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Happen to you? Gear chasing because the fundamentals were wrong.

Gear chasing and swapping can be a real joy or a real pain. 
The search for "better" or just the search for the "right fit" or sound.
One thing I've learned (with some difficulty) is that there are some fundamentals which have to be in place if anything else is going to be accurately assessed.

Of these, amp-speaker synergy and room acoustics were the most obvious factors I neglected. Noise and isolation were also missed as critical, early on. I blamed components which really were not the cause or the solution to the situation because I was missing the fundamentals.

I'm curious to hear anecdotes of your discovery.

What fundamental did you fail to pay attention to which caused you to chase gear unnecessarily?

Hopefully, these stories will be instructive, especially for newer audiophiles.

128x128hilde45

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,431 posts
 

@nonoise

+1

Yes, when I started out I looked at the color glossies and reviews in non-high end audio magazines (1979). I bought this highly touted Onkyo tape deck… sounded good (although I had nothing to compare it to). Then, wondering through a high end store the salesman showed me a used (seven year old) Nakamichi tape deck (with wood enclosure!, at much more than the Onkyo). I took it home and swapped with my Onkyo. Jaw dropped, my life was changed forever. The Nakamichi was simply a screaming deal for the money).

I realized the popular press was without a clue… like me. At the same time I learned peak watts… and quickly watts rms were no predictor of power, and total harmonic distortion ment noting). I took a deep dive into research and got the stapled together “The Absolute Sound”… magazine… really more of a large pamphlet. Later Stereophile. I started learning by listening. So my first few missteps pointed me away from specs and any popular rags. Hence my disgust that AMR pops up touting “science and specs”… pointing folks away from true performance.

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