What I wish I knew before starting my audiophile journey

@limbonner  Rex and Bob Hungerford of Kingrex Electric show off their audiophile-grade electrical service panel. 

As long as our ears are still analog, they’ll be a need to connect with the air and move it around in our listening spaces. Precision raw speaker drivers, robust amplification, meaty cables, and the power from the wall to make it all happen will be essential elements of a audiophile system for some time to come. Until we have the tech to communicate those digital sources telepathically, or have a port installed and a digital bitstream connected directly to our brains, those "old school’ things will matter. It’s also irrelevant whether those items are internal, external, active or passive, the sames rules apply. Even short cables runs (inches) and termination methods make a differece. Yes, we can split hairs here and debate the gradients of various solutions, but that same stuff matters, whether it’s sonic impactt is 1% or 90% on sound quality.

What we invest in our system depends on a number of factors. Some of us have the ability to select "this" AND "this". Most of us have to choose between "this" OR "this". Just like a portfolio of "adenelin stocks" -- the one’s you choose because you want the excitement of playing in the stock market, your audio gear investment needs to be money you can afford to loose, or at least a good chunk of it.

As far as dealers are concerned (I’m a retired one), not all customers are rugged individuals who relish in the aspect of taking on the magnitude of information out there to select the "right" system. They are busy people in many cases. Or, they’re emotionally and financially involved in their classic car, motorcycle, guitar, watch or wine collections. Audio is something they enjoy, but they’d rather take a deep dive into turbos vs superchargers discussion than vinyl vs streaming. Many came to us with a "save the labor pains, just give me the baby" attitude. They want to push a button and emerge themselves (and, their guests) in music and movies, and could care very little about dampening factors, black backgrounds, or FLAC vs MQA. Service and support is a high priority for them. There are dealers who have dedicated their careers to providing a high level of integrity as good stewards of their customer’s money.

@ecpninja 

Exactly,

the Eqi=Tech wall cabinet (sub panel) is meant exclusively for dedicated room/only audio equipment need. I will use five of the available six 20 Amps separate circuits in 5WQ for my own use.

I'll leave the sixth one available for family's future needs after I will eventually be no more, and after one day, perhaps some of them might grow into appreciating taste of sound in music and not a noise, as an alternative to selling it all at a steep lose.

I already prepared five Romex 10-2 runs, twisted with my own hands and into a flex metal conduit/shield. Four of equal lengths in a cluster of (3) on the front wall /adjacent corner on the long wall, and one 70' on the other end of the same, long wall.

Equi=Tech engineer told me that I did not need all of this twisting and shielding, but what a heck, it is already done and is hanging in the joists! It was; however, a back twisting job, and I was on it for two months with a bright sun shining outside last summer.

Again, I appreciate all of your responses @sns. Yours is a big help for a newbie to stay the course, and I am glad that somehow crediting own intuition I ended up with a different instinct. However, there is not one audiophile without a bad turn, or a U-turn on this seductive journey.  

@waytoomuchstuff Interesting to hear a dealer's perspective on this, I often assume others as attentive to small details as I am.

I've also run in motorcycle and car circles nearly all my life, seems like I'm always around OCD type people! Can't recall meeting another audiophile, motorcycle and car nut in one package.

dman1974 some posts seem to have got little off point (!) as usual. When I read your original post I just thought YES! Right on you are so right that is the right advice. Speakers-Power-Cables even a semi modest system (like my own) can sound pretty pretty good. TY DMAN74.