Audiophiles - You're wasting your money!
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You can comment on this video at YouTube
Monday July 3, 2023
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
@josephj6521: My advice is to buy the best speaker you can afford at the time. Used or new, doesn’t matter. Go to stores and listen to the mainstream setups that make all these wonderful claims (you know those brands) then listen to reduced set-ups (traditional manufacturers predominantly) and you can hear the difference clearly.
If you can afford one great speaker from a “traditional” speaker company as opposed to 5 speakers from these “new boys on the block”, go traditional. You will never ever regret your choice.
Quality over substance. Enjoy. :)
@altmanidan: hearing is not just about pitch and frequency response though they are very important. when I was younger I was worried I won't be able to mix for a living for many years because of the assumption that its all about your ears and your ears will get old but now I see that hearing is something you do with your whole body. your organs respond to sound as well. Training your body to become more sensitive to sound is something that can be perfected until old age. I do agree that audiophiles are wasting money. The more sensitive you become the more you can get out of budget gear. You can pretty much hear anything there is to hear on 500$ studio monitors and if you can't, maybe you should look for another job.
@danigomb: yes, but... what is audiophilia if not wasting money?
@bdm2k: The idea that 'if your hearing is worse than your equipment, upgrades don't matter' isn't quite accurate. Age-related loss mainly affects extreme HF, but most audible improvements come from timing, distortion, and spatial cues - all well within the range where hearing remains strong. So better gear can still be heard even with HF roll-off.
@corpsie666: My LPT for audiophile best money spent - invest in ensuring your eustacian tubes are healthy and inflammation is minimized.
@blusheen378: Audiophile - a desire to feel, hear sensitivity of equipment and music. The purest of sounds. After 30 years, you find it doesn't matter and you give up all on basics, listen what may come. Like almost retreating to the cave again.
@micheltremblay4774: I totaly agree with you on hearing. I was a diesel mechanic and making good money. Now, I am 75 and my hearing tops at 7,500 Hz so I started selling all my high end stuff. A TEAC X1000RBL, a pair of Altec Lansing model 14, 2 pairs of Celestion Ditton 66 series 2, my Nakamichi Dragon also went the same way. My amp and preamp Harman Kardon HK870 and HK825 and a few other goodies. I bought good stuff but a lot less money went that way.
Good post, take care.
@grampawwillie1665: The Old Sage teaches "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". and so it is with stereo recordings. the source material may be multi channel depending on when the original was made. no matter, the original source has to be "mastered" to provide the material for production of copies for distribution. and so, these copies are rendered in stereo: 2-channel , and that is your limiting factor . the source material has to be "mixed" -- rendering it as 2-channel no matter if the original is mono, 3-channel, or 96 channel/digital . the rendering then is the limiting factor for the 2-channel copies to be sold on vinyl or CD - or as downloads . this then is why playback systems quickly face the point of dimishing returns. push this too hard and you are likely to go past the point of Best Playback and expose the faults in the "mastered" copy that is used to make CDs or Vinyl. Choose your amp and speakers carefully so that you get quality sound. Your source can be a sound card in your computer . a good sound card will let you set the sensitivity on each of a number of frequency ranges . this will let you "second guess" the settings on the source master . but, you will find yourself adjusting the settings this way and that way depending on the track you are trying to play . this will wreck your enjoyment of the music . You can get 5+1 and 7+1 "surround sound" systems . I've not played with those. It does seem to me that a straight 4-channel approach might be better. You'd need 4 speakers instead of 2 and you'd need 2 stereo amps and a sound card with 2 stereo outputs. and you'd need 4-channel source recordings . I think 4-channel would work especially well for presentations where you have a soloist or a duet front & center, with a band in back . Don't hold your breath . 'nuf fer now .
@sylvainbiensur7370: Most real engineers bashing audiophiles posses very expensive gears.
@pawannathessoo5271: Even an expert in sound will never be satisfied and always look to the better and his best will never come.
@LynneConnolly: Back in the day I bought myself a pair of Cambridge Monitors (before they were bought out, so the handmade originals), a Rega Planar 3 and a Cambridge amplifier, but I can't rember which one because that died years ago. These days I just use a pair of good headphones (I have a few, from bass beasts to audiophile Hifimans and a comfy pair for everyday use) and a small headphone amp. It's not just my expectations, but my hearing has definitely deteriorated over the years.
@Red-Black-White-Pilled: So the original Paul McCartney didn’t lose his life in that car crash after all. Just his memory.
Who’s going to tell him?
@budthecyborg4575: This is the best explanation of the value of audio gear that I've ever seen.
@junkmail7263: If you can’t hear the difference between amplifiers and cables it probably means you need high-quality power conditioning.
@multicyclist: You are very correct. No amount of money spent on audio gear is going to make up for hearing shortcomes. Since the late 70s, audio equipment engineers have worked out amplifier design to be essentially a wire with gain. Since then, there have been virtually little to no improvement in transfer function. In many cases modern amps perform worse when tested, i.e., distortion etc. Why? Because well-made but affordable amplifiers are, or have been for the past 50 years, better then what humans can hear. The wild cards are speakers (and their room placement), room acoustics and the recordings. Yes, it is possible to get a realistic sound of one instrument like a piano or voice in a taylored system in a limited way. But a complex sound like an orchestra or band, no. If you want to actually hear that then you have to go experience it live. It is the only way to avoid just hearing a cheesy simulation and actually hear what audio systems (from the recording to the speakers) fail to reproduce.
@markbaugh9458: AUDIOPHILES TALK A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS !
@shadowside8433: Valves have a curved response curve - so they have a natural slight distortion compared to soild state transistor.
@OlePedersen-u7u: you just bla bla bla bla plain stupid talk for youself
@darrengibbins7127: Great incite. It is like a photographer who believes they need the largest file money can buy.
@dansolar.records: Paul McCartney is telling truth indeed
@MultiPetercool: The music you choose to play also has a lot to do with what kind of equipment you should buy. Most popular music has next to no dynamic range. classical music on the other hand may have passages that are both loud and soft. Generally, you will need better equipment to fully enjoy classical or some progressive rock music.
@philcasey1788: You guess? 🤡
@00buck80: Being a musician my whole life tube guitar amps sound so much better I can hear the difference immediately the tones are warm and responsive. The amp I use now is a Trace Elliot Supertramp with a tube preamp.
Transistor amps just don't cut through playing with a live band as well
@TheRulleskoejten: I came from, Logitech Z906. thought it sounded good. some day i sat and listent to Denon. and dali Zensor 5 and zensor vocal. and Deltaco C1. in Hife-Klubben (HIFI-KLUB) in denmark. and i was totaly blown away. and my girlfriend agreed to get a set. 5.1 and lator we got atmos. from 5.1 to 5.1 logitech to Dali. i was so glad. but when getting atmos, it just blew my mind. had it around 2 years. needed to sell cause of a bad neigbor, and crying inside. now almost 8 years lator. i can afford dali again. But this time we go whit Dali Sonik. i know its gona be more detailed in movies. im no audiofile, but i have good hearing. and can spot detail defirences. i will take your advice for HDMI, just buy some 4K 120 HZ caberbilityes.
@joecool1875: I am into vintage hifi since a couple of years now, and have already bought, tried and sold various receivers and speakers. I've had a chance to sample some great products of old in my home listening room, hearing several sources with my own ears... I have come to the conclusion that you can get quite a descent system that will give you endless hours of enjoyment and satisfaction, for a very reasonable amount. And for that I am thankfull, I am grateful that I don't need to buy gallons of snakeoil to make it sound great, but if anyone else has the need, and the abundance to buy anything more, good for them!
@MichaelRosenzweig-s3x: Quad ESL989
@danielalt7508: 4:27 refusing to buy brown eggs just of the color could be an indication of racist ideologies.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @danielalt7508: In the UK we generally prefer brown eggs which can be identified not only by their colour but their higher price. Guess which colour I buy.
@franka6515: Listen to an uncompromising system you can never afford. Let's say the system is $20,000 dollars. Bring your recordings and play them on that system. A track list you made. Then listen to a system half as much ($10k). Keep cutting in half. When you are down near your budget, you will experience and know the degradation that comes with money. You can determine both what your budget needs to be, and the most important characteristics of the sound is for you (what was lost on each step of the way down in price). You have educated your ears and decided priority. For me, it was a recessed soundstage #1 and warmth of acoustics vocals #2. Any upgrade over time is limited to only what enhances my short priority list. So, I never waste any money. I don't chase "fidelity" nor statistics. Oh, and don't forget that sound rooms are designed for pleasing sound profiles and are affected by all the speakers playing in sympathy with the demo model; your experience in the showroom may be entirely different compared to your home. This is how you avoid wasting money.
@samhalsey5051: Well if you’re eating eggs your hearing is very likely to be degraded!
@paulandriessen489: WHAT!!!
@globalteamwork4light: nope!
youre missing the point.
its not so much about hearing - more about feeling.
when your setup sounds highend enough - it gets into the magic zone. that zone is a level of detail and lack of colourations that make you feel so much - you just cant walk away from the music...
only then you have achieved highend - and thats magic!
whether you have a good or not so good hearing.
@Rick-l4w: Stop wasting your money !
New Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Speakers !
The State-Of-The-Art Has CHANGED Now !
Enjoy !
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Rick-l4w: Seven thousand quid! https://radiantacoustics.com/en-uk/products/clarity-66
@ianmills5237: One joint can turn an amstrad tower into a Sondek, quad mono-blocks and electrostatics.
@Blubb5000: The most important part of any audio system are the speakers. 80% of any distortion comes from the tweeter alone.
@bab008: You can still hear major differences between DACs today if for no other reason than all DAC's also have analogue output components and those vary greatly. On the other hand I'd put my moderately priced Benchmark DAC 3 up against units costing many times more. You'd be hard pressed to hear a significant difference.
@altoids784: I'm kind a poor and not a real audiophile but just want a feeling better than nothing.
I have Dali speakers with a Denon x2000 AVR
I have Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO X & Fiio K11 DAC using with Peace EQ...
with these... Devices may be a little worn in time, but the money was definitely not wasted.
These are not audiophile gears but for me they were a good base to start and did not need a change. So I took more than I paid.
@gregorygreg4263: Amps; my friend has Martin Logan speakers around 15000 pounds. He powers these with musical fidelity 8000 pounds pair of mono blocks and a I forget the name Italian 150 watt class a amplifier the sound is deferen with both. The musical fidelity makes the sound to my mind seem slow. I believe this is because my brain does not have to work hard to decode every detail. He currently uses a 6000 pound valve pre amp again from an Italian company.
He uses an expensive Yamaha transport not sure on the dac. His is the most holographic detailed non fatiguing sound I have ever heard and appears as natural and as real as a hifi can sound.
I have a heavenly modded technics plus a carbon fibre arm it has a perspex platter on top isolated and no center spindle I center each record. I tested this against a Rega planar 8 in a demo room through my amp and 2500 Dynadio speakers as close to but not as expensive as my dynaudios speakers and every one who listened including the demonstration guy thought my deck sounded weightier more precise and more musical. I had an advantage of a moving coil over the one on the Rega which was also one of their moving coils and a Rega top line moving magnet. We all agreed the moving coil sounded better.
On this subject after many years I would say three things. The room makes a huge difference treated or untreated. Cables matter to the amp speaker and when it's right you can absolutely hear the difference . I have 10 meter runs and I've played with more expensive well known brand 3 meter runs when the equipment was closer to the speakers I will tell you now those ten meter runs sound way better other cables from the same company at twice the price sound worse in my system. Synergy matters. I am not rich I bought when there was a sale/discount. I tend to buy brand new things. One other thing perhaps the most important you need to enjoy your music whatever it's played on. Secondly your hearing can tell the difference in the spectrum you can hear. Just because your hearing stops at 12000 kilohertze does not mean you can't tell the difference between bad sounding different sound equipment. Any one who tells you otherwise is not thinking things through. You still have a whole lot of hearing left. You are not deaf. No one knows what neutral is. Recorded instruments are not natural they are going through pieces of equipment. Real non electronic instruments playing in an open air venue is as natural as you can get. Music is just a flavor choose yours and enjoy.
@EnglishmanvsSpanish: I've got perfect pitch although now Im 55 it's going. To be honest, it can be a blessing when improvising on guitar or picking out specific chord tones as musical signposts, but on the other hand, it's a curse because you hear how out of tune most people play..the worst being string bends (Slash/Keith Richards are always sharp..nails on a black board...) There are so many recordings I cannot stand..It's made even worse with Autotune..Then there's car horns...'oh, that's G major'.
@PierreRaymondPouligny: Recognising a note as nothing to do with capability to hear sound, this is memory, not sound timber..
This is why more and more young player, used to compressed sound, can play rights notes right on measures but make their instrument sound uggly.
They just don t "ear" it...
Hifi is exactly the opposite I think.
And having Hifi at home helps train your children ears (and learning music via a true instrument of course 😅). Note that true instrument also have so many quality difference that true instrument is not better than hifi either.(sooooo many examples in heard/ears).
@AnthonyMansell-e1o: Honestly some of my best sounds come from my car stereo ..merc
@AudioMasterclass replies to @AnthonyMansell-e1o: I remember when Murray Walker, already in his 80s, was asked why he drove a BMW rather than a Mercedes. “Merc.. It’s an old man’s car”.
@FourTwenny: Here is the thing. Getting up and moving speakers makes the system sound different. You can get up and do something to improve your listening experience. Putting an area rug down on a hardwood floor will improve your listening experience. You can purchase something that will improve your listening situation. How much you are willing to do and spend to improve your listening situation is up to you. All of us do and spend some though.
@Keksdose2k: „99% of statistic are made up on the spot“, goes hard 😂
@cutty-sark: Back in the mid 70s, Stereophhile magazine had a number of articles on amp comparison using double blind listening test. At reasonable volumes using amps/receivers between ~$300 to $5000, no one could tell the difference!
@dynomike73: Thank you for making this video. Says everything I've been saying for years. Applies to any other big-boy's-toys as well.
@jamesgadd931: Heavymetle bull with horns
@jamesgadd931: Horns
@jamesgadd931: Im likin all this🎉
@jamesgadd931: Been do ing itt 10
@jamesgadd931: Music im old
@jamesgadd931: Who got a record
@jamesgadd931: Remmver trun table pluged up
@jamesgadd931: Y amsha. Sterio ive found nice
@jamesgadd931: I clected all my musuc tools
@jamesgadd931: Im not happy wifi man
@jamesgadd931: Ive o ol d yanaha abd powered speekers
@jamesgadd931: Ever thought of such
@jamesgadd931: Im upset with assani ne ways
@cise9898: 1 billion likes... but I only heard like 4 of them. I love this video.
@TedTed-q5i: When you can hear things you are young and have no money to buy audiophile setups, as you get old you get the money but the hearing is gone. :D
@junkmail7263 replies to @TedTed-q5i: Same problem with women only it’s not the hearing thats’s gone.
@ezemann310: The strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link.
@terenceskill9526: The bare truth is: You can school your hearing ability, and that´s what is, by far, the most important side of the story and what it really comes down to, unless you´re not close to being deaf. The longer you´re busy listening to music from sources of higher quality, the more prominent are the changes you will realize. First of all, you will catch yourself turning down the volume of the kitchen radio or whatever shitbox you were used to tolerate noise from in the past just because you weren´t staying in your living room...later on, you will reach the point where you won´t be turning it on, again. It is very likely that you will start to a) reduce the number of spots where you continue listening to music or b) start to optimize things, buying stuff to replace your old stuff and re-selling it again, as it turns out to not being the kind you were really looking for when you bought it, and buying different stuff to replace the stuff that you bought to replace the stuff you initially weren´t comfortable with, anymore...you get my drift. And that´s only the beginning...it´s a true journey. and you have to ask yourself if you´re willing to go on that trip very early in the game. The ticket to it comes at a price... Once you´re in, you just can´t go back and unhear all those differences again. It won´t work and you WILL spend decent amounts of money until you reach the point where you´ll be able to satisfy your ears...which - yes - depends on what´s being told here about your hearing ability, but in the end it is not so much about what set of ears the Lord gave to you, but about to what point you´ve driven them, so far. You have developed an audio-palate.
@we8463: The funny part about audiophile is that most of the time they are men over 50!
Also, over 50 most individuals have difficulty hearing sounds above 14 kHz, with typical top-end sensitivity dropping to around 11.2 kHz 😂
But they have the most disposable income and feel like time is running out 😢
@flyfisher1649: Keep it simple….
@flyfisher1649: Agreed…I’ve tried a lot of different Vintage Mid / Fi Hi Fi equipt….for my ears I like Sansui & Denon Amps & JBL…speakers
@johnwelch2224: I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU BUDDY IVE HAVE CHEAP AND IVE HAD VERY EXPENSIVE AND I DONT SEE MUCH DIFFERENCE OVERALL
@tarquesh: I own literary a plastic turntable that sounds ok for me.
My streamer is not expensive, sounds great.
Some simple NAD amps on my Rogers loudspeakers do the rest.
I did not say i connected a few Audioquest cables, to not shout i did a naughty audiophile habit. To keep all silent, i hide my MC cartridge, and mounted quickly an affordable MM.
@F208Frank: Art gallery metaphor with the rose tint was a bad one imo.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @F208Frank: Well IMO it’s a good one. I think we’re square.
@purplerider2362: I built some speakers that smash the quality of some of those overpriced 🗑️ speakers. In fact. I’ve built all our speakers for the house. Six sets. All my kids have audiophile grade speakers and amps in their rooms. My son raps. I built him some pretty solid studio speakers.
@robertemmott3652: My entire system cost only about £3500 and embraces streaming, vinyl and CD. I have heard significantly better sound systems at hi fi dealers and shows, but I have limited money and space at home. I can happily live with the minor shortcomings of my setup, as listening tests have convinced me that significant improvements would cost me far more money than I can justify (or comfortably afford!) In the end it's the musical enjoyment that matters to me- not the kit. I would never want to be one of those audiophiles who has a £50,000 system and 40 (audiophile) records costing £150 each.... but each to their own!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @robertemmott3652: 3.5k would be about the cost of my speakers if I’d bought them new and adjusted for inflation. I doubt that any extra cost would bring me additional happiness. I feel that I’ve had many years of fabulous value for money.
@galaxiedance3135: Luckily I hear amazing. I love my speakers. Looked for 2 years before finding what I wanted. I even put a NAD Amp and Paradigm Speakers / Sub, in our babies room for him. Might has well have great sound quality even if you're young.
@stevengaddis1362: A very sensible and well-thought-out assessment of how to approach building a hi-fi system. I wouldn't consider myself a RICH audiophile, but if I'm interested in getting a particular piece of gear... say a DAC or a turntable... I try to research features and listen to as many as I can, keepiong all of the other factors consistent. I want to know what sounds best to my ears regardless of price. Then when I've picked out my favorite, or a few favorites, then I'll look at the price point to determine which one is realistic for me, and disregard the rest. Aesthetics don't move the needle in my decision (pun intended, when it comes to VU meters). In my experience, sometimes you get what you pay for. Other times, the more expensive gear serves only to give certain collectors bragging rights, which doesn't interest me. At the end of the day, I just want to sit back in a comfortable seat and listen to the music I love sounding as good as it can to my ears. Once I settle on my gear, I rarely seek to replace or upgrade unless something breaks.
@frankjamesbonarrigo7162: I think you can feel audio. I get fatigued by new monitors.
@jdl8350: The picture images look like Ai images to me, isn‘t it??
@madmad8582: Being part English , I use to use speakers made in Great Britain like Wharfdale iI still have a pair in my collection and my Marshall Guitar amp uses Celestion speakers , my Great Grandfather was a Standbridge so in recent times i have bin searching information on the Standbridge's on what they did in the ancient past , i know they built a church in Bedfordshire , they even had a manor house my great grandfather was in the army and he was at Vimy in france in world war one, and i have a great deal of respect for the people's of great Britain big time my grandfather was in the Royal Canadian Navy , I have enjoyed your video today , oh another thing a piano is only as good as the person who tuned all the strings same with guitars or any stringed music device
@madmad8582: speakers made out of foam are not that great a lot of people over power them and they can fail or burn out , same with foil speakers I have heard them all , and my EV's blow them away . that's why one has to look at the past to see what was truly Hi Fi like I say I have heard them all .
@madmad8582: Plus I am the Speaker Doctor of Canada , and I repair all makes of speakers . plus I play guitar and I tune my guitar from ear , and yes a good speaker should reproduce such frequency's perfectly to be a great speaker .
@madmad8582: The best speakers ever made was in the 50's bye Electro Voice no other company can compare to how EV made there speakers The speaker enclosures where made bye Paul Klipsch like the Aristocrat corner horn speaker and it is what I have , and to power them I have a EV Stereo receiver model number EV 1382 and the sound from the little amp in side is amazing , the unit is Hand made , same as my EV amplifier is hand made as well , the EV receiver is 40 watts per side , the EV amp is 10 watts per side , EV speakers are very loud and don't need a lot of power to drive them plus i have a pair of Sentry 2 EV Studio Monitors from the early 60 's all of this gear is very rare and hard to find , even till this day Klipsch still use EV drivers on the Klipsch Horn Speaker , EV are built to last a long time , in Japan EV has a new version of the Aristocrat , not as nice as the ones I built from hand using plans from EV ,and this platform of Audio is rather Cheap compared to some of the Audio gear they build today , the Electronics from the past is the best way to go , some use EV or JBL and Altec for great sound .
@Robbierob880: Yeah yeah...
Rant rant..
@bull419: To each their own but the first time I heard separate components compared to my compact stereo in the 1970s I was blown away. I'm in the minority of Audiophiles in that I don't have money to throw away. I didn't hear much difference between a power amp, a pre amp and a high end integrated amp through the same speakers but I appreciate this man's message. Many of us Audiophilies have our own equipment and musical journey so whatever works for you rock on. I have two 12 inch speakers with mid range and a tweeter connected to a high end integrated amp with a turntable, CD player and a tuner for radio, just basic stereo sound like I had in the 70s and I've had this system for years and still love it, no need to upgrade and plugged the tv into the amp and movies sound amazing, this old geezer sits in his room with a big smile.
@toneaudio178: so why do you hate hifi so much?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @toneaudio178: I don’t hate hi-fi. I save my hate for arsehole commenters.
@stepf1041: I'm all in on my Technics SL-1300G! It's a great turntable.
@oscargonzales7948: Endlich mal jemand der den Punkt auf das "i" bringt. Danke schön.
@samaradaf6640: new religion cables.is very strong.never thought that so many dumb people will appear in the world
@hawaiidispenser: 13:30 I've come to realize speaker audio coming from another room almost always sounds great. It's a psychological thing.
@DeadBird-wp9of: Good valid points you made. I tried Quobuz as a service next to others - my result: The quality recording mastering matters more than the sampling-rate and due to copyrights it is a total desaster here in Germany (couldn't here Doo-Wop a.s.o.); even if I've found common recordings that had the same quality as my vinyl the rooster of records were a poor choice (mostly cymbal weren't there, just a sizzling). I use a RME-DAC with digital-Phono-Preamp next to A&H-Mixer, a Technics 1200 G (this thing has SME-Headshells and can Pitch 78's to real recording speed - surely there are better 33rpm-album-players, but not that versatile). On the speakerside I have KH310 (I heard the K+H O300 and expected the same sound quality - that is not the case) - the upgrade I would make is a pair of PMC's, but it would be ten times the cost - instead it's better to have the best positioning, ISO-Acoustics-Stand and some room treatment.
@Roberta80: I'd love to listen to this video but I'm still out at work at 3 a.m. making the money to buy the new 99.9999999999999% pure copper cables I need to hear it properly. They're only €4,500 per meter.
@DonPotenzo79: Perlen vor die Säue in German.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @DonPotenzo79: I didn’t need Google translate to know the English equivalent is ’pearls before swine’. We normally don’t bother with the full Matthew 7:6.
@generalzod7959: speaker cables are the biggest scam in the business.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @generalzod7959: Surely not? https://www.google.com/search?q=Ansuz+Speakz+D-TC+Gold+Signature
@rongreen4536: In the mid 70s I was on a mission to get the best sound possible. One evening my sister brought her new boy friend over who was a sound engineer. I pulled out the latest specs I had picked up on the new piece of gear I was thinking of buying. He took a look and said your hear can't hear what they are hyping. You have the best gear now your going to get, it's not dialed in for this room. I ask him when I would know it was dialed in without the tools he used at work. When you like what you hear it's dialed in. I stopped chasing gear and started enjoying the reason I started buying the gear in the first place "MUSIC".
@dabirdcageofdoom: Audiophiles seem to have little knowledge of how our hearing actually work.
@everydaytenor: As a long time classical musician that plays in two orchestras I would say that the each orchestra sounds different, and any orchestra will sound different in various halls, and in any given hall the sound will vary depending on where one sits.
Classical music played by fine musicians will vary greatly depending on the acoustic, where one sits in the hall, the level of background noise (air conditioning, traffic outside, and the guy beside you snoring).
Further, the mood of the listener comes into play, as sometimes audiences will clap for rubbish and other times sit on their hands through brilliant performances. After all, live music is a cooperative experience between players and audience.
Anyone who regularly attends concerts will know all this.
Because musical sound is so variable, I think one should listen to the music itself rather than the equipment. I have an old 78 player that is a dinosaur but the experience of winding it up and putting on say an original Rachmaninov recording is still magic. And I have good ears, but I listen past the noise and hear the music.
My 2 bits therefore, is to go to live concerts, and perhaps learn to play an instrument.
And by all means, establish an audiophile setup at home......just don't be too critical of whatever you get, as even live music is.....variable. And don't be too critical of live performances either as we musicians are not perfect either.
The main thing is to enjoy what you have. I love my stereo system but I am usually making music rather than listening to it, and often I wish that was reversed......hifi is fun.
@madcrabber1113: I learned not to spend stupid cash on this stuff way back in the 80s. The original recording makes more of a difference than everything and anything. Learned the hard way.
@manjsher3094: I can't hear anything over 11k now...56 years.
@brettfincher3332: I think it was previously stated but audiophiles waste money chasing the unobatanium. There is always a new amp, Dac, pre-amp, streamer, turntable, speakers and speaker wire. All designed to seperate you from your money all in the name of the best rendition of music not played live. Subjective thought that says i have to hear the greatest detail as if I were there while it was being recorded is chasing a dream that cant be caught. Thats just my opinion.
@davidnicholas1436: The whole notion of “better than your ears” needs more discussion. There’s a large difference between one’s ability to hear a full-frequency recording (particularly high-frequencies) versus being able to detect reproduction flaws in one’s own hearing range…and those are very different hearing issues. I suspect many, er, older listeners have lost a good deal of their >10kHz hearing but have not necessarily lost their ability to hear phase / distortion irregularities in the music in the frequencies they can appreciate. As in most things in life, there’s a law of diminishing returns on every audio component you can buy. I suggest if you get 80% of the way towards the top performance end of any component (in terms of specs, not price) then you’ve reached that inflection point.
@stephenleigh2530: I use a pair of Tannoy audio monitors when I'm mastering audio for my video productions. However I picked up a pair of M-Audio cheap self-powered speakers to bring with me for a remote editing gig. Honestly I prefer the sound out of those cheap speakers when im listening to music or watching a good show. I actually really love the way they treat the audio. It may not be accurate but it sounds beautiful. I guess my ears prefer the cheap stuff ! Lol
@ChristianSeufert-zo4ew: I personally use the Spendor A6R for general purposes. The D7.2s are noticeably better, and if I ever find myself with very limited storage space, I want to have the 2/3 R2s for the rest of my life.
@PeteX71: That’s only your opinion
@RigVader: Everyone will have different abilities for discerning sound (inate and through conditioning) and different sensibilities. I’ve known plenty of people with amazing abilities to disciphere and reason about music (perfect pitch, highly evolved relative pitch and various forms of synesthesia), who couldn’t have cared less about the aspects of reproduced sound that keep an audiophile up at night 😅 In fact most musicians have shitty systems at home. Personally my tolerance for bad sound has regressed as I’m sure both my physical and cognitive ability hear have deteriorated. This, I think is not an uncommon experience. Dumbing the world down to one narrow minded individuals limited experience and understanding, is just.. well dumb.