Listen to the music

It was a pleasant surprise to see Ayala Corp.’s top honcho, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, at the recent Hi-Fi Show held on November 11 and 12 at the Manila Mandarin Hotel. As I shook his hand, I asked him if he had been bitten by the audio bug, like most of us who eagerly and regularly attend this annual gathering. Pointing his finger at the gentleman beside him, he answered: "I’m just starting to learn from this guy." I was tempted ask him more questions, but I just decided to let him hop from one room to another, enjoying the company of audiophiles who are all searching for new and vintage audio gadgets which, they hope, will enhance their respective sound systems.

Jaza may be too humble to admit it, but the guy is a bona fide techie. I should know because I headed his PR team that, sometime ago, helped the Ayalas keep stock trading within the confines of the Ayala Avenue enclave. Can you imagine our central business district without the stock market? But that is an entirely different story.

But if he was – as he claimed to be – a high-tech newbie, Jaza is doing the right thing by attending audio shows and exchanging notes with established audiophiles. This is one of the audiophile’s must-dos: learn from the masters. You will be surprised to know that there are countless lessons to be learned from their successes as well as their failures. I am fortunate to have three audiophile greats as my mentors: Bert Bacsal, proud owner of radio station DWWW and one of Lucio Tan’s corporate lieutenants; 80-years-young Tom Prudencio, who distributes Antique Sound Laba’s amplifiers in the country; and sound engineer, neighbor and friend John Alegre.

This hobby can be costly so it pays to avoid the errors committed by them. One of the mistakes being repeated over and over by many budding audiophiles is not knowing what they’re after. Probably smitten by shiny audio gear and sweet-talked by audio dealers, young audiophiles proceed to build up their systems, only to replace their gadgets later in the guise of an upgrade. Truth is, they will never find satisfaction in the sound being reproduced by their systems. Another myth that young audiophiles fall for and pay for dearly is this: pricey audio gear sounds better. There goes your money!

There’s really no trick to it; just a pair of good ears. Listen and listen well. Watch a live concert done inside an acoustically treated theater, compare it with a concert done outdoors and then decide what you like most. Listen, if possible, to all genres and choose which sound gives you the fill. Usually, it is a choice between dynamic and sweet music. It is only when you’ve finally defined your musical taste that you can start assembling your dream system.

Remember, 60 percent of the sound you hear is shaped by a room’s acoustics. You’ll have a lot of problems if your music room is asymmetrical (triangular ceilings, uneven walls, etc). A shoebox-shaped room (symmetrical) is friendlier to good music. Don’t lose heart, however, if your music room is irregular. There are several do-it-yourself (DIY) treatments available on the market to deal with asymmetrical rooms. Likewise, the choice of your sound gear has a lot to do with the size of your music room. It would be aesthetically and sonically absurd to pack inside a 15-square-meter room a 5,000-watt amplifier driving humongous speakers.

Building up a system takes years, maybe as long as it takes for your ears to have sharpened enough to distinguish good sound from bad. In the end, your system defines what your music preference is. A few months ago, the chat room of WiredState, the official website of the Filipino audio community, was abuzz with stories about Bert Bacsal’s 36-amplifier system. Those who were lucky enough to have been invited to audition Bert’s system couldn’t help but be mystified by what they heard. I have known Bert since the mid-‘80s, and I know for a fact that he dislikes having his sound system talked about. I told him this is just impossible because he is the only one in the world today with a multi-speaker system that is truly mind-boggling. In a nutshell, his system consists of more than 18 pairs of mono block amplifiers driving almost an identical number of speakers. This kind of setup ensures his sound system will not be lacking any frequencies – from the lowest to the highest – thereby delivering close-to-perfect sound reproduction. His system tells you how dedicated this guy can be; he’s been building this up ever since we met.

By simply listening to live music and then experimenting with his own system to reproduce the sound quality exactly, Bert has created a system that defines where his musical soul lies. We may never be able to duplicate his feat, but it at least teaches us that nothing good comes in a jiffy.

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For comments or questions, please e-mail me at vphl@hotmail.com