SOUND TRAVELS

In this visit we meet an audio industry professional with a fervent passion for audio and beautiful designs with a highend system in an idyllic environment conducive to the pure enjoyment of music.

On this visit we meet an audio industry professional with a fervent passion for audio and beautiful designs, with a high-end system in an idyllic environment conducive to the pure enjoyment of music.

Edgar Kramer: Do you have a first memory, a first unforgettable musical experience that left an impression?

Peter Smith: Yes, I remember sneaking into my parents’ bedroom while they were away, as a curious tenyear-old. This was where the stereo was kept. It was an Aladdin’s cave of musical wonders, a preciously guarded altar for the mysterious and joyful all-in-one stereo. At the time, even though my music education had begun many years prior, I saw this as an opportunity to exercise my own choices… to discover new artists and deeper layers of music while in my own world, in that dream-like moment. As the needle dropped, Jim Morrison’s howls and Ray Manzarek’s ‘Light My Fire’ iconic keyboard riff opened a… door. It was a transformation, an awakening. I hovered off on a voyage of discovery floating with Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Beethoven, Mozart and even Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet and Maurice Chevalier, the latter trio being guilty pleasures of a Francophile father. I gorged and consumed. I’ve been on that trip ever since and even now, after so many years, a moving piece of music will raise goose bumps and invoke in me that same sense of childish wonder.

EK: And later what started you on the audio equipment quest?

PS: The curiosity with the audio equipment itself came much later. As a teenager I enjoyed my father’s modest systems which I completely appropriated. But the quest for ever-more realistic-sounding music had me bugging my father into several upgrades. Then, when I started working in my early 20s, I spent all my savings on an Akai separate components system which started me on the equipment path. I’ve been progressively upgrading ever since. Now I’m at the outskirts, at the close periphery of the final destination.

EK: Yours is certainly a high-end system. What can you tell us about your choice of components?

PS: I’ve always admired high levels of engineering while also appreciating the beauty, functionality and precise construction of evolved industrial design. In its purest form, a product possessing these attributes is the reflection of a passionate and talented designer, a single visionary, who has uncompromisingly developed something he or she would love for themselves. Fortuitously for many companies, this strict ethos has resulted in wide appeal and acceptance by discerning audio enthusiasts which leads to market success. If you peruse my equipment list I think you’ll agree that each of the components reflects this philosophy.

EK: How would you describe the sound you’re getting from your current set-up?

PS: Audio reproduction, even via the absolute best systems, is but a poor facsimile of the live event; period. Having said that, I value equipment that produces clarity and tonal truth as well as having high dynamic expression capabilities. I believe these are the fundamental elements of live unamplified music. Soundstaging and imaging are, of course, very important too, in terms of a satisfying music reproduction experience, but in my opinion these are secondary aspects. And that pretty much coincides with the way I connect with the music when experiencing an emotive live performance.

EK: What genre of music do you listen to mostly and who are some of your favourite artists?

PS: I listen to a wide range of music. Not into mindless bubble-gum stuff from the popular charts. Can’t stomach most (but not all) Hip-Hop, Rap and R&B. I enjoy Alternative stuff, Rock, Blues, Jazz, World and some classical with a preference in that genre for Chamber style ensembles. I appreciate artists with integrity and talent.

EK: What would be your ‘desert island’ music albums if you could only choose, say three items?

PS: An almost impossible question. Like asking which of your children would you pick as a favourite. Off the top of my head, I’d select Jeff Buckley’s Grace, A Perfect Circle’s Thirteenth Step, Johnny Cash’s American IV: The Man Comes Around. And more than three: Led Zeppelin’s IV, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, all the works by Astor Piazzolla. And tomorrow, that list may be somewhat different…

EK: In what way does music affect your life, your emotions and the way you feel?

PS: Clichéd as it may sound, I can’t imagine life without music. It moves, invokes, inspires and transports me. As does cinema and literature. To me, life without art is just ordinary existence.

EK: How do you see the way we will consume music in the future?

PS: To be honest, non-physical medium music playback for the last few years has been a chaotic mix of compromises and overcomplexities. As primitive as it may sound to some, in my view, the ownership of physical media for music playback is giving way to file handling and streaming in an assortment of convoluted format choices ranging from the horridly unlistenable—even for the moderately discerning—to the logistically confounding for a wide cross-section of computer-unskilled music-lovers. Unless you’re happy with MP3 via earbuds, quality high-resolution computer audio playback is a quagmire of formats, playback software and hardware choices, each tied in multitudes of compatibility issues and variations thereof.

In the future I would like to see simplicity available to the masses… just like previous formats have offered. I’d like high-quality music playable via any device. I’d like it to be seamless and hitch-free. I’d like it plug’n’play and compatible with audio systems of any level from boom-boxes to the über high-end. I’d also like it to be portable, conveniently shareable and universally compatible. Pipe dream, much?

EK: Where would you like the music industry to go or to evolve to?

PS: Partly answered earlier… and this needs to happen in the very short term. Record company executives and engineers need to sync-up to offer wide availability and playback simplicity. Only when they work in unison—at all levels from the artists, the producers, hardware manufacturers, etc—will they finally motivate consumers and, as a result, enable the music business to have a sustainable and prosperous future.