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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
p05129
516 posts
 
The more you know about audio, the easier it is to ignore the people that think they know audio but don’t. For example:
If you ignore speakers and cartridges with lower sensitivity than 92 and .5mv respectively, you will be missing out on some of the best equipment made.

If you ignore amplifier power, you are making a huge mistake. The poster that indicated this buys the cheapest audio products. You need speaker/amplifier synergy. If you prefer panel speakers, you will need an amplifier with substantial current. If you prefer horn type speakers, you might get away with a SET amp. 
This next statement is actually true but the poster did the opposite:
“Finally we get to our last one, which really is Number One, which is Go and Listen!”. Before you buy, you should listen to the equipment before making comments, recommendations, and purchasing. The guy who wrote this statement did not do this when he purchased his latest speakers and still doesn’t follow this today. He read people’s comments on these speakers and before he ever heard them, he was telling everybody on agon these speakers were awesome. Even today, this guy recommends this speaker brand models claiming they are the best for the person asking when he hasn’t heard them.

Mcintosh does make excellent sounding equipment, I have owned many Mcintosh pieces and have heard many more through shows, dealers, and friends setups
afisher
72 posts
 
When you ask advice on which speakers or components to buy on this site and so many chime in with recommendations, make sure they have listened to it and describe what it sounds like or the effect it had in their system. Too many posters seem to shout out brands and nothing else. That still doesn’t really tell you how it’s going to sound in your system or in your listening environment, but at least they have had some real world experience with it. 
lak's avatar
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lak
4,680 posts
 
When making changes to your system, make one change at a time and allow days or weeks between changes to really evaluate what you hear.
jgoldrick's avatar
jgoldrick
138 posts
 
Sound quality vs cost improves dramatically up to the $2500 or so range, then proceeds to level off almost completely.  There will be a greater perceived improvement in SQ with a $1500 piece of equipment vs a $3000 one than a $6000 piece of equipment vs a $7500 one.
spenav
443 posts
 
John McDonald of Audience once told me that “the power IS the music”. Took me a while to understand what he was talking about. After all I asked him a simple question: “how important is good power to an audio system?” I realize later that everything start with good power and there is no substitute nor correction for that. If you are starting out, get an electrician to run one or two dedicated 20 amp lines for you from the electrical panel and terminate them with good audio grade outlets. The wire gauge should be commensurate with the distance with 12 gauge being the bare minimum. Cost: usually less than $300.  This is a good advice for system costing $500 to $50 millions. 
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