Question: What are some of your best pieces of advise to someone new to the hobby?

Know what you are trying to do. What kind of music do you love? What kind of tech do you want? Is it just 2 channel or do you want theater?

Most of all, the room is the room. Understand it and what can and cannot work. There is plenty of empirical data - you can avoid a lot of problems by paying attention. This includes dimension, construction, power and WAF. These are immutable givens - addressing any of them is expensive.

Unless you live where home auditions are possible and you can afford it, buy used.

Learn how to listen- develop those skills.

understand that your tastes will evolve or morph and some assumptions may need to be re-examined.

Know that the point of diminishing returns is quickly reached- as the wise man sai, don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good. If you start with good stuff the third or fifth version may not be that much better.,,

Finally relax and take your time - a system is part of your life, not your dr focus- least it should be IMO.

What are your goals?

What are your priorities?

Where do you want to put this system?

What is your budget?

Find resources (dealers, friends, clubs, shows) where there are people who understand these questions and what the implications of your answers are and can respect your answers or help you refine your answers then research, audition, repeat and enjoy the journey.

Let your own ears decide...no one can tell you what sounds best to you. 

It is fascinating psychology to see so many rationalize the way they did things or what they purchased/own as the best. It is the rare post of someone admitting error, or ignorance .  I personally believe that everything matters, but certainly not of equal amounts. Also no doubt there are diminishing returns.  IMHO, items that make the biggest impact on perceived sound are the room and electromechanical devices, ie, speakers and phono cartridges. And balance/synergy…any complex system can only be as good as it’s weakest link.

i am happy with my headphone/speakers system...

It is a low cost one well embedded acoustically,mechanically and electrically... I modified my speakers and my headphones too to reach the acoustic satisfaction minimal threshold which exist as exist a diminushing returns investment principle in audio ...

My system price in my acoustic designed corner in my basement cost me well under 1000 bucks... A member here just say to me that i am wrong to trust my ears and tuning process and that i must buy an electronic equalizer because in his opinion all i did is wrong , our ears are deceiver... 😁....

It is not that some people cannot admit their error and wrong doing, it is the fact that they cannot even figure out what they did wrong because they never studied nor experiment and confuse the EQ manual with real acoustic... And they thought that the price tag of the components tell the acoustic experience story...

The problem in the world is being able to admit his errors, most people can admit their errors save narcissist and psychopaths; the problem is that most people cannot even figure out how and why they are wrong to begin with then how can they admit anything ? ... Sincerity with ourself go a long way but studies and thinking with experiments goes a longer way... EQ is a useful tool and will never replace Acoustic treatment nor room tuning with resonators for example...

Price tag reveal some design quality level but will never predict by itself the ultimate sound experience of someone... We need complex embeddings optimization for that ...

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«The problem is once he had  admitted easily his recognized errors he missed anyway the sheer numbers of the unrecognized one » My Anonymus scientist wife 👩‍🔬

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