Please allow me to introduce myself.  In the time I have been given I have done quite a few different things, rarely for more than a few years.  Perhaps I’m flighty, perhaps I’m capricious, but I greatly enjoy pursuing new avenues.  I’ve made a living working construction, selling ice cream, designing home theatres, producing a conservative AM Radio talk show, DIYing electronics, teaching English, and countless other things that together form a rather mediocre resume.  These things have taken me all around the world, all the way from my home in Boulder, Colorado to Ankara, Turkey, where I’m currently employed at Bilkent University.  In fact, one of the few constants in my life has been music.  No matter what I was doing, I have always loved, and been involved with, music.  What does all of this mean to you?  Well, at the risk of sounding cliché, it means that I’m very open-minded, and not terribly traditional.  It is this attitude that I take into my reviews, and it’s both a strength and a weakness

I’m not exactly sure of the qualifications a person needs to have in order to be a respected audio writer, but I’m confident they’re not set in stone.  I’m going to venture a guess that there are only three important ones, though.  First, you have to love music, and love music I do.  I’m a classically trained jazz saxophonist, an acapella singer, and a rock bassist.  I was the guy with a 200 CD binder labeled “A-E” in the back seat of my car.  If anything, I’m not nearly discerning enough.  I devour music – 5 or 6 albums a week – and not all of it is excellent.  In fact, I doubt most of it meets audiophile standards, but I think you, dear reader, share in this passion.  That’s why we’re both here at Sonic Flare.  I undoubtedly enjoy turning the lights down, getting comfortable, and listening to the entirety of Mahler’s 1^st with my eyes closed in the optimal center of the room.  That doesn’t mean I won’t crank out Junior Senior at 110 Db after a few drinks later that night, though. 

The second qualification for an audio critic, then, must be that they enjoy the reproduction of music as an art form and as a technical exercise.  This is different than just listening, and it is sometimes tedious.  It is listening not for pleasure, but for information.  It’s listening with a notebook.  If that doesn’t sound appealing, well, I understand.  It is appealing to me, though.  Years of playing instruments and recording music have given me an appreciation for how music is made, and how important reproducing it correctly is.  To explain, perhaps you’ll permit me an analogy.  Recorded music is a lot like photography.  Sometimes, the idea of a photograph is to convey a real object realistically.  Sometimes, though, the goal of photography is to view an object in a nontraditional way.  With the addition of modern tools like Photoshop, photography can now be an art used to digitally create what is organically impossible  Recorded music is exactly the same.  When Telarc records Don Giovanni, the idea is to transport you to the concert hall.  That’s not always the goal, though, and it is the job of a good audio system to not only reproduce music faithful to the performance, but animate music that is almost against the laws of nature.  This is what I expect of equipment, because that’s the music I enjoy listening to. So, sometimes, I’m looking for a system to be larger-than-life, rather than merely life-sized. To do these things right, a system needs to be extremely dynamic above all.  My personal bias, then, would be towards sensitive equipment, higher volumes, and exciting presentation.  In other words, the bottom left of the sonic circle – vivid, emotional, and smooth all do it for me.  I appreciate and enjoy other equipment, but it’s not where my heart is.

The third qualification of an audio critic is both more important and less interesting than the previous two.  Having listened to this equipment, I have to be able to accurately convey what I’ve heard to you.  I have to turn sound into words, which is inherently impossible to do without using dumb terms like “milky”, “dry”, “PRaT”, or any of the other myriad terms the audiophile press abuses today.  Please forgive me for this, and know that I want to give it to you straight.  I’m not above a little criticism, either, and Sonic Flare is a cooperative exercise.   I would still be doing this if you weren’t here to read it, but what would be the point?  I’m here to help you, and in the process indulge what has been the great passion of my life.  I’m glad you’ve taken the time to get to know me, and I hope it helps you make a better decision about what equipment belongs in your home, or at least your wish list.

Cheers, 

Tyler Beebout