in the bar constantly hitting the top, it indicates to reduce the volume if not your audio will be distorted. If you see the volume levels are too low – moving only at the bottom, then you will need to increase the volume. Simultaneously, you can watch the recording time too.

3) When your recording is completed, then again back to FlexiMusic Wave Editor- Record Audio Window, click the Stop Recording button. At any moment if you need to pause your recording, you can use “Pause” button. Once the recording is completed, click the Stop Recording button. If you are sure that your recordings are perfect, click on the “Done” button to finish the recording.

Save your Recordings:

As soon as the recording is completed, do save your recordings, for this click the File menu and choose Save. This will allow you to put the recorded file in a specific folder. Type the file name in the box against File Name. Consider using a name that which is much easier for you to figure out where the file is. Next, choose a format in which you your recordings to be such as, Mp3, WMA, Snd, Raw, Au.

Using mp3 or WMA files is useful to save space on your hard drive while retaining reasonably good quality and for transmitting your work over the Internet. It also saves lot of time in loading, processing, and converting your audio files.

MP3 Instructions:

For opening, editing, and save as Mp3 file you will need to install a separate command line Mp3 encoder/decoder. You can use LameWin32 encoder.

WMA Instructions:
For exporting to a .WMA file you need to install a separate command line. You can use Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility (it is a WMA command line encoder).

Finally you have done! You can play back the file in FlexiMusic, or with any audio program, such as Windows Media Player or Winamp, and transliterate the recording.

A forewarning:

Make sure that the person who faces the interview is well informed that the conversations are being taped because it is offensive to tape the conversation without the knowledge of others.

About the Author

The author is a passionate internet user. He is fond of all kinds of music, more enthusiastic in learning and programming music related software. To know about the author please visit http://www.fleximusic.com/

http://www.fleximusic.com/waveditor/overview.htm

Where can I get cheer sound effects?

Okay so I downloaded Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer v. 2.471
and I am trying to make cheer mixes and I need those sound effects
like the dings and what not in this sample for free!!! help

try limewire. enter the keywords cheerleading sound effects

Leona Lewis Happy With Lyrics (male cover) By J Rice FREE DOWNLOAD

Lake Tahoe: The Tallac Historic Site

Recently I had the opportunity to visit The Tallac Historic Site, which has been declared a national historic site, located in the beautiful city of South Lake Tahoe, CA, The site houses three estates: Baldwin (1921), Pope (1894). and the Valhalla (1923). These resorts, constructed from 1894 to 1923 were lavish resorts at the edge of the lake. Up to 250 guests could attend the estates at once, which included a casino and the biggest resort of the time.

During the late 1800′s, the south shore of Lake Tahoe became a resting place for pioneers searching for gold. Upon completion of the transcontinental railroad, the site soon became a popular retreat for wealthy landowners from Virginia City and San Francisco.

The Pope Estate, built in 1894, is now open for guided tours and houses various art exhibits. Valhalla is a grand hall with beautiful wood floors, an open wood beam ceiling, a balcony of lodge pole construction and a twenty-foot high stone fireplace! It was built in 1923 and now stands as the site of many musical concerts, contains a cultural arts gift store, and even has suites available for rent. The entire Tallac Historical Site encompasses a full seventy-four acre tract of land and is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. It is located three miles north of South Lake Tahoe on Highway 89. The rustic and mainly logS built sites are nestled in the secluded woods along the beach of Lake Tahoe.

One of the highlights of my visit was the Anita Gibson Cabin. Anita was credited as one of the first women to invent and model the “slip” or “leotard” type undergarment. She was an avid designer, and also ran the resort when her father died. We actually saw a manikin dressed up as Anita, sitting in the corner of the cabin. She wore a beautiful white dress, which looked like one hundred percent cotton. It was soft, flowingly pretty, and very conservative.

Anita was always full of ideas and was actually one of the first women to run a resort (her father’s business), and kayak across the Emerald Bay. She was once even challenged to a harder boat route around Emerald Bay, and not only kayaked faster than the existing time, but also ended up setting the record.

In all of the signs and materials that we read about Anita, she came up as an intelligent, energetic, creative, but very conservative woman. What is ironic though, is that she is the one responsible for the destruction and demolition of the larger Casino that her father had built. She stated that she did it for “environmental and economic” reasons, but one has to wonder, if she did it for religious or moral reasons. The Casino at the Baldwin Estate was the biggest of its time. Not too long after her father’s death, Anita had it blown to the ground. Perhaps she may have felt guilty about the type of clientele the resort was attracting as well. The reason that I am reflecting upon this possible option does indeed go back to the signs and the manikin itself inside her old cabin.

She was a beautiful woman, with a firm jaw, and yet beautiful eyes. The monuments next to her all told of her inventiveness and conservative ways. She was known to pray and read the scriptures on the edge of the lake.

Further reflection really makes me wonder about this incredible woman named Anita Gibson, heir to the Baldwin Estate. She may have indeed made the best decision of all in blowing up her father’s casino. Perhaps she felt it was a way to redeem herself and her father for allowing the sin of Gambling. History only knows. I will never forget my visit.

About the Author

Don Alexander, Published Writer & Online Business Mentor

http://www.leading-online-business.com

“Helping ALL to Succeed”

Hardie C Setzer

Zoom H4n Handy Recorder – Nevada Music UK

Found this a few years ago. Use it often.

From Eric Idle’s (of Monty Python fame) book “Around the States in Eighty Days”
He wrote on day 51,

“It’s my wife’s birthday. I have now been with her more than half her life. Poor thing. She must be a saint. But a Scorpio. So watch it. According to that ridiculous bollocks called Astrology — a pseudo nonsensical science if ever there was one — Aries and Scorpios never get along. Well 26 years says crap. If people want to go on believing that the whole world is divided into twelve, based on astronomical observations that are two thousand years out of date, then that’s up to them. The constellations are now no longer overhead in the same place as they are supposed to be and everyone knows the lowest peg on a newspaper and the first job they give to newcomers is writing the astrology column. Still people persist in believing in this nonsense despite all evidence, which shows mankind’s urge to believe in something, no matter what, is very strong, and makes it easy for all those horrible men with bad hair in bad suits on TV to make their millions.”

Astrology: Find Out If Your Love Is Compatible …

The Online DJ School – How To Become A DJ

How to become a DJ? You have been asking yourself this most likely for a long time now. You have been wishing to become a DJ and just don’t know how. Well, you are not alone on this other men and women have been also wishing to become a DJ.

Click Here For The Online DJ School Instant Access Now!

There are a lot of things that you need to learn in order to become a DJ. I believe you will have to learn first and foremost how to use standard decks and mixers. You will have to learn how to use them, just learn what every button they have does. Then you will have to learn how to count beats. And other similar things just follow. I believe you will also need to learn how to do cueing, hand action, spotting of compatible songs, slowing down a record, speeding up a record and the likes. You will have to learn all these before you become a DJ.

Now it seems a challenging one for you I bet. But then don’t feel troubled as these days there are some guides that can just help you learn everything you need to learn to become a DJ.

You can try searching online for the guides. They can help you learn how to use standard decks and mixers, how to count beats, how to do cueing, and all. They can help you learn everything you need to learn to become a DJ.

Most likely, you have been wanting to become a DJ for a long time now. So better act now to finally become a DJ. See the guides and learn everything you need to learn to become one. You have wasted a lot of time and just don’t waste more. Make it a reality, become a DJ and then enjoy being one.

Click Here For The Online DJ School Instant Access Now!

About the Author

This author writes about How To Be A DJ Mixer at How To Become A DJ

i just want to add (dance) beats and maybe a sound or 2 to some songs i recorded..something easy and free.?

i have tried so many of the options online and they never give me what i want..they’re always mixers or too complicated. I just wanted something where i load my song and add a beat and maybe a sound or 2. Thanks for your help

Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

FL Studio demo

http://demo.flstudio.com

drum beat one-shots

http://www.audioskull.com

How to get Free Rap Beats? Here Online Music Mixer for free

22 Tips to Obtain Better Sound in a High End Audio System

22 Tips to Obtain Better Sound in a High End Audio System

Özhan Atalay

Email: ozhan@atalay.biz   Web: http://www.nonamehifi.com

Introduction

Basically accepted thing in audiophile world is that it almost impossible to achieve the best sound by just combining only the best equipments. Much cheaper but properly selected and tweaked system may sound better than its expensive brothers. This is called system synergy in audiophile world. System synergy is not only about combining the best equipments but it is a kind of long and enjoyable way to maximize their performances.

The precautions and principles may be seen absurd and meaningless for someone who does not have solid understanding what the hi-end is.

Within last twenty years, I spent considerable time, money and efforts to achieve best sound (..Or what ever the best is). I wrote a couple of important points from my own perspective. Most of these points may be known by the audiophiles anyway if not implemented. More important, below points consist of my own observations merely. There are so many known different tweaks and techniques. I avoided not including here the points that I did not try and/or the points did not work well with me. I believe below mentioned points will step up someone’s system to a higher level by using the same equipments.

I apologize for my level of English. I am appreciated if someone warns me about the main language mistakes anywhere in the web site.

The only certain truth I learned after twenty years is that “there is no one absolute truth in Hi-End” Most of the truths in High-End can not be proven by scientific measures. Very sensitive human ear hears a lot, interpret, evaluate and decide. In a listening session of three audiophiles, what is probably going to happen is one of the persons will find the bass insufficient, the other may find it so much and excessive, but the system owner will think it is fine, not less, not more. That phenomenon is called “brain reference”. (See for more details) Brain reference is a kind of prejudice comes out of our own system’s timbre and tonality. This phenomenon sometimes causes conflicts with someone who compares better equipment versus his own equipment and may not like the sound of the other in spite the other was clearly better.

Most of the points stipulated below will depend on the capabilities of the system but more important, depend on the experience of audiophile. A poor system will not differentiate the points or less experienced ears may not pick them up either. That’s why some of the points below may not be regarded by everybody. I will be delightful if someone who reads that article picks up one or two points.

1- Listening at Night; Critical listening or equipment testing should be done in the night hours. This rule obviously applies to one who lives in a big city. Non noticeable city noise affects our hearing and we are basically not able to hear what our system delivers to us during the day.

Due to city noise is several times lower in the night, all hidden aspects in hi-end appear in the night and the system delivers its full potential. For more information, please check Noise (see for more details)

2- Heat and Humidity; Humidity and heat have serious influences on sound. Systems can not generate their best sound, power and dynamics in a warm and damp weather. I am not sure why this happens but it happens. There may be two reasons: The damp air is heavier in such circumstances, thus the loudspeakers are not able to pull enough air into the room. Or the loudspeaker materials may soften and behave differently in warm weather. To cool the listening environment prior to listening session eliminates that effect.

3- Darkness; Music should be listened in dark room. Particularly, the loudspeakers and the system should be kept in dark and the original recording venue should be imagined while listening.

The main objective of a good quality hi-end system is to depart from the hardware and to go into the recording environment. Listening music while watching the hardware will physiologically demolish the virtual environment that we intent to be in. The most inconvenient part of a hi-end system is inexistence of visual imaging. The reality sense is so different when participating to a live concert or listening/watching from a DVD player via a surround system.

If the listening environment is not dark, the speakers will be perceived as the sources of the original sound.

4- Finding the Correct Listening Distance; the sound is spread in waves called frequency. The volume of every frequency will be different in connection with the distance from the speakers. In terms of the volume, frequencies will be up and down when the distance is changed. Especially higher mids and treble sections will vary between 20-5 centimetres. Such frequency peaks can be easily recognized by listening.

a – Listen a test CD which contains different test frequencies. For instance start with mono 1000 Hz at the listening chair. Then stand up and walk very slowly through your system. (Preferably with your closed eyes). You will immediately realize that the signal will have ups and downs in volume while you are moving as if somebody was turning on and off the volume control.

b – The main frequency of the music and the one which is closest to human sound is 1000 Hz. 1000 Hz is your starting point. 1000 Hz will be at its peaks so many times in connection with the distance of your listening chair. Find the closest distance to your current listening chair that the 1000 Hz is at peak. The ups and downs in that band should be changed around 50-70 centimetres. This is the best location to hear the middle frequencies but it is not the best location yet to achieve the best frequency spectrum. It is just the starting point.

c – Stick a rope to back wall that may come through your shoulders. Now close your eyes and listen different frequencies such as 300-500-1000-2000-5000-10.000 Hz etc, move top of your body (while sitting) forward and backwards. Mark the peak points of every frequency you listened on the rope. Our aim is to find a particular point that most of the frequencies are at their peaks. If you are not successful and these points are not closer each other, move your speakers 10 cm’s to front (or your listening chair to 10 cm front or rear) and repeat the same exercises till you find a certain point that most of the frequencies are at their peaks.

It is not an easy task, time consuming but free of charge. Once you have the point, you will be very surprised with the improvement of the sound of your existing system.

5- Room Acoustics; Room Acoustics is the most known but the least considered part of Hi-End. A conventional speaker may throw % 40 of the sound directly to listener; rest of the sound comes through the walls by reflections. Reflection means the timing difference of the original signal, hence an additional acoustic which does not exist in the original record. Within such a complexity of reflections, a part of the original signal will come late due to the front wall or ceiling or etc, a part of the original signal produced by the left speaker will come as if coming from the right speaker and vice versa. Such a complex listening environment will demolish the stereo imaging and channel separation.

Some audiophiles are happy with this case due to speakers are seem to be better disappeared and soundstage is wider and deeper. Some producers add additional mid/treble units to the back side of the speakers (dipoles) to emphasize such effects.

One thing should be considered that such reflections do not exist at the original sound. If something is produced by the system/room in addition to the original sound should be named coloration.

If the aim of a good hi-end system is to reproduce the original sound, such reflections should be avoided as much as possible. Especially ribbon and electrostatic speakers will suffer a lot from such reflections.

Carpet on the floor is a must to lower the reflections (standing waves) between the floor and the ceiling. Thicker curtains will help to lower the reflections of the windows. Glass covered photos and such stiff furniture should be avoided.

This article is not intended to give recommendations how to make a room tuning, lots but lots of information may be found on internet. But it is just to emphasize the importance of room acoustics.

6- Precise Focus and Loudspeaker Placement; this is also another known but the least considered part of Hi-End. It is critically important to locate both speakers at the exactly same distance to achieve precise focus. Distances should be very carefully measured and both of the speakers should be placed exactly to the same distance through listener.

OK but why such important!

Sound signals are distributed in waves as explained in section five. The people who tried the settings in section five will realize that, the peaks of frequencies vary in conjunction with the distance from the speakers. Especially the treble frequencies will vary a lot by only one centimetres of a change. In such cases, if one speaker is just one cm closer to the listener, some frequencies will be heard a lot from one speaker but will not be heard from the other speaker. If the upper harmonics of the human sound consist of such upper frequencies, (it is!) this is obvious that the sound will move from the middle to left or to right. Moreover, within that case, some frequencies will be collided in full phase and will be exaggerated, some others will be collided by inverted phase so are destroyed.

This is the exactly the same effect of loosing bass when connecting one speaker out of phase.

7- Mechanical Vibration of Electronic Units; Quite a lot of vibration absorption feet and platform kinds exist in the market. They are to be placed under the electronics/speakers. Such materials have two intentions;

a- To eliminate the external vibration coming through the unit

b- To eliminate the vibration of the unit itself (CD driver motor, speaker cone vibrations etc)

Most popular ones are the cones (spikes). I believe the proper usage of spikes is not known very well. Rather than being a vibration absorber, spike is a kind of transmission material that transmits vibration from one point through the other point. In other means, vibration is condensed to one point and mechanically carried to other platform by the spike but not eliminated. If the connection surface is stiff (for instance marble, granite, etc) such vibrations are passed to that surface. Underneath of such a stiff platforms (marble, MDF, glass, granite) must be covered by an elastically material such as cork, mouse pad, neoprene rubber or similar.

The vibration can not pass from a stiff platform to an elastically platform and will be transposed to heat between.

Direction of the cone is also critically important. The direction should be in conjunction with the intention of vibration transmission.

May be the last thing about the cone is the cone should be in touch with the chassis of the component directly. If any kind of rubber, double sided band, blue tack or such an elastic material is put between cone and the unit that material will try to transpose the vibration and the cone will not work.

8- Marble Under the Loudspeakers: A marble platform under the speakers eliminate most of the unwanted resonances of the speaker. The thickness of the marble should be at least 3 cm and the size should be at least 10 centimetres bigger then the edges. Underneath of the marble has to be covered by an elastic material such as cork, mouse pad, neoprene etc.

How does it effect the sound is, you have more powerful but more clear and tight bass, relaxation at the mid and top frequencies.

The speaker has to be connected to the platform via a cone, not by an elastically feet. The sharp end of the cone has to direct the marble but not to the loudspeaker.

9- Grounding the Metals for Static Electricity; especially in wet weather and in fully carpeted listening environments, static electric become an issue. The carpet is charged with static electric which can be passed through the electronic equipments via the rack and/or via human touch. Static electricity on the carpet is such powerful that when checked in the morning before somebody walks on it, can be clearly seen by simple tools sold in Radio Shack

In order to eliminate the effect, the loudspeaker stands and the equipment racks should be connected to earth by a thin wire. Moreover, the loudspeaker cables and interconnects should be lifted away from the floor due to the same effect.

What benefits you may expect from this tweak is I don’t know why but less blurry and more tide lower bass.

10- Loudspeaker Distance from the Front Wall; Loudspeaker producers generally recommend the distance of the speaker by the front wall (the wall behind the speakers). Generally speaking, the speaker should be located as far as possible from the front wall. (Side walls as well) If they are so close to the wall, bass standing waves will be reinforced (explained in article five) and mid/treble band will be compressed due to excessive bass energy.

Some audiophiles find the desired bass volume by placing them closer to front wall which is not correct. One thing should be considered that such bass increase is not due to the original sound but it is the consequence by the room response called coloration.

11- Auto former / Transformer Passive Line Stages; The new developed technologies in hi-end industry made the pre-amplifiers questionable.

Before end, the reason of a preamplifier was stipulated in four basics;

a- To connect more then one unit together

b- Recording to tape from some sources

c- Low volume output and inverted polarity signal of turntables (as the only source component)

d- Bass, treble adjustment requirements

Nowadays, CD, SACD units can provide 5-8 Volts of outputs which are more than enough for the power amplifiers. Audiophiles are not interested in tone adjustments but focused on simplicity anymore. Dedicated phono stages are in common usage, hence, the majority of the requirements are not valid anymore.

The main and the only basic job of a modern pre-amplifier is to lower the volume level, not step it up !!

Just try to imagine a pure signal from a CD, or DAC through the power amplifier, then cut this link, add four plugs, four female plugs, a pair of interconnects, lots of resistors, capacitors, tubes, transistors and all that stuff in the link. How can you keep the signal purity and can you make something better then its original !

An active line stage demolishes the neutrality and the purity of the original sound. Such a corruption may not be so evident in most of the lower resolution systems or disregarded by some people on purposely. Every active line stage has its own tonality and coloration. As a matter of fact, audiophiles generally use line stages to balance their tonality problems in systems. For instance, a tube line stage is used to calm down a firm sounding solid state power amplifier or a treble rich line stage is used to compensate the treble poor power amplifier and vice versa. If this is the case in a system, fully natural line stage and lack of coloration will not be regarded by the audiophile.

Following me, the consideration should be to change the power amplifier till finding the desired sound rather then playing with pre-amplifier. In other words, to deal with the original problem rather then trying to mask the problem.

It is almost in consensus that using a very simple volume pot adds so much neutrality and purity to sound. But in such cases, some other problems appear. A volume pot which is either a potentiometer or a stepped alternator works with the resistance principals. Every volume step adds different resistive path to signal, thus lowers the volume. Due to the complexity of the music signal ( 20 Hz-20 kHz), such a resistive load will act like a barrier for different frequencies. For instance when turning down the volume level, the treble is lowered and the bass is condensed or when you increase the volume, mids are excessive or vice versa. Not to forget to mention is the lack of dynamic range as well. A line stage eliminates these problems.

Due to these facts, volume control pots or analogue volume controlled CDs can not be used stand alone as line stages

By the new technology, new auto former and transformer passive line stages are developed for volume control.

Such units do not work with resistance principals and do not add resistance to the signal path. The only resistance of such amps is approximately 200 Ohms due to the cable in windings.

Transformer passive line stages consist of two transformers, one for the left channel, and one for the right. They have one primary winding and multiple (12-24 steps) of secondary windings. Their principal is to lover the volume by changing the volts, rather then adding resistance. Up to my knowledge, there are only three producers of such line stages. I used two of them. Both of them are providing extra ordinary natural, calm and undistorted sounds.

I heavily modified the Antique Sound Lab myself which is very good product and quite cheap too, (don’t underestimate its price) but Audio Consulting’s Silver Rock made of pure silver is something else.

It should be also mentioned that such a passive line stages can not be suitable for every system. In such a case, input impedance of power amp should be driven directly by the output stage of DAC or CD player. Input impedance of the power amp should be as small as possible. The best way to learn this case is to write the impedance values to producer and request assistance prior to purchasing.

12- Good Tubes (NOS Tubes); is it logical to pay 100? to and old tube while the new one costs 10 ? I believe it is. A good tube can change the characteristics of a tube electronic as if you replaced the entire unit. Nos tubes are not easy to find, quite expensive but worthwhile to use. Especially the upper frequency hiss is quite lower with Nos tubes.

13- Very Easy Polarity Finding Method; Generally speaking, European (German) standard AC plugs do not have the signal direction. US, UK, Swiss AC plugs have one way to connect to AC, so + and – phases can not. So in such cases, it is not easy to find out the correct polarity.

Electronic components can work properly regardless of the polarity. Our televisions, refrigerators, bulbs, computers everything. Why the AC polarity is quite important in Hi-Fi !

Electricity arrives from (+) passes the electronic circuit and departs from (-) Generally the mains current arrives in the power supply of the unit first then reduced to desired voltage by of the electronic circuits. At this case, mains is automatically filtered by the power supply section. The transformer of the power supply section behaves like isolation transformer, input and output currents are physically separated. If the polarity is not correct, the mains will arrive to system directly from the back door and will carry all the pollution like RFI/EMI into the unit. Due to the fact, it is important to find out the correct polarity.

Most of the electronic’ polarity is similar. If the unit has detachable power cord and IEC kind of input, the right hole should be the (+) mains when do you look at the plug front the front face (as seen below)

Another simple method is to check the mains fuses. If the unit is equipped with an exterior protection fuse, release the fuse and check it by an electricity check pen while the unit was connected to mains. It should be (+) signal. If not, reverse the AC plug from the wall

14- Listening Volume Level; It is for sure nobody’s business to tell you that what the correct listening volume setting is. Some audiophiles like very low listening level, some turn on the volume till the windows are broken.

If the outcome is to achieve the ambiance of the recorded venue, volume level should be adjusted accordingly but not more or not less. This case is applicable to acoustic instruments only but not to electronic music, jazz or disco etc.

What ever the listened record is, correct volume setting should be the one which does not enlarge or shrink the original instrument. Higher volumes may For instance a guitar should be played with the original volume of a guitar by correct volume setting. If volume level is increased, the body of the guitar will became bigger in obsolete terms, on the other hands, full body of a Mormon chorus will not be so realistic at low volumes

15- Warming Up the Speakers and Cables Before Critical Listening; Apart from the theory that “Solid state electronics provide their best sound for a few minutes till the transistors became warm.” every single audio equipment needs a warm up time. This time is at least 1/2 hour or even 1 hour in spite the manufacturers recommend less. Up to my knowledge, the reason behind this is the specifications of the resistors, capacitors, tubes and other stuff vary if they are cold or warm. Manufacturers make final settings when the units are warm, otherwise they would play perfect for the first half an hour and worse after warmed up.

That principal is applied by every audiophile for the electronics but not always for the speakers and the cables.

Speakers are quite important since their passive components should be warmed up such as crossover resistors. Their voice coils should be warmed up as well. The cables are also important. Warm up term may not eligible for the cables but the cables should be run for sometime till their dielectrics are charged.

As a result, the warming up time should be completed by playing (may not be listening) the entire system.

16- Proper Loudspeaker Selection for Listening Room; Loudspeaker should be selected in conjunction with the listening room dimensions. Unfortunately the general tendency in audiophiles particularly in US is “the bigger is better”

It is like some new starting skiers that choose the best ski equipments prior to learning and facing with so many problems afterwards.

Big loudspeakers are difficult to position, difficult to drive, affected more from the room boundaries. If the speaker is bigger for the room, excessive bass energy will diminish rest of the sounds. The bigger speaker means bigger problems. Driving big speakers requires challenge, experience, sources, time and money.

17- PS Audio Power Plant; Principally I avoid giving specific brands in my non commercial web site. But PS Audio Power Plant is such a special product that similar components do not comparable with. It is a kind of power regenerator powered by electricity. P300 actually regenerates new AC for the audio gear. This regenerated AC is of much better quality than filtered AC because of the stabile voltage and near perfect AC waveform. It also removes 70 dB of EMI and RFI noise from the AC line!

Not all friends are agreed with me but according to me, it is very special equipment that lifts up the entire system to a higher level.

What would you expect from it is much relaxed sound, more layered deep and wide soundstage, crystalline treble and more inner details. Improvements are immediately apparent. Take care to use with power hungry amplifiers. (I am not sure about this currently Note: 2005)

18- CD Surface Treatments; There is several kinds of CD surface treatments in the market. They shine the surface of CD, thus laser picks up more information. What can be expected from a surface treatment is the high frequencies are cleaner and more extended. The easiest and the cheapest method of CD surface treatment is the one that used by pipe lovers .That is the human oil on the skin of face.

I apologize for that ugly tweak but our systems are personal and private anyway don’t they. Human oil has the perfect thin viscosity and can be absorbed by CD surface very easily and effectively. Listen your CD first, smear the CD throughout your forehead and spread the oil with your finger and listen it again.

Don’t forget to spread the oil by your finger every time prior to listen that CD.

19- Objective of the Third Dimension ; The objective of a stereo system is to achieve 3.rd dimension via two channels. All the hi-end or hi-fi equipments have own character, timbre and tonality. For instance a titanium tweeter will have different tonality then a silk dome tweeter. Two different brands of loudspeakers will have different tonalities as if they use the same drive units. The tonality of high end equipment mostly depends on the listening preferences of the designer. We will most probably not like if hear different tonalities from our own equipments even though the other system sounds much better. This case is so often faced; most of the audiophiles don’t like the sound of somebody else’s system despite it is a better system. This case is also evident when buying or testing new equipment at homes. We sometimes test better equipment at home but feel something is still missing compared to our own equipment.

I remember very well, when Sony introduced the first 20 Bits CD player, most of the people found the sound harsh, edgy and coloured. People used to listen dark sounding CD players up to that time and hearing more inner details disturbed them.

I also remember very well that when I modified my old B&W 801 Matrix II monitor speakers and cancelled their protection units, the new sound had disturbed me a lot. I was such unhappy by the new sound and could not have listened at my system for several days. At that time, the manufacturer expressed that “the protection units were needed due to the speakers were designed mainly for recording studios”. They also told to me that the new sound must be clearly better due to the crossover resistance that affects especially the lower mid and upper bass was lowered fairly. After several days of listening them, the sound became better and better. Eventually the sound was surprisingly perfect after few weeks. Actually the sound was the same but perception was changing. (My brain reference was changing)

If this is the often case, how do we distinguish the better unit by listening! There are several ways of it but for me the main method is third dimension capability. This is not the only case for sure but generally speaking, if two units are compared, the better one is the one delivers bigger soundstage, more dept and more height.

This is also the theory of Peter Quodrup from Audio Note UK and I am hundred percent agreed with him.

The distortion of an electronic device is does not effect the tonality of the equipment but mainly effects the inner details. Soundstage dept and height are such hidden factors in inner details that they will be affected first. If the unit provide lower distortion, more precise soundstage, especially more dept will be provided.

20- The Least Powerful Ring of a Chain; Hi-Fi is a kind of chain. Strength of a chain depends on the least powerful ring. Assume a water hose consists of variety of wideness. Derived water capacity will be in accordance with the thinner part.

A system should consist of similar level of equipments. If you add the best CD transport to a standard level of system, there will be some changes but not as expected. Also a poor digital cable will compress the entire sound quality of a very good system.

A long term plan should be prepared before setting up a system and the pieces should be purchased in time. Hurried purchases may come as replacement expense within one or two years.

21- Don’t Immediately Judge a Unit, Give a Chance; Every system can sound well in time. System synergy is a kind of time dependent factor that sometimes takes months, even years. Sometimes we make quick decisions and quick prejudices for good products and immediately make unfair observations. According to me, the main element of the hi-end chain is the loudspeaker. If tonality and characteristics of the speaker is generally fine, or if the overall tonality of the entire system is generally fine, the system can be carried up for several further steps by playing with cables, tweaks, locations, tubes etc.

22- Critical Adjustments Should be Done by Listening Symphonic Music or Chorus Music; Once we decided about the main components of our system, we play with cables, tubes, tweaks and other accessories till finding the desired tonality. Adjusting the tonal balance of a system by listening single instruments or jazz trios may mislead us.

Upper mid and the treble bands of a sound is easily disappeared if somebody is far away from the original signal. This is the case, if we listen at a live concert or listen at a hi-end system. If this is the case, such instruments like saxophone, guitar, violin, even a human voice are darker and distant if we listen at a very good live record. Whenever we increase mid/treble band of the system by tweaks, such instruments became more open, detailed and dynamic. But one thing should be in mind that we may add a subtle amount of coloration to sound unconsciously. If a system is trimmed by listening small trios or single instruments, singe voices, this risk is really big. Such a system may not play a classical music performed by a big orchestra. If such symphonic music is listened, the system may reveal harshness and brightness.

It is often said that somebody’s system plays well in classics but sounds quite dark in jazz, or somebody else’s system is quite revealing in jazz but very bright and glazing at classical music. I believe this is the main reason of those phenomena

END

Hi-End is such a passion that so many opportunist firms and persons are added every year in spite hi-end community is not growing enough. Prices are multiplied by 3, 5, 10s every year. Every producer pretends to be one of the best in the world or at least within particular price level. Manufacturers issue review reports prepared by some ones!

No testing equipments in today’s technology can prove that their claims are correct or no testing equipments can invalidate that their claims are wrong. In no way equipment can compare two units each other and prove that one is better sounding then the other. Pretended best in the world equipments/cables often suck in blind testing. If this is the case, it is easy to claim to be the best in the world due to nobody can prove the opposite.

The price of valuable equipment can fall down to 1/3 of the purchasing price within few years by the additions of MK-II’s, MK-III’s, Special Editions, and Signature Versions

While the best speaker in the world was sold by 7.000 ? Twenty years ago, the best speaker nowadays is more then 200.000? A poor line stage which is used to lower the volume is sold out by 40.000.?

Hi-End technology does not grow up for years. Most of the hi-end producers are very small family entrepreneurs that targeting very rich few niche people. They don’t have proper research and development laboratories. Design and esthetical properties are the priorities.

I have the strong impression that Hi-End is digging its own grave with that pricing policy. We will see what will happen to hi-end after 30 years.

It is a deep less hole. My humble recommendations for the just starters is that go with second hand market products and go by reasonable priced equipments to minimize the losses of years. Never look for the perfect sound which is not exist in any money. Keep in mind that a 300.000? Worth amplifier may be % 2-3 better then a 5.000? Worth of his small brother.

Best regards with lots of music..

Ozhan Atalay

 
About the Author

Ozhan Atalay

Predident

http://www.nonamehifi.com

January 2004 – Issued in December 2003, February 2004, April 2004 issues of Andante – Classical Music Magazine

January 2004

Content of this article may be used only by referring to www.nonamehifi.com Copyright NonameHifi

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