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About
At Sound Galleries we have a single goal in mind. That is to recreate the sound of real musicians playing in front of you from recorded music. Taking the most common format for recorded music today, the Compact Disc as an example, just imagine how amazing it would be if every single disc you own now, or acquire in the future, would enable you to recreate the musical event, just as though it were being performed live in front of you by the musicians. That would be a feat akin to magic. Amazingly it is achievable, if you take the right approach to selecting your audio system. Audio systems capable of achieving this are relatively rare and hard to come by. The most commonly available systems may create a pleasant enough sound, that reminds you of the music. In reality, though, the next time you find yourself at a live musical event, if you compare it to the experience of listening to music at home, you will usually find the two are worlds apart.
Most people have a tendency to compensate for this, by lowering their expectations when playing music at home. They put live music in one mental compartment and the sound of their home system in another. At Sound Galleries we want to encourage you to raise your expectations for reproduced music, and all we ask is that you compare our systems to live music. Although systems which can get you that close to live music tend to be relatively expensive, even our most modestly priced systems will recreate the essential elements of music making, and can stand comparison to live music. At the same time it is possible to spend vast sums on High-End Audio equipment and not get anywhere near that goal. The key is in getting the recipe right.
When the recipe is right the result is startlingly lifelike and the three dimensional sound of musical instruments has a holographic presentation. Within a Home Cinema system, the best Flat panel displays or projection systems can present a visual image that appears almost three dimensional; but we are always aware this is an illusion, taking place on a two dimensional plane. This is not so when it comes to the best sound systems. They can recreate a sonic image which is far more convincing, and this is true of the best two channel stereo systems. Surround sound systems, if correctly implemented can take this even further. What can be achieved in realism of sound reproduction is far in advance of anything currently attainable from the visual element of movies. In fact one famous movie director is quoted as having said that sound is at least seventy five percent of a movie. If you don’t believe it, try turning the sound off while watching any film. This is why at Sound Galleries although we love movies to, we put the sound first. If your sound system forms part of a home theatre set-up, your enjoyment of movies will be greatly enhanced if you select the finest possible audio system first. This is especially true of concert performances and opera.
We believe that part of getting the recipe right involves going back to design principles from the earlier days of audio, combined with current design techniques and the latest materials. For example we favour wide bandwidth speakers, whereby a single speaker driver handles most of the frequency range and any crossing over between a commonplace woofer and tweeter, and the discontinuities and damage they do to the music, is avoided. Wide bandwidth drivers are relatively rare and expensive. Fortunately though there is a growing trend to incorporate them in modern designs. The result is systems that truly respect the music and achieve the full potential of these designs, and this is something that has to be heard to be appreciated.
Your investment in a fine quality, serious audio system, is actually an investment which will greatly increase the value and pleasure you derive from every recorded performance you own, and will own in the future. If, as I do, you like to be adventurous in trying out new forms of increasingly challenging, and interesting music, you will also find that a fine system will greatly ease your ability in learning to appreciate new forms of music.
We encourage you to bring your favorite disks that you are most familiar with to Sound Galleries for an audition of whichever systems and components you would like to hear from our selection. We love all types of music, so whatever you care to bring along will be just fine with us, and we welcome the opportunity to be introduced to new recordings by our customers. If you can include some recordings of acoustic instruments in a natural space in your selection it will probably make it easier for you to judge the products you will come to audition. We look forward to welcoming you for listening sessions at Sound Galleries.
Geoffrey Armstrong
