Blackbody v.2

A six chapter conjecture on the mental struggle of striving for the best noise floor

1. Do I need it?
2. Beginnings: some pre-history about earliest experimentation
3. Ok, too much for me, I'm out!
4. New Blackbody concept!
5. Solar Wind
6. Summary of the theory

Probably, everyone will at first find the Blackbody v.2 a strange item. And, probably, everyone will be asking what purpose it serves in the first place. Its goal is to mitigate some of the sources of low level distortion which plague the advanced audiophile's listening experience. If you do not consider yourself an advanced audiophile, you may not expect it to be possible that there can be much to be gained. The Blackbody v.2 brings enhanced functionality to an already performing system. The better and more sensitive the performance of the system, the more evident will be the performance of the Blackbody v.2.

Do I need it?

You can liken the need for the Blackbody v.2 to the need of a musician for a choice instrument. Only the insider is truly interested in nuance. The level of musicianship presently achieved will determine the ultimate level of need for a better, more nuanced and capable, instrument. When you hear an experienced luthier speak of how an antique master's instrument seems to have taken on some qualities of all the musicians who have played it in the past, if you have no direct experience with such sensitivities yourself, you will inevitably be bewildered how this can even be. Your object-oriented view of the world is limited such that this realm of discussion will have no direct meaning to you. But an experience-oriented view of the world can put you in a position to appreciate it along with those who also share in the experience. It's not that everybody is insane; it's merely that their sanity is fortified with direct experience, so the conversation is now esoteric in the sense that it is only comprehensible to those who have direct experience.

At this point I refer you to this video where some classical guitars are compared and contrasted by people with various levels of said experience.



The entire video is interesting. Relevant to our discussion, though, I'd point out these two moments:

03:22 → “Therefore, they never really sound all that great because they're pristine, untouched and never played.”

18:48 → “One of the things that we found about these old instruments that have been played a lot, especially been played by great players, is the instruments learn the music. The better the players that have had it, the more times it's been taught to play it.”

An experienced musician will wholeheartedly agree, and not only agree, but also relate to this while playing the revered instrument themselves. You can see this and perhaps relate to it in the video.

This is all to say that there is an audience for certain experience-based sensitive subjects. They will already be on the cusp of personal discovery, eager to know more, will delve in, and reap benefit from the nuance in question, whereas there will be others who begin as inexperienced skeptics, want nothing of it, and remain skeptical.

Who is this for?

This material is intended for those who have already made considerable advance in their personal audio playback journeys. It is not intended for those who are still questioning such fundamental aspects such as the seeming impossibility of cable design to influence sonic outcome after conversion of electromagnetic energy to acoustical energy through a motor driver. In our luthier example from before, they would be the ones still learning to hold and tune the instrument and to grip their first chord combinations. Many years of practice later they may come into intense confrontation with sublime notions such as tonal quality, balance throughout the range, details of string and wood composition, and the highly specific and daily changing structure of their own fingernails.

So, in this way, I hope to have informed the disinterested public and am left with those who may find interest in this (to us experienced audiophiles) exciting new realm of discovery with regard to audio performance. If you are not one of those experienced audiophiles, you may nevertheless find it interesting to follow the mental struggle of discovery as you see how we seek to connect the dots.

As we advance in this art, the more we care about it, the more we realize, eventually, that every little detail of an audio system has some influence on the resulting sound quality. In our own quest towards the perfection of audio playback, we have gone through many experiments and considerations. Some of these processes and considerations are depicted in summary form below.

Continue to page 2.

1. Do I need it?
2. Beginnings: some pre-history about earliest experimentation
3. Ok, too much for me, I'm out!
4. New Blackbody concept!
5. Solar Wind
6. Summary of the theory