Is Jim Smith's Book"Get Better Sound"Best Book ?

I learned a lot by reading the book. The biggest sonic improvement was the result of his tip to buy a laser measuring device to confirm that each speaker was exactly the same hieght, that each speaker was toed-in exactly the same degrees and that each tweeter was exactly the same distance to a spot on the wall centered behind my listening chair. The improvement in image focus, clarity and soundstage dimensions was worth far more than the cost of the book. It is an excellent reference.

As I incorperate more of Jim's views into my audio-room , the more musical satisfaction I derive. Frankly, I'm amazed. What's more amazing are the origins of the book. Jim suffered a terrible car crash. During his painful recovery , the book took shape in his mind. By the end of the recovery period (1 year), the first transcript was finished. From such physical pain comes such a helpful book. That's amazing.

I have read GBS cover to cover. It is a fine book with a common sense approach to many aspects of a "hobby" which, itself, leans toward "snake oil". How many of us have purchased the latest, greatest tweak and find that it makes no difference or, at worst, degrades our sound.

What Jim's book does for me is affirm the path which I was already going down. There are no silver bullets. No pill can make you lose 20 lbs while you sleep. There are no quick fixes.

What makes GBS a fine book is that it tells you that you don't have to spend big money to get better sound. Don't buy another piece of audio gear until you have addressed your listening environment with a few of the tips in the book.

The single biggest upgrade to my system over the last year, hell, the last ten years, was painstakingly tuning my speaker placement to my listening room. I used a method very similar to that outlined in GBS.

I set up a grid on my floor after getting my speakers close with the Sumiko Method. A few minor movements in the grid and I was blown away. It will make you angry to realize that you have wasted the potential of good equipment by not placing your speakers correctly.

I've also checked my grounds on my equipment, a GBS tip, and installed a dedicated electrical circuit for my gear, another GBS tip.

The first tip costs nothing but time. The dedicated circuit was less than $300 and yielded a bigger and deeper soundstage.

Thanks Jim.

Some may think I'm off-the-wall (maybe right!) but I approached Jim two-weeks after reading his book for a refund. He wrote back that this would be fine and gave me a return number, like #00002 and I thought, "what the heck!" I've poured so much, relatively speaking - I was a single parent for many years, into my hobby of 'listening to music' (trying to avoid buying the components to better do so with), that these forty buckeroos was money well-spent (his complimentary on-line 'Quarterly' is IMO worth the investment, if you so will, as life-time membership fee). And I didn't want to go down in history as the one minnow swimming against the swarm - or something like that.

Jim's respective correspondence alone was well worth the investment (in this, IMO, ever more so rude and callous society), i.e., just for the consideration he gives.

As far as the contents of his book is concerned, and I am confident that I am not alone with this,

"had I had this handbook forty-five years ago I could and would have saved a considerable (by any man's estimate) amount of money, time and frustration."

Most of the contents happened to have come to me by trial, reading and correspondence, via friends or just plain luck, but again, I really would have profited (financially and emotionally) having had his "wise demeanor and helping hand" at the beginning of my trials rather than toward the end. Highly recommended!

Just wanted to share a thought on Jim's book. The best part of the book for me was the tips and suggestions and techniques for speaker placement. They helped give me a more practical approach to speaker setup because the process is more thought out than what I did before with a tape measure and such. I did use Cardas math for the placement and Jim's tips helped me refine that. But for me the best part of Jim's writing on speaker placement was knowing what to listen for when its right. That tone and dynamics are what to really listen for and to achieve. Not imaging and soundstage. Once I got the speakers in the room where I got the tone and dynamics like they REALLY should be, the result was my room was so well energized and there was a very nice 3D wall of sound that was very coherent. Imaging and staging were really secondary at that point. One of the reasons I was able to get this was because I believed in what Jim wrote and wasn't afraid to put my speakers close together. Putting them closer together went against what I believed. And sure the Cardas math resulted in the same thing, but I wouldn't likely put them THAT close together if it wasn't for Jim's writing on the subject. Glad I got the book. I don't even feel like I need room treatment now, but I know I probably would benefit from it.

Now I'm going to put to test his suggestions on gear placement and move my rack out from between the speakers.

Bryan