Holistic
by Paul McGowan
Holistic describes systems intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. It defines our starting point to further understand two groups of music reproduction equipment: separates and integrateds. We can examine individual components, and we will, but learn little until each is examined as a whole.
The thousand foot view of a separates system looks like multiple boxes tied together with cables, powered by many cords. The same vantage point reveals the integrated as a single box bereft of cables, and fed from one power source. Each makes music that sounds noticeably different.
Over the next few days we will zoom in for a closer view and hopefully discover the reasons for those differences. Our essays will start with the integrated and move to separates. And we will ponder this question; if you collected the separates into one enclosure, so our bird's eye view matched, would the two sound the same?
More tomorrow.
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