Quality Component Listening

[usul]

Hey guys,

I was wondering, there is a lot of talk and recommending going on how one needs to go and "listen to high-quality components" to know what good sounds is. There is plenty of ink spilled over this, plenty of podcasts end with that recommendation. This also leads to the A-B comparison recommendations to show one the true quality of one's system. Most importantly for someone just getting into hi-fi A/V, this is the only sure-shot way to find out what sounds good to them.

So here's my question: What does one do to be able to listen to high quality (expensive) components without paying for them, or being a professional reviewer (which I imagine would mean one already knows what they like and what a great sound sounds like)? Where does one go to be able to get good at hearing these things?

I for one am in Philadelphia, and any major meets or shows seems to be either not well advertised or straight-up don't happen in the city of brotherly love.

Thank you for your answer.

 

[highfihoney]

What are you trying to do,are you setting up a system for home theater or stereo or are you just trying to learn about equipment,im not sure what your trying to do but ill try & answer your questions.

In order to get "good" at listening to quality equipment you first need to find out what your ears percieve as sounding good & what type of sound that you like,good equipment to one person is another persons garbage.

After you learn what type of sound you like the only real way to get good at knowing what equipment will sound good in your home is to try different gear in your own home,you can visit different dealer showrooms till the cows come home,listening to tons of different equipment but without having tried different types of speakers & equipment in your house you'll have no reference point to determine what will work in your house.

Every dealer showroom will sound different than your room in your house,what sounded great in a showroom may end up sounding horrible in your home,there is no substitute for hands on experience.

With that being said,if your goal is to set up a good sounding system for as little cash as possible your best bet is to post another thread describing your goals,tastes in music & movies,room size & budget,system size, 2.1/3.1/5.1/7.1 ect,then try to go & hear the speakers & gear that people will reccomend.

 

[usul]

What are you trying to do,are you setting up a system for home theater or stereo or are you just trying to learn about equipment,im not sure what your trying to do but ill try & answer your questions.

In order to get "good" at listening to quality equipment you first need to find out what your ears percieve as sounding good & what type of sound that you like,good equipment to one person is another persons garbage.

thats exactly my point. I want to find out what sounds good to me to be able to learn about equipment. To figure out what is good, and what exactly makes things sound good.

how do i do that? where do i go?

 

[j_garcia]

To figure out what sounds good and what doesn't to you, in terms of equipment, really only comes with the time and experience of actually listening to a lot of different stuff. It isn't entirely how to hear "right" it is pretty much really just to find out what you do and don't like. It is easy to like something that is beyond your budget too...nothing wrong with listening to really expensive stuff but it may make you more easily find the flaws in those that are in your budget.

Better, usually smaller shops, will often let you bring home some piece of gear to audition for a few days (once you have bought something from them more often than not). This can be a good way to go about hearing different gear in your own environment. Some internet direct companies offer risk free trials too, like www.av123.com on some bookshelf speakers.

 

[highfihoney]

thats exactly my point. I want to find out what sounds good to me to be able to learn about equipment. To figure out what is good, and what exactly makes things sound good.

how do i do that? where do i go?

There is no 7-11 type one stop store that has everything nor is there any quick & easy way to get to hear a bunch of different equipment,as jgarcia pointed out there are internet direct companies that offer no questions asked money back deals & there are some dealers that will let you take speakers & gear home to try,most dealers who do the in home trials will charge you a fee for the service, which is only fair.

If you want to start learning about systems you need to either start visiting hifi salons & start listening to systems & asking questions or start reading up on equipment manufacturers & their products.

Some manufacturers web sites to visit.

Mcintosh,my personal preference / Classe / Krell / Marantz /Bryston / Lexicon / B&K / Yamaha / Adcom / Jbl / Klipsch ect.

Visit these sites,read about different models & why each model is better than the last from each manufacturer,then you should have some kinda idea of what features & differences seperate each manufacturers different models,then comes the hard part,tracking down dealers or stores that cary the models your interested in.

 

[fmw]

It isn't a popular sentiment but it is the truth. What matters most in an AV system (or just an A system for that matter) is the acoustics of the room in which it is used. And the most important component of room acoustics is the shape of the room. Rooms are tweakable to an extent but you can't make a bad room sound good and it takes almost nothing to make a good room sound good. Speakers are a distant (very distant) second and the rest of the equipment is really trivial in a typical home family room or living room setup. Yes I know, the entire high end audio industry disagrees but I can live with that.

I've been an audio hobbyist for almost 1/2 a century and I have owned some of the finest and most expensive audio gear available. None of it matters a whit unless the room has good acoustics.

My point is that listening to equipment in someone else's room tells you very little about how it will sound in your room. I've always enjoyed listening to other people's systems and I can tell you that the great sounding ones are always in great rooms and the ones in poor rooms have always sounded poor regardless of the equipment involved. But I stopped assuming that what I heard would sound good in my room and I also stopped "auditioning" things at dealers a long time ago. I stopped reading subjective equipment reviews at about the same time.

I think that if you buy good equipment with good tested measurements then that will take care of the equipment part of it. Yes, there are some subtle sonic differences from speaker system to system but they aren't very important except for the bass and that is a matter of equipment. The room is another matter. If it is shaped badly or over damped, the system won't sound good. Find me a small square, carpeted room with speakers backed up against one wall. It will sound way below the potential of the equipment, no matter what the equipment is. If it is shaped well, provides breathing room for the speakers and is not over damped then it will sound just fine with any competent equipment.

So my advice, flying in face of what virtually every audiophile on the planet will tell you, is to ignore listening to equipment in other people's rooms. It doesn't mean anything. Buy good quality gear with good tested measurements and do what you can about the room or live with the results if you can't do much.

 

[mcotton]

From my perspective it is important that you don't come in just to watch a free movie. You should identify what your realistic budget is and ask them what they recommend for that price.

I have someone coming in tomorrow to demo the JVC HD1 projector and klipsch speakers. We are not a retail store, but if the customer has a budget we will try to setup a demo specifically for them.

I am always willing to help someone who wants to hear different equipment and compare. They shouldn't act interested in $20000 speakers if they really aren't interested.

 

[mtrycrafts]

thats exactly my point. I want to find out what sounds good to me to be able to learn about equipment. To figure out what is good, and what exactly makes things sound good.

how do i do that? where do i go?

Are there audio shops in Philadelphia? Try to visit them and start listening to speakers. I slightly disagree with fmw in that the room and speakers are about equally important as they are what makes the sound.

You need to remember a few things if you demo in stores: their room acoustics will differ so even the same speaker will sound different in them; acoustic memory is short for small differences.

 

[Exit]

Someplace to Start

It may be that your room acoustics are the biggest single factor in the sound of your system, but it is a complicated field of knowledge that is not the easiest place to start when picking out quality equipment, and you can address room acoustics shortcomings later. You are probably stuck with the room you intend to put the system in and you try to do the best you can with it wheather it has favorable or unfavorable acoustics.

I think a good place to start in finding a high quality system is to determine your budget for audio and video. Then go to the Audioholics recommendations on what they recommend for your budget range. You should get a breakdown of the budget for each piece of the system so you can go to local audio stores and see/hear systems in your price range. The Audioholics selections can be a baseline against which you can measure other equipment if you can find those selections locally. Big box stores are ok for electronics but it is hard to audition speakers in them.. Smaller audio speciality stores are usually better for auditioning speakers. You need to get speakers that are high enough in quality that they are not the limitation in achieving high quality sound. Don’t buy Bose for example. If you can find a set of speakers that sound good to you in the store, you at least know they have the potential of sounding good if you can fix the acoustics of your room. The speakers make the most difference of all the components in the overall sound of your system (excepting room acoustics). If you are not well informed on reading electronics systems specifications, most Japanese and Korean brands are pretty good. You may want to pick out a receiver that is THX certified and you probably will have more than enough power to drive most speakers. Also I would recommend getting a receiver that has automatic calibration which will at least partially adjust the speaker performance to match your room acoustics and also make sure you have your surround sound set up properly.

Read as much as you can from Audioholics and the internet forums. The more knowledge the better. Read about, speaker placements and setup, and room acoustics from Audioholics articles. Once you get a system up and running you can start to enjoy it. Then as your knowledge increases you can get into room treatments if you are so inclined. If along the way your speakers sound terrible in you room, you should probable return them and try to find something better suited to your room. Its kind of trial and error. You should check on the speaker return time period and keep it in mind during your purchase and home auditioning. The speakers my be the last part of the system you want to buy so you have the most time to audition them.