Most of you know about the high regard I have for Jim Smith. Jim has a stellar reputation for his good taste in all things high-fidelity, for his expertise in Hi-Fi system setup & voicing, as well as for being an honest and solid guy. Jim Smith has been in the Hi-Fi business for over 35 years, has worked for manufacturers like Magnepan and Audio Research, has owned his own retail business for high-performance Hi-Fi gear, has imported exotic Hi-Fi gear from other countries to North America as a distributor, has recorded live music performances in his community, and has served as a consultant to numerous high-end marquees.

Jim has done more than anybody I know of to help Hi-Fi enthusiasts get the greatest performance possible out of their audio equipment investment. Whether your Hi-Fi rig is modest or extravagant,  I suspect you've not heard what it is capable of unless you've been through Jim's setup regimen. Jim's techniques work, and it's the reason enthusiasts, dealers, and manufacturers seek out his help to get the best possible performance from their equipment. Jim has detailed his methods in his Get Better Sound book, Get Better Sound instructional DVDs, Quarter Notes newsletter, Straight Talk phone consultations, or you can go the Room Play route and have Jim come and personally setup your Hi-Fi rig in your room.

Jim's also working on something new, which is the subject of this post: Through the Sound Barrier. 

Almost all of us have pondered why some even very good Hi-Fi rigs sound musical and some sound analytical and mechanical. If you've been reading my articles for 6Moons, Positive Feedback Online, and here at Jeff's Place over the years, you know I've talked about this topic quite a lot.

You can also imagine that Jim has run into this situation a lot in his career, and he has:

"Here’s the main thing that I have observed... It seems that the better our components are, the greater are the opportunities to encounter barriers to enjoying our music. In fact, some of the most advanced systems I ran into were initially the least satisfying from a musical involvement standpoint!"

"Thinking about how to describe what I have observed, the simplest term is sound barrier. Sounds become a barrier to ultimately allowing the music to speak to us in a powerful way."

"Here’s what happens – as our systems get better - and we think about getting them even better – at some point they become good enough to make some really interesting sound. In fact, we think about the sound and compare it to the sound that we have heard – or heard about – from other systems."

 "I have no issues whatsoever with an analytical look at our systems from time to time. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean that listening to the cool sounds can slip in front of our goals as music lovers. Listening to “audiophile sound effects” can become a distraction from the main event. We don’t even recognize it when it happens."

"In my experience, most systems that are created to reproduce this type of hyper-detailed, clinically-correct sound generally fall well short of the musical involvement that they could easily produce."

"But when you find out what lies beyond that sound barrier – what audio can truly allow you to experience – it's transformative. And here's the point: you can get there."

Jim's had a lot of those aforementioned enthusiasts, dealers, and manufacturers ask him to devote a book, CD, a DVD set, and anything else he can think of to teaching people how to get the maximum musical involvement from their too analytical and mechanical sounding Hi-Fi rigs. I think it's a great idea.

As you might expect, it takes a lot of funding to get something like this going, and right now Jim is in the process of getting the money together through Kickstarter, which is a funding platform for creative projects. Jim has posted a video and description of Through the Sound Barrier here to give you an idea of what this effort is all about. I can tell you this - I think what Jim is doing is one of the most important things to happen in audio in a very long time. I will be keeping you informed as Through the Sound Barrier progresses to being a reality.

Jim has asked me to contribute some thoughts on achieving musicality to Through the Sound Barrier which I'm honored to do, but I want you to know I have absolutely no financial interest in what Jim is doing. I am just an enthusiastic supporter of what Jim's trying to do to help people get the most music possible out of their system, and I want you to know about it. I think this is really important and I believe it will help many of you (and me too!) in our Hi-Fi hobby to better experience our love of music.

Stay tuned!