"You want the truth. You can't handle the truth".
A Few Audio Truths I've Learned?
I've been playing around in the (relatively) high end audio world since 1982 or so (with a few breaks for sanity--and economics'--sake), and, for amusement, found myself trying to figure out if there were any "truths" of high end audio (other than perhaps that "reality is fluid"?). What follows are some of my nominations:
1. Tubes have magic.
2. Not all tube gear has magic. Some of it is even downright annoying.
3. Tubes are a pain in the butt. But they're worth it, at least in pre-amps (and, once you get addicted, in amps as well).
4. If you have a tube amp, always keep a spare (amp) around. (Every tube amp I've had has sooner or later blown a resistor and had to go in the shop.)
5. Vinyl has magic (but is also a pain in the butt).
6. Analog vinyl is generally easier on the ears than digital media.
7. However, some CDs, especially more recently made, sound pretty satisfying, and maybe even have some magic.
8. As to classical CDs that consist of older analog material remastered to digital, there is a 70% chance that the sound will be too bright, and annoyingly so, when compared to the corresponding LP.
9. As to classical vinyl, even 25 years after the "death of the Lp", you can find, second-hand and otherwise, enough material (performers and repertoire) to keep you busy listening for practically a lifetime.
10. But you still need a decent CD player because of Martinu, Koechlin, Schmidt, Hahn, Bridge, Marx, and a bunch of other cool composers that are better represented on CD...not to mention excellent performers of standard repertoire recorded in the last 25 years.
11. "Tweaks" are called "tweaks" for a reason. They're just for that last 5-10%, at best. Only exception (for me): record cleaning machine--indespensible for the vinyl-lover.
12. Cables matter. And most of them try too hard to impress you with lots of detail, which becomes fatiguing.
13. That new piece of gear that you just brought home with great certainty that it will be the answer to all of your audio problems, will someday annoy you. Just wait.
14. Most (but not all) British equipment is more "polite" sounding than US gear. If your US gear starts to annoy you by reason of an overemphasis on "detail", try some British gear.
15. A $1,700 system can give very substantial musical satisfaction--and sometimes more--than a system costing 10-20 times as much (as I learned when I was an ex-pat in a flat in Holland with only my Linn Classik system for my music).
16. That piece of gear you tried in your own system at home last week and thought was totally awful sounds really great in somebody else's completely different system today.
16. There is no absolutely accurate (reproduced) sound. (Except we each secretly think that there is, and only we know what it sounds like.)
That's my short list. What's yours?
1. Tubes have magic.
2. Not all tube gear has magic. Some of it is even downright annoying.
3. Tubes are a pain in the butt. But they're worth it, at least in pre-amps (and, once you get addicted, in amps as well).
4. If you have a tube amp, always keep a spare (amp) around. (Every tube amp I've had has sooner or later blown a resistor and had to go in the shop.)
5. Vinyl has magic (but is also a pain in the butt).
6. Analog vinyl is generally easier on the ears than digital media.
7. However, some CDs, especially more recently made, sound pretty satisfying, and maybe even have some magic.
8. As to classical CDs that consist of older analog material remastered to digital, there is a 70% chance that the sound will be too bright, and annoyingly so, when compared to the corresponding LP.
9. As to classical vinyl, even 25 years after the "death of the Lp", you can find, second-hand and otherwise, enough material (performers and repertoire) to keep you busy listening for practically a lifetime.
10. But you still need a decent CD player because of Martinu, Koechlin, Schmidt, Hahn, Bridge, Marx, and a bunch of other cool composers that are better represented on CD...not to mention excellent performers of standard repertoire recorded in the last 25 years.
11. "Tweaks" are called "tweaks" for a reason. They're just for that last 5-10%, at best. Only exception (for me): record cleaning machine--indespensible for the vinyl-lover.
12. Cables matter. And most of them try too hard to impress you with lots of detail, which becomes fatiguing.
13. That new piece of gear that you just brought home with great certainty that it will be the answer to all of your audio problems, will someday annoy you. Just wait.
14. Most (but not all) British equipment is more "polite" sounding than US gear. If your US gear starts to annoy you by reason of an overemphasis on "detail", try some British gear.
15. A $1,700 system can give very substantial musical satisfaction--and sometimes more--than a system costing 10-20 times as much (as I learned when I was an ex-pat in a flat in Holland with only my Linn Classik system for my music).
16. That piece of gear you tried in your own system at home last week and thought was totally awful sounds really great in somebody else's completely different system today.
16. There is no absolutely accurate (reproduced) sound. (Except we each secretly think that there is, and only we know what it sounds like.)
That's my short list. What's yours?
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- 17 posts total
- 17 posts total