musically rejuvenated!

radiohead's ok computer - one of the all-time-best rock albums

i just had an long interview/chat with nick chua, malaysia's youngest audio designer (the article of which will appear in this issue of av xpress) and it turned out that we share many common views on audiophilia.

we feel that many audiophiles today don't listen to music anymore, instead they concentrate on sound. me included, i am guilty of that over the past 2 years during which i worked so hard to optimize my sound. as a result, i used too many audiophile-approved discs to fine-tune my system. it can get tiring after a while, listening to the same old boring music.

deep inside, like nick, i like 90s indie/rock bands like new order, smashing pumpkins and radiohead, to name but just a few. years of fulfilling life as an hardcore audiophile has killed my passion for rock music because most of them don't sound good in a typical system set up for diana krall, jacintha or carol kidd - if you get my drift.

so when i reached home tonight, i have the sudden urge to dig out my radiohead collection and listen thru my oh-so-pretty-sounding system, never mind that it doesn't have the rawness and grunt that it should have. in fact, everything is so beautified and unreal - that's not really how radiohead should sound! but do i care? no, not at all; because the music moves me; because i can connect with the music!

the way i organize my cds (i have over 1,000 cds) in my cd cabinet is such that all my rock/indie cds are buried inside the inner part of the cabinet, never get the chance to see the light of the day! so, i haven't played them for years.

tonight, i decided to swap all those audiophile cds i have been playing for the last 2 years with all the rock/indie cds that were buried inside. i have hundreds of them and i see bands like lemonheads, suede, new order, teenage fanclub, u2, REM, radiohead and many other successful and significant bands of the 90s.

now that my system is tip-top, i want to listen to more music, the kind with angst, pathos, emotions and soul.

musically rejuvenated, yeah!