Golden frequency : A story on Dhaka’s audiophiles

Imagine yourself seated in a cosy café, accompanied by the subtle ambience of background music. Your date, however, interrupts with an odd observation. If they suggest that speaker placements will help avoid the need for high volume levels, or how a certain genre of music would help elevate the café's ambience further, you have likely encountered an audiophile!

"Who do you think you are"

So, what is an audiophile? Depends on who you are asking. Google says audiophiles are 'Hi-fi enthusiasts.' If you ask me, it's the love I have for music and whatever it takes to get closer to the artist's emotions/intentions.

However, that is very different for Faraz Islam. "I was a casual listener once (read: listened to music on YouTube). However, once I discovered what a small electronic device could do to a song I had listened to for the umpteenth time, there was no going back for me. I was hooked on experiencing and experimenting with every new tech that hits the market," stated an overly enthusiastic Faraz.

Reefat Khan, a musician from the "underground scene" during the noughties, said, "I used to listen to my favourite bands and instruments on Walkmans since I was a child. After I started performing, I realised how different the sounds and emotions are. And now that I do not play anymore, my goal is to mimic that same realism in sound and emotions that come when you hear an instrument or vocal in person."

"A head full of dreams"

No matter how we stumbled onto the path, the next part of the journey is universal and that is understanding what you are hearing. This is a fairly involving process. You start understanding the language of audiophiles. The words 'Dark,' 'Bright,' 'Warm,' 'Airy' no longer apply to how you would describe a house and its inner workings; they describe the nature of sound a speaker/headphone/amplifier is producing.

Why is this lingo needed? Well, it is so that we can convey to one another, who cannot perhaps listen to the sound with the same equipment in the same environment, what we are hearing. Sounds daunting? Sure, but name another hobby that is not when you first get started. 

Once you understand these things, you will start to realise that your audio library, if you have any in this age of streaming and subscriptions, might be severely lacking in quality. And this will set you off on a quest to rebuild your library, even if it means scouring through obscure Russian forum threads late in the night to find a quality copy of that one random song you cannot seem to find anywhere else.

"I just can't stop loving you"

So, why would anyone go through all this trouble? The simple fact of the matter is the love we have for this hobby. How we stumbled into this world is a story as rich as the gears we spend our hard-earned money on, be it by happenstance, circumstance, or inheritance.

Take Ferdous Hossain as an example. An extrovert by nature, the sudden psychological toll of being stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic was immense.

"The first few days of lockdown were honestly awesome. No rush-hour traffic, working from home, easy 5-minute laying in bed breaks — I was having a blast," shared Ferdous.

However, the fun did not last long.

"A month or so later, it felt suffocating. And with the severity of COVID going from bad to worse, I was having regular panic attacks and regular worries about decontaminating led to an OCD factor," added Ferdous.

Seeking a way to manage the predicament, he learned new things

"I happened upon a speaker review on YouTube, which is where I first learned of audiophilia. One thing led to another and I ordered a pair of active speakers online. After I set it up, I played "I'll Remember" by Madonna, and the impact it had on me was profound."

For the first time since the pandemic started, he felt genuinely happy. Suddenly, Ferdous was listening to music while working, eating, and here's something new: while just lying in bed and doing nothing else but listening to music!

"Since then, I have gone down the rabbit hole, as they say, and fully invested in this hobby. It is safe to say that becoming an audiophile has helped retain my sanity," gushes a genuinely happy Ferdous.

In my case, however, I guess the easiest way to summarise my origin story is I inherited both the hobby and the tools. My father and his brother were both into music and had turntables, cassette players amps, and speakers at home.

In fact, for my sixth birthday, I was handed a red National portable cassette player with a built-in speaker and two cassette albums — Michael Jackson's Bad and Enigma's MCMXC a.D. Along with shaping my tastes in music, it has kickstarted a passion that burns to this day and the journey from there has been memorable, — copying a friend's cassette with our dual deck at home, going to the Rainbow store to score the latest albums, stealing my older brother's Sony Walkman/Sanyo BassXpander for field trips, listening to music loud on my dad's speakers when no one was home, the sheer wonderment of CDs and Discmans, and ushering in the digital age with an iPod Touch.

The passion still runs strong, just as my wallet keeps getting weaker.

"Oops I did it again!"

You have seen the memes by now; significant other buys new *insert audio product* and then sweats about the inevitable interrogation and speech on wasting money from their partner. In fact, this very article mentions 'buying this to hear/experience that' more than once. So how important is investing in this hobby? Do you even need to? How you start is a contentious matter.

Some say you can start by getting the most out of what you already have by simply listening to better-quality audio files in the first place and investing in new audio gear down the line. Others will say that updating your library (let's call it source from now on) should be a given. And that your actual first step would be to get decent gear that fully lets your music, well, sing. This could mean getting an amplifier, and a pair of speakers or headphones.

There are others still, who have taken the above ethos to a whole new level by having multiple pairs of speakers, amplifiers, headphones, etc. Their rationale? Each speaker/headphone/amplifier combo sounds different, and these differences can sometimes harmonise with different genres in their library, elevating the listening experience.

So, is it just about the gears? I say, if music is your solace; if you actively seek out music to either make a memory even more special or use it to drown out the voices (negative or otherwise) and look at the bigger picture of life, then you are already on the first couple of rungs on the ladder to be an audiophile.

"Why this obsession with gears?" I hear you ask.

Well, once you familiarise yourself with music, and develop close bonds with your select favourite songs, listening to them again with new/better gear brings a joy/high that you might have experienced when you first discovered said favourite song.

In my opinion, the gear is merely a way to reduce the gap between you and the artist. Akin to looking at the Mona Lisa through a smartphone screen and then finally seeing the masterpiece by standing in front of it at the Louvre.

"Hazard"

While we understand music as digital and have been doing so since the early 2000s, some will say that nothing is more 'organic' than listening to an LP record.

One such person is Shamim Newaz, a person who is heavily invested in LPs, still buying albums old and new, and playing them on his LP player, complete with a vintage amp and speaker pair.

When asked why he puts himself through so much trouble sourcing LPs, he states, "Every time someone has said that or that high-res digital music is the same, I persuade them to come over, sit them down, take out Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and let them listen to the album. And then I switch to a digital version of the same album and see their reaction. The LP's sound is so organic that once you hear it and compare, the digital version will always sound lifeless."

"Love will never lie"

You will be pleased to know that Bangladesh has a very strong audiophile community scene, and it seems to be growing ever larger.

A quick search on Facebook will yield many audio-related groups, dealing with both portable audio, as well as the traditional home audio setup groups. The people in these groups are extremely supportive of one another, and offers each other valuable insight/feedback on whatever gear or service they are using, as well as buying and selling old CDs, cassettes, and LPs.

There will be the odd disagreements taking place, as in the end, this is a very subjective hobby and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but such incidents are few and far between.

Due to the increase in interest, the need for top tier hardware is also growing. There was a time, long ago, when sourcing good speakers, headphones, and amplifiers was a tough order. Thankfully, the community itself has stepped up, opening the doors to many new establishments that bring in brand new products, as well as deal with vintage products imported from abroad, or taken off from ships in Chattogram. There are also private importers who take custom orders and specifically imports for their clients.

Speaking to one such establishment that deals with home audio products, both old and new, stated that they have witnessed a growing interest amongst even the general public.

"We have seen a huge surge in demand for speakers and AVRs, especially after the pandemic. I believe many of them have picked up the hobby during their confinement at home.

"Many are also investing heavily into making personalised theatre setups at home. The biggest surprise has been the growing interest in vintage gear, as people tend to fall quickly in love with their sound signature and history," elaborated a store's owner, wishing to remain anonymous.

"Send her my love"

Some see audiophilia as yet another so-called hobby that has 'no return' and a waste of money. And while there are many who simply will not care how music sounds even in a kilobuck setup, remember that there are also those who would gaze upon a planet through a telescope and go 'meh.'

While our views may stack up, one thing is common. If you have us as friends and happen to share a video clip of someone performing a song, our first comment would probably involve the state of the recording and/or the dynamic range of the audio. So do not lose patience with us and keep sharing those posts, because if we happen to talk about those aspects first, chances are we like you.

Photo: LS Archive/ Sazzad Ibne Sayed