2. misc-audio
  3. 163780-7439

Audio Lessons Learned - post your best advice for the newer members!

Hi,
I thought it would be great to have our longtime audiophiles post their "lessons learned" along the way.

This is not a thread to start arguments, so please do not do that.
Just a repository where newer members can go to get a few good tidbits of knowledge.

I'll start - I have been an audiophile for 50 years now.

1. Learn about how humans hear sound, and what frequencies SHOULD NOT be flat in their response.. This should be the basis for your system. "Neutral" sounding systems DO NOT sound good to the human ear. You will be unsatified for years (like I was) until you realize this.

2. I do not "chase" DACS anymore.. (I went up to 30K Dacs before realizing the newest Dac chips are now within a few % of the high end Dacs.) Do your research and get yourself a good Dac using the best new dac chips. (about 1000.00 will get you a good one) and save yourself a fortune. - This was one of the best lessons I learned (and just recently) . It allowed me to put more of the budget into room treatment, clean power, and cables which are much more important.

3. Do you want a pleasant or unpleasant sounding system?
I had many very high end systems with NO real satisfaction, until I realized
why a certain company aimed for a particular sound..

4. McIntosh:
As a high end audiophile, I regarded McIntosh as just a little above Bose for about 40 years.-- (not good)
I thought I was an elite audiophile who knew way too much about our hobby to buy equipment that was well made, but never state of the art and colored in its own way.

This was TOTALLY WRONG, as I realize now.
McIntosh goes for a beautiful sound for HUMAN ears, not for specification charts. This is not a flat response, and uses autoformers to get this gorgeous sound. If you know enough about all the other things in our hobby, such as room treatments, very clean power, and very good cables, you can bring a gorgeous sounding McIntosh system to unheard of levels. I have done this now, and I have never enjoyed my music more!

Joe55ag


joe55ag
antigrunge2
1,451 posts
 
1. Learn to listen: compare different recordings of the same music, easiest done on classical music. Watch out for phrasing, room echo, dynamics etc.

2. Listen to learn: change speaker positioning gradually using the same piece of music. Change positioning of isolation feet under equipment (near the power supply, under output transformers, etc.)
Gradually change VTA and azimuth on your cartridge. Change tonearm cable (most important) as well as other interconnects as well as speaker cables. On digital try galvanic isolators for ethernet as well as USB.

3. Enjoy the music. Don‘t overdo the tuning
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,053 posts
 
Remember that the unceasing quest for better sound is just an expensive manifestation of Schopenhauer's observation that "Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom."

We're striving creatures -- we seek to address a lack with a fix. If the fix works, we're bored and start striving again. If the fix doesn't work, we're frustrated and keep seeking. That's the pendulum. The only solution is the temporary escape of aesthetic bliss ("enjoy the music.") Can you stay in the music forever and stop the striving? Very hard to do for creatures built to strive!
jw944ts's avatar
jw944ts
327 posts
 
a good system can make less than perfect recordings sound great, but also some reputedly great recordings sound lousy
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Avoid threads such as this!  ;)  



dwhess's avatar
dwhess
72 posts
 
I loved these posts, some great advice here. My audiophile friend made a good point and it has saved me a lot of stress and money.  He said in 30 years he has probably spent over $75K buying, selling, trading, upgrading, etc. Of course his system sounds terrific but he added that if he could start all over, he could build a system that sounded just as good for $25K.  Lesson learned... as mentioned here...listen, learn, take your time, do it right early. Thanks again guys.
More to discover