We've only just begun
November 18, 2006 | 12:00am
Many thanks to those who sent me words of encouragement and to my loyal readers who have followed my journey to the Philippine STAR.
Getting a lot of feedback for somebody who has just warmed up his seat is certainly gratifying. It goes to show that the number of "audio nuts," as my wife jokingly calls us, is steadily increasing. As expected, questions from new readers center on how they can make out good sounds from bad.
Our body, just as it is capable of warding off infectious diseases, is also well equipped to discriminate against bad sounds. There are only a few people I know who do not cringe at the sounds of fingernails scratching a blackboard, the sonic boom of an F16 fighter jets, or even a blabbering housewife. Long before Apple decided to tuck in a sound limiter to its iPods, man had instinctively covered his ears to protect himself from noise. Science also describes noise as an unwanted, undesirable component that obscures sound.
Some of us associate pleasant sounds with the chirping of birds, ocean waves rushing to the shore and our mother’s lullaby. In our lifetime, we will constantly search for sounds that can lull us to blissful rest, trying with all our might to recreate that part of our life when we were all in our mother’s protective embrace as we slumbered to her soothing hum.
The sounds we hear from our stereo system, radio, television, cinemas, iPods, and all electronic products are but a recreation of the original. Before Thomas Alva Edison discovered how sounds could be recorded and later on played back, our notion of entertainment either meant family bonding in the living room to hear a parent or sibling playing a musical instrument, or a night out with family or fiends to watch an opera or a symphony orchestra. This was why the piano was a favorite fixture in most middle class homes then.
Faithful sound reproduction or recreating sounds from these venues or bringing the opera and symphony orchestra to the comfort of our homes was the driving force behind the engineers who later cashed in on Edison’s discovery. Faithful sound reproduction or high-sound fidelity thus became the famous rallying point of audiophiles around the world. Good sound has since then become synonymous with faithful reproduction of pleasant sounds.
But how can one tell if a song is an exact replica of the original? This is where science interferes with a very subjective sound appreciation. Each passage of a song traverses a complete range covering the low, the middle and highest frequencies, the unit by which sounds are measured. If the recording of a song is perfect, it is assumed that it traverses the same frequencies as that of the original. A trained ear doesn’t need an oscilloscope (an instrument that measures sounds) to distinguish between the original and recorded sound. This is the reason audiophiles still go to live concerts to constantly check if their system is up to par as far as faithfully reproducing sounds is concerned. Live performances, especially if they’re done in concert halls with good acoustics, provide audiophiles with a solid sonic reference.
A reader asked me why I do not consider digitized music compressed into MP3s or even into WAV files as good sounds. The answer requires the whole length of this column. To put it in a nutshell, however, much musical information is lost once sounds are digitized, depriving one of hearing a fuller, warmer sound. I promise to discuss this at length in my succeeding columns. For now, give me a break, guys! We’ve only just begun.
For comments or questions, please e-mail me at vphl@hotmail.com.
Getting a lot of feedback for somebody who has just warmed up his seat is certainly gratifying. It goes to show that the number of "audio nuts," as my wife jokingly calls us, is steadily increasing. As expected, questions from new readers center on how they can make out good sounds from bad.
Our body, just as it is capable of warding off infectious diseases, is also well equipped to discriminate against bad sounds. There are only a few people I know who do not cringe at the sounds of fingernails scratching a blackboard, the sonic boom of an F16 fighter jets, or even a blabbering housewife. Long before Apple decided to tuck in a sound limiter to its iPods, man had instinctively covered his ears to protect himself from noise. Science also describes noise as an unwanted, undesirable component that obscures sound.
Some of us associate pleasant sounds with the chirping of birds, ocean waves rushing to the shore and our mother’s lullaby. In our lifetime, we will constantly search for sounds that can lull us to blissful rest, trying with all our might to recreate that part of our life when we were all in our mother’s protective embrace as we slumbered to her soothing hum.
The sounds we hear from our stereo system, radio, television, cinemas, iPods, and all electronic products are but a recreation of the original. Before Thomas Alva Edison discovered how sounds could be recorded and later on played back, our notion of entertainment either meant family bonding in the living room to hear a parent or sibling playing a musical instrument, or a night out with family or fiends to watch an opera or a symphony orchestra. This was why the piano was a favorite fixture in most middle class homes then.
Faithful sound reproduction or recreating sounds from these venues or bringing the opera and symphony orchestra to the comfort of our homes was the driving force behind the engineers who later cashed in on Edison’s discovery. Faithful sound reproduction or high-sound fidelity thus became the famous rallying point of audiophiles around the world. Good sound has since then become synonymous with faithful reproduction of pleasant sounds.
But how can one tell if a song is an exact replica of the original? This is where science interferes with a very subjective sound appreciation. Each passage of a song traverses a complete range covering the low, the middle and highest frequencies, the unit by which sounds are measured. If the recording of a song is perfect, it is assumed that it traverses the same frequencies as that of the original. A trained ear doesn’t need an oscilloscope (an instrument that measures sounds) to distinguish between the original and recorded sound. This is the reason audiophiles still go to live concerts to constantly check if their system is up to par as far as faithfully reproducing sounds is concerned. Live performances, especially if they’re done in concert halls with good acoustics, provide audiophiles with a solid sonic reference.
A reader asked me why I do not consider digitized music compressed into MP3s or even into WAV files as good sounds. The answer requires the whole length of this column. To put it in a nutshell, however, much musical information is lost once sounds are digitized, depriving one of hearing a fuller, warmer sound. I promise to discuss this at length in my succeeding columns. For now, give me a break, guys! We’ve only just begun.
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