- The Noisy Audiophile

Beginner’s Luck? Not a Chance!

August 1996

It’s an inanimate collection of boxes and wires. Why do people get so wrapped up in it? Maybe the real question should be 'Why doesn’t EVERYBODY get more wrapped up in it' Not everybody is willing to make the effort to shop discriminately. Not everybody finds music a necessity. Listening to music at home requires some effort, not much effort, but some. You have to find out about music you like, buy it, bring it home and physically put it in the CD player or on the turntable. This leads to large music collections which must be looked through to find something appropriate for the listener’s mood. TV is more mindless. There’s no participation required on the viewers’ part. They push a button, sit down and absorb whatever comes out of the tube and speaker on their selected channel.

If you are a music lover, there is no other substitute for the pleasure, enjoyment and/or relaxation you get from the music you like. Good music to our own tastes is an important part of life to us. We cannot not imagine life without music. Why then do so many music lovers end up with systems that are so lacking in musical capabilities? Sometimes an uninitiated music lover gets to hear wonderful music on a good audio system -- I mean a MUSICAL high-end audio system, not a mass market system. Most of those music lovers are transfixed by the experience. It never occurred to them that music could sound like that at home. Then they find out how much work it is to find and buy and setup a system like that and we lose quite a few on those hurdles.

The music lovers who aren’t daunted by the learning process usually go at the process in a very uncoordinated and undirected way. They learn bits and pieces, fit them together prematurely and go spend money on something that just does not work musically. We lose some more of them here or after their first or second unsuccessful attempt to assemble a good sounding system.

Two things can be done before failing that will greatly improve the chances of success:

Organize The Learning Process

Read the right material. This means 1 or 2 books. Robert Harley’s 'Complete Guide to High End Audio' and Laura Dearborn’s 'Good Sound' are perennially recommended. The Harley book is newer, but the Dearborn book is still relevant and worthwhile. Reading the right material also means high end magazines. Beginners are encouraged to sample heavily from the following list: Stereophile; Fi; The Audio Adventure; The Listener. If you find those easy enough to digest, dig in even farther: Positive Feedback; Bound for Sound; The Audio Amateur (build your equipment or modify commercial equipment to sound better). There are many others out there and you will find them all through ads in these magazines. If you have read other articles of mine on Soundstage, this will sound very familiar. That’s because it is important enough to keep repeating. The web has a site that allows you to sample a number of high end magazines: http.//www.audioweb.com

Those new to 'high end' need to remember that achieving high end sound quality involves pushing the envelope. This translates to higher cost of the components. There is more interest among people in the high end community, generally, in a great sounding $2,000 amplifier or in a cleverly designed $8,000 carbon fiber turntable and tonearm than there is in good sounding $400 CD players. The music lover who is looking into high end for the first time can be frustrated by what they feel is a lack of coverage of equipment in the price range they find acceptable. Don’t let this happen to you. Here’s an EASY way to avoid the problem. Read the reviews of the expensive equipment. Instead of letting yourself get frustrated by the cost of the equipment, keep asking yourself, 'What is this reviewer saying about this component that can help me understand how to pick something similar but less expensive?' And there you go, suddenly every review becomes useful. You can glean some references to CDs or LPs that have certain tracks that help uncover something that is useful to know about various components. The language of reviews will become more familiar, especially if you audition the same products at a friendly dealer after reading a review. Always remember, what a reviewer likes may not be right for you. Reviews are nothing more than 1 person’s experience with that product. Your experience could be very different. So keep an open mind. Another thing to remember, reviewers usually don’t have unlimited time to study a component and write a review. This means their reviews will most often summarize what a component is doing after 3 or 4 months in their system. Most people will find that they are continuing to improve the sound of various components in their systems for years after purchase. By setting up my preamp, for example, in increasingly better ways, I can honestly say that the preamp now sounds far better in my system than it did 2 or 3 years ago. Interconnect selection, location, feet, rack, tuning/damping have all moved the sound I get from this preamp far beyond what I was getting after the first 3 or 4 months. Other components may not be much affected by setup -- it all depends. This kind of thing also accounts for people wondering at how a pair of speakers at Shop A sounded ho- hum while the same speakers at Shop B sound wonderful... Shop B knows something about setting up those speakers that Shop A does not know.

You are probably getting this nagging feeling that this high end system stuff will take a little time. Yep, that’s important. Don’t read one book and one issue of 2 magazines then go out and spend several thousand dollars on a high end system. Your chances of success will be better if you go slower, learn more, explore more territory and listen to many different systems in different rooms.

Find Someone Who Knows More Than You Who You Can Trust to Help

I admit this will be a little difficult. The kind of person I’m thinking of is not that common. Simply owning a high-end audio system does not qualify the person to be able to help you. Dealers can sometimes be this person, but you have to choose carefully and watch out for warning signs that your interests are not the most important factor. There are a lot of bad dealers and lot of bad high-end system owners. In this context I mean people who are bad for the music lover, who is not an equipment lover, to be influenced by. I think everyone who has been interested in high end audio for any length of time will admit that there is a core group of enthusiasts who are really interested in cool/new hardware. A fair number of dealers want quick, or relatively quick, sales to people who mostly already think they know what they want. Or they want to sell to people who let the dealer sell them whatever the dealer thinks they need without having to work for the sale. YOU don’t really want guidance from these people.

So who is worthy of guiding you? I can’t answer this specifically for you, but I can show you how to figure out how to do it for yourself. If you pay attention to this next bit and do what I tell you to do, you will eventually be a very very happy music lover. You will put out a little work but when you finally select and buy your high end audio system it will be perfect for your budget and musical needs.

I want you to take some kind of stiff card that will fit in your shirt pocket and write a heading on each side. At the top of one side write Good and on the top of the other side write Bad. Write real small so someone standing near you can’t read over your shoulder. We’re going to fill out the 2 sides of this card. Then you are going to carry it with you when doing anything that has to do with the eventual acquisition of your high end system.

Here are the things to write on the Good side of your card:

• What kinds of music do you listen to?
• Elaborate on that a little, when you say classical do you mean chamber music, symphonic, opera? When you say country do you mean Bob Wills and Patsy Cline or Willie Nelson and Emmy Lou Harris or Garth Brooks and Faith Hill?
• How big is your room? How high? Shape of the ceiling?
• How loud do you listen to music? Would you like to listen louder if the system could do it without strain?
• Are there decor restrictions to what you can purchase?
• How important are 1) bass; 2) midrange; 3) highs?
• Do you expect to have really deep bass like for organ music? Are you willing to pay extra for good deep bass performance? (This may sound like a bad question but it isn’t, good & deep bass is not cheap, no matter what anybody says.)
• How into your high end system do you want to be? Buy it and forget about it (no maintenance whatsoever)? Willing to do some minor but possibly delicate maintenance (cleaning dirt from the stylus of a phono cartridge, aligning the cartridge, maintaining an air pump, replace tubes if/when they need replacement), measuring and setting tube bias voltage? Are you interested in learning everything about the system and fine tune it for maximum performance?
• When you hear music on this system, tell me what you like about the sound and what you don’t like so much. OK. Now I’m going to play you a different kind of music, again, tell me what you like and don’t like about the sound. OK, now let’s listen to a different system the same way -- Now that you have heard all (3) systems playing (4) different kinds of music, can you summarize what you think about each one? (No pressure to select components or price ranges at this time, could have been 6 systems and 10 different kinds of music, whatever)
• Based on what you’ve told me that you liked and didn’t like, I’ve put together some components that might work well together for you. Let’s listen to several different kinds of music and you can tell me what you think at the end. Here’s some paper in case you want to make notes while you are listening.
• That recording is not of the best sound quality, but I(we) understand that you don’t want a system that makes that music unlistenable, let’s see how it sounds.
• Since $10,000 for a system is over your budget, let’s see how well we can do closer to your $3,500 budget. (Showing you how a system more expensive than what you can spend is wonderful, actually. You can learn a lot about what you are willing to compromise on when you work down towards your budget.) {OK, guess you might need a long card you can fold in half...}
• "Of course we’ll bring the equipment to your home and show you how to use it." If the purchase does not justify delivery and instruction because of low cost/size/weight you should at least get in-store instruction and practice if you need it to feel confident.
• Focus is on the customer/buyer’s needs.
• There may be products that are good for your system that are not carried by the dealer (or not owned by the audiophile) and they tell you so.
• If the person notices from your comments that you are listening big (to everything at once) and not noticing lots of interesting detail and high-end musical qualities of the system, there could be some interesting training done with specific passages that show off certain performance parameters. Lots of high end beginners miss these things because they are a bit in awe of the early experiences. Use of Chesky’s 'The Ultimate Demonstration CD' is quite instructional for beginners and anyone shopping for a new component or system
• Before we listen to the music you brought, let’s listen to some of our demonstration tracks. We find this helps you think more about the sound and less about the artist which is important in the beginning stages. After you are familiar with the sound, we can play your favorite music for you. (This is actually a pretty rational approach.)

And now let’s fill out the Bad side of the card:

• "How much of an investment are you prepared to make in acquiring your high end system?" (Investment will be emphasized to make you feel like some kind of big cheeze, there is little investment potential for a high end audio system, it’s more like a new car... worth a large % of the price less as soon as it is driven away.)
• "Would you spend more if we can show you the benefits?" (This MIGHT be innocent... the wording and inflection will tell the story)
• "Have you considered financing part of the purchase?" (Maybe this is innocent too but again, watch the delivery and purpose for the question)
• "Doesn’t that sound fantastic?" "Just after the French horn began playing did you hear the piccolo player pick her nose?" (Pushy types try to tell you what you are about to hear or what you just heard, sometimes they tell you imaginary things to get you excited. If you don’t hear what they are talking about, keep your BS meter on the most sensitive scale!)
• "We’d rather play the music we keep in our store for demonstrations than the music you brought with you because our recordings show the true capabilities of the equipment we sell." (implying it doesn’t matter if your favorite music sounds like crap on that equipment or not). Variation: "We couldn’t possibly make THAT sound good on any of our equipment." (Run away from stores with this attitude. Pompous #!$!@#$...)
• If your head hurts while the music is playing... trust your head, even if the sound is fantastic.
• "This is the way a $10,000 system sounds, if this is what you like, this is what you’ll have to spend."
• "Delivery is extra (or not available) and the Owner’s Manuals explain the operation and use of the equipment." (This is OK only if the purchase price is moderate, the equipment is truly fool- proof, and the equipment is not bulky or heavy.)
• Focus is on equipment, sales, and control of the situation.
• Little or no attention paid to customer’s listening preferences, room, volume level, etc.
• You get the impression that you are being qualified or sized up by the sales people when you arrive. If you get this impression, you ARE being sized up. Run away.
• They focus on entirely new systems even if you are interested only in upgrading 1 or 2 components. If they do acknowledge the desire to focus on 1 or 2 components, they make no attempt to match them up with the stuff you are already using so you are assured of better sound.
• Only the brands available in the store (or in the audiophile’s system) are good or the best - other products are not worthy of consideration.

OK, this is a start. After each experience you have with someone involved in high end, check the experience against the good and bad sides of the card. There will be some inevitable overlap... it will be an exceptional person or dealer who is all good or all bad. So you want to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives. Don’t let me down, I know you can do it. And I know it’s worth the effort.

You will encounter all kinds of dealers for high end equipment. Unfortunately you can’t tell much about the place from it’s look alone. There are fancy brass and marble places that are grotesquely ostentatious. There are some sloppy-looking places that will be totally worried about selling you just the right stuff. And of course there will be sloppy looking places that deserve to be run-away from and fancy places that will treat you right. Some good dealers have been in business for 20 years, others for 20 months. Some good dealers have been in the same location for 5 or 10 or 20 years. Other dealers move every couple of years. Some dealers sell from their store, others sell from their living room or basement.

High end audio is like every other business, there are good and bad people involved. Dealers do bad things like take your money for a special order then never deliver the product. Dealers do great things like become your friend and earn your trust. Individuals you talk to who are high end enthusiasts all have their own goals and ideals about how their systems should sound. If your goals and their goals are not a good match, their advice is not good advice... for you.

Which brings me back to reviewers. Man I wish people would smarten-up. Reviewers are not infallible gurus. Mindlessly buying the hardware 1 or 2 or 3 people recommend in their respective magazines is a terrible way to assemble a high end audio system. Picking components from a list of well-reviewed hardware is another bad way to build a system. Too many people become overwhelmed by the learning process and fall victim to the irresistible desire for a fast answer, a quick fix, a mindless decision. This is how we allow someone else to sell us their vision of perfection. It could be totally at odds with our desires/wants but we accept it because it relieves us of the burden of doing it for ourselves. It also relieves us of any possibility of experiencing the reward of doing it for ourselves. So make the decision to get in to high end audio on your own terms. If you are already in with us but you did it the wrong way and ended up with an unsatisfying system... it’s never too late to go into recovery mode. The info in this article will help you move up to something a lot more satisfying.

Now it’s time to get something off my chest. I’ve had EMAIL from several people asking specific questions about their systems. A lot of them ask about what component in the system is the one most likely to benefit from an upgrade. Typically, I’ve given some advice that points the person at 1 specific component and suggests listening to 2 or 3 or more possible replacements before making a decision to change the component. I cannot believe how many of these people who OBVIOUSLY haven’t taken the time to develop a CLUE about building a good high end system run off and buy something new without taking the time I recommended to try several alternatives. And frequently the component they purchased is just as problematic as the original that was in question -- the match for their system is no better and they carry on about what an improvement it made. It’s as if there was an alien in possession of their mind forcing them to go out and throw more money haphazardly at a problem instead of taking time to investigate the problem. Learn something about it THEN make a selection. Don’t waste my time... please!

If you are going to ask for advice, plan on following it or don’t bother asking! There is nothing more disheartening to me as a writer about high end things than to leave an answer for someone and find out a few days or a week later that they fixed the problem with another irresponsible purchase. I haven’t had a SINGLE person come back and say, "Thanks, so much, I followed your advice and spent 3 months listening to 2 good tube amps and 2 good solid state amps. I learned a lot about my system and what was important to me and I bought a new Firebender 500 that I’m really happy with." I always recommend listening to several different amps or preamps or CD players and taking the time to do it. I rarely recommend a specific brand unless I have some experience with it that I know might make it fit a particular situation or system.

Upgrading a single component takes some time to do right. First there is the reconnaissance phase where you read reviews about possible candidates and travel to local dealers to see what is available. On those reconnaissance trips, you want to listen to a lot of different models of whatever component it is you want to change. You’ll end up several favorites, maybe 2 or 3 out of 10 or 20. Those 2 or 3 then need to somehow GET INTO YOUR SYSTEM. Overnight or over a weekend, whatever you can work out with the dealer. In the process of doing this, anticipate that existing interconnects or speaker cables may not work best with the new component. Borrow something appropriate along with the component so you have something else to try. This helps eliminate simple incompatibility problems that are just cables/interconnects and have nothing to do with the component itself. So that’s how you do it... narrow down the field. Try 2 or 3 best candidates in your system with a few different associated wires to be sure you give them the benefit of the doubt then pick the cream of that crop. You can’t do this and do it right in a few days. Maybe not even in a few weeks (unless you don’t have to work for a living!). Have patience, do the work, you’ll love the results.

Doug Blackburn - The Noisy Audiophile