The best way to design an audio system.

Before I began putting together a high-end system I ran pro sound for a rock band & got a good education in the basics. A lot of them carry over to home audio & the biggest culprit is AC. It's amazing how much noise one dimmer switch can put into a system. Then there's phasing, everything being correctly grounded, shielded cables only going where they belong & so on.

As for my system, what I've tried to do is recreate that "live" sound as best I can & have gone through a few different set-ups to get what I'm after. You'll never know how a piece will work in your system until you hear it there. You can get a pretty good idea from hearing it in another application but it's not the acid test.

Then there's synergy. You might fall in love with a certain component but it just won't work in your system. You can either build your system around that one component or try something else. Or build a second or third system around that one component.

If you're happy with the sound of your system then when you want to upgrade or change something you can evaluate that one change & make a decision regarding that one change. If you're not happy with the sound then you have to evaluate what you don't like about it & go after that particular thing until you get satisfactory results.

For me its been a combination of hearing a piece I liked (i.e. speakers) & going after that sound and sometimes its just been experimenting in a certain area (i.e. SS amps) because I wasn't quite happy with what I had. The rest of the time it was trying many different items (i.e. cables) until I settled on one I was happy with.

I suppose it's a combination of some sort of system philosophy & favored component(s) although I would throw in trail & error as one of the main ingredients.

I don’t have anything that rises to a philosophy. I’m more of a member of the “Church of what’s happening now.” I think this is because everything in audio is such a compromise. The idea of going after “The Absolute Sound” seems ridicules (good advertising pitch though). If you just look at what we use for speakers (cones, ESL, etc) they are very imperfect. You can’t have it all. I like what I have and then I listen to what someone else has put together and it gets something out of the music that I haven’t heard for awhile and it sounds good and I tweak. I don’t think we audiophiles are monogamous. It’s like your favorite food, you eat it every day and it gets a little stale.

Personally, I especially like dynamics and transient response lately. Actually for some time now. I tweak for that. This has led me to efficient speakers. Horns and single drivers, light cones without much excursion etc… I’ve been on a little DIY tube binge too for a short while. I’d like to come up with all sorts of philosophical reasons for liking SETS but in the end it’s just that they sound pretty good and are simple enough that even I can half understand it.

There is something about the first watt of power theory that seems interesting. I mean if you have a 90db and 100db sensitivity speaker what kind of power are you using?

90dbW/m speaker
Driven with 0.5 watts = 87dB
Driven with 0.25 watts = 84 dB
Driven with 0.125 watts = 81 dB
Driven with 0.0625 watts = 78 dB
Driven with 0.03125 watts = 75dB
Driven with 0.015625 watts = 72 dB
Driven with 0.0078125 watts = 69 dB (1/128th of a watt)
Driven with 0.003986 watts = 66 dB
Driven with 0.001953 watts = 63dB
Driven with 0.000976 watts = 60dB (about 1/1000th of a watt)

100dbw/m speakers
Driven with 0.5 watts = 97dB
Driven with 0.25 watts = 94 dB
Driven with 0.125 watts = 91 dB
Driven with 0.0625 watts = 88 dB
Driven with 0.03125 watts = 85dB
Driven with 0.015625 watts = 82 dB
Driven with 0.0078125 watts = 79 dB (1/128th of a watt)
Driven with 0.00390625 watts = 76 dB
Driven with 0.001953125 watts = 73dB
Driven with 0.000976563 watts = 70dB (about 1/1000th of a watt)

A medium room and normal levels (85db?), of course you’re sitting a few feet away, but you're only using .03125 to .0625% of one watt. About 1/4th of a watt w/ 90db speakers

No wonder TWL is running that little single watt w/ Lowthers if it performs good down there. I remember reading a piece by Kurt Strain where he would optimize his amp circuits for different 1/10ths of the first watt depending on the speaker load and sensitivity! How many systems are optimized for that?

Oh, I almost forgot, I keep everything on bubblewrap!

PS: If anybody is interested in a list of DIY tube electronics related materials available on-line drop me an email. A couple of us are trying to put together intro/beginners material that, if we get our act together, will be posted over at VALVE magazine and we need some honest feedback.

I remain,

Start with lots of money!!

I'm not so sure Sugarbrie. It doesn't matter how much you start with--this whole hobby is a disease and the habbit becomes rapidly more expensive. I can't imagine where I'd be now if I STARTED with a lot of money!

Twl, I approached it with a combination of philosphy and preferred components (i.e., speakers). Here's what I did when I got reasonably serious:

I started out with a set of goals: 1) B+ system (did not want to spend a ton of money), 2) system that was not too big physically, 3)digital emphasis, 4) good bass so I could enjoy rock and jazz, 5) good vocals. Next, I researched ads and reviews (yeah, I know now not to rely too much on that!) Next, I found three reasonably high end stores near Boston. Then, I listened to a lot of equipment in sound rooms, narrowed things down and brought a bunch of stuff home and listened to it. Finally, I made the buy -- focused on speakers first, then pre-amp/amp combination and finally the CD player.

With upgrades, I bought a lot of cables on Audiogon and asked a lot of questions about system matches to narrow down the options. I upgraded my amps based on ads followed up by a home trial period in conjunction with buying at a great price. Ditto the speakers. Home trial -- testing for dramatically improved performance on all critical fronts and combining it with a sharp pencil around pricing. Generally, for the upgrades, it was home trial, marked improvement in performance and very good deals that drove the decisions. I would not have upgraded components or speakers unless it was a giant leap forward (incrementalism is just so expensive!)

How would I do it now? Ideally, I would read more reviews here, spend more time listening to systems at the shows and in various high end audio shops (e.g., Goodwins in Boston), beg for invitations from fellow Audiogoners to listen to the great systems that they built and I would narrow down the philosophy before buying. The philosophy would be in very different terms than before: I would really think through analog vs. digital (or both), high power vs. low power, type of amp design (e.g., tube), and type of speaker (e.g., bass reflex). The second two decisions would have to follow the first two. I would then set a budget and general budget ratios for the equipment and cables. Certainly, the room dimensions and surfaces are important and I would likely include treatments in the budget. That would be in a perfect world. Since I'm nowhere near perfect ... (By the way, while I would like to think that I would buy much more equipment used, I would not do that if I found the equipment at a dealership and that dealer spent quality time with me)

I did not discover Audiogon until after I made many of my initial purchases. I am still discovering new ways that members have configured systems that just sound awesome!