In his most recent in HiFi Today published interview Frank Wacker talks to the trained brass instrument maker (Federal Award), qualified musician and hi-fi dealer Thomas Krüger about musical perception. He shows a way to emotional music listening, which is closed to most music-interested hi-fi listeners due to a head-related approach. He also shows that modern sound killers such as smart electricity meters can be neutralized with Vortex HiFi interference suppression technology. Of course, as expected, the new Vortex HiFi Iraser4 Sigma will also be discussed. At the same time, Frank Wacker was working on an Iraser4 test.

by Frank Wacker

"It's about the life and death of music" 

An interview with the hi-fi dealer, instrument maker and musician Thomas Krüger 

The other Hi-Fi Studio was founded in 1989 by Thomas Krüger in Karben, just outside Frankfurt. He himself began his musical career with an apprenticeship as a brass instrument maker, which he completed in 1975 with a national award. It quickly became clear to him that just building the instruments couldn't be the sole goal. 

So he learned to play the trumpet as an autodidact at the late age of 20. After just two years, he passed the entrance exam at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt. There he studied classical orchestral trumpet until 1989. 

Already during his studies he played music as a freelancer in the big band of the Hessian radio and cultivated his love for jazz. Many other engagements followed later, such as a Europe-wide theater tour with Robert Wilson, concerts with Chaka Khan or Celia Cruz, engagements at the Pforzheim Theater ... 

Frank Wacker (HIFI TODAY): Mr. Krüger, why do graduate musicians and instrument makers open a hi-fi studio? 

Thomas Krüger (The Other Hifi Studio): 

In the XNUMXs, hi-fi systems were high on people's wish lists. My father bought the first one when I was six: KEF boxes, tube amps and turntables. While my parents listened to music, I listened along. 

That's how I got a connection to music in good playback quality at a young age - even if we were cultural philistines and there was a lot of marching music (laughs – note 

the editors). I also liked to sing and wanted to play an instrument – ​​but this was not encouraged. 

Because father didn't let me access the devices, I dreamed of my own system. At the age of 15 the time had finally come: The Hifi Yearbook of the German Hifi Institute, published by Karl Breh, served as a guide for me, because it listed all the devices and loudspeakers available worldwide with their technical data. I looked closely at the pictures, compared and selected the devices and loudspeakers with the best values. 

But when I heard music with them for the first time, I thought: What the hell is this – I couldn't stand the bad sound for more than two weeks and sold everything. Looking back, that was my first lesson. 

Frank Wacker: It says…?
Thomas Krueger: That technical data alone says nothing about good sound. Frank Wacker: When did listening to music become fun? 

Thomas Krueger: I tried out other devices, sold them again and over time discovered regularities - also through a hi-fi dealer who had an idea of ​​the subject. 

I also came into contact with really expensive systems – but I rarely got excited about them. One of the most important discoveries was that it is not the loudspeaker that is the most important link in the chain, but the signal quality of the source: What is lost at the beginning cannot be retrieved later. 

Of course, the speaker plays a big role, but the best speakers in the world are useless if the source and the amplifier don't provide a correspondingly good signal. At first I would never have guessed that every turntable, tonearm and cartridge sounded different. Anyone who doesn't hear that is deaf. 

Frank Wacker: But you weren't a musician at that point? 

Thomas Krueger: Right, but the more music I listened to, the more I wanted to be a musician too. So I learned instrument making, studied music and taught myself to play the trumpet. This enabled me to work as a musician during my studies. 

Frank Wacker: But the topic of hi-fi didn't let go of you...
Thomas Krueger: No, some things in the music business cost me too much strength - and so the idea matured that with a hi-fi shop, others could also benefit from my hi-fi experience and my flair for music. Both are intertwined - although many musicians do not have high-quality systems. 

Frank Wacker: That's right - I know musicians who burst into tears with me because they had never heard music so moving and genuine through a system. 

Thomas Krueger: This phenomenon leaves me speechless - as does the fact that so few women are enthusiastic about hi-fi. Although listening to music is all about emotions and women are the more emotional part of the population. Actually, they should run into us. 

Frank Wacker: What prevents women from doing this? 

Thomas Krueger: They talk about technical shit - and many women don't feel competent enough. Hifi enthusiasts talk too much about the material and not enough about the music. This gives women the feeling that they have no idea about the subject - although they often perceive music much more intensely. 

Frank Wacker: The technology fan in me resists, but talking about technology is fun. 

Thomas Krueger: That may be the case for you, but music is about a spiritual experience, about the intensity of expression. Technology is only a means to an end. 

Frank Wacker: So why are we talking so much about technology? 

Thomas Krueger: As soon as it comes to technical aspects, we go to an intellectual factual level. On the men feel safe and can justify their decisions clearly and logically. That's why they want to be convinced with objective measurement criteria as to why you should buy this device and not that one. With dire consequences: The man seems happy, but the soul thirsts. 

Frank Wacker: Now you have to explain that in more detail.

Thomas Krueger: The intellect is the wrong input channel for decisions that involve feelings and emotional experience, as with music - it even tends to disturb our emotional perception. We actually want to be grabbed by the balls - only for that we would have to let go of the reins. Getting involved with the music and giving yourself completely to it is the basic requirement that it touches us deeply. 

Frank Wacker: I find that a very exciting approach, which I will continue to think about. But I have to come back to the technology again, or to hi-fi accessories. We at HIFI-TODAY think that a system only plays so well with the right accessories that music can touch us deeply. How do you feel about this statement? 

Thomas Krueger: I totally agree - otherwise I wouldn't be selling it (laughs). You can usually hear the differences clearly. For some it may seem like just small changes, but these small things are often the most important things. Music is not primarily about the big picture - the musical text - but about »little things«. 

For example, if ten musicians play the same instrument one after the other – which of course they can play – it sounds so different that you might swear stone and bones that it could never have been the same instrument. 

But it was, because the personality and physique of each individual player is so unique that it breaks new ground in the sound. When I was studying, I could name every trumpeter behind the closed door because everyone has their own sound - like a fingerprint. 

Frank Wacker: How do these tonal differences come about? 

Thomas Krueger: This has to do with the spectral distribution of the overtones. There are no tones on acoustic instruments (Sine), but only sounds. A sound is made up of its fundamental frequency and the even multiples of its fundamental frequency: 100 Hertz times 2, times 3, times 4 ... times 10 etc. i.e. 100, 200, 300, 400 ... 1000 Hertz etc. 

Each doubling of the frequency always corresponds to an octave, i.e. the same tone only 8 tones higher. So if 100 Hz was C, then 200, 400, and 800 Hz would also be C. 

From the ninth overtone, the series becomes so narrow that we are only dealing with seconds, i.e. the greatest dissonance (Discord), that we deal with in music. A practical example makes this audible: If you put your forearm on the white keys of a piano and vigorously press ... 

Frank Wacker: Wait a minute – I'll try that out on my wife's piano. I'm back - sounds awful. 

Thomas Krueger: Exactly, because each of the sounds had the same volume. If, on the other hand, you only play one key, an almost similarly wide frequency spectrum is created, but the overtones are so quiet that you no longer perceive it as a dissonance, but only as a small spice or color nuance. That's why it sounds nice. This also describes a law of nature. 

These spectral color nuances are different for every musician. When he plays, he works the sound like a sculptor works his material and every change in volume leads to further color changes on an acoustic instrument - that too is a law of nature. In this way, every tone becomes a living being. 

On the window pane of my shop there is a beautiful saying by a Ukrainian pianist, which sums up 100 percent what music – and life – is about: »You can lie with words, but not with sounds«. In other words, words are for the intellect and you can be lied to about anything, but when someone starts playing and lets their pants down, you'll know pretty quickly if they have something to say or if they're a gossip just stringing notes together. There is no deception there. 

A hi-fi system that cannot clearly show this is only partially suitable for listening to music, after all, music is about life or death. A new employee thought they had good equipment and speakers – at least they were expensive enough. 

He took my cheapest tube amp and brought it back the next day, saying it wasn't for him. Two months later - after a certain learning curve and the purchase of a really good speaker from Living Voice - he tried the tube amp again. 

And kept it with the following reason: »Until now I could understand every word purely acoustically, but now I perceive the feeling of sadness or joy in every word. The text takes on a completely different meaning, a completely different expression.« After 20 years of dealing with hi-fi, he began to understand what it's all about: the expression begins where language ends long ago. 

Frank Wacker: Mr Krüger, thank you for this explanation. Back to accessories again. Do you have favorite products? 

Thomas Krueger: Yes, including the products from VORTEX-HIFI. Environmental disturbances are now increasing so massively that the sound falls by the wayside without the appropriate interference suppression products. Recently, two of my customers got new remote-reading electricity meters. After installation, both reported that the system sounded worse and asked what could be done about it. 

With the products from VORTEX-HIFI I was able to take countermeasures and the customers are happy to hear music again. Also the ground optimizer (eliminates ground interference and allows equipotential bonding between devices) inspires me because it powerfully advances the sound in terms of expressiveness and intensity. This makes the music touch you much more. It is absolutely necessary - I do not sell any system from 3.000 euros without a Groundoptimizer. 

If possible, I make changes to the system during a demonstration without anyone noticing. Of course, this is not possible with mains or loudspeaker cables, but if I unplug the ground optimizer or take a VORTEX round/pyramid out of the system and then play the same thing again, the customer quite often hears a change. Then the voodoo accusation is off the table - especially since the result can be reproduced by plugging and unplugging the ground optimizer. 

If there is no response, I ask if anything has changed? The listener often agrees, but cannot describe it exactly. But he doesn't have to, because we're already back on the previously described intellectual factual level, which is wrong for the musical experience. 

Basically, I design demonstrations in such a way that you experience something and understand deep down what it's about. However, there are a few stumbling blocks: If I change something and the customer notices, but doesn't hear anything, it could be embarrassing for him. That stresses him out. Usually he tries very hard and focuses himself. But what actually? Anyone who draws their attention to a certain point perceives everything outside this center less well or not at all. 

As a presenter, one could conclude from this that another perceptually impaired person is sitting in front of one – although everything is clear within three bars. In doing so, one forgets one's own well-trained brain and the perception that has been trained over the years. 

Frank Wacker: Do you have a tip on how to achieve the right perception? 

Thomas Krueger: The inner attitude when listening to music should be like that of a meditating Buddhist: wide awake but not focused. He doesn't judge, doesn't get caught up in thoughts and lives in the best sense of the word in the here and now. When you listen to music like this, you suddenly notice details that you have never noticed before. This allows the music to unfold its full power of expression – which feels really good. 

Like Norbert Maurer (boss and mastermind of VORTEX-HIFI) I don't know. I lack the technical competence in this segment. But you can clearly hear how the sound increases. And that's what it's all about, not the technology. Of course, nothing speaks against the fact that listening experiences can be substantiated with technical test methods. But not every sound improvement can be explained so easily - the matter is far too complex for that. At the end of the day, we all want to hear music that is so good that it touches us emotionally and sweeps us away. As long as this succeeds, the technology plays a subordinate role. 

Incidentally, as a musician I had similar experiences: Bad teachers feed their students' brains with hundreds of explanations and instructions on what to do, where and how. I had my students play a note. Its quality revealed to me everything that went wrong. You can only play a tone optimally if all muscles work together optimally - and this creates a very specific body feeling. 

The student has to experience this – over and over again. Instead of instructions – which are absolutely correct according to the textbook – I was concerned with this physical experience. Only after a trumpeter had developed this physical feeling did his playing grab me. And only then was it worthwhile to teach him further technical refinements. When someone like that played Little Little, it spoke more than the famous Jolivet concerto performed by a less accomplished trumpeter. 

That's exactly what hi-fi is all about - and with Vortex products you can experience the infinite power of music. Even top-heavy listeners can be convinced when they hear the differences that can be reproduced again and again. An open mind is important - if you don't want to perceive anything, you won't hear anything either. 

Frank Wacker: You are currently testing the new VORTEX-HIFI Iraser 4. What are your experiences? 

Thomas Krueger: I first used it on turntables - with the typical, clearly audible advances that VORTEX products bring about: greater intensity, more timbre, plasticity and airiness. 

When I then swabbed the cables, something similar happened and added to the effect achieved with the turntable. It was unbelievable: hearing, treating cables, hearing again - and amazed. The Iraser 4 is one of the products that leave me speechless due to the enormously strong effect. Also because it can be used in so many ways - that makes it the ultimate sound tool: 

Every single step already brings significant sound gains, but overall it's awesome. I don't really understand what's happening there - but it's also about music, not about technology. I want to hear music so good it brings tears to my eyes and people at home have exactly the same experience. VORTEX-HIFI supplies exactly the right products for this. And the new Iraser 4 is right at the top. 

Frank Wacker: Mr. Krüger, thank you very much for the interview and the many exciting thoughts and approaches that I am sure will continue to occupy me.

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