Or to quote from a (living) classic: if you can't stand the heat don't use the stove!

I thought since the listening threads always were disrupted by things completely off topic I would do my tuning and listening as randomly as they do their gabbing. Of course I did this in fun and will not continue cause I'm by nature not nearly as rude as these guys are. But it was kinda fun thinking about how the tables could be turned. Imagine if the industry actually started listening instead of talking. If half baked ideas were really put to listening test? First thing that would happen is you would see a ton of manufacturers close or change their designs drastically. Second thing we would see is the prices of audio come down amazingly. Third thing we would see is people having fun in this great hobby instead of being so paranoid.

hmmm I should do this more often, but I won't

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

Hi Toledo

yep, had to have a little fun

These guys talk about their tweaks and stuff but if they took a look at TuneLand and saw what we do their heads would fall off, roll past and right out the door lol. Not to be cruel but it's like watching a 1950's movie on a 20" tube TV. Here's the funniest part to me. We're the guys who first did the listening tests on this stuff some 20, shoot 30 years ago. They can go back and read about this in back issue of long past. Back in the early 80's through early 90's there was a bunch of guys both pro and home who went through all this stuff and talked about the pros and cons. It's like very old news rehashed. It wasn't spread around as big cause most of the news came through audiophile newsletters mailed out every couple of weeks. There were a lot of little bands of guys who did a ton of listening and reporting, sounds like, in terms of, bound for and a whole bunch of them. Everytime something came out to try we did and fed reports in. That's actually how RoomTune got discovered.

So when these people come up on the threads and push like this is something new there's probably a bunch of folks (including me) that don't want to be impolite, but we really were the try it guys at the beginning of the 80's tweak years when all this started, so we really are the "been there done that" guys. We see this stuff roll around every so many years and it starts all over again.

goes like this

Audiophile hears of a tweak, tries it, likes it, then a while later hears what it is not doing, undoes it, there's another tweak.....and on it goes. All these fixed finds that give one picture audio. It's like how long can we dance around the issue before we see that this stuff is variably tunable? lol That's not a cut that's just the way it is.

Then there's the guys who start to half way get it and they have to be smart A**es about the little tuning their doing in sort of a jest, but still stuck in this fixed thinking. This will just keep going on till enough people like you and Hiend (did you see his post? kinda made me proud) and others finally convert their systems to simple tunable bad boys and as you know become a true master of your system, then a rush will happen, and everything will be about this great find of tuning, when it has been around for all this time.

People are still distracted cause this stuff really does look great but they will come around non the less. Some reviewer somewhere will say it's time and jump into tuning feet first and this will be off to the races. Some of the guys have picked pieces and parts of it but no one yet has really jumped in. Maybe they don't have the space or the time but it will happen. It will happen cause this is not like fixed listening, and there are too many listeners out there now who know they can tweak and make big improvements, so the next step is being able to make these tweaks as often as the want and that will lead them to a variable place in their thinking.

One thing I'm convince of is the listeners ultimate desire to go further, and master his system and recordings. He might be doing fixed tweaks now but the idea will soon pop in there that if he can do a fixed tune what about a variable one? Even reading this post makes some listeners somewhere think "you know I can go further than fixed". They can read Doug Blackburn"s review http://www.soundstage.com/maxdb/maxdb021998.htm and even though I have come a long way from this in voicing wood to give far better tone than those days this shows that tuning has been around. Note: I don't use MDF (even the light weight stuff anymore) lol, on to the good stuff. Sorry didn't want a bunch of folks running out buying particle board, when there is much better wood to get. Boy when I look at my earlier designs it makes me smile:) Come a long way baby!

The day will come where a serious listener will be the one who is sitting there and hears something they want to change and simply gets up and changes it with a simple turn. He or she won't be sitting there pondering what component is the quilty party and start thumbing through the mags to find it. They will know their system and know what adjustment to make just as if they were tuning a guitar. I look forward to the competition and the industry change and I know the listener is ready.

I bet you most guys who read stereophile have done some type of tweak, and I know there's some great listeners out there, and as the next step dawns on them with or without a michael green this hobby and industry will be a tunable one. I have no doubt of that.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

"Honey, I need another beer."