1) We all know that one’s emotional state can affect how one feels about the sound of their system. This state can increase or decrease the likelihood of having a druglike sound experience.

2) We also know, or have read about, how alcohol and various drugs can affect how one feels about the sound of their system and can similarly increase or decrease the likelihood of having a druglike sound experience.

3) There are other things, both internal and external, that can also affect (increase) the probability of a druglike experience.

Artificially inducing strong emotions (1), like anger [got fired, for example] or exuberance [got hired], just to have a druglike sound experience seems a little on the ‘needs therapy’ side of the fence. (2) can be hard on the body and or brain cells. (3) however, if we can enumerate several relatively sane and healthy techniques, would seem to be the approach of choice.

Things that [may] affect the probability of a druglike experience:

A) Mood lighting. Bright light seems to be of no help at all, but dim light, the glow of vacuum tubes, city lights or Christmas tree lights all seem to increase the chance of a druglike sound experience

B) Comfortable seating, in my experience, does NOT affect the probability of a Druggish experience

C) Going from a good to a great quality sound / recording does increase the probability of this experience. Perhaps one can artificially arrange to closely listen to, first, a medium quality recording then a high quality one, esp. of the same music, JUST to create one of these experiences?

D) Casual chitchat during the music almost always reduces the probability to zero.

E) Being tired, but not so relaxed that you are falling asleep, in my experience, increases the probability.

F) Good company, whether friends or strangers, increases the probability. Hostile people, or just people in a bad mood, people reduces the probability to near zero.

Other things to think about: aroma, clothing, ambient temperature, time of day. Others?

I guess we should try and define some of these terms and then [I should] try even harder to stick to using them correctly.

*Harmonic Purity is analogous, in my mind to a tuning fork. A ‘ringing’ purity with all subharmonics intact and appropriately long decays. The opposite to harmonic purity is ‘blanched’ [i.e. washed out. Anyone else use a different term?]

*Color is how much subharmonics are present at all frequencies and SPLs and dynamics, especially in the smaller, more subtle notes. The opposite to having lots of color is Leanness.

*Harmonic Vividness is the cross product (multiplication) of Harmonic Purity and Color – when they are both present the music harmonics are very brightly colored – very real [or better than real since many live performances have lots of soft people around you absorbing various harmonics]. Harmonic Vividness is the real goal here with respect to harmonics.

*Harmonic Resolution is how many different harmonic tones are audible within a single major note. The lack of harmonic resolution [no term for this yet] is for example a middle ‘C’ note where all you can hear is the one frequency, growing loud then soft. With lots of harmonic resolution that same note has audible delineatable harmonics in the related octaves, as well as some harmonics at freq a little above and below [if this is a real world instrument] and all of which decay at different rates – and sometimes reinforcing and/or diminishing each other- lending a fullness and richness and character to the note.

From a recent deranged comment (of mine :-)):

“McIntosh can be said to have color, but it is low on harmonic purity and ‘vividness’. I do not see this as a particularity good thing. There is this Visual Color I see when I hear equipment. Valhalla is bluish silver. Jorma Prime is orangish brown [more like a burnished orange, actually]. McIntosh… is uneven, kind of like a faded-in-some-areas worn plaid pastel shirt. The Ongaku is…”

[as I continue to think about the mental colors I associate with things that I like the sound of…]

… like sunlight on a bar of gold [a lot of bright colors on a background that is slightly gold]. The AN DAC 5 Signature was as close to a pure rainbow (or prism, think Dark Side of the Moon album cover) as I have heard.

Sometimes colors are hard to pin down (for me, anyway). The Nordost Odin power cord is white. The Odin interconnect is slightly grayer than the Odin PC. The AN PALLAS is a smallish rainbow [actually, 100s of smallish prisms. and the Lamm ML3 is millions of smallish prisms]. The Lamm ML2.1 is purplish grayish white.

I do not see a mental color when I think of speakers, or rather I see the actual color of the speaker itself in my mind, which is *so* boring 🙂

Anyone else have colors they associate with equipment?

This task, to determine which small tube amps will have the greatest chance to be able to produce a drug-like sound, is very dependent on the speakers being used. But each amp does have general characteristics that we can try and talk about on a ‘generic’ speaker.

As a generic speaker, let’s just imagine we did a melting together of the following [we are leaving out extremely hard to drive speakers and those that have issues] $12K to $25K speakers: Kharma 3.2, Avantgarde Duo, Marten Getz, Marten Miles, Wilson Sophia, Quad, the small Gershwin, Audio Machina, and all of the many Audio Note speakers in this price range… [I am trying to think of all the speakers that had micro-dynamics – and therefore a chance to be drug-like – when I have heard them driven by small tube amps in this price range. I know I am forgetting a few. There are also quite a few above $25K].

Others in this price range I have heard have good micro-dynamics driven by good solid-state: Avalon Opus/Indra, SoundLab, …

This is a really funny exercise for me… for example, a lot of these speakers often have so-so [or worse] Boy Toy amps on them at most shows and sound, you guessed it, so-so [or just bad]. Many more speakers might do fine with small tube amps – but there is so much pressure to create that Boy Toy sound at shows [we feel this pressure ourselves when we exhibit at shows], that exhibitors [and no doubt your average dealers] take the path of least resistance and put a big Boy Toy amp on the speakers.

Why is there this pressure to show Boy Toy sound?

Anyway… [including Joule Electra and Atma-Sphere here with the small amps, being OTL and all. Lars is by Engström & Engström. VAC is here because… it has more of a small amp sound]

Micro-Dynamics =>
Jolida – Rogue – Cary – Art Audio – Pathos – Atma-Sphere – Manley – ASL – Air Tight – Tri – Joule Electra – Conrad Johnson – Audio Valve —> Mastersound – Nagra – WAVAC – VAC – Zanden – Berning OTL —> Lars – Audio Note – Lamm

Micro-Harmonics / Harmonic Purity =>
Pathos – Rogue – Atma-Sphere – Jolida – WAVAC – Cary – Air Tight – Manley – ASL – Art Audio – Tri – Conrad Johnson – Nagra —> VAC – Berning OTL – Mastersound – Joule Electra —> Lars – Zanden – Lamm – Audio Note

[This is just a VERY general categorization, it REALLY depends a LOT on the speakers you are using – though less so with the amps with very-high-quality output stages like Audio Note and Berning or beefier outputs like VAC, Joule-Electra.

TBD: Shindo have not been heard with equipment of known decent quality – i..e their sound has not impressed but the associated equipment could have been the potential culprit. Have not heard Jadis in a long time (but they will be at CES 2011)

—> indicates a wider gap. Elsewhere one could, arguably, perhaps, swap an amp with its neighbor amp or two.

Mixing Micro-harmonics and Harmonic purity like this in the same list was convenient but might be a mistake although I believe both contribute to a drug like complexity to the sound].

OK. Comments?