Words From the Wise

1> Importance of a powerful amp: At least 70 honest watts per channel. My reasoning is that human beings tend to get tired of any one thing - no matter how beautiful. So, beautiful smooth color of a speaker can seize to please at some moments. However, a powerful amp blows life to any recording you have - all in a deliciously different way. This way, you have "v a r i e t y", and will please you more of the times. I personally like NAD and old Marantz amps (2270) in affordable amps.

2> However, this power has tobe tamed by a soft sounding quality speaker. Not a pleasant thing to admit, but foreigners (Europeans and Canadians) do make better affordable speakers. I think emphasis on culture in their societies favor higher standards of art appreciation, and we Americans can learn from that - what's the use of being a rich country, if our citizens do not enjoy quality things in life? Athena, paradigm, missions are soft sounding speakers everyone can afford.

3> Spend 10% of your system's cost on cables!
Buying quality gears, and not getting quality cables, is defeating the purpose.

4> Some music is an acquired taste - give them a chance by listening to them a couple of times at length before making a judgement. Complex classical music is even good for the intellect, and is more lasting in enjoyment. Like an old friend, will be there to sooth our hearts - making the inevitable bumps in our lives, more bearable. We all heard of the Mozart effect - give them to children for their intellectual development, as well as for their bright disposition.

5> Give quality to our loved ones, including children. I was surprised when 7 year olds could distinguish between a fine musical instruments from the less so. Quality sounds adds something to our lives I believe, and we (audiophiles or nuts which ever you prefer) have the key to a beautiful heaven. Let's invite our loved ones to it.

Learn a little bit about typical male manifestations of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder.

Learn how to listen...listen with your eyes closed....music sounds better at night.... music sounds better straight...think 3-d when listening {imagine the appreciation of an abstract painting and how it flows through you and relate that experience while listening } ...have your ears cleaned occasionally , professionally...read as much about audio and music as you can as it excites you into the interest of listening... If your system ever becomes a chore , unplug it and make yourself wait exactly 30 days to fire it back up ... get used to a single sweet spot ...understand the importance of the midrange ...go to live, unamplified musical events...protect your hearing... its the room , the room , the room ; study its effects .... keep an open mind and remember its one day closer to your death every single moment that passes you , dont dare waste it being lazy...get a dog and give your heart to it.

As a musician I would suggest many audiophiles invest some time and money in some basic music theory instruction. Learn musical vocabulary, syntax and structure and truly hear the ideas being expressed through the language of music and not just the sound. Really understanding what is going on musically will enhance your listening experience more than any $600.00 power cable.

1)the most important part of the system is the room (unless your room is perfect). The first problem encountered is not knowing that this lack of focus, sounstage or whatever, is due to room resonances, etc. There is plenty of information on the web about basic acoustics and DIY projects. With a little chance and some sweat you can fix some problems of your room and dedicate to the other "most important parts". By this I mean that everything counts. Sorry.
A mid-fi system in a perfect room will sound better than a HiEnd system on a poor room (the sentence is not mine).

2)then you have to deal with NOISE. When you think you got rid of noise you still have plenty of it! You wont know it untill you try good cables (there are cheap good quality cables around) or some specialized stuff. There are different kinds of noise. In digital, as important as noise is JITTER. Do your homework. I won't extend on that because I'm not an expert, but my excellent recent experiences with Monarchy DIP de-jitter box, stillpoint ERS sheets and Bybee Quantum purifiers made me a believer. Paraphrasing the sentence in (1) I would say that Mid-fi equipment properly treated for noise/jitter sound closer to Hi-end gear(for a relative small fee). And tweaking is fun.

3) of course speakers are important, but If you buy a great, good and pleasant sounding pair of speakers you may never discover that you have a big problem concerning points 1) and 2). If you are still enjoying it, it's great. The problem is when you start to get tired of the sound and you don't know why. I think if my system/music sounds great with cheap speakers then it's time to concentrate on speakers and upgrade them (or adding more Bybee's). It is difficult to realize wich is the limiting step on your chain. Price is not always truthful.

4)As the sound improuves so does your hearing cappacity/accuracy and you will find two things(appart augmenting the listening pleasure):
a)you will find pleasure listening to other stereos of lesser quality (for a moment).
B)you will be compeled to upgrade. Try Yoga.

Good comments, Brainwaters.