You can have the finest ingredients in the world—a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato, hand-pressed olive oil, fresh basil—but if the balance is off, the dish falls flat. Too much salt? The sweetness of the tomato gets lost. Too much oil? It turns heavy. The best meals, like the best audio systems, aren’t all about individual ingredients but how they work together.
How many times have I heard a system built with all top-tier components—a great DAC, a resolving amp, and a pair of revealing speakers—only to have the music feel cold, analytical, and almost sterile? The detail was there, but the soul was missing. Swapping the cables, rearranging the setup, going for a different this or that transformed everything. Suddenly, the music felt alive.
The synergy just clicked.
It’s easy to assume that better gear always means better sound, but audio is more like cooking than engineering. A perfectly tuned system isn’t about cramming in the most expensive parts—it’s about balance.
When everything complements each other, the system disappears, and all that’s left is the music.
That’s synergy, and when you find it, you’ll never go back.
