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Introduction |
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Hi-Fi has been my passion since 1956 when I built my first Heathkit amp and bought a Norelco coaxial speaker with a Garrard turntable. Over more than 50 years of learning through reading and a lot of trial and error, I have developed some very strong beliefs about what is important and what is less important when buying stereo equipment.
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Select your budget and speakers |
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The most important decisions are: "What is my budget?" and "What speakers do I buy?".
Set your budget and don't even worry about other components until your speakers are selected. Remember, this is where the music signal, which has been passed from electrical component to electrical component, is finally transformed from electricity to mechanical energy and then to sound waves. This is the component in the system where the most can go right or wrong in the reproduction of music.
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Match electronics to your speaker selection |
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Until you have selected your speakers, you don't even know how powerful your amplifier should be! You don't know whether you should use warm sounding electronics such as tube equipment like Audio Research, Vincent, and Rogue Audio; or use smooth sounding transistor equipment such as Jeff Rowland Design, Cambridge Audio, Rega, or Music Hall, if your speakers need brightening up.
I suggest that you consider your choices of electronics and wire as "fine tuning" of your speakers. Your speaker choice will set the primary boundaries of your sound reproduction system. Since I am most familiar with Magnepan, Vienna Acoustics, Usher, Sonus faber, PSB Speakers, Rel sub-woofers and Opera loudspeakers; and because so many of our customers own these speaker systems, I believe that you can confidently rely on the Listening Room's selection of electronics, using Audio Research, Vincent, Rogue Audio, NuForce, Jeff Rowland Design, Music Hall and Cambridge Audio.
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Speaker wire and interconnects |
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After choosing your electronics, there is an endless selection of speaker wire and interconnects available. In my opinion this is the least important decision you'll make and this is where you should buy with caution and a healthy amount of skepticism about what the stereo journals say.
Follow the above general rules and you will be rewarded with a system you'll enjoy for many years. Don Hoatson
Updated January 31, 2009 |
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