Technical details, expensive components, debates about cables—these are all familiar features of the world of high-quality audio. But behind them lies a much more interesting and vivid history. It is not only about technology, but also about people, their passions, ambitions, and sometimes very unexpected actions.
The first chapter of the book StereoPravda takes us to the very beginning of this journey. It is a story about how a simple desire to make music a little clearer and louder gave birth to a whole new direction. We will see that many ideas that seem obvious to us today were once bold and even daring experiments.
Here you will not find dry lists of dates and models. Instead, you will find stories about how enthusiasts in garages and small workshops created legendary things and how their inventions changed ideas about what home music could be. This is the foundation on which everything we know about High End today is based.
Chapter 1. STEREO /How to stop seeing the forest for the trees?/
For many years now, I have been asking my numerous colleagues in the stereo industry the same tricky question: “What is the original meaning of the word ‘stereo’?”
Again and again, invariably, I get a completely bewildered look in response: “What do you mean?” I repeat my question: “What does the word ‘stereo’ mean?”
It's amazing. Over the years, of all the audio equipment manufacturers, distributors, journalists, sound engineers, musicians, and, of course, ordinary audio buyers I have interviewed, only a handful have been able to give the correct answer…
Disadvantages:
47. The Big Sleep (1946)
Jodie Foster's performance as Agent Starling was no less impressive. Critics note the unique chemistry between the main characters and their intellectual confrontation, which becomes the central axis of the narrative.
Around the same time that standards for 4K resolution were being established, the television industry adopted a new color space with a wider color gamut, which flat-panel displays (LCD and OLED) were already capable of generating at that time. In the days of standard-definition analog television, when we all used cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, the color space (in PAL, SECAM, and NTSC) was described by the Rec.601 standard. For HDTV, which appeared immediately after the transition to digital television, this color space was slightly expanded to Rec.709. – Emotional presentation
All streaming services that offer HDR support at least HDR10 — and this is the mandatory HDR format for UHD Blu-ray (this means that all players must be able to decode it, while Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and ST-2094-20 standards are not mandatory for them). If we don't take TV broadcasting into account, HDR10 reigns supreme in all other areas. It is supported by all HDR-enabled TVs, as well as all consumer HDR monitors for PCs. In the field of PC gaming, when HDR support is claimed, HDR10 is meant. Wide color gamut
And today, almost ninety years later, Blumlein's fundamental stereo method has no serious alternatives on the global music distribution market (even the latest variations on the theme of multi-channel sound technologies can be considered nothing more than a logical development of the same original ideas).
In the photo: young English inventor Mr. Day demonstrates his 1922 innovation—a portable radio with headphones. The device fits comfortably in a top hat, allowing a gentleman to enjoy his favorite radio programs while out walking.
Although it is embellished with colorful and bright shades of design, as well as rapidly developing technologies related to audio, at the very heart of the methods commonly used for listening to music, there is still the good old stereo, exactly the same as it was almost a century ago. To this day, this technology remains, in essence, the most widespread principle of music recording and playback worldwide.
What does this paradoxical deafness to the very name and meaning of what experts and users have been dealing with constantly since time immemorial testify to?
Illustration #1 /or “Why did the Soviet Union collapse?”/
After asking my favorite question, I usually tell my interlocutors an old joke about why the Soviet Union collapsed…
“Due to secrecy, a CIA officer has no idea what his colleagues in the next office are working on; a British MI6 officer has no idea what his colleagues at the next desk are doing; and a KGB officer doesn't even know what he himself is working on.”
Unfortunately, in a similar way, the audio industry, having “blurred” many fundamental definitions in vain, gradually lost sight of its most important guidelines — that is, just like in the well-known saying, “it could no longer see the forest for the trees.”
Many participants, even at the highest levels, simply forgot at some point that when evaluating audio equipment, the set of relevant criteria — or, in other words, a set of laws that we must follow in order to reach a verdict — should not contradict the basic “Constitution of Stereo Sound,” which is inherent in the very nature of stereo systems.
Otherwise, its prospects for development may be very similar to those that ultimately befell the Soviet Union, which has now sunk into oblivion…
Undoubtedly, this blurring of focus, both in the development and production of audio equipment and in the assessment of the quality of reproduced sound when describing its properties and installations, has far-reaching consequences.
Despite the fact that the latest technologies of multichannel sound recording and spatial emulation do indeed have much greater capabilities for recreating a realistic, three-dimensional sound field compared to traditional two-channel stereo, their application is so unpopular and uncommon, especially in the case of portable audio equipment, that, from a practical point of view, they still remain the domain of futurology.
At the same time, the parameters of audio equipment that have a secondary influence on the overall sound quality, which are usually emphasized most by the media affiliated with mass electronics manufacturers (timbral coloration, overall macrodynamics, the amount of various distortions, etc.) should in fact be no more than auxiliary tools for recreating the most basic and fundamental phenomenon. Namely, the level of three-dimensionality of musical reproduction, or, in other words, sound “holography.” And only after achieving the maximum manifestation of this effect should all other sound indicators of audio systems be brought into reasonable alignment (as far as possible)…
Thus, the degree to which the primary holographic effect of music reproduction—the Holy Grail of the stereo industry—is manifested is, according to the original definition of this technology, the main criterion for evaluating the quality of the highest-level audio systems.
The first chapter of the book StereoPravda introduces the world of High End Audio not as a race for expensive gadgets, but as a true culture of listening—where sound is important, not brands. The author explains how it all began: from enthusiasts listening to records on homemade amplifiers to the emergence of an entire industry built on the desire to hear music as it is. The chapter sets the tone for the entire book — honest, straightforward, without pretension, with a touch of irony, but with deep respect for those who truly hear.
In a country of the deaf
In reality, we are all, to one degree or another, hard of hearing. For the most part, we remain on a plateau of average and unconscious auditory experience (knowing neither ravines nor mountain peaks). And both words — average and unconscious — need to be emphasized.
So often our capabilities contrast starkly with our aspirations… Since the first experiments with sound recording and reproduction, humans have been driven by a special utopian dynamic, continuing the millennial utopia of “music of the spheres,” which at a certain point shifted to the register of pure sound. The very word utopia, meaning “that which has no place” (simply put, does not exist), irresistibly beckons and invites us to find the path to our cherished goal. The motives of audiophiles reveal a kind of Pythagoreanism, in which ‘absolute’ music is replaced by “absolute” sound.
Back in the 18th century, long before the recording revolution, there was a strange belief that the voice of an artist with good vocal abilities could be preserved by blowing air through his severed head and using levers to activate the sound-producing apparatus*. (*I'd like to see that!)
Edison was obsessed with the idea of a spirit phone—a device that could be used to contact the otherworldly realm of the dead—while Tesla was developing a spiritual, or spirit radio, radio, confident that he had accidentally tuned into the right wavelength during his work.
John Cage was fascinated by the desire to hear mushrooms, while Xenakis and Stockhausen believed in the ability of music and sound to generate architectural forms for their existence, and synthesizer creator Peter Zinoviev had long since given up on manually controlled systems, believing that the future of music lay in the mutual control of the brain and sound, without any intermediaries.
The flip side of such a dream, that is, the splitting of the unity of music and sound, can lead to the loss of their inherent subordination, which invariably results in all sorts of failures in the delivery of musical content from the “sender” to the “recipient” — when, carried away by Sound, those same audiophiles simply stop hearing Music.
Thus, as they say, “everyone goes crazy in their own way,” and “deaf” audiophiles who completely lose focus of their connection with music are far from alone in this sense.
All these examples show the risky and demanding game that humans repeatedly engage in. There is no escaping the fact that the ideologeme of absolute sound must be matched by the ideologeme of the absolute listener. But where can such a listener be found? After all, in order for them to become “hearing,” they must first be oriented in the appropriate coordinate system.
In pursuit of yet another utopia, instead of standing on solid ground and starting from scratch, many seekers cease to recognize and appreciate real achievements, as well as to understand the meaning of actual processes and relevant principles. They continue endlessly, to the point of exhaustion, to tune up in their imagination some long-rusty bicycle, on which, no matter how hard they try, they will still not get very far.
Illustration #2 /or David Cronenberg's “Stereo”/
David Cronenberg's first film, Stereo, made in 1969, describes from an unexpected angle a situation in which the limitations of our receptors correspond to the boundlessness of our intentions.
The events of the film unfold in a mysterious research institute in the near future (and for us, perhaps, the present). Experiments are being conducted on a group of people to reveal special abilities of perception and communication, the main one being, of course, telepathy.
This entire world, in which the subjects gradually have their speech, auditory, and other sensory centers removed, is plunged into absolute silence, creating an atmosphere of unbearable deprivation. At times, several narrators read aloud a text consisting of excerpts from bizarre scientific reports and test results, in which the name of the mysterious scientist Dr. Luther Stringfellow appears, whom we never actually see.
The outcome of the story is sad: many of the test subjects go mad or become emotionally unstable and hyperaggressive…* (* How can we not remember the unfortunate audiophiles with their endless battles?)
By analogy with the “blind spot” of vision, the “deaf spot” of hearing is much more elusive for us. Due to the particularly deep location of the auditory centers and their proximity to the unconscious, even conceptualizing auditory and, accordingly, musical reality seems an extremely difficult task, for which it is difficult, and for the most part impossible, to find the right words.
When we try to talk about music and sound, we get lost, our feet sink as if in a dream. It is no coincidence that the human ear retains traces and functionality of the so-called lateral line, which our ancient ancestors — fish — used to navigate in space. The lateral line has evolved into the vestibular apparatus, which is why the ear is also an organ of balance.
It is the ear, in many ways, that is the abode of mystical (or pseudo-mystical) experiences. It is no coincidence that at a medical consultation, in order to rule out psychosis, psychiatrists carefully ascertain whether the patient hears “voices.”
Still from the film Stereo (dir. D. Cronenberg, 1969)
It is useful to remember that the man who invented the term “High End Audio,” the creator of the American magazine The Absolute Sound, Harry Pearson , viewed the concept of “absolute sound,” for the sake of which high-end equipment was created, as achieving the maximum possible correspondence between the reproduced phonogram and the sound of live acoustic instruments in live acoustic conditions. No more, no less.
The starting point and ideal sound in this case is, for example, the sound of a live symphony concert in a full-fledged concert hall. However, the philharmonic listening experience is no longer formative for the last few generations of listeners. John Cage once lamented on this subject: "It is sad that the days when every home had a piano and almost every member of the family played it are gone. Now they listen to the radio and watch television."* (* Richard Kostelanec. Conversations with Cage).
Today, when intrusive and largely synthetic signals are broadcast from every iron, in noisy urban environments and in an endless stream of information, the factors that shape our everyday auditory experience are now completely different from what they were even in the early 1970s, when Pearson created his magazine.
At the same time, the dramatic process of the struggle for sound, which began in the mid-19th century and continues today in the digital age, also tends to be overlooked. Living on a plateau, we are largely shielded from the truly lower limits of sound with which our ancestors began, and we have little idea of the upper limits to which we could aspire.
Balancing at the intersection of technology and art
Nevertheless, looking ahead, it is worth saying that the reason for the abundance of broken copies around the Holy Grail of sound lies in one rather prosaic circumstance. Historically, pure audio is the oldest field of consumer electronics, and, oddly enough, the main stage of development of audio technology (with the exception of its digital branches) was the period before World War II, after which the main focus of development shifted irrevocably towards video and television*. (* Accordingly, the saying that, in terms of sound quality, “the future of audio is in the past” (i.e., the average sound quality of “old” technology can be much higher than that of currently manufactured equipment) remains relevant.)
In addition, since the dramatic improvement in audio quality occurred in the 1930s and 1940s, neither the technical achievements in this field nor the measurement base of that time allowed for the formation of any sets of procedures and equipment for developing comprehensive and exhaustive sound quality standards. In this respect, video image quality standards were more fortunate, since a couple of decades later, similar scientific, technical, and technological conditions for video had already been fully established, which was the main reason for its rapid subsequent development.
American anthropologist and ethnographer Francis Densmore records the voice of the chief of the Blackfoot Indian tribe on a wax cylinder phonograph (1916).
The sound quality standard, however, remained vaguely defined, which still (!) allows it to be interpreted arbitrarily, depending, for example, on specific methods of promoting sound technology or the specific context of its use.
As a result, the originally “garage” industry of High End Audio, which is at the forefront of sound achievements, exists in a kind of fold — that is, at the junction of technology and art, where objective technical components are nothing more than a set of tools for creating works of audio art, “cannot be measured by a yardstick” and whose quality can only be assessed subjectively. This allows, as in any genre of art, the human factor to come into its own (while the well-known large corporations that manufacture audio equipment would never even think of moving from a purely objective system of assessing the quality of their products to such shaky ground as a set of subjective judgments from some “audio experts” whom no one understands).
“Due to secrecy, a CIA officer has no idea what his colleagues in the next office are working on; a British MI6 officer has no idea what his colleagues at the next desk are doing; and a KGB officer doesn't even know what he himself is working on.” Many participants, even at the highest levels, simply forgot at some point that when evaluating audio equipment, the set of relevant criteria — or, in other words, a set of laws that we must follow in order to reach a verdict — should not contradict the basic “Constitution of Stereo Sound,” which is inherent in the very nature of stereo systems.
Against the backdrop of the absence of a strict system of sound quality standardization, the fundamental core of the conflict lies largely in this dichotomy between objective technical indicators and subjective effects of perception. However, this basic conflict also has many derivatives that escape our attention behind the ghosts of imaginary contradictions and false alternatives, such as the sacred wars between “analog” and “digital,” ‘tubes’ and “transistors,” “horns” and “planars,” as well as between ‘studio’ and “home” sound.
Otherwise, its prospects for development may be very similar to those that ultimately befell the Soviet Union, which has now sunk into oblivion… Unfortunately, in a similar way, the audio industry, having “blurred” many fundamental definitions in vain, gradually lost sight of its most important guidelines — that is, just like in the well-known saying, “it could no longer see the forest for the trees.” Undoubtedly, this blurring of focus, both in the development and production of audio equipment and in the assessment of the quality of reproduced sound when describing its properties and installations, has far-reaching consequences.
In its marketing materials, Samsung emphasizes the system's functionality, such as the original Samsung Smart Control remote, a large number of applications, easy content sharing from smartphones, and content personalization. “Hello again, TV”
The Samsung Smart Control remote turned out to be super handy. Even though it has just a few buttons, I never once thought about grabbing a regular remote while using it. There is a Pointer button at the top; when you touch it with your finger, the motion sensors in the remote are activated, and you can move the cursor on the screen by turning your hand. This is really convenient, and the remote also responds well to motion inertia. Ultimately, the Samsung UE65JS9500T turned out to be not just a TV, but a real technological breakthrough of its time. The curved SUHD screen with quantum dots showed what light is capable of when combined with truly deep and pure colors. The picture was incredibly vivid and detailed. In general, as you can see, more or less dynamic casual games for TVs are already appearing, because Tizen gives developers access to a low-level graphics API. It's hard to say whether this makes sense, but on such a large, high-resolution TV, you want to see games on par with Play Station or Xbox (*if you connect a console to your TV, don't forget to activate the special “Game Mode” in the menu, which will speed up the matrix response at the expense of image quality).
Probably the main modern “Mission” is Christopher McQuarrie's “Fallout.” Tom Cruise doesn't age, Ving Rhames burns like an arc welder, and Henry Cavill is exceptionally good in the background. The Apostles are now trying to cause a nuclear disaster, so the tension will grow with every passing minute, and the finale will completely sweep the viewer away.
The frequency response of the model is smooth, but behaves strangely at high frequencies — a drop and a sharp rise. The bass is deep. The SNR is almost perfectly smooth and extremely low. Very solid low frequency reserve. The impedance is quite stable. Measurements
Alfred Hitchcock directs, Cary Grant (as usual) and Ingrid Bergman are in the lead roles—this is a spy novel about an FBI agent who, in order to uncover a Nazi conspiracy in Rio de Janeiro, sends his girlfriend Alicia, whose father is in prison for treason, into the heart of a forbidden organization. As usual, twists, suspense, and goosebumps await you—Hitchcock knows how to build atmosphere like no one else. The famous story by Brian J. Huttons, featuring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, tells of agents who must rescue a captured US Army general from a German fortress in the Alps, only to discover at the last moment that there is a mole in their team. Canonical images of heroes and a tense plot are included.
The reverse, in turn, is not true at all: certain general objective ideas about certain generalized ideal parameters of secondary manifestations of sound quality (such as its timbre, dynamics, level of distortion, etc.) will never allow us to make (especially for a specific audio system) any realistic predictions about the possible level of reproduction of “holography,” that is, the most important stereo effect.
Here, a direct analogy can be drawn with the recording and reproduction of photo and video images.
To achieve maximum sound “focus” in a specific situation and specific room, home stereo systems should provide access to the minimum necessary set of settings (as is the case, for example, with focus adjustment in photo and video cameras or projectors).
On the contrary, the complete absence of such a set of settings in the vast majority of audio equipment currently on the market (often the most expensive and “advanced” ones) is nothing more than further proof of a sad trend: not only the mass market, but even the highest segments of the audio industry have gradually forgotten their origins and, blinded by all sorts of minor details, have completely lost sight of the big picture of basic and fundamental concepts and issues…
About the author
Misha Kucherenko is a legendary figure. For more than thirty years, he has continued to unite two special worlds in a completely unique way: the realm of Music and the realm of Sound. In this book, manufacturers of outstanding audio equipment, engineers, and sound engineers meet with iconic musicians and composers, producers, and journalists. Everyone seems to be in the author's orbit of fruitful communication: Viktor Tsoi and legendary British DJ John Peel, Hi-Fi pioneer Paul Klipsch and Boris Grebenshchikov, Artemy Troitsky and Mark Almond, Alla Bayanova and Sire Records head Howie Klein…
Having realized himself in all possible guises — as a selfless sound enthusiast, distributor (founder of the legendary “Purple Legion”), an active journalist publishing in the most authoritative audio publications on the planet, and even a world-renowned developer of his own unique audio equipment, — Misha not only became one of the first high-class professionals in Russia to approach the very origins of High End Audio, but also throughout this time was a full participant in the deep internal processes, navigating the space along the entire dynamic loop of ups and downs of the High Sound industry.
His StereoPravda project continues to realize his enduring passion for music and, as a result, for the quality of its reproduction. His motto is “Passing on the old traditions of High End Audio to a new generation of audiophiles.”
The first chapter of the book immerses us in the colorful and contradictory world of high-quality audio, which has always been more than just technology. It is a realm of passion, controversy, and true belief in the possibility of “live” sound from speakers. The author honestly shows that behind the flawless facade of brands and advertising lie real dramas, battles of ambition, and the search for perfection.
Reading these pages, you realize that the history of High End is the history of people. Talented engineers, visionary brand founders, fanatical music lovers, and equally fanatical critics. The author does not idealize this world, but shows it with all its myths, marketing tricks, and subjective assessments, which are often more important than technical specifications.
This chapter sets the tone for the entire book, inviting us to look at the industry without rose-colored glasses. It promises an honest and fascinating story about how legends were born, authorities fell, and why the search for the perfect sound has become the meaning of life for many. After such a beginning, you wait for the continuation, which will reveal all the secrets of this amazing and politically incorrect audio world.
