That Audiophile Thing




It took me years of going to "high end emporiums", reading every audio magazine printed, including those in the UK, and listening in that "audiophilic manner" to get my system together. It has the holographic sound I worked so hard to achieve.

Recently, I was admiring another audiophile's exquisite system (not personally, but here on the Gon) and I was wondering how long it took him to put it together. After admiring his system, I began listening to mine, and enjoying the music immensely. While I thought about his system, the thought also came to me about the headache of putting a new system together in "your" listening room. Even if you have the money, you don't just plunk this stuff down in the listening room and get good sound out of it.

To complicate matters even more, this is a 300B system utilizing extremely efficient speakers. Although I know "zip" about a 300B system, I'm positive from what I've read, that his sound is exquisite. My question to you, is after taking into consideration all the "minutiae" involved in getting audiophile holographic sound in your listening room, are you ready to do it all over again? Money is not a consideration in regard to this question.
orpheus10
Yes. Of course - since you''ve allowed that money is no object... If that we're the case, I'd have a custom home built with a professionally-designed dedicated studio and I'd hire my good friend John from Audio Video Logic to install/setup/tweak the system and room... Boy, would I love to be able to do that... Then again, if money were no object, I would most certainly do it all by myself all over again. What else is a rich audiophile going to do...?
No, I don't think I would do it all over again. It's more than just money, it's time and effort to set up, dismantle, buy and sell. The hassle of ads, pics, carrying 100 pound boxes to and from Fed Ex/UPS. I'm getting too old for this shit. LOL!

I used to pull the trigger on anything that interested me. Now, when I see something I really want, I just imagine myself taking the pictures, posting the for sale ad, dealing with lowballers and fianlly, carrying the box out to be shipped. That usually quells the desire to buy. ;)
The first system is always the hardest to dial in. This is because the room plays a bigger part in the sound than most people realize. Once you learn your room it becomes much easier. I wouldn't get too excited about 300B or any other single ended amplifier. They do some things very well, but they also have their limitations.
i think thr process is easier if you start out with quality components.

for example, if you have quad esl speakers, preferably stacked, it is hard to get bad sound. next, understand that the quds sound better with tube amps.

the point is it is not that hard to learn the facts about amp, speaker interaction, preamp, amp interaction and the effect of long length cables.

if you speak to enough manufacturers, you can configure a decent sounding system. then tuning will be necessary to satisfy your sonic palette.

i don't think it is that difficult or should take a long time to attain a quality stereo system.