Through the Sound Barrier with Jim Smith!
02-01-2013 by Jeff Day
Most of you know about the high regard I have for Jim Smith. Jim has a stellar reputation for his good taste in all things high-fidelity, for his expertise in Hi-Fi system setup & voicing, as well as for being an honest and solid guy. Jim Smith has been in the Hi-Fi business for over 35 years, has worked for manufacturers like Magnepan and Audio Research, has owned his own retail business for high-performance Hi-Fi gear, has imported exotic Hi-Fi gear from other countries to North America as a distributor, has recorded live music performances in his community, and has served as a consultant to numerous high-end marquees.
Jim has done more than anybody I know of to help Hi-Fi enthusiasts get the greatest performance possible out of their audio equipment investment. Whether your Hi-Fi rig is modest orextravagant, I suspect you've not heard what it is capable of unless you've been through Jim's setup regimen. Jim's techniques work, and it's the reason enthusiasts, dealers, and manufacturers seek out his help to get the best possible performance from their equipment. Jim has detailed his methods in hisGet Better Sound book, Get Better Soundinstructional DVDs, Quarter Notes newsletter, Straight Talk phone consultations, or you can go theRoom Play route and have Jim come and personally setup your Hi-Fi rig in your room.
Jim's also working on something new, which is the subject of this post:Through the Sound Barrier.
Almost all of us have pondered why some even very good Hi-Fi rigs sound musical and some sound analytical and mechanical. If you've been reading my articles for 6Moons, Positive Feedback Online, and here at Jeff's Place over the years, you know I've talked about this topic quite a lot.
You can also imagine that Jim has run into this situation a lot in his career, and he has:
"Here’s the main thing that I have observed... It seems that the better our components are, the greater are the opportunities to encounter barriers to enjoying our music. In fact, some of the most advanced systems I ran into were initially the least satisfying from a musical involvement standpoint!"
"Thinking about how to describe what I have observed, the simplest term is sound barrier. Sounds become a barrier to ultimately allowing the music to speak to us in a powerful way."
"Here’s what happens – as our systems get better - and we think about getting them even better – at some point they become good enough to make some really interesting sound. In fact, we think about the sound and compare it to the sound that we have heard – or heard about – from other systems."
"I have no issues whatsoever with an analytical look at our systems from time to time. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean that listening to the cool sounds can slip in front of our goals as music lovers. Listening to “audiophile sound effects” can become a distraction from the main event. We don’t even recognize it when it happens."
"In my experience, most systems that are created to reproduce this type of hyper-detailed, clinically-correct sound generally fall well short of the musical involvement that they could easily produce."
"But when you find out what lies beyond that sound barrier – what audio can truly allow you to experience – it's transformative. And here's the point: you can get there."
Jim's had a lot of those aforementioned enthusiasts, dealers, and manufacturers ask him to devote a book, CD, a DVD set, and anything else he can think of to teaching people how to get the maximum musical involvement from their too analytical and mechanical sounding Hi-Fi rigs. I think it's a great idea.
As you might expect, it takes a lot of funding to get something like this going, and right now Jim is in the process of getting the money together throughKickstarter,which is a funding platform for creative projects. Jim has posted a video and description ofThrough the Sound Barrier here to give you an idea of what this effort is all about. I can tell you this - I think what Jim is doing is one of the most important things to happen in audio in a very long time. I will be keeping you informed asThrough the Sound Barrierprogresses to being a reality.
Jim has asked me to contribute some thoughts on achieving musicality toThrough the Sound Barrierwhich I'm honored to do,but I want you to know I have absolutely no financial interest in what Jim is doing. I am just an enthusiastic supporter of what Jim's trying to do to help people get the most music possible out of their system, and I want you to know about it. I think this is really important and I believe it will help many of you (and me too!) in our Hi-Fi hobby to better experience our love of music.
Stay tuned!
与吉姆-史密斯一起穿越声音的障碍!
02-01-2013 by Jeff Day （机翻）
你们大多数人都知道我对吉姆-史密斯的高度评价。吉姆因其在所有高保真事物中的良好品味，因其在高保真系统设置和配音方面的专业知识，以及因其是一个诚实和可靠的人而享有极高的声誉。吉姆-史密斯从事高保真音响业务超过35年，曾为Magnepan和Audio Research等制造商工作，拥有自己的高性能高保真设备零售业务，曾作为分销商从其他国家进口异国高保真设备到北美，曾在自己的社区录制现场音乐表演，并担任众多高端商场的顾问。
据我所知，吉姆在帮助Hi-Fi爱好者从他们的音频设备投资中获得最大的性能方面做得比任何人都多。无论你的Hi-Fi设备是适度的还是奢侈的，我怀疑你还没有听到它的能力，除非你经历过吉姆的设置方案。吉姆的技术是有效的，这也是发烧友、经销商和制造商寻求他的帮助以从他们的设备中获得最佳性能的原因。吉姆在他的《更好的声音》一书中详细介绍了他的方法，《更好的声音》教学DVD，《四分之一笔记》通讯，电话咨询，或者你可以让吉姆亲自到你的听音室来调整你的Hi-Fi设备。
吉姆还在做一些新的工作，这也是这篇文章的主题。穿越声音的障碍。
几乎所有的人都在思考，为什么有些甚至是非常好的Hi-Fi设备听起来很有音乐感，而有些听起来很有分析性和机械性。如果你多年来一直在阅读我在6Moons、Positive Feedback Online和Jeff's Place的文章，你就知道我已经谈了很多这个话题。
你也可以想象，吉姆在他的职业生涯中经常遇到这种情况，他也是如此。
"以下是我观察到的主要情况... 似乎我们的音响系统越好，在享受音乐的道路上也越容易遇到障碍。事实上，一些我碰到的最先进的系统，从音乐（参与）感的角度来看，刚开始时（注: 在他调整之前）是最不令人满意的！"
"考虑到如何描述我所观察到的情况，最简单的术语是声音障碍。最终，声音，成为了让音乐以一种强有力的方式与我们对话的障碍。"
"这里发生了什么--随着我们的系统变得更好--我们考虑让它们变得更好--在某些时候，它们变得足够好，可以发出一些真正有趣的声音。事实上，我们考虑到声音，并将其与我们从其他系统中听到的--或听到的--声音进行比较。"
"我对不时地对我们的系统进行分析研究没有任何问题。但这不是我所谈论的。我的意思是，聆听酷炫的声音可能会失去我们作为音乐爱好者的初心。聆听“发烧级音效”可能会捡起了芝麻却丢了音乐这个西瓜。而当这一切发生时，我们自己甚至都没有意识到。"
“根据我的经验，大多数为再现这种超多细节的、冷静正确的声音而创建的系统通常都远远做不到好的音乐感，而实际上它们本可轻松达到这样的乐感。”
"但是，当你跨越了声音这道障碍，看到了在它之外的东西-什么样的声音可以真正让你体验到音乐，豁然开朗。重点是：你可以到达那里。"
吉姆有很多上述的发烧友、经销商和制造商要求他用一本书、一张CD、一套DVD，以及其他他能想到的东西来教人们如何从他们过于分析和机械的Hi-Fi设备中获得最大的音乐参与。我认为这是个好主意。
正如你所期望的，需要大量的资金来进行这样的事情，现在吉姆正在通过Kickstarter筹集资金，这是一个创意项目的融资平台。吉姆在这里发布了一段视频和对《穿越音障》的描述，让你了解这项工作的意义。我可以告诉你--我认为吉姆正在做的事情是很长时间以来音频领域最重要的事情之一。随着 "穿越音障 "的实现，我将不断向你们通报情况。
吉姆要求我为《穿越音障》提供一些关于实现音乐性的想法，我很荣幸能这样做，但我想让你们知道，我对吉姆所做的事情完全没有经济利益。我只是热情地支持吉姆为帮助人们从他们的系统中获得尽可能多的音乐所做的努力，我想让你们知道这一点。我认为这真的很重要，我相信它将帮助你们中的许多人（也包括我！）在我们的高保真爱好中更好地体验我们对音乐的热爱。
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