Mike,
You make a good point. I don't think that anybody can get the full measure of any component unless they live with it for several months. First it needs to break in fully. Then you need to try different racks/shelves, footers, power cords, interconnects, et cetera to make sure you're getting the most out of it.
Obviously this is impossible for most people before they make a purchasing decision. So you have to do the best you can, visiting dealers, reading reviews, et cetera. But no matter what you still have to make a leap of faith at some point and choose. It's kind of like getting married. You can't date all the women in the world, let alone live with them for a year or two. So at some point you just have to make that leap of faith and make a commitment.
Luckily, some of the other important factors can be found out more quickly than the sound quality. Like the looks. It doesn't take a four month in-home trial to figure out if you like the way it looks. Or features. If you need 8 inputs on a preamp, you can rule out a lot of products right away.
Some stuff takes a bit more work, but still less than an exhaustive in-home audition. For example, you can search the on-line forums and get a pretty good idea about customer support or resale value or reliability, or the ability to drive difficult loads.
There's no "right" or "wrong" choices in this hobby. If you come home from work, put some music on and it sounds good to you, then you're ahead of the game. If you find yourself listening to more music (and more kinds of music) than you used to, then you're pretty much done.
Charles Hansen
Ayre Acoustics, Inc.
You make a good point. I don't think that anybody can get the full measure of any component unless they live with it for several months. First it needs to break in fully. Then you need to try different racks/shelves, footers, power cords, interconnects, et cetera to make sure you're getting the most out of it.
Obviously this is impossible for most people before they make a purchasing decision. So you have to do the best you can, visiting dealers, reading reviews, et cetera. But no matter what you still have to make a leap of faith at some point and choose. It's kind of like getting married. You can't date all the women in the world, let alone live with them for a year or two. So at some point you just have to make that leap of faith and make a commitment.
Luckily, some of the other important factors can be found out more quickly than the sound quality. Like the looks. It doesn't take a four month in-home trial to figure out if you like the way it looks. Or features. If you need 8 inputs on a preamp, you can rule out a lot of products right away.
Some stuff takes a bit more work, but still less than an exhaustive in-home audition. For example, you can search the on-line forums and get a pretty good idea about customer support or resale value or reliability, or the ability to drive difficult loads.
There's no "right" or "wrong" choices in this hobby. If you come home from work, put some music on and it sounds good to you, then you're ahead of the game. If you find yourself listening to more music (and more kinds of music) than you used to, then you're pretty much done.
Charles Hansen
Ayre Acoustics, Inc.