The Journey of the New 'Audiophile'

Not sure if it helps but I spent years and 10s of 000s on the hunt for my perfect HiFi equipment
In the end I sort of gave up through frustration, sold it all and focused on the ease of accessing music digitally

A couple of years ago I decided on a new compromise... I even had a poster made "listen to the music" With a subtext in my head of "not the HiFi")
I've built a system that is, to my ears, good, not ridiculously expensive and wasn't difficult to find

for me the approach that worked was to set a budget (in my case £5K) and read respected magazines, forums like this to create a short list
Then I bought a streamer/dac on reviews only, asked a dealer I used years ago for some advice and he helped add a turntable and speakers
Dragged an good but old CD player from my loft (Meridian 200) and an amp I was using to power the garden speakers (Bel Canto S300)

none of this is important really other than to say (IMO) build something, listen to the music, if the music doesn't sound right enough, think about a change
+1 on previous posts re: cables are their own special (expensive) rabbit hole with IMO a low sound improvement : £ ratio

Just my opinions/philosophy - enjoy the journey - its a good'n

 

I especially like these two points (your other two are also very good).

I have no interest in spending slightly more than I paid for a current piece of gear to see if I get a slight improvement. I like big moves that I know are going to yield benefits.

And I don’t need anybody else to like my gear. I’m the one paying for it and listening to it.

 

What are the assumptions made in electrical theory that don't correspond to the real world? Always willing to learn.

 

To the OP, are you interested in listening to music pleasingly or is it all about chasing gear and an unobtainable dream? My advice, buy decent gear with a system in the $3000-5000 range and be done with it. You can look in my profile to see my idea of *decent* gear.

 

I personally would not suggest beginners touch that book .

 

Really great stuff everyone! Thank you. I wish early on I would have seen practical advice like this. Hopefully, others that are new read through this and get some good ideas rather than just reading the marketing goods out there.

I spent all this money on this getting into a 2 channel system and I’m going to try to just enjoy and not worry about what I can tinker with.

Really appreciate the good conversation.

 

I would agree, and add that the same goes for intermediate and advanced hi-fi enthusiasts as well. Enjoying great sound quality without buying into the super-artisanal "high-end" ideology, and rejecting the fallacy that "audiophile" excellence is implicitly assumed to rise in lockstep toward astronomical prices, is where my journey has taken me. It's one of the wonders of the age how you can achieve beautiful music reproduction with a modest-to-reasonable investment these days. Mind the rampant upselling and have a wonderful time.

 

If books/magazines and the internet didn't exist I'd love my system! Amazing how the brain can trick you into thinking something sounds good/bad.

 

Invest $15 in a soldering iron.

Then collect a few freebie pieces of equipment - amps, speakers, turntables, whatever - and practice fixing them up (cold joints, recap, etc).

I kind of wish I started there. Although I understand it may not seem sexy, and be a bit intimidating for some.

 

Seems like the best way to understand what is actually going on under the hood.

 

Another point is I guess 1/4 of the readers here think they have a high-end sounding system and do not (lack of enough experience). Other 1/4 do own a high-end system and the other 1/2 know they do not have a high-end system, The problem is sorting out that 1/4 that think they own high-end and do not. Then to top it off, some amps and speakers have synergy that perform and others do not. Very tricky business unless viewing an amp & speaker combo. Note- the 1/4 or 1/2 of this or that is not perfectly accurate either.

I have to give you something, right? A few general conclusions is after years of reading are likely correct and I own some.

Most Harbeth and Splendor speakers cannot be mediocre sounding. You can possibly do better, but definitely can do worst.

Most newly built tube amps sound good with the right tubes. Many vintage tube amps in stock form do not sound great. Hint- vintage Mullard 12AX7 long plate is the best. Best phono tube is extremely neutral Westinghouse short plate with center bump plate (like a short plate version of Sylvania non ladder type long plate) or Brimar CV-4004.

The VM95ML and VM540ML is a good sounding cartridge or at least entry audiophile quality.

That is my advice.

 

An early post stated start with speakers. Excellent advice. 50% or your budget should be for speakers and work backwards. A great amplifier does not sound awesome connected to mediocre speakers. Expensive cables are usually not necessary for short runs unless you experience a great amount of interference such as living near radio towers, airports, in a high rise, and so on. When buying the amp, do you need all the bells and whistles or are the extra's something you will use now? When buying the players, consider durability and sound quality. Can you afford to replace this item in five or ten years? Lastly, is anyone else using the equipment? Will they be able to operate it or does it become an episode of "mission impossible" just to turn the system on?

 

You gotta figure out what you want you system to sound like; which attributes are priorities. Unfortunately, this is a learning process which takes time and experimentation, or was been for me. I've heard my share of "hi-end" systems that left me wondering why anyone would listen to music that way.

I've found it's not about the cost of the equipment. With the ease of buying used over the internet, I've owned speakers approaching $10k which left me cold. My most recent experience was the Harbeth C7ES-3 speakers I just sold. Good sounding speakers, but lacked the 3D imaging I crave. Ready for some audiophile blasphemy? I enjoy listening to my NHT Superzero 2.1s way more than I did listening to the Harbeths.

Know what you like, get your room up to the task, and enjoy.

 

Formats don’t have feelings. If your passion for the audio bliss of digital wanes and your new love is analog blossoms (or vise versa), embrace it. The previously loved format will still be waiting for you when you want it to be, and you are not neglecting anything by following a new path or have any reason to feel guilty. 99% chance you will explore multiple format paths along the journey (and multiple times!).

Don’t be reactive and think “this is it! I am never looking back!” and shed your previous love. Remember, if you have space, hold onto it so that you are not burning your bridges behind you.

Live with your gear choices for a while. We are organic beings and hear things differently over time. If the gear sounds different one day compared to the next, remember the organic beings part and don’t be too quick to blame the gear.

Be aware of groupthink and echo chambers. Just because something is a “forum favorite” doesn’t mean it’s gonna be your favorite. If you find there is a sound you don’t really care for, pay attention to that and buy accordingly. On the flip of that, use these forums to help legitimize you are hearing what you are hearing. If you don’t have friends, exploring a thread on something you are listening to can help you better understand how you hear things. Does it match up? Not match up? Why? It can help you find sounds you care for and don’t care for.

 

Lots of great advice in this thread but you should listen to mine...

 

As said earlier: have fun! Trying to do this quickly just to get it over with will not be enjoyable and not produce great results. For many the journey, the learning, the digging, the reading, listening and filtering bad information (signal to noise ratio) is best done patiently and with an open mind and a decent time investment.

If you enjoy forums such this one here in the US you should also check out a solid forum or two in the UK. Just to get a different spin on things.

Start this mission with a firm examination of two of the most imporant pieces of the puzzle: your room and your budget. I see photos of listening rooms and notice some huge rooms with tall ceilings that have underpowered little bookshelf speaker systems. I also see tiny cramped rooms stuffed with massive speakers and hot running amps. Be honest about your budget. The room and the budget should provide the foundation while moving forward.

Be smart about buying new and used. If you buy new gear without really knowing its sound you will hemorrhage money if you have to trade it for different components. Sometimes buying used can be considered a cheap (ish) rental as you try different pieces and combinations.

Geography is a huge factor. Not everyone lives in a city with multiple hi fi shops to visit. Covid has made this even more challenging. Figure out how many shops are within an acceptable driving distance. Weekend trips to a new city to explore hi fi shops can become mini vacations (in a post Covid world).

System matching is real. Some kit might be really good but just not sound wonderful with the rest of your system. Everything matters.

Perfection is really expensive: as you move up the food chain prices become insane for the last few percentage points in improved sound quality gains.

Beware of fashion: some components become the cool latest thing with reviewers and buyers. Until the next big thing, which can make your current wonder box become old news.

Listen to different technology. You might be interested in the latest compact fancy looking Class D amps. Listen to them. Then try some low powered Class A amps. They will be big and heavy but you might love the sound. There is a ton of chatter and opinion on solid state vs tube gear. Try auditioning both and decide for yourself.

Tons more but I will leave this here...

 

Patience - spend the time listening to the best (often most expensive) systems you can audition - find the system that you like best and then try to attain that system. Perhaps buying lower models from the same brand. I spent virtually every weekend at audio dealers for years listening to gear before buying. It's about your music collection and what you like - magazine reviews and forums don't help beginners because everything gets a good review by someone.

People will say Stereophile liked X speaker - well no. ONE reviewer liked X speaker. That doesn't mean everyone on the review team liked it. Forums tend to form into pseudo cliques and various other issues. I find reviews and forums to be useful to audition items you may not know about or "after purchase feel good" kind of things.

Still - I believe that a stereo system is just that - a System. So when I found something that truly impressed me - I wrote down all of the components.

Lastly, try to listen to items three times in three locations in three systems. It amazes me hos systems I have hated the first go around wound up becoming favorites. When I first heard my own speakers I hated them. So stuff can grow on you over time.

 

The converse to this is that even with great speakers, a mediocre front-end will still sound mediocre. The speakers will merely reproduce the mediocrity. The speakers cannot fill in detail that got lost earlier.

 

One mans dream system is another mans starter system and so on. I commented on an instagram post recently where the poster was talking about cables that were "the single biggest upgrade in terms of quality for a great price". That sounds interesting I thought. Asked how much the cables were...$850!!!

That would be the single most expensive component in a system Im quite proud of and get what think are great results from. I get untold amounts of pleasure from my set up. Someone else would call it beginners gear. I have no intention of ever opening that type of money on gear.

 

I got my first audio system in the 1970s, and whilst I've upgraded and trialled a number of different components and cables over the years, my view these days is that there's not enough time in the day to spend it doing multiple A/B comparisons of components. Things will sound totally different in your home from the audio store, or from the HiFi show/exhibition, or in someone else's home.

Find something that sounds good to you, in your home, and live with it and listen to your music through it.

Unless you can specify something about it which specifically displeases you, and which consistently does so across multiple recordings and sources, just listen to and enjoy your system. Spend your time on energy on listening to and enjoying the music.

I'm sure there's stuff out there that sounds better than what I have at the moment, but ...

 

What I find interesting is going to a few audio shows when you allready have a system. I've heard a few +$100.000 setups there which sounded 'better' than my modest setup but not by a degree that I would swap mine immediately for a no expense spared system like that! But it gives a bit of genuine, real world reference to all the internet-burb and hypes you read about. I am perfectly happy with my setup now and didn't feel it was completely outplayed by setups costing at least 10 times more, on the contrary!

 

Sure, if you by inferior equipment the results will be just that. I have seen acquaintances run out and by a new integrated amp and expect great results while speakers become an afterthought. As written, work backwards, start with speakers and then the amp and so on.

 

The importance of the system interaction ("synergy") cannot be overemphasized.

I have a pair of excellent custom made planar/ribbon speakers, and as excellent as they are, they do break up a bit, at REALLY loud volumes, with difficult music (20th century cacophonous orchestral music with notoriously difficult-to-record timpani and french horn cluster chords).

While planars sound so much better than cone dynamic drivers (to me, anyways), it seems like a fact that they break up at less high SPLs than cones (it's kind of all-or-nothing - virtually no distortion until their breaking point, then you really hear it, much more so than regular speakers).

But interestingly, I just got a new turntable, and realigned the cartridge, and lo-and-behold, I have yet to hear the break up noise at the same loud volumes. I have definitely hit the sweet spot in terms of stylus alignment and set up.

All this is to say, think of your gear as an interactive system.

 

Caution. Don't be afraid to try or buy something you like even when it's contrary to common advice. Remember that a lot of discussions on internet forums devolve into echo chambers and might not be the best place to get advise.

Also don't fall the hype and beware when you notice a wave of reviews coming from different reviewers. Trust no one, there is too much overpriced crap masquerading as HiFi equipment.

 

It cracks me up how many people fall for this. What they don't know is that is carefully coordinated by companies or marketing contractors. At least two prominent YouTube channels I know of involve people who have day jobs involving "social media marketing", "brand-building", and "brand awareness". They know how the game works and they milk it, yet will never tell their viewers that.