Dont let you make crazy from salesman talk. Stay cheap and listen. Believe your ears not salesman talk or your eyes. Compare to the original, how sounds a recorder, a bell, a piano, a drum set. Hear and enjoy music. Nobody else has your hearing you are the boss of your taste.
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What advice you wish you could have given to your younger self or someone new to this hobby?
- Thread starter CleanSound
- Start date
The Musical FIdelity pre/power amps I bought were probably not as good as the Quads they replaced and the "excellent" CD player was, in retrospect, almost certainly a four figure waste of money... but I can live with these mistakes. I'm not even that bothered about the Linn speaker stands (How much for a breeze (cinder) block????). But there's one thing I wish I could have warned myself about because it's going to make me feel stupid and embarrassed for the rest of my life... I should have known better but I wish I could have stopped myself from buying a set of Audioquest interconnects.... Oh the shame of it.
SonicSleuth
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would love to know more about this and your system
boxerfan88
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would love to know more about this and your system
Earlier this year, I moved from HiFi brands and "upgraded" my stereo system around the Neumann speakers. The current components that I am using are listed in my signature. My HiFi system approach has changed from connecting various analog HiFi components together, to staying fully digital (playback, volume control, EQ, room correction, visualization, sound coloration) and only converting to analog at the last mile (DAC-Speakers)
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Robin L
Master Contributor
"Stop spending so much time and money on this hobby - get out of the house, mingle with people."
D
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Saponetto
Senior Member
Buy a Corvette ZR-1.
Sorry, someone had to say it.
Sorry, someone had to say it.
"Just because you just had an unexpected $ windfall, don't trash something you are perfectly happy with to experiment with more expensive stuff".
Peterinvan
Senior Member
Look after your ears! Use ear plugs when racing bikes! Limit my time in discotechs!
Don’t sit at the end of the runway waiting to catch a pic of a 747 landing over your head!
Don’t sit at the end of the runway waiting to catch a pic of a 747 landing over your head!
Todd k
Active Member
Never ever never read audiogon. A snake oil cesspool of burn in, cablefoolery and just bad advice. Wish ASR was around 20 years ago. I would have saved thousands.
Don’t wait 10 years to buy your dream components. Buy and hold.
Also…
Julian Hirsch is right.
Also…
Julian Hirsch is right.
MattHooper
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Out of curiosity, what do you attribute to audiogon? Did you not enjoy gear you purchased? Or did you waste money on tweaks that you later came to realize made no sonic difference?"
(My experience was much more positive with respect to Audiogon - plenty of good gear bought both on that site, and in exchanging notes with others there. But then I came to audiogon already a skeptic about the woo-woo stuff so I wasn't buying expensive cables or anything).
More interesting would be what you bought at what price and how much sonic difference you assigned to your purchases. I do find the general ignorance at audiogon offputting.
MattHooper
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Are you asking about my purchase history there? Been on Agon for a heck of a long time, since 2002 I think.
Off the top of my head I bought Thiel 3.7 and then Thiel 2.7 speakers from Agon. MBL 121 omnis, Waveform speakers, Spendor, my Hales Transcendence L/C/R speakers. Also my Benchmark LA4 preamp, my older CJ Premier 16LS2 tube preamp, JL Audio CR-1 crossover for subs, I think I got my Harbeth SuperHL5s from Agon, and recently picked up a wicked deal on a Lumagen Radiance Pro video processor for my home theater. (And probably more stuff). All excellent deals.
Exchanging subjective notes with Agon members played a role in a number of those purchases. Hugely satisfied with most of those purchases, and whatever I ended up selling I got about the same price I paid for them. All good with me, not a regret in the bunch.
gaz
Member
Do not lend vinyl - they came back sounding bad; and do not buy secondhand vinyl, sounded bad too. (I do not use vinyl any more, prefer FLAC.)
Car audio: spend more money on speakers, and use under-seat active subs.
But overall, I have enjoyed the hobby immensely, and have few regrets.
Car audio: spend more money on speakers, and use under-seat active subs.
But overall, I have enjoyed the hobby immensely, and have few regrets.
Todd k
Active Member
Way back in the early days of audiogon there was nothing else on the web for audio geeks like me. There were some very good members who did give good advice but there was also a large number of members who espoused a lot of stuff that that today I know is not true. I fell victim to some of that audio woo woo. Tweaks and cables an some questionable gear. It is now easy for me to separate the fact from fiction, but not so say 20 years ago. Been addicted to good sound since my early teens in the 70’s. ASR has made me realize the keys to good sound, great speakers, room considerations, competent source components. I really appreciate the knowledge and fact based content here. I still read over there but for a humorous diversion.
Bleib
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When I started it was much more difficult to have more scientific tests. I mean, they tested the powercube of amps but not really linearity or distorsion levels.
My advice would have been to come in contact with Swedish LTS earlier on, who actually do scientific test. Had that been the case I wouldn't have wasted money on expensive cables expecting miracles.
Also, read earlier on how room changes sound, how good or rather bad a lot of recordings actually are, GIGO often really starts here.
My advice would have been to come in contact with Swedish LTS earlier on, who actually do scientific test. Had that been the case I wouldn't have wasted money on expensive cables expecting miracles.
Also, read earlier on how room changes sound, how good or rather bad a lot of recordings actually are, GIGO often really starts here.
MattHooper
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Fair enough.
I agree there were some excellent members on Agon. Sadly one passed away, and others seem to rarely post there any more. And so there certainly can be the usual quotient of woo-woo. I just learned to navigate the dubious stuff. And that was helped by paying attention to what skeptical engineers were explaining, even back in the 90s, including on some of the newsgroups. Basically there were still some "amirs" back then too. So I highly value the work amir is doing, which continues to inform me.
BobbyTimmons
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About 10% of audiophiles believe in buying expensive cables for an alleged and mysterious audio improvement. The topic is overblown as most people never believe it to begin with and scepticism about cables has been common among audiophiles.
It's also quite common among audiophiles to just buy good quality cables like Mogami and Canare for their aesthetics or build quality even though it's not strictly necessary.
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