Pearls of Wisdom - 6

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Beitrag

G_S_Madhav
Stammgast

#1 erstellt: 15. Jan 2009, 08:22

(....Continued from Part-5)

Check your ego at the door and you’ll write fewer checks.
Contempt prior to investigation is the only true bar to the enhancement of the auditory experience and your own genuine satisfaction.
Everything matters….. E V E R Y T H I N G!
Have an auditory exam every now and then.
Different is easier to come by than better.
Be honest…. And with yourself most of all.
If you wish to explore tube based audio…. Find a good tube vendor.
Find a good local repair tech.
The statements surrounding audible improvements derived from the use of aftermarket cabling, power conditionings, and isolation, are not urban legends.
Never allow yourself to be intimidated by a dealership. If they’re not about satisfying your wants? Just say good bye and leave. There are far too many other places that do want your business.
Expensive doesn’t always equate to better. It does always equate to expensive.
Attaining a synergistic system takes more than just plugging in and out different components. it also takes cabling, isolation and more.
If you’re about to remodel, it’s probably a good idea to hold off on buying those purple Zebrawood speakers until after the project is completed.
Change tubes before the listening event…. Not during…. Unless you have an Ov-glove handy, or you’re The Human Torch.
If after several months of speaker placement adjustments have been made without obtaining complete satisfaction….. move the chair and If moving the chair around yields similar results, buy headphones.
Don’t swap in & out ICs while the gear is turned on.
Ship expensive; out of production; and/or matched items, banded to pallets; air mail; or both.
Ask questions. There are no bad questions, but there are bad choices made by their lack.
If you can’t hear or see the difference, don’t pay the difference.
When constructing an Up stairs system, buy lightweight stuff.
During cable auditions, before a final decision is made, plug back in the current wires and listen to them one more time.
Involve the whole family in the audio or video hobby! Even if it’s against their will. Other types of hobbies will lend themselves to this effort. Like for instance,” hunting”.
If an involuntary family effort is forced, along with a local tech, and good tube vendor, keep an attorney on retainer.
This is the most important aspect of the high end audio mystique, or psychosis. If you’re experiencing “the grass is greener on the other side’’ syndrome more often than not, with regard to chasing gear for the perfect fit…. “It’s time to water your own lawn”.
Remember perfection is an ‘illusion’. Outstanding, however, can be acquired with lot’s more ease, and with a great variety of paths.
Audiophiles are no different than any group that lies just outside the current mainstream so they are indeed havens for the different people. But we are very tolerant well occasionally you just have to say why is that bizarre moron here. Most are just regular people, unfortunately regular people are in fact a bit strange.
What is so wrong with liking gear. Who decided that because you want your music played on whatever you consider good or valuable gear (to you anyway) that you don't like music equally as well. That is crap. I like the music and my equipment makes me grin with delight. I don't feel the joy of finding the equipment that does it perfectly, as far as I ever known, fading at all. I am in awe of it's ability to make every listening session a joy.
I tried a lot equipment on the trail to this Nirvana but even really expensive stuff didn't do what I have now.
Gear is important for getting the best experience from music. If anything it shows how much music is important to you. Clock radios can get me thinking what a great song that one is, and I do enjoy it, but I wish I was hearing it on my big rig.
I find single malt whisky helps immensely with the listening experience.
On Cable WAR: War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.
You might be an audiophile if

You've ever had to choose between a girlfriend and a new pair of speakers
Your living room only has 1 or 2 chairs in it.
If your power cord costs more than your wife’s wedding ring.
If you evaluate new houses based on their suitability for speaker placement. A fireplace as the room's focal point - Huh?
If each of your speakers weigh more than you do.
If the power cord attached to your amplifier cost more than your amplifier!
You're listening to your system until 1 AM, then get up to listen again at 6 AM, all because the power grid is 'quiet' then.
You lock your living room door so the family can not come in to disturb you, and play dumb later "...sorry, I could not hear you, must of been that last movement..."
You put a lock on your living room door to begin with
You have a dedicated credit card for audio purchases.
You have a dedicated room for the empty boxes.
You pay the electric company way more than you have to every month so everything is always "warmed up".
You get more excited over looking at a nice set of speakers than you do a nice set of boobs.
Your connections are way cleaner than your windows.
Your couch has a permanent imprint in the sweet spot.
Your family is afraid to touch the stereo.
Your last choice for audio equipment is 'Best Buy'.
You have ever had a cable delivered overnight.
You get a complaint about noise...from your local airport.
Your electric company builds a substation in your backyard
Your H.T uses as much cable and wire as found in 3 average homes
Your speakers are bigger than your refrigerator
Every time you play a Bach pipe organ piece, seismographs register activity
You get rid of your wood stove, because your tube equipment puts out more heat
You have more filled equipment racks than your local radio station
Your new preamp is the best one you've ever heard, and your system is finally finished. You trade it in next week for a different one.
You own at least 10 different vinyl pressings of every Beatles and Stones album
The record store owner gets nervous when you tell him you are going on vacation next week
The UPS and FedEx guys know not to stop when they see the wife's car in the driveway.
You think to put whole house on ball bearings to reduce the negative effect of the earth's vibrations on your audio system
You use $20,000 CD player as a transport but your best clothes are from Walmart.
You live with your wife and seven children in one room apartment which is a dedicated listening room.
The worst thing that can happen to you is loosing your stereo system because you have nothing more left. This is the outcome of your constant upgrades.
You might be an audiophile if you have a thousand CD's in you collection and only listen to those favorite 10 because of their sonic characteristics

AND
You can "hear" the sonic differences resulting from a 3 degree ambient temperature change

In my book you reach diminishing returns fastest with a source and amp and slowest with speakers and room acoustics.
Speaker and room acoustics is where all the bad stuff happens (distortion, reverberation etc.) In that sense a modest system in a good acoustic environment will outdo an all out assault on equipment in an untreated poor acoustic environment.
About 50% of the sound we hear is indirect--coming from the speaker interaction with the room. Putting a small investment in the room can frequently yield results that could not be had for 10 times the cost in equipment