Words From the Wise

Learn how to listen...listen with your eyes closed....music sounds better at night.... music sounds better straight...think 3-d when listening {imagine the appreciation of an abstract painting and how it flows through you and relate that experience while listening } ...have your ears cleaned occasionally , professionally...read as much about audio and music as you can as it excites you into the interest of listening... If your system ever becomes a chore , unplug it and make yourself wait exactly 30 days to fire it back up ... get used to a single sweet spot ...understand the importance of the midrange ...go to live, unamplified musical events...protect your hearing... its the room , the room , the room ; study its effects .... keep an open mind and remember its one day closer to your death every single moment that passes you , dont dare waste it being lazy...get a dog and give your heart to it.

As a musician I would suggest many audiophiles invest some time and money in some basic music theory instruction. Learn musical vocabulary, syntax and structure and truly hear the ideas being expressed through the language of music and not just the sound. Really understanding what is going on musically will enhance your listening experience more than any $600.00 power cable.

1)the most important part of the system is the room (unless your room is perfect). The first problem encountered is not knowing that this lack of focus, sounstage or whatever, is due to room resonances, etc. There is plenty of information on the web about basic acoustics and DIY projects. With a little chance and some sweat you can fix some problems of your room and dedicate to the other "most important parts". By this I mean that everything counts. Sorry.
A mid-fi system in a perfect room will sound better than a HiEnd system on a poor room (the sentence is not mine).

2)then you have to deal with NOISE. When you think you got rid of noise you still have plenty of it! You wont know it untill you try good cables (there are cheap good quality cables around) or some specialized stuff. There are different kinds of noise. In digital, as important as noise is JITTER. Do your homework. I won't extend on that because I'm not an expert, but my excellent recent experiences with Monarchy DIP de-jitter box, stillpoint ERS sheets and Bybee Quantum purifiers made me a believer. Paraphrasing the sentence in (1) I would say that Mid-fi equipment properly treated for noise/jitter sound closer to Hi-end gear(for a relative small fee). And tweaking is fun.

3) of course speakers are important, but If you buy a great, good and pleasant sounding pair of speakers you may never discover that you have a big problem concerning points 1) and 2). If you are still enjoying it, it's great. The problem is when you start to get tired of the sound and you don't know why. I think if my system/music sounds great with cheap speakers then it's time to concentrate on speakers and upgrade them (or adding more Bybee's). It is difficult to realize wich is the limiting step on your chain. Price is not always truthful.

4)As the sound improuves so does your hearing cappacity/accuracy and you will find two things(appart augmenting the listening pleasure):
a)you will find pleasure listening to other stereos of lesser quality (for a moment).
B)you will be compeled to upgrade. Try Yoga.

Good comments, Brainwaters.

1. decide first if you want a 5 channel hometheatre or a two channel hi-fi. Trying to incorporate both in one system tends to leave one or the other neglected. I mean by system matching, with cost allowance. The hi-fi end will usually lose ground.

2. By in large most receivers kill hi-fi, but, there are some very amazing intergrated amps available.

3. Just like musical taste, you will probably develop a taste for different products that have their own musical signatures. The bottom end slam heard from transistors or the velvety soft sounds of set amps are available,(to mention only two). It can take years to learn where your tastes truly lie).

4. And last but not least...dont eat the yellow snow.

Don't let signal degradation get in the way of buying a simple switch box; plugging/unplugging just to get the tuner 'on line' is really quite silly.