Words From the Wise


Hello fellow Audiophiles and Audio Enthousiast. I've been in the game for a little over 4 months now and I've learned tonnes of stuff along the way thanks to some very knowledgeable people on this website and in my local community (but mostly on this website).

I'll get right to the point.

Whether you are new to the game or a veteran I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the top 5 things you would tell a fellow Audiophile to better his/her enjoyment of this wonderful hobby. Please use point form or short paragraphs
buckingham
"System Matching" and cables. Read and understand the spec sheets. Consider all matching cables like Mogami Gold. Know the differences between cables - analog, and digital 75 or 110 ohms. Use something like DeOx-It Gold to clean and treat sound and power cable connections.

Listen to the individual musicians' cadences carefully when setting up and balancing a system. When tuning a sub, turn the sub up higher than the Main's to better hear and match the rhythms and cadences together for high/low passes, phase, and roll-off "orders", or, number of octives.

When you add 6dB's, it doubles the sound pressure level. Reducing the distance 50% between a speaker and the listener, the sound pressure doubles, too (obvious, but good review).

Musical octives simply double (or split in half) the hertz or frequency points. That means a 550Hz signal or musical note, has harmonic octives at 225Hz and 1100 Hz and so on, up or down the musical range. If 550Hz is a A note, the others are harmonic octives.

Consider a certified audiogram and adjust your system to your ears if you have any age or noise related hearing loss. Use a analog sound level meter occassionally when adjusting your volume controller. That "resets" my ears to a standard.

To warm up speakers, tune in "smooth static" on a FM tuner and turn it up to about 90 dB's a couple minutes. It should still sound "soft" yet warm up all but the lowest frequency limitations on your tuner. Pink noise disks work better. I found the tuners' pink noise between stations works great, too.

'Never assume you knowitall, that it's as good as it gets, or that it's all snake oil.

If you feel it is all snake oil, or old hat, then it's time to find another hobby, the enjoyment is gone.'

A better piece of advice would be, Seek the truth, tell the truth, recognize the truth when you hear it, and be governed by it. BECAUSE, if it is snake oil, then there is nothing wrong with saying it, or thinking it. And a person can stay in the hobby and coexist with the snake oil, just tread carefully.
Its all about the transducers, the things that change one form of energy to another. Its the things we understand the least, have conflicting ideas about, and spend a lifetime trying to understand. Investing in speakers and acoustics usually yields the best results (that's what they do in the best professional recoding studios).

Brad
Transaudio, I guess I agree. I have always moved back and forth between differ types of drivers and never really happy with any, except for a short time. Presently, I am very happy with the Tidal Contriva diacera SEs, but if past history allows any prediction, this will be short-lived.