What I’ve learned, so far

I’ve always loved recorded music and electronics. I work with technology and I’ve long been interested in quality A/V gear but I’d say I really started down the audio nerd route about 3 years ago. Thought I would share a few of my personal experiences and observations along the way. I’ve gotten a ton of value from this forum and similar ones so I wanted to contribute. Some of this will be super obvious and well established but I was skeptical about a lot of what follows.

Used gear is great. There’s a lot of amazing stuff out there and it’s a great way to try things and learn about what you like. As long as you buy at or below market price, and you are willing to lose a little when you sell for the chance to live with a piece for awhile it’s loads of fun.

If you are low on cash focus on quality components and keep it simple. You don’t need a lot of features, just good well built pieces. Build it over time and don’t rush.

Vinyl for focused listening, streaming for convenience. I do think that vinyl sounds a little better than digital (could be my source, could be my ears). I’ve back-to-backed them on a few different setups now and to my ear, the vinyl just edges out the digital. I also love the convenience of streaming services and they sound pretty darn good.

High-efficiency speakers are awesome. I’ve owned a pair of single full-range drivers and also a pair of Heresy IIIs and in both, I’ve found a revealing sound quality that I never got from my 96 and below speakers.

SET amps sound awesome and don’t need to be crazy expensive. My audio experience significantly changed when I first paired high-efficiency speakers with a 2a3 Bottlehead amp. I learned a lot by reading Kevin Davis’ site (http://glowinthedarkaudio.com) and also from Steve Deckert (of decware) and the Audio Asylum community. It seemed crazy to me that such old tech could beat new tech but for limited bucks, I got a sound signature that makes me smile. I recently added a Schiit Aegir to my system which is awesome but still lacks a little something compared to my tube amp.

Tube rolling can serve up great results. Don’t need to blow the budget to realize some significant improvements and better align the sound to your personal taste.

My mid-70s pioneer sounds way better than the brand new audio technica LP120 I first purchased when I got into vinyl.

A nice cartridge is a worthy upgrade.

Unless you have a ton to spend your vinyl setup will likely have some background noise. If that’s going to make you crazy, then just walk away. I compound my problems with a tube phono stage but it just sounds so sweet.

Balanced gear makes a difference. I really wanted to call BS on this one, but I’ve had a few balanced dacs and amps in and out of my speaker and headphone setups and, for me, there seems to be a smidge more space and clarity.

That’s it for now. What about you? What are the things you’ve learned that you wish you had known when you got into this hobby?