@lalitk wrote:
I can completely understand the shift you made later toward the pro-cinema, function-first approach. There’s a certain purity in where design serves performance and the aesthetic is born out of engineering necessity.
Indeed, the aesthetic of functionality.
@devinplombier wrote:
Great post and great story. And kudos for open-mindedness and willingness to take the path less traveled.
Thanks. Sometimes what’s sought after doesn’t come in the expected package. In this audiophile endeavor we’re easily conditioned into certain approaches and choices, and to me at least it became something of a straitjacket. The challenge as an outset has then been marrying qualities from different sectors in a sense - hifi and pro - but to my surprise pro segment products can actually improve in areas that are usually thought of as being "earmarked" to the hifi ditto - in addition to being (much) more dynamically astute and a more robust physical package overall. Controversial to some, pretty straight forward to others in the actual, unbiased experience of it.
@pindac wrote:
Slightly different to your own experience, but also with similarity, I have not been Wed To one End Sound, for quite some time.
Change has to make sense to me, but sometimes an explorative approach comes with the need for a rather steep learning curve, not to mention taking a leap of faith. Payoff isn’t always immediate, and so a new path can take time to mature into its fuller potential. To me at least it has been about finding what I regard as the fundamentals or core/macro parameters in audio reproduction, and then improve within that framework (why it may seem static on the outside). My gripe with many if not most hifi speakers is that they don’t even attempt to get a grasp with the fundamentals, despite being very highly priced. Like, when a +$100k pair of floor standing highend speakers run out of headroom at crescendos at about 100dB’s peak at the LP while being unable to extend to honest ~25Hz without bottoming out, subs or not, it’s indicative to me that we’re not on the same page. Physical prowess in audiophilia has become ridiculously expensive.