Top 5 mistakes I have made as an audiophile

[essrand]

Was thinking quite a bit about this while listening to the music and wondering how I got into this happy place (finally! after a decade).

Instead of a post it turned into a blog post (https://audiofool.substack.com/p/the-top-5-audiophile-mistakes-i-have)

But here they are:

#5 Not working with a good dealer.
#4 Focussing on the bargain, not the sound.
#3 Not buying an Integrated Amplifier.
#2 Not giving a component enough playtime.
#1 Trying to bypass a preamp.

What are yours?

 

[viren bakhshi]

Can I expand on this a bit.

The biggest mistake all audiophiles make is not listening to enough live music. A range, from small to large ensembles, acoustic to amplified music. This gives you a memory, and an understanding, of the tone of real instruments, of rhythm, of harmony, of the homogeneous blending of all instruments, of the scale, of the emotion of music making.

This is what you should attempt to reproduce in your home music systems.

The reference to real instruments is crucial. How do you know if your system is balanced well, if there is no such reference? Which way the balance has shifted when you replace a component? If you are relying only on recommended "reference" recordings, and your system is unbalanced, you will hear a biased reproduction of that recording. Will you continue believing it?

The reference to live music has to be in your memory. Only then can you make valid judgements.
And, the big liberating factor is that you are answerable only to yourself. You make the judgement.

Viren

 

[heliumflight]

I sold my speaker/ amp and then purchased another one

 

[kratu]

These are not mistakes I made but are some potential issues that I learnt. I thought this could help.

1. Do not switch on the tube amplifier without a load; that is connecting the speakers. This could damage the amplifier.
2. Speakers have a recommended power wattage limits. Connecting a higher wattage amplifier can damage the speakers.
3. Excessive clicks from worn out vinyl records can harm a tweeter (heard it from an audio engineer here; no direct knowledge).

 

[arj]

Can I expand on this a bit.

The biggest mistake all audiophiles make is not listening to enough live music. A range, from small to large ensembles, acoustic to amplified music. This gives you a memory, and an understanding, of the tone of real instruments, of rhythm, of harmony, of the homogeneous blending of all instruments, of the scale, of the emotion of music making.

This is what you should attempt to reproduce in your home music systems.

The reference to real instruments is crucial. How do you know if your system is balanced well, if there is no such reference? Which way the balance has shifted when you replace a component? If you are relying only on recommended "reference" recordings, and your system is unbalanced, you will hear a biased reproduction of that recording. Will you continue believing it?

The reference to live music has to be in your memory. Only then can you make valid judgements.
And, the big liberating factor is that you are answerable only to yourself. You make the judgement.

Viren

So well said ! while we evolve systems its also important to evolve our ears and brain as well. Listening and observing real Music/instruments to the extent helps so much.as much on learning from others on what to and how to listen.

One regret I had has been changing equipment without getting the basics like acoustics right. Its so important to make sure the individual components meet the tonality and also integrate with the current system. you might think the issue of say thin upper mids is due to the amp while it could have been due to acoustics, power or even the recording itself. Like to have some reference sounds to keep a true north.

 

[Nitin K]

2. Speakers have a recommended power wattage limits. Connecting a higher wattage amplifier can damage the speakers.

You can actually get away in the above scenario if you are careful.
My SR 7011 avr is higher in wattage than the small Dali Oberon 1 speakers. But I play them within limits since 2019, anyways I don't listen at loud volume.
Had checked up with Dali technical support too who said it was absolutely no issue as long as the volume is within limits.

Infact the speakers are more prone to damage due to clipping in a very low wattage amplifier played at a loud volume on account of distortion.

 

[essrand]

Can I expand on this a bit.

The biggest mistake all audiophiles make is not listening to enough live music. A range, from small to large ensembles, acoustic to amplified music. This gives you a memory, and an understanding, of the tone of real instruments, of rhythm, of harmony, of the homogeneous blending of all instruments, of the scale, of the emotion of music making.

This is what you should attempt to reproduce in your home music systems.

The reference to real instruments is crucial. How do you know if your system is balanced well, if there is no such reference? Which way the balance has shifted when you replace a component? If you are relying only on recommended "reference" recordings, and your system is unbalanced, you will hear a biased reproduction of that recording. Will you continue believing it?

The reference to live music has to be in your memory. Only then can you make valid judgements.
And, the big liberating factor is that you are answerable only to yourself. You make the judgement.

Viren

So true!

I remember cussing my system and record engineers for not reproducing santoor instrument as I thought it sounded in my head. I avoided listening to santoor albums

Recently I heard to a unamplified santoor concert in Mumbai, it completely changed my perspective. My system was fine. I was making up sounds and expecting sounds that did not exist in “real life” !!

 

[arj]

You can actually get away in the above scenario if you are careful.
My SR 7011 avr is higher in wattage than the small Dali Oberon 1 speakers. But I play them within limits since 2019, anyways I don't listen at loud volume.
Had checked up with Dali technical support too who said it was absolutely no issue as long as the volume is within limits.

Infact the speakers are more prone to damage due to clipping in a very low wattage amplifier played at a loud volume on account of distortion.

very true...Higher power can be reduced via a preamp and can only blow a driver if driven beyond its limits, which in a room will blow out ones ears as well. but lower power can burn your tweeter due to clipping

 

[heliumflight]

very true...Higher power can be reduced via a preamp and can only blow a driver if driven beyond its limits, which in a room will blow out ones ears as well. but lower power can burn your tweeter due to clipping

I am running Nad D3020 30 watts with Totem Rainmaker, is it safe as I listen at 3 o clock position.

 

[PTP]

I am running Nad D3020 30 watts with Totem Rainmaker, is it safe as I listen at 3 o clock position.

You are doing injustice to those speakers by driving them with 30 wpc amp. You should consider upgrading to atleast 70 wpc amp.

 

[Phew]

I am running Nad D3020 30 watts with Totem Rainmaker, is it safe as I listen at 3 o clock position.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/totem-acoustic-rainmaker-loudspeaker-measurements

Going by its impedance measurement, it will be wise to upgrade the amplifer to something more suited to its power need or try sticking to lower listening volume's

 

[Shammi Dang]

Was thinking quite a bit about this while listening to the music and wondering how I got into this happy place (finally! after a decade).

Instead of a post it turned into a blog post (https://audiofool.substack.com/p/the-top-5-audiophile-mistakes-i-have)

But here they are:

#5 Not working with a good dealer.
#4 Focussing on the bargain, not the sound.
#3 Not buying an Integrated Amplifier.
#2 Not giving a component enough playtime.
#1 Trying to bypass a preamp.

What are yours?

For me, over the years many. I bought my first tape ampli deck way back in 1985 and after that many equipment's and related stuff. We all do mistakes and learn from those. It is better to learn and evolve and move on. Audiophile world is a vast field and we learn new aspects every day. There is nothing called mistake. It is just pure ignorance or Unawareness and sometimes stupidity. I can pin point a very big mistake that is buying more then what I need or required just in the name of perfection and refinement. I have so much equipment stuff, cables etc that it is taking a big chunk of space in my home. I live in a resonably big flat but still I feel the pinch sometimes that why so much purchase, really stupid on my part.

 

[arj]

I am running Nad D3020 30 watts with Totem Rainmaker, is it safe as I listen at 3 o clock position.

Running at low volumes may not be an issue as NAds generally are rated more conservatively if you hear crackling /distorting with high frequencies, thats when you might have an issue.

But do also consider that Totems are 4 ohm speakers with a lower than average sensitivity and hence needs higher power than the Nad can give. I think you will get far better dynamics with a higher power amplifier hence do consider that.

 

[heliumflight]

Running at low volumes may not be an issue as NAds generally are rated more conservatively if you hear crackling /distorting with high frequencies, thats when you might have an issue.

But do also consider that Totems are 4 ohm speakers with a lower than average sensitivity and hence needs higher power than the Nad can give. I think you will get far better dynamics with a higher power amplifier hence do consider that.

Never heard any crackling sound at high volumes. I was earlier running Totem with Cyrus 8vse but it died. Anyone who knows service center no?

 

[jenson]

#4 Focussing on the bargain, not the sound.

word!

i guess for me, if only I had patience, save money and buy what i truly like over a period of time.

for this i truly envy Prem, he seems to always get a decent exit as his choice of system is well thought out, and while at the time it may seem expensive, over a period it holds it's value, even look attractive!

 

[essrand]

word!

i guess for me, if only I had patience, save money and buy what i truly like over a period of time.

for this i truly envy Prem, he seems to always get a decent exit as his choice of system is well thought out, and while at the time it may seem expensive, over a period it holds it's value, even look attractive!

I am sure Prem made more than a few mistakes to get to where he is today
I would love to read his list of top 5 mistakes, or top 10 learnings.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Staying an audiophile despite considering giving it up umpteen times!

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Was thinking quite a bit about this while listening to the music and wondering how I got into this happy place (finally! after a decade).

Instead of a post it turned into a blog post (https://audiofool.substack.com/p/the-top-5-audiophile-mistakes-i-have)

But here they are:

#5 Not working with a good dealer.
#4 Focussing on the bargain, not the sound.
#3 Not buying an Integrated Amplifier.
#2 Not giving a component enough playtime.
#1 Trying to bypass a preamp.

What

Can I expand on this a bit.

The biggest mistake all audiophiles make is not listening to enough live music. A range, from small to large ensembles, acoustic to amplified music. This gives you a memory, and an understanding, of the tone of real instruments, of rhythm, of harmony, of the homogeneous blending of all instruments, of the scale, of the emotion of music making.

This is what you should attempt to reproduce in your home music systems.

The reference to real instruments is crucial. How do you know if your system is balanced well, if there is no such reference? Which way the balance has shifted when you replace a component? If you are relying only on recommended "reference" recordings, and your system is unbalanced, you will hear a biased reproduction of that recording. Will you continue believing it?

The reference to live music has to be in your memory. Only then can you make valid judgements.
And, the big liberating factor is that you are answerable only to yourself. You make the judgement.

Viren

When you hear a real instruments in person, their tone isn’t same across all the brands. Drums / pianos, violins all of them have variations which has their own signature sound.

Every live venue is different, some large some small, some with good acoustics, some really reflective and so on.. This influences how you hear the sound of it. Take a bucket and hit with with a stick keeping inside a small room and in an open ground. They would sound totally different. So in this case which variant is really the sound of bucket getting hit by a stick?

The recording engineer sometimes won’t be completely happy about the tone of an instrument, so he may use some eq on them to his taste and what comes through their studio monitor is how they want the recording to sound like. It may not be exactly how the instruments / people in real life would sound.

Most recording studios stick to their standards of flat sound at the reference point. So if you need to hear what is in the recording you need something that measures flat at the point where you listen to it.

 

[heliumflight]

Changing two components on your hifi gear

 

[DB1989]

Most recording studios stick to their standards of flat sound at the reference point. So if you need to hear what is in the recording you need something that measures flat at the point where you listen to it.

Leaving anechoic chambers aside, Is that possible in a normal room? I've used DIRAC room correction along with generally accepted principles of placement and haven't even come close.