Random, unexpected moments of emotionally-charged joy in audio occured this afternoon... which I figured I'd share as a somewhat stream of thought!
I hooked up my recently delivered FiiO FA19 to also my also recently delivered DITA Navigator as there were a few songs I was curious to hear on TIDAL, most notably ‘Angel of the Morning’ cover by Juice Newton as I had heard it a few months ago on a TV show (The Leftovers) and really brought me back to a time in early childhood. I’ve noted before, there is nothing for me that is more effective to ‘time travel’ than music, a unique ability to plunge me back to moments in life over the last fast-approaching five decades of my existence - the music fuelling a sense of almost actually being back at whatever point of life the song is connected to - in this case, I guess ‘Angel of the Morning’ must have been playing on the radio a lot at the time, I would have only been 5 years old but my Mum always had either the radio or records playing from as early in life as I can remember… as I say, personally speaking music is by far the most powerful vehicle to memories throughout my life. Anyway, I found myself pretty quickly in tears, followed by a combination of laughing at myself for crying
- the emotions heavily two-fold…
1/ the music was doing exactly as what I just described, bringing me back to distant childhood memories that even with the passing of many years, I can still feel like being in those moments… sometimes an overwhelming experience
2/ Absolutely mesmerised by how the Navigator / FA19 combo hooked up to my phone were performing, absolutely jaw-dropping stuff which combined with emotional memories, had my brain spinning in musical awe at the same time, hence ending up laughing at myself!
I often talk about my love for the humble DD, but I indeed have an enormous soft spot for a well-tuned multi-BA set, and the FiiO FA19 is absolutely that - an effortless, but pristine tuning with truly phenomenal pinpoint, but not clinical imaging, and while the overall signature has excellent clarity and quite neutral tuning, it is at the same time beautifully captivating and incredibly engaging - be it male or female vocals, acoustic or electric guitars, percussion, synths etc etc… everything just sings with a breath-taking accuracy to my ears, and with buckets of emotion. The vented sub-woofer for me handles the lower registers of bass incredibly well, and even have a ‘rumble’ sensation - personally speaking where I find a DD can’t be beaten is more from a ‘thud’ or ‘punch’ of a kick-drum where a BA just can’t quite achieve that visceral sense of vibration in the mid-bass, and for genres like techno for example I would tend to favour a set with a DD in the mix, the Bellos X4 a great example, and while I’ve only recently waxed lyrical about that, there is definitely more to come - not sure it will include tears though…
So far I’m absolutely loving FA19 with ambient, classical, rock, folk, indie, experimental music etc but still need to further explore my electronic shelves such as house, techno, IDM. I’ve previously enjoyed the FiiO FD7 and FH9, but the FA19 is in another league altogether and for me not only represents fantastic value for $999 when compared to sets multiple times more expensive - I’m not suggesting it is a kilobuck-killer but I would certainly urge folks to give it a listen should the opportunity arise, you might just end up in tears and laughing at the same time
Funny how a song can trigger a burst of emotions, followed by a desire to document the moment by putting pen to paper, and then fingers to keyboard! And none of this would have happened had I not binge watched The Leftovers a few months ago, a quirky but brilliant series.