Pitfall Five: Shopping
I used to work in an electronics store, years ago, selling low and mid-fi
equipment. (I was young, and needed the money). The owner gave me his tips
for selling: play the expensive gear slightly more loudly than the cheaper
pieces, because that makes it sound better. A little more volume adds
detail and impact.
It works.
Stores that sell to audiophiles understand that how a system sounds
depends on your ears, your room, your other components. They will all
allow you to borrow equipment and try it at home. Don't buy from anyone
that doesn't allow this. If they pitch it as allowing you to buy it but
return it, leave.
Good stores have loaners and demo gear and don't charge you for trying
them; if they don't have this policy, they aren't geared to selling to
audiophiles, which means they aren't selling anything high end.
Of course, the other problem is that as you ascend the audiophile ladder,
components get bigger and heavier. Especially speakers. Big speakers can
do things better than small ones. Trying them out at home becomes a
problem. So you end up forced to listen to equipment in someone else's
home, or a store.
In a store, good salesmen hand you the remote and get out of your face,
so you can play your own music and set your own volume. If the salesman is
nervous about this, it's because he knows he has reason to be.
Sooner or later, you'll find speakers you like, and can maybe even afford.
And you're happy, for a time.
But the disease never lets go. It progresses. You start to hear nuances -
your ears really do improve as you get deeper into music. You start to
notice... little things...
Maybe the music does sound congested, or maybe the highs don't quite sound
airy and open.
All electronics are not created equal, but most people never
notice.
Now you're a terminal case, an audiophile to the core. Normal people don't
care if their highs are open and airy, remember. You're over the edge now. So
open that wallet wide, because fixing this doesn't come easy.
All electronics are not created equal, but most people never notice. But
if you're the sort who spends an afternoon getting speakers placed just so
and moving carpets to minimize floor reflections, you're the sort that
will. Sooner or later, you need to decide on a new budget, and explore
high end equipment.
The first move is generally away from "integrated" -- the boxes that hold
a
CD player, an amplifier, an FM tuner, and the rest of the kitchen sink in
a box.
Compromises happen.
While these are convenient, it's almost inevitable that the
designers made compromises putting all that stuff in. Usually, dynamic
range -- which is a combination of accuracy and raw power -- is a weak
point.
Frequency response might be a little less than flat: plenty of
integrated systems get downright sloppy on the "edges" -- frequencies
below 100Hz (bass guitar, low end of the piano, etc) and above 5kHz
(cymbal sounds, movie sound effects, singers who whisper and coo.)
Sound
may leak between channels, messing up imagining (the ability to tell where
an instrument actually is.) These problems are all solved with better
electronics.
This is not to say that you can't spend money and get a good integrated
system. And if your spouse is less than enthralled with the idea of six
shiny boxes taking up your shelves, you may want to consider those
options. But in the end, you'll probably want to get your CD player in one
box and your amp in another. It makes it easier to improve your components
piecemeal -- which, in these price ranges, is the only way you can afford
to do it, unless you're quite rich.
Components: sources, processors, and amps.
In components, there are "sources" (CD player, tuner, DVD player, etc.),
and then there are processors (these used to be called preamps and
equalizers), and finally, amps. Sources create the sound, processors
adjust it (volume controls being the biggest adjustment), and amps step up
the current to the point that they can drive your speakers.
All of them can distort sound. Some distortion is pleasing to the ear --
what's called euphonious or "forgiving." So let's get the inevitable over
with, and talk about tube versus solid state amps.
Tube gear looks cool. You literally have vacuum tubes glowing away,
heating your room and driving the speakers. It's not efficient and it
doesn't generate huge rivers of power, so driving large speakers with this
gear can be a challenge. And there is the cost of replacing dead tubes and
the risk of burns and breakage if kids grab the pretty glowing glass. So
why do people do it?
Tubes introduce euphonious distortion, what's called even order harmonics.
This makes music sound richer, "warmer." It fills out the sound, and that
can do wonders for orchestral music, human voice, and anything at all that
was recorded with less than ideal care. Some people love this additional
fullness and won't buy anything else.
Solid state (transistor) gear offers fewer harmonics of any sort, and the
ones present are generally inaudible in well designed gear. Some people
find this cold, others love the accuracy. Which camp you fall into
dictates the path you follow into advanced audiophilia. If you prefer
tubes, you will generally be looking for components and speakers that work
together to produce just the right mixture of happy distortion to please
your ear: Perfect Euphonia. If you prefer solid state, you'll often be on
a quest for greater and greater accuracy, the Ultimate Flat system.
Amps in either category that do a good job are hard to find for under
$2,000, but it's possible. Amps that cost over $10,000 don't, to my mind,
offer any improvement you could possibly hear. (Certain amp manufacturers do
not agree.)
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