From:
[email protected]
Date: 2016-04-13
Subject: Audiophilia
Put simply, an audiophile is someone who values high-fidelity audio
reproduction. The primary activity of an audiophile is, ostensibly,
listening. Whether you love music or the sound of a steam locomo-
tive passing by, an audiophile is engaged in active listening (as
opposed to passive listening, or listening while doing something
else like checking email). I've heard active listening paraphrased
as listening concert-style; youre fully engaged and focused on the
performance.
While sound has objective properties that can be measured (e.g., a
spectrum analyzer can measure the frequency response of a piece of
equipment or measure how sound waves behave in a room), the percep-
tion of sound is subjective. However, different people often de-
scribe sound in similar ways, such as bright or dark, muddy or
airy, rich or dry. Still, it's difficult to describe sound with any
hope of fully communicating its quality. One of my favorite quotes
about audio journalism is Writing about music is like dancing about
architecture[1]. I often find myself baffled by someone's descrip-
tion of a piece of gear only to agree with them after I've heard it
for myself.
I've been in love with recorded music since I can remember. Early
on, my favorite songs included La Bamba[2], I Think Were Alone
Now[3], and Point of No Return[4]. I remember being particularly
enthralled with the progressive build-up at the beginning of Ur-
gent[5]. Around 1992, I got a Sony Discman with my first set of
headphones. It was a revelation. It meant I no longer had to nego-
tiate with my parents for listening time on the stereo I could
just sit in my room and listen to anything I had. I've always been
fascinated by the textures present in recorded music electronic
music in particular.
Audio
The secondary activity of an audiophile is the considered assembly
of an audio reproduction system. The taxonomy of audio reproduction
systems is too complex to cover here. Each component has a job to
do and may also color the sound to one degree or another. At a min-
imum, you need some source of music, such as a computer, an ampli-
fier, and a pair of speakers. The form your system takes depends on
what format your music is in, your preferences, and other con-
straints such as available space and budget. Crack open a magazine
on the subject and youll find a variety of systems and components,
many of which command a price much higher than what you would ex-
pect to pay at your local electronics store. Some of these price
points seem ludicrous, even to many self-described audiophiles. Can
you listen to your favorite music on a clock radio and call your-
self an audiophile? I think you can.
I made my entry into audiophilia through headphones. I later went
through several iterations of home audio systems before deciding
I'd spent enough money. For me, this hobby was relatively expen-
sive. It is fun, though, to experiment with different pieces of
gear. My last major purchase was a 1980s-vintage tube amplifier. It
was really nice, but cats and vacuum tubes don't mix. After listen-
ing to a lot of music on many different setups, I think music
sounds best on the system it was expected to be played though when
it was released. Thus Motown sounds amazing through tubes, 80s pop
sounds best on solid state, and the music of today sounds best
through headphones.
You really don't have to spend a lot to get a significant improve-
ment over a non-considered setup. If you already have a digital mu-
sic library and are otherwise starting from scratch, there are a
lot of versatile products available. Powered monitors with a built-
in DAC, like the KEF X300A, are an all-in-one solution that will
set you back less than $1,000. You can also spend less on quality
used gear and give yourself room to experiment with different
things. Vintage gear is great, but stuff from the 70s doesn't in-
clude a remote. It's harder to find good gear from the 80s when
stereos became a commodity and the low end of the market boomed.
If youre just getting into it and don't want to experiment, I rec-
ommend a budget of $3,000 to $5,000 assuming you already have a
source (e.g. digital music on a computer, records and a record
player). This will get you a fine set of speakers, an amplifier,
cables, and a DAC or phono preamp. You can spend more, but were al-
ready past the point of diminishing returns. If you like to tinker
or are susceptible to the temptation posed by potential upgrades, I
recommend you build your system progressively. I also recommend you
avoid the mainstream audiophile press and its siren song.
Alternatively, you can put together a really nice headphone-specif-
ic setup for a lot less. For a few hundred dollars, you can get a
decent DAC, headphone amp, and a pair of headphones. Historically,
mainstream audiophilia has concerned itself with in-room reproduc-
tion using loudspeakers. Headphones have been, at best, a niche in-
terest within the audiophile world, but awareness is growing. Fi-
nally, you can take a DIY approach and build your own components.
This can be an affordable and fun way to build a nice stereo sys-
tem.
Formats
For most of us, digital music libraries are easier to build, main-
tain, and enjoy relative to physical formats assuming you want to
build a library at all. Digital files are portable and impervious
to the degradation that afflicts physical formats like CDs and
vinyl. The downside is their vulnerability to EMPs, solar flares,
and hard drive failures. A digital library of sufficient size
places demands on infrastructure; its the only reason I would con-
sider buying a NAS with RAID storage. The cost of storage has fall-
en significantly since the dawn of the mp3 era making the storage
of large, hi-res digital libraries practical. While redundant stor-
age and backup strategies are important, it's not listening to mu-
sic. With that in mind, let's talk about vinyl.
Somehow, listening to hi-res audio drew me to jazz. I came to enjoy
Thelonious Monk and Dave Brubeck, in particular. I kept reading
about the sound of vinyl, so I decided to try it for myself.
There's something different about it compared to digital not bet-
ter or worse, just _different_. Like system topography, music engi-
neered for playback on vinyl sounds best on vinyl. I was also drawn
to vinyl by the prospect of finding music that was not easily found
elsewhere. Looking back on what I spent on a record player and a
small record collection, I wouldn't do it again, but it was fun.
Handling vinyl records does heighten the ritual around listening to
music and can help the listener focus on the experience.
I Wish I Knew
* Buy quality used gear. Newer isn't necessarily better, and this
stuff depreciates like Beanie Babies.
* More expensive gear is not necessarily better gear.
* Try different things and learn what you like.
* CDs are a great source of high-quality audio! Rip your CDs to
lossless APE or FLAC. Used CDs are a bargain.
* Don't bother with expensive speaker cables, but do get shielded
line cables to block out RFI.
* Unless you have a large listening room, you don't need or want
huge speakers.
* Speaker placement makes a big difference to the sound you hear.
* If you want to play records, please get a real record player
and clean your records.
The Rabbit Hole
1. Rip your CDs to lossless APE or FLAC
2. Get a decent set of headphones
3. Position your speakers correctly
4. Get an outboard DAC and amplifier
5. Invest in some quality home stereo gear
6. Buy a record player
7. Explore the world of audiophile tweaks
8. Waste money on audiophile snake oil products
9. Circle back around and plug some earbuds into your smartphone
Resources
[1]:
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/
[2]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLAWPrCUQQ0
[3]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Q3mHyzn78
[4]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksHsh4r8tJA
[5]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA6id4--BDg
[6]:
http://head-fi.org/
[7]:
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/
[8]:
http://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile
[9]:
http://www.parts-express.com/
[10]:
http://getbettersound.com/
[11]:
http://www.stereophile.com/
[12]:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/
