Recently I had a discussion with a friend about how the arts (be it music, literature, film, what have you) seem to be in decline, in terms of quality. He attributed the declining quality to a lack of passion among artists. I beg to differ. Artists are always passionate, however they exhibit it, or else they wouldn't choose a life that rarely offers rewards beyond those gained in the practice of their crafts; rather, it is the lack of focus on quality itself that seems to be the reason the arts are in decline, if that is indeed true. People think passion in itself guarantees quality. One has less to do with the other than we assume. It's easy enough to take some successful person as an example and say he or she has such passion that it naturally led to fame and fortune. But you can be sure that there are thousands of others just as obsessive that never make it.
Passion is neither here nor there. It's quality that counts. You're probably wondering how this is related to car audio. The point is that the same problem exists in our industry, and in our niche culture that we work hard to promote. We have a lot of passionate audio enthusiasts that spend a significant amount of time and money on their systems. There are many installers as well that are very serious about installation. And of course, we have plenty of manufacturers that care deeply about the products they make. But none of them, taken together, is a guarantee of quality. You can have all the enthusiasm in the world, but if you don't care about quality, all you have is a lot of noise signifying nothing.
The following is illustrative of the point I'm making: I was going through a bunch of CDs and some old records I saved, randomly perusing some liner notes as I made my way through the collection. I had forgotten how many bands would ask their audience in those notes to listen to their music loud. You can say that's just expressive of a rock 'n' roll attitude. Often that's true; but it doesn't discount the sense behind it. At a certain volume level, it's useless to listen to some types of music. Why bother listening to The White Stripes, Parliament or Mozart on CD at a volume setting of 2? You buy a CD for digital quality and reliability, but then undermine the work of art by reducing the music to decibel nothingness. You may still hear the harmonies, conceptualize the structure, understand something fundamental about the artistry, but you will have grasped it only intellectually. The impact, the tone of the music is diminished by something as simple as the volume at which you played the piece.
The same thinking applies at a different level of quality. You have the volume up, but let's say your amp is insufficient to power your speaker system, thus leading to some distortion. Or maybe you have crossovers set up improperly and your mids sound dull. It can go on and on. Perhaps all you have is volume and not much else-or something that is more often the case: overwhelming bass and weak mids and highs. Kind of reminds me of an aspiring artist that's all passion and no talent.
If you have no standard for quality and no desire to strive for it, ultimately the music will be a distortion of what was intended. The artist is then cheated-and the audience too. So if you're spending the money on art you care about, doesn't it make sense that you care enough to get the true value out of it? Sometimes it's as easy as just turning up the volume.
Speaking of which-I'd like to conclude with a quick comment on the Unified Finals that just took place in Kansas City, MO. I had the opportunity to sit in a couple of SQ vehicles at the show. They had great systems in them that I would've enjoyed that much more if the loud, booming music from the show floor hadn't been so overbearing. I don't understand how a judge could've evaluated the cars that were closer to middle of the show floor where the sound and resonance from the P.A. were the strongest. "Play it loud" is not bad advice within reason. Occasionally in our enthusiasm, we take it a little too far. And that's the problem: Sometimes we have more enthusiasm than good sense-our passion undermines quality.
-Ben Oh