LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
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Is music important to all humans?<br />
I would say so, and it explains why<br />
<strong>the</strong> first humans began to make<br />
music even before <strong>the</strong>y discovered<br />
fire, or weapons with which to kill o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
humans. We know, because we’ve found<br />
remains <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir instruments.<br />
We also know that music is not listened<br />
to <strong>the</strong> same way by every<strong>one</strong>. For a<br />
substantial portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world population,<br />
music h<strong>as</strong> a deep importance, and<br />
is listened to with a certain intensity and<br />
concentration. That would be <strong>the</strong> c<strong>as</strong>e<br />
<strong>of</strong> audiophiles, <strong>of</strong> course. For o<strong>the</strong>rs,<br />
it is <strong>the</strong> superficial <strong>as</strong>pects <strong>of</strong> music<br />
that are important. I suppose that may<br />
explain <strong>the</strong> success <strong>of</strong> “Rhythm” FM<br />
stations…stations, <strong>as</strong> <strong>one</strong> wag h<strong>as</strong> it, “for<br />
people who can’t listen to music without<br />
moving <strong>the</strong>ir hips.”<br />
But earlier this year I came across a<br />
clue to <strong>the</strong> mystery: why doesn’t every<strong>one</strong><br />
get involved with music <strong>the</strong> same<br />
way, and (by extension) why not all music<br />
reproduction systems are “involving.”<br />
When I’m on an airplane I don’t<br />
buy <strong>the</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s and listen to <strong>the</strong><br />
airline’s canned music channels. But<br />
when I w<strong>as</strong> on my way to Veg<strong>as</strong> in<br />
January, I brought along <strong>the</strong> magazine’s<br />
iPod, chock full <strong>of</strong> albums encoded in<br />
lossless compression. I also brought<br />
along a pair <strong>of</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s with noise<br />
cancellation: a little microph<strong>one</strong> picks<br />
up ambient rumble and reproduces it in<br />
reverse ph<strong>as</strong>e to cancel it out at <strong>the</strong> ear.<br />
On <strong>the</strong> first aircraft, a Boeing 737, that<br />
worked well. But after changing planes at<br />
Detroit I found myself near <strong>the</strong> tail <strong>of</strong> a<br />
767, and <strong>the</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s could no longer<br />
do more than make a minor dent in <strong>the</strong><br />
noise level. The result w<strong>as</strong> a disturbing<br />
discovery. Every<strong>one</strong> w<strong>as</strong> singing out <strong>of</strong><br />
tune!<br />
No, not really out <strong>of</strong> tune, but I could<br />
no longer tell whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y were in tune.<br />
I tried some recordings by singers whose<br />
pitch I knew to be particularly accu<strong>rate</strong>:<br />
soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian doing <strong>the</strong><br />
songs <strong>of</strong> Pauline Viardot (on Analekta),<br />
or Margie Gibson singing Irving Berlin<br />
(on Sheffield). For all I could tell <strong>the</strong>y<br />
might be way <strong>of</strong>f <strong>the</strong> right note. What<br />
0 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine<br />
State <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Art<br />
by Gerard Rejskind<br />
w<strong>as</strong> going on here? Is this what it’s like<br />
to have a tin ear?<br />
Now I need to be careful here,<br />
because “tin ear” is <strong>one</strong> <strong>of</strong> those epi<strong>the</strong>ts<br />
you don’t toss <strong>of</strong>f at any<strong>one</strong> bigger than<br />
you. It’s a value judgement and it will be<br />
taken <strong>as</strong> such. I have a good ear for pitch,<br />
and <strong>as</strong> an audiophile you almost certainly<br />
do too. With <strong>the</strong> subterranean rumbling<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 767, however, I w<strong>as</strong> no longer sure<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pitch I w<strong>as</strong> hearing, and that made<br />
music way less interesting.<br />
I wound up looking for o<strong>the</strong>r music<br />
and finally settled on <strong>the</strong> latest Coldplay<br />
album, on which <strong>the</strong> dominant element<br />
is — you guessed it — rhythm. And even<br />
that w<strong>as</strong>n’t so hot.<br />
This curious experience got me<br />
thinking about a question that audiophiles<br />
like to talk about: <strong>the</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> a<br />
music system to deliver accu<strong>rate</strong> pitch.<br />
As nearly <strong>as</strong> I can recall, Linn w<strong>as</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
first company to talk about this, advising<br />
listeners to try to repeat a melody in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
heads. The e<strong>as</strong>ier that w<strong>as</strong>, <strong>the</strong> better <strong>the</strong><br />
system.<br />
Now that piece <strong>of</strong> advice made critics<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> high end movement snicker, espe-<br />
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cially in <strong>the</strong> years since digital became<br />
<strong>the</strong> common home music source. Now<br />
that wow and flutter and o<strong>the</strong>r speed<br />
variations are a thing <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t, how<br />
can <strong>the</strong> pitch <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> music be wrong?<br />
It can’t actually be wrong, but it can<br />
certainly be ambiguous. That w<strong>as</strong> what I<br />
experienced on <strong>the</strong> plane, and also what<br />
I experience when I listen to a system<br />
that doesn’t seem interesting. Maybe <strong>the</strong><br />
music is on pitch and maybe it’s not, but<br />
you have to make an effort to tell <strong>one</strong><br />
way or <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r.<br />
And that realization brought me back<br />
to a phenomenon I came across many<br />
years ago: Shepard’s t<strong>one</strong>s.<br />
First demonst<strong>rate</strong>d in 1964 (though<br />
possibly it had precursors) by R. N.<br />
Shepard, <strong>the</strong> t<strong>one</strong>s are a series <strong>of</strong> notes<br />
going up <strong>the</strong> scale, seemingly forever.<br />
How is it d<strong>one</strong>? Shepard used a computer<br />
to manipulate <strong>the</strong> harmonic content <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> notes in an interesting way, so <strong>as</strong> to<br />
make <strong>the</strong> exact pitch ambiguous. The<br />
result is that you always know what<br />
note you are hearing, but you lose track<br />
<strong>of</strong> what octave it belongs in. You can<br />
hear <strong>the</strong>m at www.uhfmag.com/Tech/<br />
Shepard.html.<br />
Once <strong>the</strong> plane had landed I w<strong>as</strong><br />
relieved to find that my sense <strong>of</strong> pitch<br />
had recovered just fine, and <strong>the</strong> music<br />
packed into my iPod w<strong>as</strong> enjoyable once<br />
again.<br />
The fundamental building blocks <strong>of</strong><br />
music, which give music both its meaning<br />
and its emotional impact, are melody,<br />
harmony and rhythm. Muck <strong>the</strong>m up, or<br />
even make <strong>the</strong>m ambiguous, and you’ve<br />
just got less music. Ei<strong>the</strong>r you need to<br />
make an excessive effort to get involved<br />
in what you’re hearing, or you can’t make<br />
it out at all.<br />
This w<strong>as</strong>n’t new to me, to be sure. I’ve<br />
long used <strong>the</strong> word “musicality” to refer<br />
to a system’s ability to communicate<br />
music’s powerful message. You have too,<br />
possibly. What <strong>the</strong> experience on <strong>the</strong><br />
plane gave me w<strong>as</strong> a clue <strong>as</strong> to why some<br />
systems with great specs can’t do it. It’s<br />
not that <strong>the</strong>y get <strong>the</strong> music wrong, it’s<br />
that you can’t be sure if <strong>the</strong>y get it right<br />
or wrong.