What advice you wish you could have given to your younger self or someone new to this hobby?

[gnarly]

I do it like @gnarly wrote. I usually own several systems that have their specific strengths, for example.

Thx for that. Sounds like we think alike.

 

[snakedctr]

Buy more VU meters.

 

[Karmacoma]

Buy high end self powered monitor speakers, you'll save some time and money.

 

[Timcognito]

I will answer with what most of my audio minded peers did not do and and I did, that serendipitously, paid off. Listen to as many genres of music as you can stand, give them a second and third chance enough to acquire a taste or not for the unfamiliar. As somewhat a flower child, coming of age in SF in the '60s I became bored with prog and metal in the '70s, I flirted with punk, country, bluegrass. But I really gave jazz of many sub-genres a go and love it still. Blues, folk and classical have stayed with me and lately poly-rhythmic music styles from Africa and So. America are on my playlists, especially the up tempo stuff, like highlife, cumbia and modern tango. Music and gear of all sorts have stayed close since my early teens as hobbies came and went.

 

[JeremyFife]

Cynically: plan my big purchases strategically for those times I was single...

More usefully: I'd tell myself to get out of some of those relationships earlier, and to work harder for others!

 

[Salt]

Don't have do give any advice. All of them can make use of what is installed in the house and make their own experience and decision.
Two of my three boys are using boom box or BT-HP and are totally satisfied.
The third and youngest uses the same, but he is beyond that with almost professionaly into PA. Measuring, mixing, EQing, soldering, building amp and speaker .... this one needs little (mostly financial) input, the others won't change their minds at all.

 

[Steven Holt]

I'll put my two cents in : Never spend an extra $1000 to get an extra $10 in sound. Before you buy a piece of gear, ask yourself : will I be able to HEAR the difference? (I'm talking about serious money here, you wanna buy some cool VU meters go right ahead. Same thing for some cool cables, just don't be a fool about it)

 

[DMill]

Look at what I want and what I can afford. Spent way too much money settling only to come back to just stretching a bit more than I wanted. But I’ll confess these are the rantings of an audiophile. Wasted money has gotten me very little especially in everything but perhaps speakers.

 

[Esprit]

Buy products made for sound professionals (amplified monitors, DACs, cheap but sturdy cables, etc...).

 

[Chr1]

Don't discard your collection of several hundred meticulously compiled TDK SA90s because they take up a lot of space.
You will miss them when you are older.

(Edit: Definitely thousand plus on reflection...WTF. Doh.)

 

[DMill]

I'll put my two cents in : Never spend an extra $1000 to get an extra $10 in sound. Before you buy a piece of gear, ask yourself : will I be able to HEAR the difference? (I'm talking about serious money here, you wanna buy some cool VU meters go right ahead. Same thing for some cool cables, just don't be a fool about it)

At least you can look at VU meters. A $2k set of speaker cables looks like you dragged in the power cables from the street lines and put them in your living room. I’ve seen them so heavy you need cable lifters so the weight of them doesn’t stress the binding posts on the back of the amp. I suppose that’s about the only good thing I can say about lifters.

 

[ooheadsoo]

Stick with the Dennis Murphy designed MBOW1 and skip the narrow directivity bandwagon.

 

[beeface]

All of that stuff you're thinking of buying - don't buy it.

Also, buy Bitcoin, Apple stock and nVidia stock.

 

[Head_Unit]

HiFi advice I wish I could have given to my younger self

Understand that becoming a loudspeaker engineer implies few and limited companies/cities to work for. (It has all worked out great for me, but then again I should have been a patent attorney, except I didn't know such a thing existed).

I don't know what other advice I'd give myself really; I've been pretty happy with what I've spent money and time on.
- "Understand that textbook crossovers don't really work because the actual impedance of drivers is messy" would be one piece of advice.
- I would explain to myself explicitly that true scientific tests change only ONE variable, in order to clearly attribute any change. And thus that non-blind tests simply cannot establish anything at all, due to psychological effects. But that if someone feels something is better, quite likely inside their brain it actually is.
- I would have gone to university in a warmer climate!
- OH! Wear earplugs wear earplugs wear earplugs-mowing, hammering, etc etc etc. Don't forget them at concerts! I'm pretty anal about this but could have been better when younger.

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

Always listen to James D Johnston.

 

[Angsty]

Buy better speakers sooner.

I lived with a set of Boston Acoustics T1030’s far too long because they were “supposed to be good”.

I’d been much happier buying the Thiel CS2.2 on first sight and holding on to them. It took me another 10 years to get around to a pair of Thiel CS6s.

On that same note, I should have bought that pair of mint La Scalas in my vicinity last year…

 

[Balle Clorin]

I should have bought more cartridges, turntables and vinyl while they were good. I replaced the stylus too seldom.
Some speakers I had too long were not good enough..

 

[Birdy]

Go for your own ears! What you love is your reference. Nothing more subjective and complex as the brain as a music proccesor.

 

[Rednaxela]

Don’t keep reading for years on end about DRC thinking one day…

 

[Deleted member 21219]

Advice to my younger self?

Buy less equipment.
Buy more recordings.

Jim