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A Few Audio Truths I've Learned?

I've been playing around in the (relatively) high end audio world since 1982 or so (with a few breaks for sanity--and economics'--sake), and, for amusement, found myself trying to figure out if there were any "truths" of high end audio (other than perhaps that "reality is fluid"?). What follows are some of my nominations:

1. Tubes have magic.
2. Not all tube gear has magic. Some of it is even downright annoying.
3. Tubes are a pain in the butt. But they're worth it, at least in pre-amps (and, once you get addicted, in amps as well).
4. If you have a tube amp, always keep a spare (amp) around. (Every tube amp I've had has sooner or later blown a resistor and had to go in the shop.)
5. Vinyl has magic (but is also a pain in the butt).
6. Analog vinyl is generally easier on the ears than digital media.
7. However, some CDs, especially more recently made, sound pretty satisfying, and maybe even have some magic.
8. As to classical CDs that consist of older analog material remastered to digital, there is a 70% chance that the sound will be too bright, and annoyingly so, when compared to the corresponding LP.
9. As to classical vinyl, even 25 years after the "death of the Lp", you can find, second-hand and otherwise, enough material (performers and repertoire) to keep you busy listening for practically a lifetime.
10. But you still need a decent CD player because of Martinu, Koechlin, Schmidt, Hahn, Bridge, Marx, and a bunch of other cool composers that are better represented on CD...not to mention excellent performers of standard repertoire recorded in the last 25 years.
11. "Tweaks" are called "tweaks" for a reason. They're just for that last 5-10%, at best. Only exception (for me): record cleaning machine--indespensible for the vinyl-lover.
12. Cables matter. And most of them try too hard to impress you with lots of detail, which becomes fatiguing.
13. That new piece of gear that you just brought home with great certainty that it will be the answer to all of your audio problems, will someday annoy you. Just wait.
14. Most (but not all) British equipment is more "polite" sounding than US gear. If your US gear starts to annoy you by reason of an overemphasis on "detail", try some British gear.
15. A $1,700 system can give very substantial musical satisfaction--and sometimes more--than a system costing 10-20 times as much (as I learned when I was an ex-pat in a flat in Holland with only my Linn Classik system for my music).
16. That piece of gear you tried in your own system at home last week and thought was totally awful sounds really great in somebody else's completely different system today.
16. There is no absolutely accurate (reproduced) sound. (Except we each secretly think that there is, and only we know what it sounds like.)

That's my short list. What's yours?
eweedhome
ridgestreetaudio
221 posts
 
Ha! Cool Thread - Thanks Eweedhome!

Perhaps my list is a little more off the path but...

In no particular order and by no means exhaustive:

1.] It's not about the music. It's about an experience. The system is the silver platter, the music is what gets served and the taste is the experience.

2.] Optimized simplicity is better than impressive complexity. A chain door lock works. A chain door lock with a maze for the door jam works too but...

3.] Hidding behind how smart I think I is or ain't isolates me and starves the broader soul of the matter. If I had a triple E or M.E. Maters on my wall, somewhere on it I'd like it to read "You've not arrived. you've only just begun..."

4.] The beauty of a woman is to be appreciated, not figured out. Music is the same way. To that end...

5.] Music is not intended to be an intellectual exercise. Oh it can be but it sort of misses the point.

6.] The "Boy" in us likes his toys - this is good - but...am I "Man" enough to let the passion of music stir something beyond my intellect to inspire something better in me?

7.] Being an audiophile does not preclude or exclude having a life. It requires it!....

8.] If you're an audiophile that just means you have high expectations. This is good.

9.] If you're an audiophile it's more about a journey - not the destination.

10.] If you're an audiophile, have realistic expectations: Excellence will serve you better than perfection.

11.] If you're an audiophile, letting yourself "dance to the music" more often will serve you better than a habit of "judging the system".

12.] If you're an audiophile and your playback never did or doesn't engage you emotionally any more, It's likely one of two things or a combination of the two: a.) Your system really, really sucks or b.) you don't have a life where music can anchor your experiences.

13.] If you're not an audiophile anymore, it probably means your system really, really sucked and/or you have a life...

14.] Audiophile: 1982 - 200? R.I.P.
It's the space in between, the dash, that really matters.

Cheers!

Robert
RSAD
ridgestreetaudio
221 posts
 
Ah....two more I wished I would have stuck in:

15.] Electronics is science that requires art to be great. Music is art that requires science to be great.

And, off track but kind of along the same lines and because I love playing drums and get to teach a little, something I share with my students to help them get better grades in school and be a more encompassing drummer:

Drumming is mathematics artistically applied.

Wished I would have known that when I was in high school. I might have gotten something better than a D - LOL!

Cheers!

Robert
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
735 posts
 
I think we forget about #16 (the first #16 in the original post) too often. We tend to speak in absolutes. "This amp is better than that amp", etc. It always depends on associated gear, room, personal preferences. Synergy or lack of it can make or break any piece of gear.
soulbrass
246 posts
 
Great post!!!

I am sitting here listening to a late 80's Realistic Receiver as a placeholder in my system while I await my new integrated amp...and I'm smiling ear-to-ear as I enjoy Hugh Masekela's Hope on CD! Good thing this is a hobby and not life and death : )

For me, I'd like to share the following from my journey...

1) Room acoustics are as [more???] important as any component choice. I think of it as getting your money's worth out of any purchase. The treatments that I built and installed have yielded more gain in system performance than any component swap EVER!!!

2) Different is different; not necessarily better.

Good luck in your travels...and enjoy some music along the way!!!
raquel
841 posts
 
Eweedhome: You have a sense of humor with timing. Very entertaining. One comment regarding above the above wisdom, IN CAPS:

"12. Find the Audiophile club in your town or city. Nothing is more helpfull [sic] then advice of fellow audiophils [sic] and access to gear that you never [sic] heard before." I FOUND MINE, AND NEVER BEFORE HAVE I SEEN SUCH AN ASTONISHING COLLECTION OF UNSOCIALIZED GEARHEADS AND GEEKS IN ONE SPOT. IT MADE ME ASHAMED TO BE AN AUDIOPHILE AND I IMMEDIATELY UN-FOUND THEM, NEVER TO BE FOUND AGAIN.

I am not at the moment up for setting out an exhaustive list of things that I have come to discover about audio gear, but I'll provide a few, which will be familiar to Audiogoners who have paid attention to my posts over the years:

1. Most people do not understand tube amps: watts per channel are irrelevant if, like 97% of all tube amps (and that includes many allegedly very good ones), they use mediocre output transformers and power supplies. First-rate output transformers and power supplies are exceedingly heavy and exceedingly expensive, which means to look for a back-breaking, budget-busting tube amp if you want to do it right. If you can't afford to buy one with this profile, buy good solid-state instead.

2. You often hear "[R]un a tube preamp with a solid-state amp". If you're talking about top-shelf equipment, it's just the opposite. Here's why: (i) tube preamps cannot compete with the low noise floor of the best solid-state preamps, low noise being CRUCIAL (is that clear enough?) at the preamplification stage; (ii) with the exception of the ones that are transformer-coupled, most tube preamps have output impedances that are too high to drive the majority of solid-state amps without some bass rolloff; (iii) really good solid-state preamps layer space just as well as tube pre's; and (iv) with the exception of a tiny handful of the very best solid-state amps, solid-state amps cannot layer space like a tube amp. All of this said, if you are on a budget and can find a solid-state amp with a high-ish input impedance and the interconnect run between your preamp and amp will not exceed 2 meters, a tube pre combined with solid-state amp will generally cause less problems than the alternatives.

3. If you own a tube preamp or tube DAC and are having to re-tube every three to six months, throw out the current tubes, re-tube the component, but leave it turned on 24/7 and when not listening, keep the volume turned down to zero and if you have one, keep the mute button engaged. When, in three years, you notice that the tubes are still going strong and sound better than ever, remember this #3 and the fact that tube gear manufacturers and tube vendors make their money selling replacement tubes. CAVEAT: this may not work if your component has tubes in the power supply.

4. Too many of the people posting on Audiogon do not know what they are talking about. If you have a f-cking question about your gear, call the manufacturer first. When your refrigerator is acting up, do you drive to the middle of a mall parking lot and start asking people walking to their cars for advice about how to fix it? Audiogon is that parking lot.

5. For the love of God, if Atmasphere or Kr4 or Rives are nice enough to post on this site, just accept what they write and consider yourself lucky that they have condescended to throw us a bone. Atmasphere: everything nasty I wrote above about tubes does not apply to you and your stuff - PEOPLE, THIS GUY STILL HAND-WIRES ALL HIS GEAR AND HE KNOWETH NOT THE WORD "FEEDBACK".
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