Ten Pro Tips for the Audiophile – Pimp your hobby!

Hi-Fi is a great hobby. But like any hobby, it’s easy to get lost in it. We have tried to summarize all our knowledge in ten (valuable?) pieces of advice. We hope you will find them useful. And if you have some great advice yourself; please share them!

In all honesty, hi-fi is quite a complex hobby. Many sciences come together: acoustics, electrical engineering, psychology, fine mechanics…. and so on. In short: we understand very well that people get lost. Hence, we are only too happy to share our knowledge and sometimes summarize it for you. Here are ten pro tips to keep the hobby fun and affordable!

1. Start with your room!

Acoustics play a huge role in our hobby. How a room interacts with your hi-fi system is critical to the results. To take an extreme example: place you hi-fi system in a dead room and then in a bathroom: how different is that going to sound? Yes…that’s what we mean.

To a less extreme degree, the same applies to your living room or listening room. Do you have a bass problem? Chances are it’s not the amp, cabling or speaker, but the room or the placement of your speakers (more on that later). So before you run to the store for a new power cord, speaker cable, decouplers or amplifier: take a critical look at your space. Is it in good shape? Are there steps to be made there? We estimate there is room for improvement (pun intended).

2. Don’t (always) buy based on reviews

This may sound a little crazy. Especially since Alpha Audio is a platform that does a lot of testing and also shares its opinions regularly. But the fact is: if we are enthusiastic about something, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should run straight to the store. What we think is great, you may not like at all, or it may not fit your system. So always read carefully in which context we tested it, what the product’s features are and who tested it. Every author has his own taste. This applies to us, but also to authors at colleague media.

3. Always test at home!

Picking up on what is stated above, it is crucial to test at home. In your system, with your ears and in your acoustics. That way you can be sure it works. After all: the acoustics in the store are different and if you listen to a pair of speakers on a different amplifier, the interaction between amplifier and speaker is also different than in your system with your own amplifier.

If it is not possible, for example, to test a pair of speakers at home, at least take your own electronics to the store where you can listen to the speakers. That way you will at least know if the match is a good one.

4. Don’t change too much and/or too quickly

Real listening starts with taking time. Getting used to a particular combination. Really experiencing the pros and cons. Getting past the point where you are completely blown away…. That takes time.

When the “dust” has settled and you can listen objectively again, it’s time to take stock: is this really what I’m looking for? What do I like? What am I missing? How am I going to achieve that? Who could help me?

Far too often we see people in a blind panic – or enthusiasm – testing countless products each week. That (often) doesn’t work. In doing so, it is really crucial to be structured and take action at the right place in the chain. Change one thing at a time and then start evaluating. And you can only do that if you take your time.

5. You need a solid base

“I have too much bass. Which speaker cable should I get?” This might sound funny, but we do get questions like this pretty often.

It only makes sense to dot the ‘i’ when everything is the system is already working as it should. A system should already perform well without “audiophile” cables.

Cables, power conditioners and, for example, anti-resonance pucks are not equalizers. They are tweaks that can make a good system a great system. But don’t think of them as solutions to tonal problems.

6. Place the speakers correctly

This one is so obvious, but we still often see and hear that even enthusiasts are not really concerned with this. Or they know they are not positioned correctly, but ‘there is no other way’.

The fact is: if the speakers are not in the right place, it will never work. Know that every speaker has different requirements. There are speakers that work fine close to the wall. In fact, some speakers need to be quite close to the wall. Other models need a lot of space to perform.

If you have a room where there is no space, do not purchase speakers that require a lot of space. Go for in-wall or on-wall, or a closed system that can be close to the wall. And vice versa, too: if you have the space and love a lot of depth in the picture: buy a pair of speakers that offers that…. Don’t fight physics: it’s a battle you’re never going to win.

7. Put everything in phase

Some advice that may not be obvious to everyone is to “phase” equipment. This means connecting all equipment to the mains correctly: i.e. + to +, and – to -. Of course, we’re dealing with alternating current and equipment works fine when it’s “the other way around,” but this has more to do with grounding the appliances.

There are special pieces of tools to check the phase, but it can also be done with a multimeter ór just by taking the hood off the appliance and seeing how things are connected.

You can do it with a multimeter by measuring, for example, between a chassis screw and the ground (outside) of an RCA connector. Or the chassis and ground in the socket it is connected to. Turn the plug the other way around, and measure again. The lowest value is the correct one.

An important point, is that the devices should NOT be connected to each other. So all interlinks and speaker cables must be disconnected. Only the power cord should be connected!

What is usually audible when all devices are in phase is that the stereo image is more stable. The delineation is clearer and it “floats” less. Sometimes the sound balance also changes subtly.

A bonus tip is to keep switching and linear power supplies separate from each other. Switching power supplies create more noise. And linear power supplies don’t always handle that well. By putting them in a separate distribution block – with perhaps a subtle parallel filter – you limit the contamination.

8. Recordings are decisive

Have you ever driven a go-kart at full throttle with your foot on the brake? That’s pretty much what happens when you play a bad recording on a high-end audio system.

What many people tend to forget is that the recording quality determines the outcome almost 100%. Bad recordings are never going to sound good: no matter how good a hi-fi system is. It can even be worse and more agressive than on an average system, because a high-end system lets you hear everything and can also magnify things.

On the other hand, great recordings sound fine everywhere. However, on a high-end audio system it will sound magical and really touch you. And that’s what makes this hobby so beautiful!

9. Trends, measurements and opinions… who cares!

There are those things that come into play in every hobby. There are the “sweets of the week”, like we call them in The Netherlands: new models or brands that are “better than anything else out there!” Sure… Sometimes they really are great, but often it’s just a hype that disappears just as fast as it came.

Also, there are always the discussions around measurements and experiences. In our hobby, that tends to be fodder for heated discussions. Our advice to you: listen. Measurement are fun for nerds like us because we want to make connections between what we hear and what we can measure. However, the outcome of measurements is purely for research. For the ordinary user, the data is pretty useless, because you really have to know how to read it, interpret it and often: analyze it as well.

Then the opinion of others: also not very important. In the end, you are the one who has to listen to and enjoy your system. So how important is it what “Pete” or “Jeff” think of it? Did they pay for your system? Probably not, so it doesn’t matter what they think of your new purchase.

10. Keep it fun: it’s a hobby!

Hi-Fi is a hobby. And that means we all experience it in our own way and we enjoy it in our own way. For some, that means putting together a new system once every ten or fifteen years and then playing music. For another, it’s tweaking with cables. For others, it means visiting trade shows and discussing the latest technology online.

The important thing is that you continue to enjoy your hobby. And that you do not condemn others on how they experience and perform their hobby. After all: to each his own, right?