Grado’s flagship headphone, the PS2000e from their Professional Series.
I always follow up with my clients after they buy a new piece of gear, to make sure they are happy and to answer any questions they may have. Recently, I checked in with a gentleman who had purchased a set of Grado headphones, the flagship PS2000e from their Professional Series. These are some serious cans and I was anxious to hear how he was getting on with them.
Spoiler alert: he was impressed. They were still breaking in and would sound even better after another month or so of use, but already he was loving them. He actually wasn’t surprised as he acknowledged that he’s long been a Grado fan, and the PS2000e was always the endgame in his quest for headphone nirvana. What he didn’t expect was his wife’s reaction when she tried those shiny new headphones for herself.
While he is a staunch audiophile, his wife doesn’t care about sound quality at all. She will listen to anything and as long as it makes noise then that is good enough for her. She has never shown any emotion when it comes to music. So, when he handed her the Grado’s for a listen all he was expecting in return was a sarcastic remark about the price tag. Instead, silence. The next thing he saw was a tear roll down her face. “So beautiful” she said.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without good sounding music and I’ve always wanted to share that experience with others.”
When I heard this story, I was immediately reminded of why I do what I do and why I love my job. Music is powerful. It awakens and stirs emotions deep in the soul. Music is revelatory. It helps us make sense of our lives and our place in the world. Music is therapeutic. It allows us to escape our troubles. Never has this been more true than during the past year! I couldn’t imagine my life without good sounding music, and I’ve always wanted to share that experience with others.
This year marks my twenty-first year with Creative Audio, fourteen of those as owner. I can still vividly remember the first time I ever stepped foot inside Creative Audio, as a kid still in junior high with a fistful of hard-earned bills ready to buy my first ‘real’ piece of audio equipment: an NAD amplifier. Music had always been an important part of my life and after I had a chance to hear the sound from my parents’ old but still functional stereo system, I realized that the ghetto blaster I had been using up to that point was not going to cut it. I came home with my new amp and listened to all of my albums. Each one sounded new and fresh and even though I knew many of them like the back of my hand, I realized then that I had never really heard them.
Our daily lives are saturated with low-fidelity sound: background music in the grocery store, free earbuds that come with our phones, the audio system in our cars, and inexpensive soundbars or TV speakers at home. Our music deserves better. We deserve better. You know that feeling when you hear a song for the first time and it hits you right in the feels? A common comment I get from my clients who have just listened to their new system or upgraded component is that it’s like hearing their favourite music for the first time again. It’s a powerful emotion and that is what quality audio is all about – emotion.
“Hi-fi is about exposing the detail and nuance in the music, at any volume level.”
The other day a friend asked me, “what is ‘hi-fi’ exactly?” I’ll save a full and proper answer to that question for another post, though I can tell you one thing that it’s not: loudness. I’ve heard many objections to investing in a good audio system but one of the most common is “I don’t like loud music”. That’s totally fine, but it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to appreciate the fidelity of great audio. In fact, good sound reproduction at low levels is an important quality I look for in all of the products I sell. Many of my clients live in apartment buildings and condo complexes where the volume needs to be kept down if they are to be good neighbours. Some of the nicest systems I have sold are installed in relatively small rooms. Hi-fi is not about achieving arena-like levels of sound but rather exposing the detail and nuance in the music, at any volume level.
Now getting back to my friend – his question led us to a good old listening session on my own stereo system. I played him some of my favourite demo tracks and I could tell he was hooked. He started asking me to play all of his favourite songs. He wanted to hear what they really sounded like. When we got to ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman – a song that still sounds fresh over 30 years on – he said he had never heard it sound so good and he hadn’t ever noticed the raw passion in Chapman’s voice. It touched him in a way he had never experienced before. That is what hi-fi is all about.
A quality audio system brings you closer to the music and evokes powerful emotions. A system is ultimately comprised of multiple components: a source of music such as a turntable, network audio streamer, or even your phone, as well as an amplifier and a pair of speakers (in a stereo system). Each component will have an influence on the final character of the sound you hear. There is both an objective, qualitative effect (ie. better quality components will resolve more detail in a recording) but also a more subjective character (each brand of speaker, for example, will have its own unique ‘house sound’).
“What you want is a system you can’t stop listening to.”
Building an audio system is a very personal matter, because you will have your own unique preferences for sound quality. Musicians have their own preference for the type of instrument they play and this is because instruments have their own unique character of sound. Notwithstanding their incredible talent, the world’s greatest guitar players – Hendrix, Beck, Gilmour, Clapton – just wouldn’t sound the same if you swapped out their favourite guitar. The same applies to an audio system: change one component and the character of sound will change. What you want is a system that you can’t stop listening to and the key to achieving that is finding the right mix of components that create the sound that you love.
Creative Audio owner Jeff Kowerchuk.
This might sound like an overwhelming undertaking but I am here to help! Technically my work has started before we even meet; I have personally chosen each and every one of the brands that I sell at Creative Audio. There are many things I consider when taking on a product line but sound quality always comes first. I cannot count the number of times suppliers contact me offering a “great deal”. If that is their opening line, I’m not interested. That’s not how I roll. After over twenty years in this business, I can spot those hustlers pretty quick. What they are offering is mediocre at best and I don’t do mediocre. You deserve better. (And also if my store was filled with mediocre audio and that is all I had to listen to all day, I’d go crazy. Life is too short for bad sound!)
You can feel confident that any product you find at Creative Audio, even at modest price points, is truly worthy of being called hi-fi. I put potential candidates through an intense auditioning process, testing multiple models under many different listening conditions. A brand may pass the first hurdle but it’s not over yet for I still have other things to consider such as value, reliability, design and aesthetics. I do this work so that by the time you arrive at my door, I know I have the sharpest tools in my toolkit to help you build your ultimate audio system.
At Creative Audio, I will work with you to help you build your new audio system or improve the one you already have. A quality audio system is not just a random collection of boxes but a system in the truest sense of the word: each part works in tandem with the others to help bring you closer to the music. I don’t sell boxes. I help you experience your music in a way you never have before.
I have to admit that, for me, it’s an easy job. Not only do I have some of the best products in the industry, but I also love doing it. My reward is hearing from my clients after they have had a chance to listen to their new component or system. The most common comment I hear is that they are listening to music more than they ever have before. There’s nothing wrong with that! The most exuberant reaction? “Holy f#$k this sounds amazing!” That is why I love my job!