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Audio Lessons Learned - post your best advice for the newer members!

Hi,
I thought it would be great to have our longtime audiophiles post their "lessons learned" along the way.

This is not a thread to start arguments, so please do not do that.
Just a repository where newer members can go to get a few good tidbits of knowledge.

I'll start - I have been an audiophile for 50 years now.

1. Learn about how humans hear sound, and what frequencies SHOULD NOT be flat in their response.. This should be the basis for your system. "Neutral" sounding systems DO NOT sound good to the human ear. You will be unsatified for years (like I was) until you realize this.

2. I do not "chase" DACS anymore.. (I went up to 30K Dacs before realizing the newest Dac chips are now within a few % of the high end Dacs.) Do your research and get yourself a good Dac using the best new dac chips. (about 1000.00 will get you a good one) and save yourself a fortune. - This was one of the best lessons I learned (and just recently) . It allowed me to put more of the budget into room treatment, clean power, and cables which are much more important.

3. Do you want a pleasant or unpleasant sounding system?
I had many very high end systems with NO real satisfaction, until I realized
why a certain company aimed for a particular sound..

4. McIntosh:
As a high end audiophile, I regarded McIntosh as just a little above Bose for about 40 years.-- (not good)
I thought I was an elite audiophile who knew way too much about our hobby to buy equipment that was well made, but never state of the art and colored in its own way.

This was TOTALLY WRONG, as I realize now.
McIntosh goes for a beautiful sound for HUMAN ears, not for specification charts. This is not a flat response, and uses autoformers to get this gorgeous sound. If you know enough about all the other things in our hobby, such as room treatments, very clean power, and very good cables, you can bring a gorgeous sounding McIntosh system to unheard of levels. I have done this now, and I have never enjoyed my music more!

Joe55ag


joe55ag
jw944ts's avatar
jw944ts
323 posts
 
a good system can make less than perfect recordings sound great, but also some reputedly great recordings sound lousy
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Avoid threads such as this!  ;)  



dwhess's avatar
dwhess
72 posts
 
I loved these posts, some great advice here. My audiophile friend made a good point and it has saved me a lot of stress and money.  He said in 30 years he has probably spent over $75K buying, selling, trading, upgrading, etc. Of course his system sounds terrific but he added that if he could start all over, he could build a system that sounded just as good for $25K.  Lesson learned... as mentioned here...listen, learn, take your time, do it right early. Thanks again guys.
ejr1953
902 posts
 
Joe55ag,

Very Well Said!

I'd add that we all hear differently and have our own unique preferences.  In my search for a new pair of speakers, before setting me up to listen a salesman asked me if I preferred "analytic" or "musical" speakers.  What a great question!  I said "musical" and he let me know that the speakers I'd be listening to first were "exceptional", but might not be pleasing to my ears, and in my opinion, they were highly "resolving" but not ones I could listen to for more than a few minutes.
p05129
483 posts
 
The more you know about audio, the easier it is to ignore the people that think they know audio but don’t. For example:
If you ignore speakers and cartridges with lower sensitivity than 92 and .5mv respectively, you will be missing out on some of the best equipment made.

If you ignore amplifier power, you are making a huge mistake. The poster that indicated this buys the cheapest audio products. You need speaker/amplifier synergy. If you prefer panel speakers, you will need an amplifier with substantial current. If you prefer horn type speakers, you might get away with a SET amp. 
This next statement is actually true but the poster did the opposite:
“Finally we get to our last one, which really is Number One, which is Go and Listen!”. Before you buy, you should listen to the equipment before making comments, recommendations, and purchasing. The guy who wrote this statement did not do this when he purchased his latest speakers and still doesn’t follow this today. He read people’s comments on these speakers and before he ever heard them, he was telling everybody on agon these speakers were awesome. Even today, this guy recommends this speaker brand models claiming they are the best for the person asking when he hasn’t heard them.

Mcintosh does make excellent sounding equipment, I have owned many Mcintosh pieces and have heard many more through shows, dealers, and friends setups
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