About HiFi | What is audio infrastructure?

                                     About HiFi | What is audio infrastructure?

Space processing, equipment selection and collocation, speaker placement, power supply processing, wire and pad materials, these five major items are the basic construction of audio. A country cannot successfully develop its economy or bring about a prosperous and stable society if its infrastructure is not done first. Similarly, if a sound system does not do the above five basic constructions first, the sound performance cannot be good.

The spatial processing in the audiophile's home is not to build a concert hall, nor to obtain a completely flat spatial frequency response curve, but to properly absorb the excessive reflection sound in the space, moderately diffuse too many mid-frequency sound knots, and protrude. The mid-low frequency and low frequency are minimized, and the reverberation time can make the listening feel warm and clear. It is not difficult to meet such a requirement, it just depends on whether the owner has the heart to do it.

There are two difficulties in the selection and matching of equipment, one is the budget, and the other is the unpredictability of the matching results of the source, amplifier, and speakers. The purchase budget varies from person to person, and the wealth and frugality are determined by the person, and the equipment matching can only be found by going to the audio store to listen more and find your own taste. However, as long as you are an audio fan, it is impossible to stick to a set of stereos all your life. In the long audio career, you will definitely change a lot of equipment. This is also the Roman avenue to find the best match for the equipment.

Speaker placement is very important, but it is easy to have psychological blind spots. The average audiophile can hear the difference in the sound after the speaker is moved a few centimeters, and regard it as an improvement, it is natural. Because after the position of the speaker is changed, the frequency response curve of the speaker and the space synthesis also changes, but we have no way to interpret such a subtle curve (or sawtooth) change. The ear can hear the change of the speaker placement, it does not mean that the distortion of the space is solved. If the space processing and equipment matching are not done first, the change of the speaker placement is actually only between 50 and 60 points of sound performance. Just change.

AC power is invisible and intangible, but it has a profound impact on audio equipment. Basically, there are three key points in power supply processing: sufficient and stable voltage and current, low noise, uniform polarity and grounding. The voltage and current should be sufficient and stable, and the noise should be low. Alternatively, buy a large battery for audio use; there are also many options for power processors with power regeneration or filtering. And the polarity unity and grounding can also be handled by an electrician. So, power handling can basically be done pretty well.

The choice of wire and cushion material is to test the hearing of the brain. Note that it is not the hearing of the ear, but the hearing of the brain. The ear is just a receiver of sound waves. The brain is responsible for the real perception of sound, and the brain must input enough good sound decay data to slowly establish a mode for judging good sound. Build the ability to taste tea, wine and coffee. In terms of the choice of wire and pad, we can only rely on enough experience and time to train the brain and hearing, and finally find the wire and pad suitable for your own audio equipment.

After you have completed the above five sound infrastructures, the sound performance has reached at least 80 points. Next, there are two tools that can make the sound performance reach more than 90 points. Which two tools? DSP space correction and DSP parameter equalization. Spatial correction can improve the distorted frequency response in a focused manner, and parameter equalization can further fine-tune the sound characteristics that cannot be achieved by speaker placement, cables, and pads, and even make the performance of instruments and vocals closer to you. "Truth and beauty" in my mind. You can do both, or just choose parameter equalization. With the current maturity of DSP technology, the negative effects of spatial correction and parameter equalization can be minimized.