A principle guiding the wise audiophile life

@gkelly 

+1

I am not new to this pursuit, over fifty year. But I learned early on that carefully investing more would always result in exceeded expectations. While my tastes have evolved, intense research, knowing what sound quality you want, then investing 2x or more always results in exceeding expectations. There is virtually no end to this. 

You can improve sound quality by careful choice, setup and financial investment. Nothing exceeds doing all three. 

I have learned that maxims and their corollaries, while they may be generally true, are rarely universally true.

For me, the greatest difference has come from learning to measure my room’s RT60, impulse response, and frequency curves using REW software and a UMIK-1 microphone. Understanding and then addressing these fundamental room acoustics has been transformative.

Compared to these significant factors, specific vibration control for speakers has yielded the most obvious, albeit smaller, audible improvements. However, I’ve noticed almost no discernible difference from electrical adjustments, largely because I’ve never had issues with hum or buzz, nor from other forms of vibration control on components other than speakers.

Indeed, outside of the larger factors mentioned, swapping gear has lead to the greatest amount of new information for me. It is MUCH more of an impact to change or upgrade an amplifier to get a better match with the speakers than to spend much time on electrical tweaks and adjustments. 

P.S. I've learned to NOT trust my ears too much. Often, I find myself satisfied with the sound of my system and, if I take the time to measure it and discover (for example) a peak in an important frequency range, correcting that makes the sound even better. So, I guess I trust my ears in the end, but I don't trust them without some skeptical testing and re-listening.

1. There are no absolutes.

2. Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality. --Maxwell

Audiophilia reminds me of dating or what I remember of it in my distant, puerile youth. I used to shell out more money than I had to wine and dine prospective girlfriends in college. There were always "performance" surprises both good and bad and most often unexpected. It was always difficult to judge "equipment" until it arrived at home and was unboxed, and by then it was too late to take countermeasures if necessary, nor would you ever get your money back.

A good male friend of mine in college once developed a crush on a woman and commenced to wooing her. On the second date after dinner they wound up on the beach at night whereupon they commenced hanky-panky to the sound of the waves. It was then that my friend discovered an unexpected part in the box in the form of the male appendage. Normally, an extra, free part would be cause for jubilation; but in this instance it was met with shock and awe. My friend was able to laugh at it all eventually and even became good friends with the "amplifier" though not at the level of tinkering.

Everything is a sort of hobby, and then we die. If we die even a little bit happy for whatever reason and by whatever means, then we have had our revenge. Myself, I intend to die with a smile on my face even if it is a very faint smile.