I’ve been obsessed lately with sorting out truth from the dross in the audiophile realm. Listening to music is one of my passionate hobbies, and I recently decided to get ’serious’ about it. As a complete and utterly hopeless sceptic, I’ve got a tendency toward over-analysing a subject.
It all started recently with my wanderings on the web. I found Headroom and thinking on the subject of head-fi lead me to my ‘PC audio setup‘ post. After finding Headroom to be one of the more honest companies out there, I purchased a headphone amp from them. It was purely a splurge to get myself the last headphone amp I’ll ever buy. It’s the kind of guy I am. I research a bit and get the best thing on the bang/buck curve. This amp has the same capability of their $5,000, but for about $3200 less, and it comes in a much smaller footprint. * I actually just cancelled my order after reading a bit on more affordable solutions and considering my financial situation. (paying off the car would be better for me in the long run)
But I’ve digressed a bit. In my travels (is that the word?) I’ve read a lot of people’s words on the ‘warmth’ of tubes. I just don’t get it. The ‘fi’ in ‘Hi-fi’ is for ‘fidelity’. Tubes introduce harmonic distortion, and that changes the sound, and some would say corrupts.
I frequent a board (recently joined) called ‘head-fi‘ and they are a pretty decent group. I have to say though, some of the cockamamie notions that overcome some ‘philes make me laugh.
Like this sig:
Monster HTS 2100 Power Conditioner ($270)==>[Any hot cd with hot tracks ($15)==>[Meridian 500 CD Transport ($2400) < == Zu Bok Power cable($200)]==>AudioQuest Hawk Balanced Digital Interconnects ($800)==>Genesis Digital Lens ($1800)==> VeraStarr Silver Signature Digital Interconnects($700)==>[PS Audio Ultralink DAC ($2000)<== Zu Cable Bok Power Cord($220)]==>Black Mountain Cable Gold Peak 24K Gold Interconnects ($700) ==>[HeadRoom Max Headphone Amp ($1600)]<==Zu Cable Bok Power Cable ($220)] ==> Moon Audio Silver Dragon Headphone Cable ($200) ==> Sennheiser HD 650 Headphones ($500) ==> My Ears (Free) = Headphone Nirvana (Priceless)
That’s beyond words, $11k in hardware for something ‘priceless’. My word is ‘expensive’ or perhaps even ‘foolish’.
Changing power cables to prevent ‘interference’ ignores the house wiring, and the wire to the transformer outside one’s home. Also, audio equipment has this funny thing called a ‘transformer’ that steps the electrons down before they are converted to DC.
‘Interconnects’ is a fancy word for ‘wire’. While a tin lamp cord may not be good for an ‘interconnect’, $100 per foot cable is usually not any better than the ‘cheap’ stuff.
For one, there is a difference between aluminium wire and copper wire, to be sure. Copper is a far superior conductor. I have my doubts, however, that a triple-braided set of nitrogen coated, carbon fibre wrapped wires are going to be that much better.
I don’t know what would possess someone to buy a $2000 CD player. A headphone amp, maybe. I wouldn’t spend more than my already existing computer on a CD player. Lossless ripping with a Paranoia-based app is the way to go here. Digital is the great equaliser (no pun intended).
Anyway, I went looking for more audiophile bull (ABS) for levity, and came across the The Audiophile B.S. Page, which collects some hilarious bits. That lead me to The Audiophile Faith, which is an interesting read, especially to an atheist. Yes, there are parallels to religion here.
A reference in the page to a few magazines piqued my curiosity, so I checked them out, found one I really enjoyed, and subscribed to it. It’s called The Audio Critic, and it contains very technical reviews. They have some samples of articles available as well. One of the samples is called ‘The 10 Biggest Lies in Audio’, and is a worthy read if you’re sick of the ABS.
One of my favourite bits follows:
An amplifier with the measurements of the Bryston 875HT has no sound of its own. To talk about the soundstaging, midrange immediacy, etc., of such an amplifier is audio-cultist nonsense. The sound of the 875HT’s output is the sound of its input.
Straight up. No punches, and no ‘comfortable financial relationships’ with dealers to sex up a product. My kind of read.
I think I found my source for honest, technical review, and I’m going to ignore the ‘choclaty goodness’ purple prose from here on out.