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What Matters and What is Nonsense

I’ve been an audiophile for approximately 50 years. In my college days, I used to hang around the factory of a very well regarded speaker manufacturer where I learned a lot from the owners. When I started with audio it was a technical hobby. You were expected to know something about electronics and acoustics. Listening was important, but understanding why something sounded good or not so good was just as important. No one in 1968 would have known what you were talking about if you said you had tweaked your system and it sounded so much better. But if you talked about constant power output with frequency, or pleasing second-order harmonic distortion versus jarring odd-order harmonics in amplification, you were part of the tribe.

Starting in the 1980s, a lot of pseudo scientific nonsense started appearing. Power cords were important. One meter interconnects made a big difference. Using a green magic marker on the edge of a CD was amazing. Putting isolation dampers under a CD transport lifted the veil on the music. Ugh. This stuff still make my eyes roll, even after all these years.

So I have decided to impart years and years of hard won knowledge to today’s hobbists who might be interested in reality. This is my list of the steps in the audio reproduction chain, and the relative importance of each step. My ranking of relative importance includes a big dose of cost/benefit ratio. At this point in the evolution of audio, I am assuming digital recording and reproduction.

Item / Importance to the sound on a scale of 1-10 / Cost benefit ratio

  • The room the recording was made in / 8 / Nothing you can do about it
  • The microphones and setup used in the recording / 8 / nothing you can do about it.
  • The equalization and mixing of the recording / 10 / Nothing you can do about it
  • The technology used for the recording (analog, digital, sample rate, etc.) / 5 / nothing you can do about it.
  • The format of the consumer recording (vinyl, CD, DSD, etc.) 44.1 - 16 really is good enough / 3 / moderate CB ratio
  • The playback device i.e. cartridge or DAC / 5 / can be a horribe CB ratio - do this almost last
  • The electronics - preamp and amp / 4 / the amount of money wasted on $5,000 preamps and amps is amazing.
  • Low leve interconnects / 2 / save your money, folks
  • Speaker cables / 3 / another place to save your money
  • Speakers / 10 / very very high cost to benefit ratio. Spend your money here.
  • Listening room / 9 / an excellent place to put your money. DSPs have revolutionized audio reproduction
In summary, buy the best speakers you can afford, and invest in something like Dirac Live or learn how to use REW and buy a MiniDSP HD to implement the filters. Almost everything else is a gross waste of money.
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bstbomber's avatar
bstbomber
40 posts
 
This is a Great Article.
I have been a Musician for over 50 Years.
I have Recorded in several Hi End Studios and still play live.
I worked for ADS Speaker Co, sold Hi Fi in a retail shop and repaired musical instrument Electronics.
From my learning I was led to believe all Hi Fi is The Reproduction of Music where Recoding is The Production of Music.
They are two different Electronic Standards.
The above article is right on.
Besides budget In Selecting Products its all about your ears and what they know and your personal taste.



shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Before I started reading Audiogon, I was not a tweaker. Since, I have made many
tweaks and modifications to my system.
At this point I’m confused as to whether all the thousands of dollars spent were worth the investment. Each tweak seems to breed a new one.
I think I was happier before I started!?!

There is so much misinformation here. It is a minefield. Fuses for $100’s, contact paste for connections 100x more than toothpaste, interconnects and cables for $2,000+ ... it is all nonsense. The mark ups are outrageous. It is insulting to most decent honest folks trying to make real audio components that actually do something. Of course, component manufacturers are careful not to draw attention to this nonsense because they know that half a dealers sales profit can come from silly senseless audio jewelry trinkets that do nothing but soothe audiophile egos and separate fools from their money.
jdave's avatar
jdave
26 posts
 
I agree that room dynamics and speaker placement are crucial, but for me, I think Elizabeth is more on the ball. I've only been at this for about a year now (although I've probably crammed in 3-4 years of research), and I find that the front end is every bit as important as the final output. I operate at a lower cost level than Elizabeth, but if the front end components are all well-researched and well-matched, they can make a lot of different speakers sound very, very good. I was amazed at what my growing set-up was doing for the sound of my vinyl, but it wasn't until I got my MF Dac that I actually considered getting out of vinyl. Having said that, I think I'll hang on the Thorens and GSP reflex M, as they are not a huge outlay for quality of sound they produce.
And it's too bad that some of the recordings are so poor. I'd probably have to find some way of including some tone controls in the system if I ever want to listen to some of my older vinyl and CDs.
mr_m
1,087 posts
 
+1, shadorne

It is truly sad of the mark-ups of audio tweaks. You see so much stuff out there that is so outrageously priced. I guess the magical claims by the designers of these tweaks make this stuff worth hundreds or thousands, at least in their minds. I know a speaker designer who would order heavy gold plated binding posts for all of his speakers. He paid the vendor a dollar a pair, considering the fact he ordered thousands of these. When that vendor found out he was using them in high end audio applications, he immediately raised the bulk price to five dollars per pair.
craigl59
306 posts
 

For me and my systems, "tweaks" are improvements such as Herbie's Loudpeaker Feet. These were recommended on the Double Impact thread and I ordered them with trepidation because they were about $65 a speaker and the design improvement was not clear at first.

Turns out they work splendidly with the Tektons and are well worth the minor investment -- the speakers stay rock steady over time and the subtle cushioning improves bass response, soundstage, and security.

Have had my share of non-working tweaks and can only say that I will spend relatively little on an untrusted, untested, or non-reviewed addition. Spend time on Audiogon and other sites to benefit from user comments on these kinds of threads. Believe you get the best information from users/owners who describe their experiences devoid of special interest or economic motives.

The cable issue stopped being a concern for me when I discovered Blue Jeans Cable 7 years ago and started using their custom builds for studio and home setups. Check out Gearslutz for studio advice on cables. The standard used to be Monster mic cables but these have been replaced by Belden 1800f ones. Blue Jeans makes custom lengths and connectors so you avoid excess length and adaptors.

Like bstbomber above, am a lifelong musician with studio and audiophile setups. Move equipment back and forth between the two and have found that professional studio equipment always sounds good in audiophile settings but the reverse is not always the case.

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