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How to listen to the good stuff?

How is one able to hear some of the 100's of great systems described in review after review?

There's been six or seven high-end dealers in the local area and I've been to a few out of state, and among all the auditions I've listened to at these places with all sorts of different speakers and electronics, from systems costing hundreds of dollars to systems costing many tens of thousands of dollars, only one system ever sounded 'great', and only one or two I would consider barely 'good'. The vast majority have sounded quite poor to awful.

The funny thing is, even with the awful sounding systems, the dealers will gush about how great it sounds, how it sounds so live, and use all the usual audiophile superlatives and descriptions to describe what I'm supposed to be hearing. Yet it sounds nothing like that to me at all -- poor sound, little emotional connection with the music, no PRAT, nothing like live music, and almost always boring. It doesn't come anything close to what I hear at home, or anything like the descriptions in so many reviews. Yeah, I know it's their job to talk about everything in glowing terms, but that is the point I'm trying to make. If all of this stuff sounds like crap at the dealers, how do I find speakers I might like better than the ones I have? How do I hear a great SET amp or an exotic horn system?

I want to hear some more of these setups that are described as being able to image a full size orchestra right in your living room and you can pick out each individual player, etc., etc.

The descriptions I've read of all the different audio shows over the years make it sound even worse than auditioning at a dealer. Crowded rooms with little chance to sit in the sweet spot. Systems setup the day before in a crappy hotel room. Poor selection of music. etc. And I don't know anybody with a high-end system, let alone the high-high-end stuff, and the audio 'club' (society?) is pretty much dead.

Do you guys think most of the dealer setups you've heard sound good? How do you guys listen to some of the more exotic stuff? Pretty much going to shows, or do you live in L.A. or N.Y.?

(Some of the speakers heard at dealers: Magnapan 1.7, Sonus Faber, various B&Ws, Wilson X-1 and Sasha ?, Joseph Audio Pearl, Linn, Vienna Acoustics, Totem, various Martin Logans, Thiel, ...)
bdhgon
rrog
1,958 posts
 
I remember hearing a system at a stereo store that sounded incredible and the speakers were B&W 801s with Levinson electronics. The room was huge and the sound was big and life-like. It was truely a rare occasion.

I am usually not impressed with what I hear in stereo stores and I think there is more than one reason. The main reason is not being relaxed and able to concentrate on the sound like we do at home besides not being familiar with the room and the system. I could never buy stereo equipment based on what I heard in a store.

For me the only way is to buy equipment and try it in my system. I have to live with it for a while and tweak the system to give the new component or speaker a fair chance. If it doesn't hold my interest I sell it and try something else. For me there is no other way and this is why buying used equipment makes sense.

However, I have growing concerns about buying used equipment lately because more and more audiophiles are modifying their equipment. I refuse to buy modified equipment. I want it to be totally original and stock right down to the power cord. I want to know how the engineers at Audio Research intended it to sound not some fool with a soldering iron who thinks he can improve a masterpiece by changing caps.
6550c
393 posts
 
Yeah, I have SoundLab speakers and keep trying to find something better - imagine how disapointed I get ? (just kidding).

I would only work with a dealer that allows for in home demos. This is the only way I have ever bought great sounding audio gear that I was 100% happy with. Equipment is way too expensive to gamble on. Having the chance to listen for a few days with your own system in your own home with lots of music you know well is the only way you can tell if something is good. It is a total waste of time to goto some audio store and listen to 2 tracks on a CD-R on a system that is nothing like yours. I have taken a few gut-shots at highly known products and bought without really ever hearing and wound up wasting tons of money (some are amps that are raved about daily here on AG and are really on Class A junk!!). Gut shots based on glossy ads and how great some super hero designer is, is a sure fire way to waste ton of your hard earned cash.

Back, in the 90s, I bought from a great audio store and borrowed dozens of components over the years. Some sounded great, while others that were supposed to sound great left me somewhat surprised. Like big $$$$ gear that got A rating from the magazines and turned out to be truely bad. Im gald I could listen for free. I did buy lots of gear this way too.
david12
1,454 posts
 
I think shows are the answer. Yes the sound is usually awful, but what do you expect from a system thrown together the night before, in an inappropriate room, with corrupted mains. BUT, if you can find a reaonable sounding room, then the kit must be pretty good to survive the context they are performing in.

I found several good sounding rooms at RMAF last year and many very poor and very expensive ones. It always seems odd to me, that the rooms with cheaper kit sound so much better than the costly ones. Perhaps because the latter often have high output monoblock amps and top of the range large standmounts, which just can not function in the small rooms they are in.

I still think the best route is visiting audio contacts and listening to their hopefully sorted systems, appropriate to the rooms they are in. I enjoy demoing myself to and spending a couple of hours chewing the fat.
bdhgon OP
10 posts
 
The problem with making audio contacts is the WAF -- "Hey honey, there's a guy I just met on the internet that wants to come hear my $20,000 stereo system. I have no idea who he is, but that's okay, right?"

It seems like the bigger issue is the question about why dealers demos usually don't sound very good. If my livelyhood depended on impressing people enough to spend that much on a speaker system, I'd make sure it sounded absolutely increadible. I'd never buy something that sounded lifeless and boring.
bondmanp
1,816 posts
 
I used to go the HE Shows (by Stereophile) when they were in NYC. When they ended, I too was having trouble hearing great hifi without bothering audio salesmen who need to make a living, and I wasn't buying. In late 2008, I joined my local audio club (the NJ Audio Society) and haven't looked back. Each month, we have a meeting in a different location, with different systems. We've had meetings at dealer showrooms, where we could hear numerous high-end systems. Sometimes it's just the host's system (which is usually very good). Sometimes we have live music, sometimes a particular manufacturer brings his wears to showcase. We've also had DIY meetings where everyone brings their home-brewed creations and vintage meetings where we listened to estate sale bargains. It's a hoot chatting in person with other audiophiles, gear designers, factory reps and music enthusiasts. The $30 annual membership fee is the best bargain in audio I've ever come across. So, I suggest you seek out your local audio club (there is a section for these here, on the Stereophile web site and other audio-oriented sites).
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