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.

128x128dman1974

@sns 

Well we haven't met but you can count me in that group.

Motorcycles since I was 8 years old, still have first bike that I built, '76 HD rigid frame chopper.

Cars too numerous to count in my teens.  And I still have my first "real" car, '68 427 ragtop vette.

Forget about stereo, too much to list. Not sure if I've spent more $ on stereo or Corvettes!

Regards,

barts

 

I think isolating all your audio gear on a dedicated line direct from panel is a must.

 

Also I am  a big fan  of designers that take the approach of using external power supplies.

Especially in pre amps streamers &DACs

With regard to room treatments based on my experience with the room I built just for my 2 channel rig.

Play different music emphazing different instruments

To determine which frequency ranges sound good.

I had great upper bass in my room but never liked saxophone tracks. Then I experimented with more diffusion on front wall. Absorption/diffusion at first reflection points including the ceiling and this really improved the sound.

So as I mentioned previously Room Treatment is very crucial.

Enjoy the journey

@strawj @1971gto455ho 

Yes, I know what you mean.

By no means did I want to hijack someone else's thread, but after half a night with you guys, and having difficulty to shake off, or shape the other half of the morning today I am calling it a quit.

It is 10 degrees F here in Loveland, CO and It is time for me to get into the electric grid with my sore eyelids wiring those cans in the ceiling!

Thanks, Chris.

I hit audio nirvana by accident.... no dedicated lines, special cables. or really high priced equipment although I do have systems that fits that description. I do woodworking and wanted to make some pretty speakers that sounded good so I bought some walnut and added fostex tweeters, two B&W Cm9 midranges to each, a scanspeak woofer, and a mirage subwoofer. The crossover came from China that I bought new on ebay. It was my third system and I had a 150 watt per channel Nad amp lying around so I used it although this particular amp didn’t have outstanding reviews. I wanted to use it for the TV so added two bose speakers in back (don’t faint because it obviously isn’t 2 channel). I put a flashdrive in my Oppo 103 and pushed play and it blew me away. The whole room unexpectedly came alive with music. Pink Floyd and Lambchop never sounded quite so good. What I wish I knew is I could have done it for that price all along.

Battery backup system with dedicated pure sine wave inverter for audio and home office. <$4k DIY

You will never be able to control the power quality coming from the utility company.

You can have the most expensive distribution box you can build, with gold plated or “pure copper” everything, spend 10s of thousands on internal home wiring, but if the available grid power is, shall we say ”inconsistent”, having “pristine” power circuits inside the house won’t help.

Need to provide a source of “clean” and consistent power first.

Nothin like having the electric utility have a power outage then someone turn the power on/off/on/off  6+ times in a minute, then have a 3 day power outage.