[linux-audio-user] Re: Talkin Sound (conversations with Mr Nakara - Enbee Audio

[ISh]

ISh wrote:

> Talkin Sound (conversations with Mr Nakara - Enbee Audio)
>
> Hi all
> Following is a conversation with the founder of Enbee Audio Mr. 
> Nakara. He is a multi talented Audiophile who has been manufacturing 
> Hand made music systems for over 35 years now. His latest range of 
> speakers and amplifiers (100/75 watts RMS) produce one of the best 
> sounds I have ever heard. And another way to put it will be that I 
> heard one of my favorite CDs for the first time when I heard it on the 
> Enbee Music System (i.e. John Mc Laughin plays Bill Evans). And as for 
> the other cd’s I heard on this amazing music system it was an out of 
> the world experience likes of which I have heard very rarely and that 
> too only on very high end music systems. I can not do justice to the 
> Enbee music system in words as it is an experience and one would have 
> to be there to experience it. So please make time and visit the Enbee 
> show room with your CD case and sit back and listen.
>
> This is a conversation with Mr Nakra about sound, his designs and his 
> life(to be contd..) It was not a straight forward interview as he is 
> very passionate when he talks about this subject, and to give a 
> structure to it (like interviews) will limit his out put. So most of 
> the time the conversation ebbed in and out of very technical details 
> which are also important but will be covered later when this project 
> actually kicks off (details later)
>
>
> Thanks for Reading
>
> <>ISh
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
> Q: question
> N: Mr Nakara
> Mrs. N: Mrs Nakara
> (side details/observations .. in these brackets)
> <technical details – in the angled brackets>
>
>
> (When I entered the Enbee Show Room there was a discussion going on 
> about Vat between Mrs. and Mr. Nakara and it’s confusing ends. And how 
> it affects the small time manufacturers with no differentiation on 
> volumes etc. Tax on end-price or each product or part ….10% …20 %... 
> 12.5 %.....12,400,.. and on and on)
>
> Then the conversation shifts to cameras and hunting ... a friend of 
> mine is telling Mr. Nakara about the digital cameras and memory sticks 
> (CF cards).
>
> N: we used to go out hunting every sat and sun we used to see 
> beautiful shades of trees and they are of a kind which you don’t find 
> here in the city. . there is so much construction next to the road. 
> Once I saw the sun like this big red ball and it was beautiful, I just 
> got off and ran out to take a picture but I couldn’t find a place from 
> where I could take it as there were electric cables everywhere. And 
> till I went further up the sun had gone down.
> Mrs N: we had seen the sun twice like that. Once was at the time of 
> sunrise. The Sun completely engulfed the car as it was red (aah).
> N: Photography puts life into you. Unfortunately I do not do my own 
> developing. In school we used to do black and white and dotting. 
> (school was Bishop Cotton, Shimla)
>
> Q: was this in the 40’s …
> N: oh.. Much Earlier
> Mrs N: in the 30’s
> N: we used to do dodging and reduce the light . And then in the dark 
> room you can see what is coming out , it is like a painter giving the 
> final touch.
>
> Q: Can you tell us something about records and players lets start for 
> Gramophones.
>
> N: The sound box is the gramophone should be made out of film 
> material/ aluminum
> Or paper, so that is the amplification thing. Then we have the chrome 
> arm. Then you have this arm inside which is not the tube complete it 
> is also exponential
>
> <TECH: the details of the conversation( on records/needles) further 
> can be best explained with the help of a diagram with the technical 
> parts later>
>
> The basic reproducing factor is here (needle head) and the grooves in 
> the record. The grooves are cut horizontally in a record and in fact 
> for stereo recoding the grooves are cut at an angle.
> Shellac records used to wear out the pins really fast like the copper 
> tip pins. So when we were kids we were given records and when the pins 
> used to finish off we would go down in the mountains and pick thorns 
> of a tree(kikkar in hindi) and break them carefully and pattern them 
> out .. the finest sound you get from them(the thorns) and not from the 
> steel pins. One thorn would work one side and produce lovely sound. 
> The kikkar would be nature polished. (laughs)
>
> Q: and they will duplicate perfectly
>
> N: Yeah . Now what is sound? If there is no air there will be no 
> sound. On the moon I can not talk to you. (picks up a papper and moves 
> the papper around …)
> There is sound just now.. it is starting to do vibrations and produce 
> sound. This is where one starts perceiving sound. Sound is nothing but 
> vibrations and sound can not go on traveling endlessly. Electronic 
> wavelength can travel endlessly, it has a property that if there is a 
> obstruction in it’s path then divert and continue. This is not so with 
> sound waves. So we use this property to make sound proof rooms Eg 
> glass window with air in and then another glass window with air 
> between it so this is how you cut out the noise and sound pressure.
> One thing you should have clear in you mind and that is there is 
> nothing perfect in the world. That is to say there is no perfect 
> conductor, there is no perfect insulator. Everything will have it’s 
> capacity to stand and resist the flow of electricity when passed 
> through it and beyond which it will break down and it will burn off. 
> No insulator is a perfect insulator . Insulating properties keep on 
> varying by aging also so is that case with conductors. That holds true 
> for everything.
>
> <TECH : (6:30—15.33 on track 3-- Tech explanation for records and 
> needles. Tracks and tracking gear, record grooves. Needle balances etc>
>
> Q: Tell us more about Perceiving the source of sound?
>
> N: See there could be a gathering/group that is producing sound. There 
> is a tabla some vocals and a sarangi player for example. So once you 
> look at the configuration of the stage at least you should be able to 
> feel in that manner itself. For eg the tabla player’s sound in more 
> prominent on the left and the vocals on the right side so partiality 
> to the left should be given to the tabla and vice versa the right 
> should be given to the vocal. But
>
> I found a very nice way to go about it specially for location 
> recordings because you can not go about carrying all this equipment on 
> location recordings like on top of the hill in Kashmir. You can not 
> subject these people to a studio you see that is not their natural 
> environment. The best technique I found was to cross two microphones 
> round 90degrees on their axis(demonstrates a crossed pair mic’ing 
> technique.. which he swears be) So in this case (of crossed pairs) the 
> sensitivity is spread all across and you can pick up beautiful sound.
> So like in photography there is lot to learnt in the process of going 
> ahead and doing the work, when you come out of an institution if you 
> honestly ask me you are at a book level. Where you don’t have any 
> experience you haven’t had exposure to face the odds that might come 
> your way and you have no experience of evolving your knowledge into an 
> art. You have to be applying the ideas etc and that’s where the 
> learning starts. That is like if you have read a book you know less 
> than the writer , even if you have read 10 of his books 10 times you 
> will know less than the writer. See you can never equal that .So after 
> acquiring the knowledge of the books you have to develop your skills 
> and experience and then go beyond and when you try to do the practical 
> implementations is the time you start to learn in reality and grow.
>
> ===More about the Past =========
> Q: how did you get into sound and not some babu job?
>
> N: I had joined the British Trade commission . I has there as a 
> Marketing research officer and I worked there for 9 months. I was 
> there I hated their system of files piling up. …..
>
> (describes of the whole babu system and his futile attempt to change 
> it….)
> He then left the British Trade Comission and did a vocational course 
> in electronics from City and Guilds, London and then went to United 
> states of America and did his PhD in electronics in the 40’s)
>
> (He carries on …)
> N: I had majored in television and at that point of time except 
> teaching students I could not do anything. I knew so much about 
> Radios.(narrates another fable)
> I had once gone to an electronic shop in California and these people 
> were having problems with noise which I fixed and the owner as very 
> impressed so that put more confidence in me to work with radios. Their 
> Radio were of the make ‘Elecraft’ and there was a distortion in the 
> sound and I fixed it in 10 mins which they could not do for weeks.
> That was my D-day.
> <brief technical description of how he did it .: Disk 1 -Track 5 – 
> 7:30 to 9.30 >
> then the owner gave me a job as a supervisor.
>
> While working for the Trade commission I felt like a personified 
> clerk. It was the same things that I was doing over and over again , 
> and I concluded that this wont give me happiness. I decided that I 
> will not work for any one else….
> The thirst in you is not quenched you see for knowledge and to do 
> something creative.. And if a person has a creative bent of mind you 
> have an urge to explore something extraordinary and I suppose that is 
> when money becomes secondary. You have to channel your energies to the 
> areas of your interest to evolve an identity. You want to know more 
> about the work you do so that you can do justice to your work. Then 
> that becomes the concept. The entire field of electronics is very vast 
> and is very interesting.
>
> Q: Tell us more about your system design.
>
> The biggest challenge has been of reproduction of sound equal to the 
> live performance. At least that was the basic criteria. There has been 
> a lot of gimmicks and techniques to create dramatics in sound. They 
> may be fine for exciting a person but ultimately when you season out 
> you want to be as natural as possible, that is to be closest to the 
> natural sound. You are not working hypothetically as one is working 
> with something visible and audible.
> Like there are different schools of thought for kathak and tabla even 
> for audio design like there are different schools. So you have to 
> decide what school you belong to and should know the limitations of 
> that school of thought. Then one should try to move towards natural 
> reproduction and try to follow that. What you want is clear from the 
> start and you are trying to accomplish that.
>
> Then there is this fundamental of stereo recording which a lot of 
> companies including HMV got it all wrong. Nobody was sure of it and 
> the information(Audio data) was dotted wrongly into the channel. Then 
> there was these stereo recordings with Tabla’s daiyan(right) on one 
> side and baiyan(left) on one side. Now that is very stupid as it moves 
> away from the natural recording aspect.
>
> Now if we look at the Audio best design interiors like of an opera 
> house even there the audience will not get direct sound(which will be 
> around 8-12%) . Most of the sound that the audience will be getting 
> will be refracted sound. So your recording and reproduction should be 
> based on this principle and that is the idea. You are spending money 
> to enjoy it a live environment. It is like you are not listening to 
> the speakers, they don’t make their presence felt.
>
> There where a lot of reluctance to my designs, like why are you moving 
> away from the convention (shows a few photographs of his designs 
> --pregnant and froggies—these will be covered individully in detail 
> later under design evolution).
>
> <Then Mr. Nakara explains the basics of Speakers .how they are 
> constructed along with each component etc >
>
>
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> _________________________________________
>