Words From the Wise

Very few people are into hi-end 2 channel...and the few that are take this stuff way too seriously(Guilty as charged)...1)relax, have fun, listen, and be patient...
2)Trust your own ears and instincts...take advice with a large does of salt...
3)know your ROOM and its limitations...
4)opt for midrange accuracy over boom-box bass
5)go analog and go tubes....

ALso...1)exhaust speaker placement options before upgrading
2)dont put a large speaker in small room
3)dont put a small speaker in a big room
4)know your ROOM
5)did i menition...know your ROOM

- Spend at least 20 times as much time listening to and thinking about music as you do listening to and thinking about gear

- If you have a system you like, stop for awhile. Don't read reviews, don't visit websites, don't go to stores. Why waste time doing all that when you could be listening to the system that *you like*

- No matter how cool you think that new piece of equipment looks or how great it sounds, somewhere somebody is sick of it (kinda stole this one)

- When speaking to non-audiophiles, always say, "Hey, listen to this CD, it sounds great." Never say, "Hey, check out how much wider my soundstage is with my new amp." Actually, when speaking to audiophiles, the same advice is probably good.

- Remember that even a basic audiophile system is a huge leap over mass market. After that, you're playing a game of (rapid) diminishing marginal returns.

1) A good audio system forces you to music. A bad one forces you to something else.
2) Matching and room treatment are often forgotten.
3) If you are not happy now, jumping parallel is not going to get you anywhere. (If you don't like the speaker/amp combo, changing sources, cables,... will not change much. No component can change your speaker for you.)
4) Sit down and enjoy the music.

If like music, the catalog to equipment ratio should be at least 3 to 2. This is easy to do even with 'expensive' systems: just get what you want and keep it for years as you ignore the industry induced upgrade hype.Conversely, if you like equipment more, you really only need a couple cd's and then you can spend your time comparing components, cables, rooms,etc. A great chef will make magic happen on my 30 yr. GE electric stove. Boxed stuff from the freezer section of the supermarket still tastes like ^%$^#$ no matter the equipment used to cook it!