"...yet I cannot but think that the facts frequently receive new importance and new illumination, by being regarded from a fresh point of view and in a fresh connection."
HELMHOLTZ
IINTRODUCTION
 Conventional engineering is what people learn in school: it's the stuff you find in books. It is the science of design. Unconventional engineering is what you learn on the job--the functional or esthetic combinations that work...those that don't work. This is the art of design. In audio today, there exists a critical link between art and science which is often neglected: the underrated, but absolutely essential, art of listening.

We choose to listen to music in order to experience the emotion that it conveys or instills in us...otherwise we'd be happy listening to sine waves...or nothing. Some of us are quite content with a modest table radio, while others spend enough to buy a nice home in an expensive neighborhood. At what ever financial level we wish to play, the ultimate goal for a music lover is to be swept away and enchanted by our favorite music. It is the job of our audio systems to provide the wings and the magic. When a new audio component actually sounds as good in our homes as it did at the dealer's, it's often cause for celebration. However, for most audiophiles, synergy between audio components has been, and still is, more luck than design.

Because audio electronics are rarely neutral, a whole new class of products has come into being: tweaks. While to some, the word "tweak" has much the same meaning as the word "voodoo," its usage is historical and the mechanism of its effect has a basis in science...even though its explanation may not.

All audio systems are the result of the following process: sound is turned into electricity which is then turned back into sound. In this process, there are three types of energy that flow: signal, power, and mechanical vibrations. The third energy type, mechanical vibrations, affects the first two, signal and power.

"Tuning" is the conscious and deliberate act of making these unavoidable mechanical vibrations affect our sound systems in a friendly way. The proper goal of tuning is to bring an audio system's distribution of resonances, its "resonant response," into balance. When this balance is achieved, an audio system will provide a more musically neutral interface between musician and listener, and in so doing maximize the emotional connection between the two.

Tuning can increase the magic of any listening system, from the humble table radio, to those with Rolls-Royce pedigrees and price tags.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this essay is as follows:

1) to educate the individual as to how mechanical resonances are a fundamental element and thus a major factor in the sound of all recording AND playback audio systems...and to show that resonances are not inherently "bad."

2) to point out how the distribution of these resonances--the system's Resonance Response--dictates the acceptance or rejection of new components.

3) to point out that the tunable nature of all audio equipment, without a current scientific method to measure it, precludes audio's ability to exactly and perfectly recreate a live acoustic event...except as the rarefied result of serendipity.

4) to separate the goals of equipment designers/manufacturers from those of the listener.

5) to illustrate how the Resonance Response of an audio system is the missing-link between "accurate" and "musical," and point out the necessary pathway for ending the subjective vs. objective debate.

6) to offer a contrast to the "me-too" lemming approach so commonly found in audio. This contrasting approach is a tuning methodology with flexible tuning techniques for music lovers and hobbyists who wish to improve their listening skills and increase the performance and musicality of their systems.

In addition, it is the profound hope of the author that this booklet will help serve as a wake-up call and as a plea to the academic community to PLEASE find a way to measure what many people can easily hear and manipulate: the resonance response of an audio system.

(Note: The scientific basis for the effectiveness of aspirin was not proven until 65 plus years had passed after Bayer began its manufacture...were our parents fooled into believing they felt better?)


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