10 Characteristics of a Great Sounding Audiophile Playback System

[gene]

My recent YouTube video explores 10 key characteristics of a great audiophile playback system. This article delves into those traits and discusses how to optimize your setup to achieve audio nirvana.

1. The speakers should disappear in the room.
2. The soundstage should be wide and deep.
3. Strong phantom center.
4. Effortless sound at all volume levels.
5. Deep, tight, punchy bass.
6. You’re in disbelief of how good it sounds each time you listen.
7. Your listening sessions last longer than planned.
8. You hear details in recordings you don’t hear from lesser systems.
9. You can hear a huge difference in source material.
10. You long for your next listening session.

Read: 10 Characteristics of a Great Audiophile Playback System

Feel free to share how you define a great sounding audiophile playback system and discuss the 10 traits we chose.

 

[Steve81]

Pretty much. I listen damn near 24/7 these days it feels like, with playlists ranging from a couple hours to 14 hours in length (for road tripping). With my main rig, it’s always a pleasure.

 

[Hobbit]

I still get a kick out of when someone comes over and sits in the sweet spot while I'm playing music and don't realize they're only listening to the 2 fronts.

 

[isolar8001]

My recent YouTube video explores 10 key characteristics of a great audiophile playback system. This article delves into those traits and discusses how to optimize your setup to achieve audio nirvana.

1. The speakers should disappear in the room.
2. The soundstage should be wide and deep.
3. Strong phantom center.
4. Effortless sound at all volume levels.
5. Deep, tight, punchy bass.
6. You’re in disbelief of how good it sounds each time you listen.
7. Your listening sessions last longer than planned.
8. You hear details in recordings you don’t hear from lesser systems.
9. You can hear a huge difference in source material.
10. You long for your next listening session.

Read: 10 Characteristics of a Great Audiophile Playback System

Feel free to share how you define a great sounding audiophile playback system and discuss the 10 traits we chose.

Too bad that number 9 can ruin all the others, but you wanna play ya gotta pay !

 

[lovinthehd]

Hopefully an audiophile has that sort of setup to enjoy, but audiophile is a person, not gear. 10 different answers from 10 different people wouldn't surprise me. Heck some swear they can hear a gnat fart better with one cable/dac/amp vs another. "Audiophiles" come up with gems like this: "Lossy compression has come a long way, but there’s still a big, easily-audible difference between a lossy Spotify stream and a lossless version of the same track played back from CD"....big and easily audible? Seriously?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think you need to add another point:

11. They sound so good that you don't even think about buying anything else (speakers, AVR, Amps, etc.) - you feel they are the last speakers you will ever need to buy or measure.

 

[MrBoat]

Sitting here listening to "Jazzmasters: The Greatest Hits" and this one CD just happens to hit on all 10 (and ADTG's #11) points, and that with the diysoundgroup/Bagby Tempests and two subs immediate near field. Even point blank like this, the phantom center is just perfectly planted, immovable even. I had just turned it on when I stumbled across this article. Listening like this is just something I must do almost every day.

It's much easier to assemble a simple, yet winning system now that is good enough that I don't care if there is better. Way easier than it used to be. Budget gear used to be pretty frustratingly horrible. In the '80s, it cost around $1k just to get your foot in the door of quality audio performance. Now you can do it for half of that, and so much more good used bargains available than ever.

I came up in audio when the best sources were vinyl, tape and FM radio. I really don't care about the differences in streaming quality. Even Pandora and youtube can perform with good recordings. I forget to care, most days. Speakers are so much more immersive than I remember, which is probably directly related to this computer aided design age we live in now that has seemingly solved many of audio's mysteries since.