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

[Birdy]

Best advice I could give is: discover what type of sound you love and use that as your reference for your choice of loudspeakers as a starting point. Don’t get confused by all the audio talk but follow your ears because there are no parameters for the complexity of hearing, listening and processing of music so it’s you who makes the rules!

 

[teched58]

The advice I would give to my younger self would be, don't piss off the site moderators.

 

[Mr. Widget]

The advice I would liked to have given myself is in audio and all things, "Enjoy the journey and don't be so focused on the destination."

 

[AuricGoldfinger]

“Enjoy what you have and don’t chase perfection too much. Stay away from subjectivist audio forums. Replace old bias potentiometers with quality sealed types.”

 

[Mr. Widget]

“Enjoy what you have and don’t chase perfection too much. Stay away from subjectivist audio forums. Replace old bias potentiometers with quality sealed types.”

"Enjoy what you have and don't chase perfection too much." Absolutely wish someone had convinced me of that... agree 100%

I'd modify the second sentence to: "take any advice from all forums with a great deal of skepticism."

I'd modify the third sentence to: "avoid any equipment that has old bias potentiometers."

 

[sam_adams]

Buy more Berkshire-Hathaway stock while it's cheap.

 

[JohnnyAudio]

Meridian - 508.24 cd player, they had it more than I did, went back 5 times, over 3 years

PS Audio - the reliability of the (2) Lambda CD transports made the Meridian look stellar, both had multiple trips back, work a week or 2, then fail again

Adcom - GFA-555, bad transformer buzz, from day 1, told that was normal by Adcom, hissed terribly with no music playing, sold to my cousin, the last I knew it was still working in the camp. Switched to a Conrad-Johnson solid state amp, that was flawless for 25+ yrs, until I bought the Benchmarks.

Hi Plat,
What Conrad-Johnson do you enjoy? I'm from 'Cuse too.
J

 

[srrxr71]

Buy more Berkshire-Hathaway stock while it's cheap.

The best one was Domino’s pizza. Can’t stand that stuff but apparently people love it.

 

[rank]

Spend as little as possible.

 

[Cogito]

Don't sell your 2,500+ LP collection for 50 cents each shortly after buying your first CD Player.

 

[Chrispy]

Not much that I can think of, generally have looked for value in conjunction with objective data. I used vinyl when it was the main way to go, but switched to digital when it became clear it was the superior route. I still have the vinyl, just because I'm stubborn and not sure now in hindsight it has been worth hanging on to for so long (I have all of it still but rarely bother playing it). Also had a professional sound guy/EE as a grandfather (well, step-grandfather but only one I knew on paternal side) who told me early on about the cable idiocy. Growing up with 60s audio yielded some changes over the years for sure, tho.

 

[MattHooper]

Don't sell your 2,500+ LP collection for 50 cents each shortly after buying your first CD Player.

In terms of collections, sounds a bit like me:
I’d want to go back to my younger self to say “ hold on to that comic collection, you won’t believe what those will be worth!”

I had the first appearance of Spider-Man among many others, which in mint condition has sold for over $1 million !!!

 

[Descartes]

Don’t believe any of the rags such as What HiFi, Absolute Sound, Stereophile….. all of them survive by the advertising from manufacturers!

 

[Wolf11Man]

Build speaker with active crossover as soon as you can. Don't wait for years until you do.

Spent more time and money on design and looks of anything you build, even as it does not improve the sound.

 

[Sillysilly]

I spent way too much on box swapping amp, source and cables over speakers and room and listening to people tell me it was impossible to get good bass with small - mid sized speakers.

Best investments for me have been:

Carpet over wood floors
Random shaped over square listening room
Learning to DIY speakers
Waiting for digital tech to mature rather than buying way out of problem

 

[DSJR]

I started at a high-end UK store fifty years ago this month (late August 1974), after a while as Saturday boy. I wish I could have cautioned my young self as to the 'Terrible Two' makes that dominated and in my current view, all but held back the audio industry for too many years. Nothing wrong with subjective views (as 'views' are all they are), but as for the ignorant twerps that entered the industry and magazines in the late 70's, totally dismissing proper technical appraisal as useless for musical enjoyment, while promoting basically domesticated PA systems with a dull-balanced vinyl main source, I now have nothing but contempt for much of those blinkered times frankly, despite my living being earned at their collective altar - I just wish I knew more back then to back up my then inflated ego, as I bypassed some really decent and now classic valuable gear and that pains me greatly! We didn't know then, or had deliberately forgotten and in fairness, there was an entire tribe of fellas (usually) that were my age group and all with similar music tastes who enjoyed it all on similar-minded systems... One tech-qualified reviewer-cum-guru who should have known better, also perpetrated this sighted 'hands-on' subjectivism in the 80's and 90s with his numerical scores which have been shown latterly to be utterly ridiculous!

There were also some severe wrong-footings I made in my career, some almost disastrous and looking back, I heartily wish I could go back and correct these, or better, not make the wrong footing in the first place, as my life would have been so much easier and better had I not been so foolish! I know, I know, most people look back with similar vibes here...

 

[Birdy]

I would advise to just follow your ears and taste of sound. As we all know, speakers sound very diferent and i had always a problem with high frequency's penetrating my ears, the old metal domes and shouting speakers, midrange that attacks you and bass that kicks you. I prefer to listen to a sound stage that is deep and layered and is just pleasant to listen to like Quad electrostats but with more body and bottem so i build my own speakers and love them now for 33 years. Small upgrades and tweeking so that now you do not hear high, mid and lows but just one stage with music.

 

[Multicore]

I wish I could have cautioned my young self as to the 'Terrible Two' makes that dominated and in my current view, all but held back the audio industry for too many years.

What are you talking about?

 

[DSJR]

What are you talking about?

If you were in the UK back then, you'd know. Apologies for this being an international site, but Naim and Linn have a lot to answer for and small cults still remain for both brands, which admittedly make far better products today than they did back then - at a price obviously

 

[Multicore]

If you were in the UK back then, you'd know. Apologies for this being an international site, but Naim and Linn have a lot to answer for and small cults still remain for both brands, which admittedly make far better products today than they did back then - at a price obviously

I lived in the UK through that period. I guessed Linn was likely one of them. I didn't have much to do with audiophile cos I didn't have much money.

Linn was a topic in our podcast episode about The Blue Nile first album, in which we also discussed the Rekursiv processor.