What makes the biggest difference in sound quality?

1. Room

2. Speakers

3. etc.

grannyring

5,893 posts

12-26-2021 4:47am

#1 - the recording quality 

#2 - my mood and how tired I am 

#3 - proper speaker placement in room

Wild applause!

Recording quality is the number one ingredient to beautiful recordings/playback. The performance, the instrument, the recording room, the recording technique, the microphones, preamps, and the mix. All of these things are so so so crucial, and many famous recordings aren't even close to being as nice as your speakers are! (Even when engineers use the latest and greatest technology, they are rarely recording in a way that makes sense to our ears/brain.)

And after a great recording is done, your room can dramatically change the perceived sound of your speakers. I was mastering solo piano recordings in a new, purpose-built studio control room. Acoustically pure, dedicated HVAC system, electrically and mechanically isolated, with in-wall ATC speakers. Sounded fantastic, but if you left the door to the control room cracked open, you could hear a distinct [negative] difference in the sound. Had to be shut to have the right dimensions and reflections!

What am I getting at?

• recording quality is king! and a good mix will sound great on your towers or your iPhone
• your room shape, couch, or bookshelf position may have more impact than your cables
• enjoy the music, and let's build bridges between the audiophile (playback) community and the recording (tracking) community.

PS. This same discussion comes up all the time in the recording world: "What makes the most difference in the recording chain? What is the most important piece of recording gear? What should I spend my money on?" 

@norsehorse 

There are days when I listen to music and something sounds off.  I immediately panic thinking maybe I blew a tube or something.  Then I go to a different recording and I say ok back to normal.  So I get where your comments come from and I agree.

There are so many comments on room acoustics.  My room sucks but there is nothing major that I can do about it.  My guess is that most audiophiles suffer from the same dilemma.  So we use every tweak imaginable to help...HFT's, Townshend Podiums, Fuses, 1260 enhancer, fuses, magnets, stones etc.  All of these tweaks would not be necessary if our rooms were acoustical sound.  I wish I could improve the acoustics in my two-channel room but it is also my great room/kitchen.   You make do with what you have and just enjoy the music.  

Great post and true...Thanks...

All tweaks effective or not, and some are effective, are only  secondary tools...

Controls of vibrations and a decreasing of the house level electrical noise floor matter more than ANY tweaks...

But passive material treatment of the room and especially active mechanical acoustical control of the room EXCEED in S.Q. improvement almost any other upgade of gear...

This is my personal experience...

The only luxury in audio is a dedicated acoustically controlled room...

i never read any audio magazine anymore now....

There are days when I listen to music and something sounds off. I immediately panic thinking maybe I blew a tube or something. Then I go to a different recording and I say ok back to normal. So I get where your comments come from and I agree.

There are so many comments on room acoustics. My room sucks but there is nothing major that I can do about it. My guess is that most audiophiles suffer from the same dilemma. So we use every tweak imaginable to help...HFT’s, Townshend Podiums, Fuses, 1260 enhancer, fuses, magnets, stones etc. All of these tweaks would not be necessary if our rooms were acoustical sound. I wish I could improve the acoustics in my two-channel room but it is also my great room/kitchen. You make do with what you have and just enjoy the music.

If you take into account your room is a constant and suitable arena then for me speakers/amp interface is the biggest impact. Speakers first then amplification.