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Audio Lessons Learned - post your best advice for the newer members!

Hi,
I thought it would be great to have our longtime audiophiles post their "lessons learned" along the way.

This is not a thread to start arguments, so please do not do that.
Just a repository where newer members can go to get a few good tidbits of knowledge.

I'll start - I have been an audiophile for 50 years now.

1. Learn about how humans hear sound, and what frequencies SHOULD NOT be flat in their response.. This should be the basis for your system. "Neutral" sounding systems DO NOT sound good to the human ear. You will be unsatified for years (like I was) until you realize this.

2. I do not "chase" DACS anymore.. (I went up to 30K Dacs before realizing the newest Dac chips are now within a few % of the high end Dacs.) Do your research and get yourself a good Dac using the best new dac chips. (about 1000.00 will get you a good one) and save yourself a fortune. - This was one of the best lessons I learned (and just recently) . It allowed me to put more of the budget into room treatment, clean power, and cables which are much more important.

3. Do you want a pleasant or unpleasant sounding system?
I had many very high end systems with NO real satisfaction, until I realized
why a certain company aimed for a particular sound..

4. McIntosh:
As a high end audiophile, I regarded McIntosh as just a little above Bose for about 40 years.-- (not good)
I thought I was an elite audiophile who knew way too much about our hobby to buy equipment that was well made, but never state of the art and colored in its own way.

This was TOTALLY WRONG, as I realize now.
McIntosh goes for a beautiful sound for HUMAN ears, not for specification charts. This is not a flat response, and uses autoformers to get this gorgeous sound. If you know enough about all the other things in our hobby, such as room treatments, very clean power, and very good cables, you can bring a gorgeous sounding McIntosh system to unheard of levels. I have done this now, and I have never enjoyed my music more!

Joe55ag


joe55ag

Showing 2 responses by jjss49

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jjss49
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1) getting the room right for good sound (including allowing proper speaker placement) is as or is more important than all the gear in the system

2) when seeking advice, understand in detail who the person is giving it, figure out if they are qualified, and if they are serving you or themselves

3) listen to as many purported 'good' systems as possible - then decide and note which ones you agree to sound really good, and try to understand why that is (the room, the setup, the gear, the source materials being used)
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 

good thread to revive, for the benefit of newcomers here

i would add my 2 cents for using a-gon for advice or recommendations, especially ones relating to buying new things, spending $$$

never accept any single post (or posts on a given subject) by any member/username here as correct or as ’gospel’... always research the username to a good degree (click it, see the details, see the system posted, see the buy/sell record and feedback, and very importantly, read many of the other posts written by that person over time)

we are anonymous here, so one needs to get a sense of who the person giving advice is... before accepting it on face value - folks here can and do have many hidden (and not so hidden) biases, or worse yet, may have commercial motives -- so by ’helping you’ they are actually helping themselves more...

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