What advice you wish you could have given to your younger self or someone new to this hobby?

[Sokel]

Buy big,sooner or later you'll get there.

 

[Chr1]

Lesson to younger self: build the home hifi system with components from the Pro world.

Indeed. Aside from being better value and less prone to snakeoil, usually way more robust and able to take the youthful me's houseparty/intoxicated pals' inadvertent abuse.

(Perhaps not so good for the young me's neighbours however.)

 

[computer-audiophile]

Buy something more portable.

Focus on used gear. (I did that, but this is for the younger me who is other people.)

Enjoy what you enjoy, you are striving to please yourself, no one else.

General advice that didn't apply at the time...

Anyone who tells you the hobby should only be done their way is totally FOS.

Everybody: from pure objectivists to pure subjectivists is wrong. If anybody who tells you different, just refer to the first half of the sentence. Be happy and confident with your path to enjoying the hobby. It's a hobby, not a death march.

Stay off the internet.

If you do go onto the internet, don't listen to anybody named "TatersnGravy" or some similar affectation fake ass name that someone can use to hide behind.

The hobby used to be a big tent, now it's armed camps. Don't join any of the camps.

You seem to be a very sensible person, with a good sense of humour.
Actually, I would also prefer people to use their real names on the Internet and everything would be more legally secure.

I agree with you on most points, except that I generally don't buy second-hand goods.

 

[CapMan]

My advice - don’t start in the first place !

 

[Purité Audio]

Have more sex.
Sorry are we just looking for audiio advice.
Keith

 

[Zapper]

If one is telling one's younger self about DSP, REW, Spinoromas, Class-D, etc, one isn't very far in time from that younger self.

I'm fortunate to have always been highly technical and highly skeptical, so I've never been audiophooled. My younger self made reasonable choices with the funds available.

 

[Count Arthur]

Don't get sucked into bun fights on forums.

 

[Zapper]

Don't listen to a walkman to pass the time at your summer lawnmowing job.

Oh yeah! Wear earplugs while riding the motorcycle.

 

[Mr. Widget]

If one is telling one's younger self about DSP, REW, Spinoromas, Class-D, etc, one isn't very far in time from that younger self.

Pretty much what I was thinking... back in the day about the best you could hope for was an IVIE 10 band RTA... not useless, but pretty primitive and not exactly affordable in the late 70s early 80s.

 

[benanders]

“One day you’ll realize driver surface area is key to that kind-of-live sound you like, and that high SPL from insufficient driver SA is no surrogate for it. So until you get there, turn it down, dude.”

 

[levimax]

Don't throw away all of your LP's

 

[JeffGB]

I should have sold the stuff I built at inflated prices to rich audiophiles "let me build that beautiful amplifier for you. I can keep the cost slightly below your budget of $100,000 dollars".

 

[GXAlan]

Here is the list of HiFi advice I wish I could have given to my younger self:

1) Speakers makes the most difference, spend most of your budget on your speakers despite the fact that electronics may come across as sexier for some people.

+1000

It’s also easier to resell or install new electronics compared to speakers.

1a) Know that the overwhelming vast majority of the time, the speaker's sound performance corresponds to the measurements.

Yes… but.

You owe it to hear planar speakers and 360 omnidirectional speakers. It’s a fixed effect but gosh, it can be great.

Industry insiders tells me Tekton is one of them and PS Audio's new speakers are another

I’d love to see actual data before making those claims. Tekton sent speakers to Stereophile and PS Audio sent speakers to Hifi News, both magazines known for measurements.

f you hear any speakers in the showroom or anywhere else that produces a lot of "detail," know that this "detail" is really nothing more than elevated high frequency and can cause listening fatigue. For me personally, elevated high frequency is ear piercing torture after 20 mins.

Agree about showroom sound but there is IMD which is not seen in a simple sweep and hard to make sense of from just the THD. If it sounds detailed and it measures flat, you know IMD is good.

2) Using REW to measure in room response and tweak with DSP and room treatment can make a big difference. Most of us don't have the luxury to make our listening space the perfect space, so by having room treatment, it can "correct" some of these room acoustic issues. To be transparent, I still haven't gotten around to doing this myself, but I have witness the before and after with other people and holy moly, what a difference it can make for some situations.

Yes. Don’t discount the value of a good AV product as well. The Cinema 70S which had bad measurements will still sound good after Audyssey with a good target curve edited through the app.

5) Do it right the first time around, otherwise, it will cost you more in the end. I was cheap buying equipment and other things, but after all of the selling to upgrade, I must have lost thousands of dollars over the years, whereas I could of afford the more expensive equipment from the start but I was just being cheap.


What advice would you give to your younger self?

True but impossible. It’s like saying “buying a house is better than renting.” Sometimes you don’t have the money to “do it right the first time around”.

My advice would be to enjoy what you have. Focus on speakers and set goals so that each upgrade is an order of magnitude better.

 

[CleanSound]

I’d love to see actual data before making those claims. Tekton sent speakers to Stereophile and PS Audio sent speakers to Hifi News, both magazines known for measurements.

How about links to such measurements? Of course I'm talking about CEA 2034 measurements that a legit and reputable person would do. I have not seen any aside from the one Amir did for Tekton and it was sent by an ASR member.

True but impossible. It’s like saying “buying a house is better than renting.” Sometimes you don’t have the money to “do it right the first time around”.

"I must have lost thousands of dollars over the years, whereas I could of afford the more expensive equipment from the start but I was just being cheap."

Of course you can't afford what you can't afford, I was specific about being cheap on things you can afford.

But I agree, you can only afford what you can afford.

 

[CleanSound]

If one is telling one's younger self about DSP, REW, Spinoromas, Class-D, etc, one isn't very far in time from that younger self.

Pretty much what I was thinking... back in the day about the best you could hope for was an IVIE 10 band RTA... not useless, but pretty primitive and not exactly affordable in the late 70s early 80s.

Spinaroma was available since Dr. Toole's research back at the NRC. That's got to be since the 90's? Although, it was not easy to measure without a NFS, which wasn't out then and people just wasn't measuring speakers but some where though usually just on-axis.

REW is just a tool of today, other measurement tools existed for decades, though not as accessible.

Room treatment is well known, though only professional studios do it.

 

[CleanSound]

Don't throw away all of your LP's

Wrong!!! Save it and wait until the value goes up and sell it to the urban hippies and make lots of money!

 

[GXAlan]

How about links to such measurements? Of course I'm talking about CEA 2034 measurements that a legit and reputable person would do. I have not seen any aside from the one Amir did for Tekton and it was sent by an ASR member.

We haven’t gotten the industry to send speakers to Amir or Erin routinely, but I think it’s different to say that companies send review units to reviewers where they think they will get a review versus the pretty bold claim that they “work really hard to prevent their speakers from being measured.”

That’s like Ferrari. Where you aren’t allowed to buy future Ferraris if you show the car in a bad light.

It is pretty easy for PS Audio to just send speakers to magazines that don’t have measurements - the fact that they sent it to places like Hifi News strongly suggests that your claim of them working hard to prevent speakers being measured is false.

"I must have lost thousands of dollars over the years, whereas I could of afford the more expensive equipment from the start but I was just being cheap."

Of course you can't afford what you can't afford, I was specific about being cheap on things you can afford.

But I agree, you can only afford what you can afford.

Here’s the problem. You start with a $200/pair speaker and then save up $800. Do you get your $800/pair a speaker if it’s twice as good? That’s what you can afford and it’s twice as good (let’s say it’s a subwoofer or the next line up in the speaker so you get better bass).

The key is that you shouldn’t spend the $800. Keep enjoying your $200 speaker. Next year you have saved $1600. Do you get a speaker that is now 5x as good? No. That’s what you can afford, but you have the be patient.

Now you get to $2000. Is that an order of magnitude better? No. We know we are beyond the point of diminishing returns.

Now you got $3000. You find a speaker that feels like it’s an order of magnitude better but it’s 15x the cost. That’s when you buy.

If you have a Studio 530, you can get better speakers as you move up the chain but it is better to make a big leap even if there’s a KEF LS50 or Ascend Sierra LX that’s clearly better and something you can afford right now.

The key is buying what you can afford at the beginning, using the resources here whether it’s $300 or $1000 or $5000. Then stick with it until you get to something that you feel, by your own metric, is 10x better.

 

[kemmler3D]

• Save up for Genelec on your first pair of monitors instead of settling for less.
• Save up for one pair of Audeze instead of amassing a heap of lesser headphones.
• Wear earplugs at the bars, not just clubs or shows, they're sometimes louder.

 

[Chrispy]

Interesting question. Many options today weren't available then. I had really good content over FM radio as well as vinyl....it got more convenient with portable tech that was as good for the most part. Quality has been accessible at good prices for a while now. Can't really imagine skipping over a particular technology as I grew up, but these days I've often advised not to bother with old vinyl/tape tech for new "audiophiles". Unless they just want the exercise....

 

[astcal]

(1) stick with active speakers (Neumann/Genelec). forget about passive ones completely.
(2) get into headphones.