I was gifted a copy of the Keller Quartett's performance of Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge on ECM shortly after it came out in 1998. I gave it a serious spin several times before concluding that it was overly studied and somewhat bland, perhaps bordering on tedious. I filed it away, pulling it out occasionally only to admire the cover artwork.

Last week, while working on some potential circuit refinements (it never ends), I wanted to hear a recording that was relatively fresh. I more or less randomly selected this one and thus discovered that I was wholly and entirely wrong.

In this post, I'd like to discuss a design and marketing practice that's common in the audio industry that I feel ultimately hinders meaningful progress. I call this, "phenomenological audio."

If you peruse the things that Frank Van Alstine said in the previous century, one of the gems you might find is his view that audio gear shouldn't re-interpret an artist's intent. Rather, it should function as a perfect copy machine. Others have referred to this philosophy as "straight wire with gain."

I believe Frank needed to emphasize this at the time largely because of the increasing fashionability of single-ended class A tube power amps -- which as a rule came with with low linearity and high output impedance. The occasionally pleasant effect this combination can create became a marketing lever for many manufacturers. "Warm. Rich." Buzzwords for a loose low end and signal masking. What they never said was, "Not as the artist intended." Nor, "Works great for some stuff, not so much on others."