[Reader-list] Talkin Sound (conversations with Mr Nakara - Enbee Audio)

Fri Apr 22 14:00:30 IST 2005

Talkin Sound (conversations with Mr Nakara - Enbee Audio)

Hi all
Following is a conversation with the founder of Enbee Audio Mr. Nakara. 
He is a multi talented Audiophile who has been manufacturing Hand made 
music systems for over 35 years now. His latest range of speakers and 
amplifiers (100/75 watts RMS) produce one of the best sounds I have ever 
heard. And another way to put it will be that I heard one of my favorite 
CDs for the first time when I heard it on the Enbee Music System (i.e. 
John Mc Laughin plays Bill Evans). And as for the other cd’s I heard on 
this amazing music system it was an out of the world experience likes of 
which I have heard very rarely and that too only on very high end music 
systems. I can not do justice to the Enbee music system in words as it 
is an experience and one would have to be there to experience it. So 
please make time and visit the Enbee show room with your CD case and sit 
back and listen.

This is a conversation with Mr Nakra about sound, his designs and his 
life(to be contd..) It was not a straight forward interview as he is 
very passionate when he talks about this subject, and to give a 
structure to it (like interviews) will limit his out put. So most of the 
time the conversation ebbed in and out of very technical details which 
are also important but will be covered later when this project actually 
kicks off (details later)

Thanks for Reading

<>ISh
_______________________________________________________________________

Q: question
N: Mr Nakara
Mrs. N: Mrs Nakara
(side details/observations .. in these brackets)
<technical details – in the angled brackets>

(When I entered the Enbee Show Room there was a discussion going on 
about Vat between Mrs. and Mr. Nakara and it’s confusing ends. And how 
it affects the small time manufacturers with no differentiation on 
volumes etc. Tax on end-price or each product or part ….10% …20 %... 
12.5 %.....12,400,.. and on and on)

Then the conversation shifts to cameras and hunting ... a friend of mine 
is telling Mr. Nakara about the digital cameras and memory sticks (CF 
cards).

N: we used to go out hunting every sat and sun we used to see beautiful 
shades of trees and they are of a kind which you don’t find here in the 
city. . there is so much construction next to the road. Once I saw the 
sun like this big red ball and it was beautiful, I just got off and ran 
out to take a picture but I couldn’t find a place from where I could 
take it as there were electric cables everywhere. And till I went 
further up the sun had gone down.
Mrs N: we had seen the sun twice like that. Once was at the time of 
sunrise. The Sun completely engulfed the car as it was red (aah).
N: Photography puts life into you. Unfortunately I do not do my own 
developing. In school we used to do black and white and dotting. (school 
was Bishop Cotton, Shimla)

Q: was this in the 40’s …
N: oh.. Much Earlier
Mrs N: in the 30’s
N: we used to do dodging and reduce the light . And then in the dark 
room you can see what is coming out , it is like a painter giving the 
final touch.

Q: Can you tell us something about records and players lets start for 
Gramophones.

N: The sound box is the gramophone should be made out of film material/ 
aluminum
Or paper, so that is the amplification thing. Then we have the chrome 
arm. Then you have this arm inside which is not the tube complete it is 
also exponential

<TECH: the details of the conversation( on records/needles) further can 
be best explained with the help of a diagram with the technical parts later>

The basic reproducing factor is here (needle head) and the grooves in 
the record. The grooves are cut horizontally in a record and in fact for 
stereo recoding the grooves are cut at an angle.
Shellac records used to wear out the pins really fast like the copper 
tip pins. So when we were kids we were given records and when the pins 
used to finish off we would go down in the mountains and pick thorns of 
a tree(kikkar in hindi) and break them carefully and pattern them out .. 
the finest sound you get from them(the thorns) and not from the steel 
pins. One thorn would work one side and produce lovely sound. The kikkar 
would be nature polished. (laughs)

Q: and they will duplicate perfectly

N: Yeah . Now what is sound? If there is no air there will be no sound. 
On the moon I can not talk to you. (picks up a papper and moves the 
papper around …)
There is sound just now.. it is starting to do vibrations and produce 
sound. This is where one starts perceiving sound. Sound is nothing but 
vibrations and sound can not go on traveling endlessly. Electronic 
wavelength can travel endlessly, it has a property that if there is a 
obstruction in it’s path then divert and continue. This is not so with 
sound waves. So we use this property to make sound proof rooms Eg glass 
window with air in and then another glass window with air between it so 
this is how you cut out the noise and sound pressure.
One thing you should have clear in you mind and that is there is nothing 
perfect in the world. That is to say there is no perfect conductor, 
there is no perfect insulator. Everything will have it’s capacity to 
stand and resist the flow of electricity when passed through it and 
beyond which it will break down and it will burn off. No insulator is a 
perfect insulator . Insulating properties keep on varying by aging also 
so is that case with conductors. That holds true for everything.

Q: Tell us more about Perceiving the source of sound?

N: See there could be a gathering/group that is producing sound. There 
is a tabla some vocals and a sarangi player for example. So once you 
look at the configuration of the stage at least you should be able to 
feel in that manner itself. For eg the tabla player’s sound in more 
prominent on the left and the vocals on the right side so partiality to 
the left should be given to the tabla and vice versa the right should be 
given to the vocal. But

I found a very nice way to go about it specially for location recordings 
because you can not go about carrying all this equipment on location 
recordings like on top of the hill in Kashmir. You can not subject these 
people to a studio you see that is not their natural environment. The 
best technique I found was to cross two microphones round 90degrees on 
their axis(demonstrates a crossed pair mic’ing technique.. which he 
swears be) So in this case (of crossed pairs) the sensitivity is spread 
all across and you can pick up beautiful sound.
So like in photography there is lot to learnt in the process of going 
ahead and doing the work, when you come out of an institution if you 
honestly ask me you are at a book level. Where you don’t have any 
experience you haven’t had exposure to face the odds that might come 
your way and you have no experience of evolving your knowledge into an 
art. You have to be applying the ideas etc and that’s where the learning 
starts. That is like if you have read a book you know less than the 
writer , even if you have read 10 of his books 10 times you will know 
less than the writer. See you can never equal that .So after acquiring 
the knowledge of the books you have to develop your skills and 
experience and then go beyond and when you try to do the practical 
implementations is the time you start to learn in reality and grow.

===More about the Past =========
Q: how did you get into sound and not some babu job?

N: I had joined the British Trade commission . I has there as a 
Marketing research officer and I worked there for 9 months. I was there 
I hated their system of files piling up. …..

(describes of the whole babu system and his futile attempt to change it….)
He then left the British Trade Comission and did a vocational course in 
electronics from City and Guilds, London and then went to United states 
of America and did his PhD in electronics in the 40’s)

(He carries on …)
N: I had majored in television and at that point of time except teaching 
students I could not do anything. I knew so much about Radios.(narrates 
another fable)
I had once gone to an electronic shop in California and these people 
were having problems with noise which I fixed and the owner as very 
impressed so that put more confidence in me to work with radios. Their 
Radio were of the make ‘Elecraft’ and there was a distortion in the 
sound and I fixed it in 10 mins which they could not do for weeks.
That was my D-day.
<brief technical description of how he did it .: Disk 1 -Track 5 – 7:30 
to 9.30 >
then the owner gave me a job as a supervisor.

While working for the Trade commission I felt like a personified clerk. 
It was the same things that I was doing over and over again , and I 
concluded that this wont give me happiness. I decided that I will not 
work for any one else….
The thirst in you is not quenched you see for knowledge and to do 
something creative.. And if a person has a creative bent of mind you 
have an urge to explore something extraordinary and I suppose that is 
when money becomes secondary. You have to channel your energies to the 
areas of your interest to evolve an identity. You want to know more 
about the work you do so that you can do justice to your work. Then that 
becomes the concept. The entire field of electronics is very vast and is 
very interesting.

Q: Tell us more about your system design.

The biggest challenge has been of reproduction of sound equal to the 
live performance. At least that was the basic criteria. There has been a 
lot of gimmicks and techniques to create dramatics in sound. They may be 
fine for exciting a person but ultimately when you season out you want 
to be as natural as possible, that is to be closest to the natural 
sound. You are not working hypothetically as one is working with 
something visible and audible.
Like there are different schools of thought for kathak and tabla even 
for audio design like there are different schools. So you have to decide 
what school you belong to and should know the limitations of that school 
of thought. Then one should try to move towards natural reproduction and 
try to follow that. What you want is clear from the start and you are 
trying to accomplish that.

Then there is this fundamental of stereo recording which a lot of 
companies including HMV got it all wrong. Nobody was sure of it and the 
information(Audio data) was dotted wrongly into the channel. Then there 
was these stereo recordings with Tabla’s daiyan(right) on one side and 
baiyan(left) on one side. Now that is very stupid as it moves away from 
the natural recording aspect.

Now if we look at the Audio best design interiors like of an opera house 
even there the audience will not get direct sound(which will be around 
8-12%) . Most of the sound that the audience will be getting will be 
refracted sound. So your recording and reproduction should be based on 
this principle and that is the idea. You are spending money to enjoy it 
a live environment. It is like you are not listening to the speakers, 
they don’t make their presence felt.

There where a lot of reluctance to my designs, like why are you moving 
away from the convention (shows a few photographs of his designs 
--pregnant and froggies—these will be covered individully in detail 
later under design evolution).