2. misc-audio
  3. 182381-173857

What I wish I knew before starting my audiophile journey

I’ve considered myself an audiophile for over 3 years now. In those 3 years I’ve owned over 12 pairs of speakers, 10 amplifiers, 4 pre amplifiers, 7 DACs all in search for the perfect sound. What I’ve come to learn is I knew nothing when I started and now have some, not all of an understanding of how this works. Im passing this on to anyone that’s getting into this hobby to help fast track them to a better sound and learn from my experience. If I were to do this all over again, here is where I would start and invest my money.

1. Clean power- I wasted a lot of time and probably sold very good gear thinking it wasn’t good enough because I didn’t have clean power. I installed a dedicated 8 gauge power line with 20 amp breaker and hospital grade plugs for approximately $800. This was hands down the single biggest upgrade. You really have no idea what your gear is capable of delivering until you have fed it with clean power.

2. Speakers-this is where I would spend the a big chunk of my budget. I could make tweaks all day to my system but until I had speaker resolved enough to hear them, it all seems a waste of time. I discounted many things like cables because I couldn’t hear the difference until I had speakers that could actually produce the differences. Keep in mind the room size. I believed that bigger was better. I actually now run a pair of very good bookshelves that have no problem energizing the room. 

3. Amplifier power. Having enough power to drive the speakers is crucial in being able to hear what those speakers are capable of delivering. Yes different amp make different presentations but if there’s enough power then I believe it’s less of an issue and the source determines the sound quality more.

4. Now that I have the power and resolution to hear the difference between sources, cables, pre amplifier, streamer, DACs ect. This is where the real journey begins. 
 

On a side note, my room played a huge roll in how my system sounded but not a deal breaker. I learned that it’s possible to tweak the system to the room by experimenting with different gear. I learned that speaker size based on room size is pretty important. Have good rug!!

For reference my set up

Dedicated power

Lumin U1 mini

Denafrips Venus 2

Simaudio 340i

Sonus Faber Minima Amator 2

cables, AQ full bloom. NRG Z3, Earth XLR, Diamond USB, Meteor Speaker cables.

dman1974

Showing 1 response by tomaswv

tomaswv
245 posts
 

Interesting thread. What do I wish I had known sooner?

1. You need power to know what’s going on. When I started using 200 watt + amps, things got easier to understand.

2. Cables and tweaks do matter, but not all the time. I remember getting some brass feet as part of a deal and putting them under a Cyrus CD player that was pretty good. Wow, what a difference. Not to mention my Gaia iii footers!

3. Speakers are important but not as much as you think. Necessary but not sufficient. I’ve changed out amps and preamps and cables but haven’t had much desire to change out my speakers. Once I got to a level that worked well I really concentrated on other things. The lesson for me here is to get some good speakers early on the journey and call it a day.

4. (Biggest revelation). It takes time. When I was working I had little time to listen and changed our way to frequently. Since I retired I listen all the time and have learned to slow down the changes and really identify well recorded reference content.

I have about $12K in my system, as follows:

31% speakers

12% cables

16% amplifiers

18% preamp

18% sources

05% tweaks

My system is strictly digital. I’m my turntable days, it would have been much mi source and tweak intense.  And this is a humble mid-fi system.  At a $40K level, I’d be much much more focused on speakers, I think. 

More to discover