[Porters]

Hi! New to audio circle. Very excited to join! So much to learn, hope I can find a lot of "down to earth" and honest info.

[FullRangeMan]

Welcome Porters

[JLM]

Welcome!

After nearly 50 years in this my best 'down to earth' advice:

1.)  Start with at least a 'good' room (well shaped, available when you want to listen, isolated/insulated, proper physical setup).

Too many way over spend on gear for the given room (assuming in-room listening).  Well shaped means height/width/length in something close to 5:8 ratios.  Available means not shared when listening.  Isolated/insulated means minimal sound transmission in/out with a stiff floor.  Proper setup means symmetrical, speakers and listener well away from walls.  If you can't swing that seriously consider headphones.

2.)  Set a budget and plan on spending most of it on speakers/headphones.

3.)  Educate yourself to what 'real' (unamplified) instruments/voice sounds like (the only possible gold standard).  And learning what instrument makes what sounds will greatly enhance your enjoyment.

4.)  Decide what kind of audiophile you want to be.  Explore various genres.  Soul search as to whether you want to be a purist (and seek exactly what is on the recording regardless of how 'nice' it sounds) or a music lover (who has a particular type/flavor of sound in mind).  Most audiophiles would say they're a purist but in reality want a flavored sound.  Flavored sound can easily become a rats nest of confused mixed ingredients and compromises.  Prioritize what sonic attributes you value: deep/full bass, imaging, detail, tone, etc.  And pick one or more formats you want to settle on (vinyl, CD, ripped files).

5.)  Realize that speakers are the only transducer in the playback system (unless you have vinyl and even then speakers have the tougher assignment as they operate under more variables).  As such they are by far the biggest variable in the overall system and will affect those sonic attributes more than any other component. 

6.)  Audition, with pen and paper to force you to critically listen and not rely on fleeting aural memory.  First make exploratory visits to conduct 'rule outs' of given shops and/or gear.  'Rule outs' is the real value of audio shows.  Serious auditioning should take an hour per setup.  Bring a wide range of your favorite music (I include a 'guilty pleasure', something beyond the edge of audiophile acceptability to see how forgiving the gear is).  While not always feasible, the best (final) auditions are always at home in your room. 

7.)  Know that audio is a very personal endeavor.  Your interpretation of the music is your own.  As technology develops and you mature in your knowledge and experience your priorities will undoubtedly change. 


From my experiences some observations:  vinyl is an antique format and tubes are another antique technology, both feed the euphoric sentiments of the flavored/hobbyist sides of audiophilia; active speakers, used almost exclusively by recording professionals, represent an obviously superior technology compared to passive speakers that 99% of audiophiles use but note that active strive to be purist; nearly all tweaks, fancy cables, and accessories are wastes of money; the flavored sound crowd want to create their own version of music rather than accept what the professionals know was in the original performance; digital technology is changing very quickly and has been for years, so avoid buying used digital; way too much money is spent on looks (fancy veneers, thick front panels). 

A very fine under $1000 USD system would consist of given laptop; 10ft USB or optical cable; used DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core DAC, preamp, bass DSP; XLR cables from Blue Jean Cables; and JBL LSR305 Mk2 active 2-way monitors.  Add a subwoofer (or multiple subs) as desired.  This would fill very nicely a small/medium sized room or even a desktop, reach 40 Hz, and be very simple/compact.  The crummy remote on the DSPeaker can be replaced with a universal. 

Take care.

[Phil A]

Welcome!

[dB Cooper]

Welcome, and suggest you read JLM's post 2-3 times. It is one of the best 'down to earth', boiled-down-to-the-essence, thorough, accurate priority-setting lists you'll ever get. Solve the big problems first (don't put a $$$ system in a crappy space), and then hit Play. Set your priorities right and you'll get lots of satisfaction, even on a modest budget.

[ArthurDent]

Greetings & Welcome to AC Porters   

[FullRangeMan]

3.)  Educate yourself to what 'real' (unamplified) instruments/voice sounds like (the only possible gold standard).  And learning what instrument makes what sounds will greatly enhance your enjoyment.
This may be a useful suggestion mainly if one work in a rec studio as sound engineer, but I leave it pass away some years ago as what I like in home audio is not a live music ditto but a beautiful music reproduction in the room according my personal taste.

Most live music venues have many ambience noises due audience etc so home audio room may be even better than it if have low noise floor and a good size.

[dB Cooper]

Live is not without its challenges, but.... If you want to know what a cello sounds like (or a guitar, or a sax), you have to listen to one. Not a recording of a cello, guitar, or sax. The real thing. Otherwise you don't really know how a given system is doing. That may be fine if your music came out of Garbage Band or something similar where there was no actual acoustic event to have fidelity to, just a bunch of synth loops, but if you listen to recordings it's different- be they studio or live events.

A couple years ago, Audio Note had cellist Vincent Belanger in their room at Capital Audiofest with his cello, playing live and then the same piece recorded on the very same cello. It was interesting. After all the advances, we're still not there. There wasn't a system at the show, including the $220K KEF speakers that looked like giant dishwasher detergent bottles, that could reproduce that solo instrument with total accuracy. Something to keep in mind when deciding how much to spend on your audio system. After a certain point, it's mostly about 'bling'. If you don't know what 'live' sounds like, you are not in a position to judge an audio system.

Anyway, here we go, into the weeds....

[FullRangeMan]

Well being already listened a cello or dobro I know how they sound, a home audio system have to sound much more adjectives than realistic and the first is simple, the second is affordable.