Wow! Excellent purchase and plan and implementation. I'm envious of both your deep pockets and your ability to have this sort of dedicated space. Don't forget the Tylenol and Tiger Balm and enjoy the fruits of your labors as soon as you can!

Nigel,

Congratulations on the new home, new listening room, and tremendous system + treatments. I know it will give you many years of enjoyment once you get everything dialed in. Those GR Research Servo subs are really special, great addition to your system.

Enjoy life in East Tennessee, once those mountains take hold they never let go.

HK

My goodness. This is downright unbelievable!!!

Like Brad said, worthy of an audio magazine spread.

Congratulations and keep the photos coming as you make progress with the setup.

Best,

Geno

Just parroting everyone else here, Groovysauce...  absolutely stunning!  I look forward to seeing the final product (if there is such a thing).  Keep us posted.  Living vicariously through your room for the moment. lol.

Once the room is complete you'll be able to have intimate concert performances at home.
A pro job for sure.

Last Friday afternoon 12 more Carbon Panels arrived. I managed to get them all in the room solo… I was going to wait for my buddy however, my brother said he managed his by himself so I couldn’t let him out do me.

Dennis in his first email said to have diffusers on the front and back walls. That is how I had it setup for the first week without all the Carbon Panels. After a day of listening with all the wall treatment in, I moved all 4 diffusers to the front wall. Speaking with him on the phone he said that he wanted me to listen like that first and then move all the diffusers to the front wall. So my instincts were correct.

I’ve been slowly moving the speaker and listening position. I’m getting confident I have found the ideal spot. Once that is locked in, the 3 CPAs will be installed on the ceiling.



Coverage is ~67% of the walls in linear feet. The CPAs are sitting in another room, as a side note, that room is really nice acoustically with one wall 95% covered with the treatment. I haven’t played music in there, by feel it’s more pleasant than before.



I’m going to bounce a round a bit. Once I have a better handle on what I’m hearing I’ll offer a more focused description.

I sat down to listen… I was almost disappointed for a split second… Then OH SHIT! What is possible in the listening experience has changed, a paradigm shift has happened. Why was there a split second of almost disappointment? When there has been something wrong for your entire life, then it corrected my brain short circuited for a moment. Of course that is how it should sound! Then the realization that everything and I mean everything has changed.



The vocabulary of describing changes doesn’t make sense to use anymore. It just won’t translate correctly. Bigger soundstage, more separation, tight bass, listen deeper, you are there and the list goes on… Yes, all the vocabulary to describe the changes can be used. Will it translate how profound the change is? I don’t think so.



I’ve casually been following a thread about the Taiko Extreme Server, it’s price tag is ~$30,000, They announced there is going to be a 25% price increase soon, $37,500 server. They have a new software that is in alpha testing. Peoples minds are exploding over how much better it sounds. After experiencing what this room sounds like treated. It’s a fool’s errand to use the same descriptors to describe what the experience is. Unless the paradigm and context changes. They are talking about 8 bit color I’m experiencing 16 bit color.

The difference between 8 and 16 bit color is 16,700,000 vs 281,000,000,000,000, that’s millions vs trillions.



When someone describes something as “hyper detailed” I get feeling it’s sterile, hot on top, fatiguing, hard and lost a bit of the soul of the music. I’m now hearing exponentially more information. I can also listen for hours and still want more.

This photo might be a good example.

https://www.earthcam.net/projects/empirestatebuilding/gigapixelpanorama/2021/

Slowly zoom in on anything that you find interesting. Once you have zoomed all the way in quickly zoom all the way out.

If you’re not familiar with the NYC skyline click the points of interest and find the Statue Of Liberty. Click it off again and SLOWLY start zooming in. Again quickly zoom out. That is what the treatment has done. Little specks that where not even visible can be focused on and incredible detail can be seen. The music doesn’t get grainy like the photo!

As with that photo, you can take a quick glance and say “yeah, that’s cool” and move on. You can also start to explore little nooks and crannies. Before you know it it’s been hours and the time has disappeared.

Listening to the same track multiple times in a row is a wild ride. There is so much to explore. Following a bass line, a connection is made to the cymbals as it slowly fades away attention is brought to the guitar. The guitar and the bass line are not just playing off of each other. They have a connection. Everything is connected. I have yet to make it through a song focusing on just one part. They way they are connected together it it’s not a drum kit, guitar, bass and singer. It’s one instrument.

The same way a stringed instrument has different parts that make up how the instrument sounds. A band becomes a single instrument. Not just the performance. The sounds blend together in a way that makes sense.

From the whole, you can then go in and hyper focus on a small little detail. The focus doesn’t take effort. There is no struggle.

Vocals are interesting on their own. When there is the smallest bit of ambience on the vocal recording, the echo comes through so clear. Songs I never knew that there was any echo at all, now it can be easily heard. As if the singer cloned themself and was whispering the lyrics a split second after.

Every day, I’m checking to make sure I’m not listening to a remastered version or a completely different version of songs I’ve been listening to for decades. Some songs sound like they have been re-recorded. New instruments and a different mic setup. It’s that large of a change.

All of this is driven on the foundation of bass. This might be the most difficult to convey. Even subsonic bass feels different. It might be because It’s so new. Bass might be more complex than midrange and treble combined! There is so much there! It’s audible and tactile. The tactile aspect is the most fascinating to me currently. The experience we all have had is when music is played energy hit’s our body. It’s almost constant, no dynamics. Difference is standing in a pool of water vs the ocean with waves. There isn’t much excitement with the pool. The ocean is dynamic and exciting, ever changing. The waves can be calming and serene or full of power and force. Music (sound waves) especially the bass have the same properties. It’s a new experience which I’m enthralled with.

The tactile feeling might be why open air drum circles are so popular… or maybe it’s the drugs? Or, both?

I’ve lowered the volume I listen at by ~ 5db SPL. The explosiveness of the music makes it seem a lot louder. Peaks of 71-72db exciting. 75-80 is crushing.

I’m going to make some numbers up real quick to illustrate a point.

Room 1. 30 db ambient noise. It’s treated so all the frequencies get in, do their job and leave quickly. 50db vocals are easy hear, 20db of dynamics range on the vocals. Bass hit of 70db, 40db swing!

Room 2. 30 db ambient noise. The frequencies hangout and over stay their welcome. raising the “active ambient” noise to 50db. Now, Vocals at 50db are hard to hear. What do we do? raise the volume. Now the Vocals are at 60db, the “active ambient” noise has raised to 53db. 7 db of dynamics on the vocals. Bass hits at 80 db now, problem is bass is drunk throws up on the floor and passed out on your couch. For a few moments the “active ambient” is raised to 70db, leaving 10 db of dynamic range on the bass hit. It also covers up the harmonics and subtlety that the bass can offer. To compound this the “active ambient” noise is above the vocals so you don’t hear all of them.

Room 1 “active ambient” and ambient noise are the same. This is what treating / managing the bass does.

Room 2 is a typical room. It’s actually worse than that! This example isn’t taking into account room modes.

Have a “fast” amp and speakers? Your room has one foot on the brake and the other on the gas ruining it all.

Hey Groovy,
Incredible room! What part of East Tennessee do you calm home now?

Nigel,

Impressive! Congrats on all your hard work. Looking forward to hear more about your Stereophonic Sound Spectacular Music Room.

Joseph

Thanks for the breakdown, Groove.

Looks like you have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. That would be a “T” for Tennessee - not Texas😁

Best,

Geno

Anytime Geno!

DD, 3 panels, 4’8” x 6’4” and 7” thick will be hung from the ceiling. 3 layers of 2” Acoustic Fields Foam. They will absorb down to 65hz. They are being staged in another room.



One of the reasons I’m such a proponent of their foam is it keeps the room alive while keeping everything neat and tidy.

WOW! it’s been over 3 months since my last update.

This project has been in slow and steady. I’ve added bases for the QDA-17 diffusers. I have 4 QDA-17 diffusers for the back wall now. I’m waiting on the last 3 CPA units for the ceiling.

I did remove the subs for now. I’ve added ESS heil AMT drivers crossed over around 12k hz. Right where the voxativs start to drop off. Adds a nice touch of air and ambiance.

Listening position has been moved to almost an equilateral triangle. 10’5” between speaker center, 10’10” ear to speaker center.

I recently wrote to Dennis at Acoustic Fields. I removed and lightly edited parts.

Dennis,

Really happy with the room. The sound is phenomenal. Looking forward to 4 more CPAs installed.

currently 2 CPAs are installed above the speakers. That was an impressive change for the better.

Some things that people talk about as positives like speakers disappearing and image beyond the speakers become almost a foreign concept. Every thing sounds so natural why would there be speakers? why wouldn’t the image extend past the speakers? The size of the room is meaningless. If the venue the track was recorded in was small and intimate that’s what it sounds like. A huge cathedral or auditorium… that’s what it sounds like. There is an EP by Mirage of Deep - Talking to Stars. The room is so expansive there is no end… the room doesn’t exist. Sounds fade off into nothingness.

There seems to be a scale of (resolution)?

1. Phantom center image.
2. Smooth gradient between the speakers.
3. slight depth past the speakers
4. expanding past the speakers left and right.
5. deepening of sound field behind the speakers.
6. expanding past the speakers left right more.
7. sound encircling the listening position. (hints that the sound is off to your left or right.)
8. The sound comes toward you. NOT forward as in “in your face"
9. sound from behind.
10. the circle envelopes you.
11. You can follow sounds around the sound field (which is larger than the actual room dimensions)

Seat of my pants with that scale, I could / can tighten it up.

Elder Island - Garden This track is really cool! the pressure wave comes from far in the distance, you can feel is coming, it washes over you and keeps on going.

Elder Island - The Big Unknown The electric guitar off to the left is ~3 feet in front of the speaker and ~4 further left. It doesn’t sound like a gimmick. I can turn my head and look at where the guitar amp is and it is still there the illusion doesn’t go away.

Mirage of Deep - Tokio The bass (sub bass?) is very complex and has sharp transients. It’s really hard to explain this one in words. I guarantee a fraction of audiophiles have heard bass like this. The low low bass transitions so fast and sharp it was un-nerving the first few times I listened. I don’t think my brain has processed information like that before. Now I’m used to it and it’s something I enjoy.  

James Blake - Limit to Your Love. I’m not sure what the effect is. You cannot miss it when it shows up (50 seconds in). In a room with no pressure management it feels like pressure the room is instantly overloaded and it’s straight noise. In my room it’s a fluttering, you feel the air going backwards and forwards. It changes in frequency and amplitude as well. It’s two totally different experiences. While that is going on you the percussion bounding around is easy to follow and hear fade. There is also a lot of very low bass information that is easily picked up.

One thing that I’m still surprised about is how low of volume I listen at. I’ll finish listening to an album and wonder how loud it was and it was peaks under 70db C weighted. The sound is dynamic and exciting, there is a visceral impact complete immersion into the music. All under 70db! Turn it up a bit hitting peaks of 80db C weighted… it’s goose bumps.

Another constant is that elements don’t get lost when things get complex. Example, if the voice is recorded with a lot of ambiance. When all the instruments are playing you can still easily hear all subtle textures of the room it was recorded in.

Those are some quick notes. I have more.

* END  *

One thing that I’m pleasantly surprised with is how alive the room is. When people see so much absorption they expect the room to sound dead or strange. I’ve said this before. It sounds like being deep in a forrest.

As you can see from the photos the room is almost done. Once the 4 CPAs are installed I’ll focus on making the room more aesthetically pleasing. Good thing I think diffusers look good!

The pile of acoustic foam on the floor will eventually be cut up and make into more panels. I’m waiting until the CPAs are installed to hear how it sounds. I’m going to place absorbers in other rooms of my home too, I doubt it will all go in this room.

Thank you.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is I'm looking into MLV curtains by https://residential-acoustics.com/shop/soundproofing/acousticurtain/ I was going to make some plugs myself with plywood and MLV. I'll give these a shot and see how it goes. I'm going to wait until the cicadas show up to see how effective the will be. I live in a quiet area... except for the cicadas.

I also removed the ESS AMTs over the weekend. Lose a little sparkle on top, over all prefer without them in the system.

Nigel, saying that I’m totally blown away is a huge understatement. What an incredible job you’ve done. I just can’t believe my eyes! Congratulations to you and what you’ve accomplished.

Brad

Dennis reminds me of Gordon Ramsey. No nonsense when it comes to quality and how you should do things. Also, top of his game.

Dennis is a don’t waste our time type of person. If you watch a bunch of his videos you should have a good idea what he is like on the phone. When I first spoke to him I was going to buy some of his foam. I mentioned that I built some panels with 703. He instantly said. If you have the skills to make a frame don’t waste your money buying the built frames from me, they are really expensive. Buy the foam and make the panels yourself that makes more sense.

He is correct! the built panels from him are very expensive. I bought 4 sheets of foam from him. Replaced 4 of the 703 panels and I was ruined! I had a majority of 703 panels still at that time. The improvement was unmistakeable.

At that time I was looking for a new home so I wasn’t looking to buy anything more.

My brother bought 4 of the Acoustic Fields Carbon Panels which are diaphragmatic absorbers. He was blown away by the improvement in bass. So I was 100% sold on the approach and technology.

When I contacted Dennis after I bought my new home, I knew I was all in and had a good idea about what I wanted. I filled out the forums and sent him some photos with what I was looking for. He broke down the plusses and minuses of my room. He asks a bunch of questions. He doesn’t waste time and says exactly what is needed. I can see this rubbing people the wrong way. He isn’t on the phone to become best buds with you.  He sees the problem figures out how to solve it and then asks what do you want to do about it?

His products are significant money. He is aware of that and is respectful of budget, he does push it a bit which I cannot fault.

Dennis offered 2 or 3 different options. I chose to do it in stages, which he recommended. Get some of the treatment in, listen see what I thought and go from there.

When I received my first order of Carbon Panels I was shocked that they were black! My brothers are a clear/wood grain. I wasn’t asked what color I wanted, all the photos on the website are of a clear coated product. I was a bit upset over this. Dennis was like it is what it is, listen with your eyes closed. That’s really messed up. At the end of the day it wasn’t a huge issue for me. I can see this right here being a reason people speak so poorly about him.

I’ve seen a few reviews and posts about Dennis how they had a bad experience. I’m not sure what to make of that. Part of me thinks that some people are so entitled now that if they don’t get red carpet service they have been slighted, they get butt hurt and throw a pity party and try to get everyone to join them.

Dennis does guard his time. To speak with him you need to make an appointment. I received a shipment on Friday, had a few questions and I couldn’t get an appointment until Tuesday. It’s a bummer, I would probably do the same thing in his position. He is turse, I can see this being a huge turn off to a lot of people.

One thing I’m sure of is he desperately wants people to have an amazing room, he is passionate about providing a music room which offers an out of this world experience. Every time we chat about how the room has changed he gets excited and his demeanor changes. He is like a kid at Christmas. He is so passionate about how good music can sound.

I didn't know how good it can get. I'm happy I went with this approach.

Manny, My pleasure. I've also seen the posts about no products or services, I'm not sure what to make of that. It's very odd.

I just got a confirmation that the last 3 CPAs are shipping soon.

The day has finally come! All the heavy lifting—literally—is done.



It's been over a year slowly getting all the treatment in place. I'll take a few more photos and write more once I get the Torii MKV back from Cryotone.

I'm going to make some frames for the foam that's set on top of the diffusers and diaphragmatic absorbers. I'm also considering making small frames for foam placed in the first reflection points between the speakers and listening position.

I'm not in a rush to get that done right now.

Gilf, Thank you. What was your experience with the 4 Carbon Panels?

I just went from 3 CPA (Ceiling Perforated Absorbers) to 6. There was a nice bump in resolution and overall room sound. Cost to benefit? Incredibly high.

The biggest improvement was when I hit critical mass of the Carbon Panels. After that it’s been somewhat linear increase in performance as I’ve added more treatment. Adding diffusion increased the “size” of the room. Adding diffusion on the back wall wasn’t as dramatic as when I first got the diffusion on the front wall. Putting the diaphragmatic absorbers under the diffusers was jump up.

Adding the first two CPAs was a bit of a jump everything became more in focus in 3d. Adding the 3rd CPA increased the envelopingness. Adding the next 3 CPA added more of the same plus gave more resolution in the bass.

Bass resolution is what I would suggest everyone to go after. Bass is the foundation of music that everything else rides on, spend your room treatment resources getting that right.

I’m currently using the $230 3.5w el84 Tubecube amp, until the Torii gets back from Don. The overall experience with this little amp is so good! The music has weight in space in the room. I can also hear ALL the flaws. It’s a little glassy on top, soundstage is small, struggles with complex passages and the list goes on. However, if I had someone come over and hid what amp was playing I could tell them it’s a $10,000 amp and I bet they would believe me no questions asked. The room is so much of the final experience.

It also shows go amazing Decware amps are. When the Torii MKV was in the system the room size was not a consideration. Everything filled out into the area it wanted to go. How far does the soundstage go beyond the speakers and how deep past the front wall? Well, does it matter if the singer is 17 feet vs 20 feet past the front wall when you are having an intense emotional connection to the music? For me it’s the last thing on my mind when in the flow of listening music.

Without knowing more about your room and not being an expert I really don’t know. My hunch is more Carbon Panels is the way to go. Getting the bass right is the biggest step up in musical enjoyment I’ve ever had.

I would schedule a call with Dennis and see what he says.

I’m going to be out of town for a week. I should have the Torii back by then so I’ll get some listening time in and write more about the entire experience and the experience of what it’s like listening to music.

When I mentioned to Dennis that I need to be able to get in and out of the room. He simply said they are on casters and you can easily move the diffuser out of the way. They do easily move and multiple times a day I “open and close” the diffuser door and then open and close the door behind it. He really focuses on the room, will tell you what needs to be done and let you decide how far you are willing to go.

Quote:


Yes, yes it can. However, if you are happy with everything, stay happy. If you get the itch to upgrade go for more diaphragmatic absorption! I haven't hit a point where I was disappointed with the cost to performance ratio.

Right before I purchased the final 3 CPAs for the ceiling I was considering trying the Critical Mass Footers. They are stupid expensive, people also rave about them. I mentioned this to my brother. He basically said. Don't be stupid spend the money on the room treatment. It was the correct decision. When in doubt add more correct treatment.

I'm not sure which is the better value the 12x12" cubes or 24x24” absorber. I'm tempted to buy a few of both for other rooms in my home. I'm also thinking about using a few cubes as a table next to the listening position.

My brother's room is 11x15(?). He has 12 Carbon Panels in the room and it sounds fantastic!

GS, I appreciate your Acoustic Fields video, especially how clear you were in pointing out previous issues and the ways you experienced solutions as the room evolved. Without, we don't know where you started, or how you ended up in such a nice place!

Especially interesting to me, you talked about some confusion in the past from bass instruments not differentiating well enough, and also not completely resolved individually. Seems a challenge for most of us, bass so hard to manage in most rooms. In some senses I guess I have been a little luckier than many in that way, in that I have never been able to stand muddled bass sonically... always needing to hear the complex character of bass instruments from within the collective. Part of this for me has been that bass modes and muddle give me fatigue, while masking too much of the mids and fine detail in space that makes the music real... so I have not really had a choice in having to sort it out one way or another.

Also I have been lucky having natural houses since I got into the earlier stages of my "audiophile" explorations. In 1980 we moved to the back mountains of NC, caretaking a nice, funky log house while building a kiln and making pottery and gardening and all there. We had lived without power for four years, waiting to see if we could buy the place...a mile from power lines, we were hoping to put in a micro-hydro system I had been researching. It was funny, the last year or so as it looked like we were coming into agreement with the owners, we would go to the audio store in Johnson City, TN, across the mountain  from where we lived. It was our closest shopping town, about 45 minutes drive then, not so much because of being a lot of miles away... my wife once counted 115 curves between our house and Unicoi, maybe half way to Johnson City, when things flattened out finally.

This was 1983, and the guys at the stereo store, us coming in a lot, thought we were a little crazy for while, but ended up sort of believing I would buy from them finally. Still when we showed up sometime in 1984 with the pickup, and with brand new Maytag washer in the truck, they were a little taken aback.

After a lot of research and listening, I had decided on a pretty nice NAD receiver, a pair of ADS 1090s, a B&O turntable with their second best cartridge, and later, a Veladyne sub and a Nakamichi CD player. I needed a special inverter for my power system then to play music without too much noise, so had two, one for power in general and one that was "true sine wave" for the stereo.

And now, knowing more about room issues I realize how lucky we had been. The log house was made with irregular round logs and beams, deep grooved tongue and groove ceilings and floors, and a big rock chimney maybe 8-9 feet wide that held up the center of the house and was quite irregular being made of natural granite rocks. So we had a lot of natural diffusion. Also, the living room opened with maybe 4-5' openings on each side of the wide chimney to the next room (kitchen and dining room) the openings behind and off a little to the side of the speakers. Then, for bass modes the building could not sort out, I used the low bass button turned on, and the bass knob turned down some. With the sub dialed in and barely audible, I had decent bass that was deep, pretty fast, and pretty revealing and textured.

Over 20 years later, moving here to this adobe house with lots of variations in spaces connected by biggish openings; mostly irregular wall, floor, ceiling surfaces; the walls angling out a little floor to ceiling; big log beams, and the ceiling rough herringbone boards with gaps and with double tar paper on top, then lots of fiberglass, then a pretty tight air space, then a foamed roof; irregular brick floors on sand.... basically the way the place was made created a lot of diffusion and absorption, and also a lot of mass.

It was good with an SE34 for the most part, a little boom on some recordings, but the Torii changed that. With Steve's help, I built some small low and mid bass traps where I could, along with a little more 2-6" absorption where I could put it without messing with our living space much, and tuned by ear, along with doing some speaker tuning, basically a few Marigo dots on the drivers to cut resonances, and tuning the plinth spaces on the bottom by sound, I was getting there. Then carefully finding the room mode areas (by sound) and doing some narrow EQ cuts in Audirvana directly on the audio files (now Amarra with simpler EQ), and some low shelves and/or hi passes lowest down, it got pretty amazingly good.  Then years later, adding my little sub carefully tuned and barely on, helping with standing waves I think, I have been able to compensate for room modes for the most part and have had beautifully revealing and musical bass. I avoid measurements, but I guess not a whole lot way low. I am OK with that though when the rest is so good, feeling different levels of bass hit, and hearing a lot of complexity. Fast, awake, and un-muddled, when right, it shows all instruments clearly while sounding pretty real to me... and as much, like I need it to enjoy it while avoiding fatigue. And as usual, when the bass is more right, there is that cool thing that makes hearing the rest easier and sweeter.

Here, once found, it is pretty noticeable when the balances of speed, dynamics, and the spectral range move "off," including if super fine information in space is truncated or masked. A really nice part of that, as things get better and better, when a little off the balances of balances, it is obvious, so sort of self regulating in terms of tuning with system/room changes. If it gets a touch off, I have to find a way to solve that. Finally, I have never heard the speakers in this room, the stage wide and deep, and the whole without boundaries when all is right.

So in 40 or so years of better audio in my own spaces, even at its worst, I have been, for the most part, able to differentiate complex bass information, in part because it hurts my ears if off, even when most is differentiated. Because of this, it always surprises me when people talk about "one-note-bass," or some near variant of that. And if my body could tolerate it, I can't imagine enjoying that sound, or imagine how that must damage the mids and all the rest, making it harder to discern whatever is off, so more difficult to find changes that most easily improve the whole. So though room treatment has always been pretty clearly important, the more I hear about the experiences of others in sheetrock rooms, the more lucky I feel from having the houses I have had, while not being concerned about conventions in finding creative ways to solve issues. Though not perfect, and maybe arrived at in unusual ways, for the most part across recording styles, it sounds to me like real instruments in a good rooms here, with balances that show it in resolving and complex ways like real instruments in good rooms, the space as important as the sounds, and it can be pretty off the charts to me.

All that said I can easily imagine your room, so carefully tuned, it must be breathtaking! So I thank you for this thread and your video. It was fun, and I can really imagine the captivating magic there!

From GS: "We don’t know what we don’t know. When we think we have an idea of what we don’t know, then experience it, we again realize we have no idea what we don’t know."

"One thing I’ve been becoming more and more aware of lately is how much “I” have an influence on the sound and experience. In the last few weeks I’ve really stepped up my morning silent meditation from 0-20 minutes to 30-60 minutes. The experience of listening to music is significantly different."

Interesting thoughts... I can only imagine how these fit with your evolving room and evolving experiences, but I know it must be amazing beyond words!

Seems a thing for me, especially lately, that interesting thoughts and experiences seem to catalyze exploration through writing... helping me find out what is rolling around in the mind.... I hope this one is of some use and not too divergent from some of the themes of this thread.


Supporting your thoughts, seems that everything in nature is in a steady state of transformation... no matter how slow.... not static. And everything interactive, "by nature," all things influencing all else, even the smallest transformations change the whole. So how can we absolutely know anything, except that everything is always changing, even if very subtly.

Yet as humans, though "of" transformative nature, our thoughts, knowledge, perception, and discernment tend to grow static... absolute...  Isn't this against our nature?

Making it worse, we tend to be cultured to believe and protect static knowledge that proves this or that in isolation, these "truths" tending to be turned into rules rather than new beginnings to explore from. Think how long it has taken to relax ideas that wires sound alike if they "measure" more-or-less alike...  Or thinking an OK DAC or streamer that appears to sound pretty good is all that is needed to make 1s and 0s a good start for our whole musical experience...while holding all the rest back...


Your observations about meditation changing you and the musical experience make me think of traditional meditation. It can help us slow down habitual thought patterns that amplify time anxiety and keep us agitated, allowing more mind space for noticing our innate, but culturally suppressed alignment with harmonic nature. With practice, seems this more attuned consciousness can grow quiet enough for our creativity and wisdom to become stronger aspects of our day to day, while helping us to remain more grounded and enhancing perception and discernment.

Also, with luck, less agitated and more receptive, we can more easily clear up modifications of reality that are close enough to truth to feel real, but with investigation prove not to be (delusions). Seems most of us know deep down that modified truths, often created to allow acting out our desires while not quite noticing negative consequences, are not good for us.

But culturing normalizes lots of things that are not good for us. The circle complete, a fabric of interwoven delusions are "hidden" under cultural conditioning, making them difficult to notice and solve.... Pointing to the big challenge. Delusions need to be "under the radar" in order to feel real. And not noticed in our cultural rush, it is hard to know they even exist, and even less, how much they influence us. But one look at the state of "humanity" makes it pretty clear that something is causing our human world to be on a progressively less "humane" and healthy track.



Compounding problems, culturally, we tend to attach to our established beliefs as a form of "comfort" and control, attachment strengthening and protecting delusion influenced patterns. And so many partial realities influencing our "reality," the parts that are not quite true, variable and juxtaposed, they leave us confused, even thinking there is no reality.

So reality becomes "gray," unclear, confusing... making it easier to grow more mistrustful of, and out of sync with our "gut feelings," our "intuition," aspects of our more holistic harmonic nature. Yet from refining "intuition," simpler reality can become clearer, clear enough that when we act out our desires to the detriment of others, we notice this should be looked into as potentially "bad" behavior. Or if we act out our desires to the benefit of ourselves and others, this is likely "good" behavior. Pretty simple...

Yet our gray culture tends to obscure simpler realities with complications and confusions. And by holding onto convoluted self defeating beliefs as reality, we resist our inner harmonic wisdom that is innately attuned with collective truth if given the chance.

No matter how inadvertent, in a transformative world, seems to me reenforcing static beliefs as if they cannot be improved upon, is literally opposed to the very powerful flows of harmonic nature... Holding tight to static "reality" like going into a flooding river and trying to stop the flow, resisting that which can't be effectively resisted. So adhering to lots of static beliefs costs us loads of our precious and limited energy, too often leaving us overwhelmed, exhausted, confused and defeated... so much so, it is hard to meaningfully notice and change destructive patterns.... while burning up energy that could be used for healing, for improving, for growing more in sync with harmonic reality.



Yet, culturally normalized as "the ways it is" etc, delusions pass from generation to generation... keeping us confused, while supporting not quite noticing the suffering we habitually cause to ourselves and others.

Thus the quest for, and the term, "true nature." In traditional meditation circles, seems most of us are trying to resolve delusions and associated suffering. By relaxing habitual thought patterns that are not so good for us, our innate wisdom consciousness can become more influential on our time, thoughts, actions....allowing deeper immersion in all we do, including music, system tuning, room tuning, or cooking and cleaning...  



For me, a poignant example of how insidious delusional patterns can be... when my wife and I were 1st asked to teach pottery, we realized that the biggest barrier to making beautiful things was less about technique, tools, design, etc, and more about cultural conditioning that we are not creative, and associated insecurity in exploring creativity. Yet creation, being an aspect of transformation, and transformation a driving force of nature.... we realized creativity is innate... while once again noticing that conditioned beliefs got something very wrong. By limiting our creative potential we limit our excitement for exploration, discovery, and growth in most things.

So finding ways to help folks more comfortably explore innate creativity, we needed to understand it. Foundationally, we started to put it together that since all in nature is fundamentally transformative, then so are we.... Cells, thoughts, feelings, insights always evolving, creative activity, as an aspect of transformation, is not special, but at the core of being human.

Then we looked at what we came to call "the creative cycle." It seems to rise out of an innate need to improve our ways of being in the world... which leads to curiosity... and curiosity leading to exploration, open-minded exploration leads to discovery... then discovery changes our baseline of knowledge, creating a new beginning to explore refinement from...



Leading back to meditation. Immersion in creative process captivates our mind like realistically presented music can, naturally relaxing habitual thoughts. Whether we are making art, washing the dishes, experiencing music, or driving a car..... about any activity can be creative and meditative. The mind less overwhelmed by distractions, open and receptive consciousness allows us to feel more "from the heart." Less driven by conditioned beliefs and thoughts, we can grow more open to finding out what is real through investigation... creative self-thought exciting because exploration and discovery are fun. Finally, as mind grows more clear, creative paths grow clearer and more compelling, making it easier to feel we are part of an interactive whole, while making collective wisdom easier to notice and nurture.

Probably the basis of "intuition," a function of our more inclusive consciousness being its abilities to perceive and utilize lots of information around us all at once... intuitive insights are sourced from way too much information in a single moment to easily describe from the linearized "realities" we are culturally taught to believe are our primary sources of truth. And practicing to relax comparatively slow and confusing linearized training enough to be able to take in more all at once, "intuitive" insights can more efficiently improve whatever we are working on, whether solving delusions, or fine tuning our systems and rooms.


Foundational to more active meditations, I like your pointer to more time in formal meditation. In formal meditation... most of what we are doing is settling conditioned mind patterns while uncovering experiences of native consciousness. I really like how more concentrated meditation, especially at the beginning of the day, sets the stage for the rest of the day, making active meditations throughout the day easier and more penetrating. And for me also, longer daily sits tend to set that tone more fully... and usually progressively over time.


Just a little step further... in our listening seats, when the music is complete, balanced and real feeling, "meditation" can happen without much, or any effort. Captivated by the musical experience, we naturally allow more mind space for enhanced creative consciousness, perception and discernment. This is a big part of music in the home for me, and at times I like to cultivate this natural meditation more formally.

As mind wanders in musical meditation to "which sluggo would work better here or there," or whatever....in traditional meditation training, as we notice distracting thoughts, we might try to let them pass.... no blame... while redirecting awareness "back to breath." With musical immersion, I like to consciously let the thoughts pass, and just go back to being a part of "the music."

I love it that in this time, we can make our system/rooms so good it can be mind bending... sweet and alive, with ease and harmonic beauty, it can naturally pull us in, while opening consciousness to discovery.

My thoughts today anyway.