Top 10 Hi-Fi mistakes & how to avoid them

New to Hi-fi? Think you're an expert? Well check out these top 10 mistakes that most audiophiles do and learn how to avoid them.

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[alexopth]

I started the sound journey in 1987. I was writing in magazines etc when I was younger and had the chance to listen and test extreme and very expensive setups, I also own one. Back in 200x I was invited to listen to a system that was really expensive. The guy had invested ridiculous amount of money to his setup. I listened very carefully and of course I was amazed with the sound quality, best system ever heard (and till then I had listened to the very best class due to my work). I noticed he had bought some wooden devices with spikes he had the speaker cables on them. I knew these and I knew they were expensive. At the time I was skeptic with such improvements (for example very expensive 220V power cables) and smiling I told him that that was money out of the window.
He smiled back and offered me to do a blind test. I would close my eyes and he would remove them and then back on etc and I would try to see If I could here the difference.
Well, I was SHOCKED. I felt that the sound stage was demolished every time he removed them (or at least I was guessing that the collapse was happening during the removal).
I also made him do it while I was watching (in case he does something else lol). It was a stunning experience and a big lesson for me. From this point on I started to give attention to every detail in my system.
I have also read every book I could on audio and electronics including Self's, Cordell's etc. According to a theory that also exists in these books nobody can listen a difference of 0.1% below THD in amps.
So here is example #2:
I own a very expensive set of power monoblocks and I was very happy with them through the years. Ideal measurements, many zeros id THD, a lot of weight, 1KW at 2Ohms, I had the chance to acquire them with constant improvements in many years. I have listened many others and couldn't find something really better, so I decided to build my own and end up designing SETs, pure ClassA 1KW in total. I was amazed by the sound of them from start and felt they were much better than previous.
Every Friday night, me and my wife we listen to music on the special place we have for this and she has no idea about electronics (she knows I am doing "something" with electronics - she pays no attention) but she has very good ears.
So I told her that I had to change the amps and bring some cheap ones, because our previous monoblocks had to be repaired (lol). When I put first record on, she stares at me and says. WTF, this sounds AMAZING, are you sure these are cheap? Keep them and sell the other (lol). During this first session she cried when we played "E Lucevan Le Stele" from Placido Domingo.
I have learnt dealing with hi-end for more than 30 years that there is so much more in sound than numbers. And I am Ph.D Electrical Engineeer, so I know the consequences of what I am saying.
Yes, harmonics is one of them, and TIMING is much more important.

[the_last_song]

Mistake number one having no disposable income and getting interested in decent equipment.

[DavidslvPT]

Another great video!

I'm going to type a few things quickly:

1. Break-in, I guess people are not used to this kind of ritual, but this is the same thing as a new pair of shoes, it needs wearing them to make them feel good, when you buy a new vehicle, the manual does mention a break-in period, your first 1000 km or so you should be gentle, let those engine parts settle in, my motorcycle for instance, first service was around 300 miles because the manufacture wanted to make sure everything settled in properly (plus ... 2 wheels... better be safe than sorry).

2. Cables, oh yes, they make a difference but I don't think we are telling the whole story here. We have to talk about cable material (copper vs silver for instance, copper, copper covered in silver etc...), positive and negative cable running attached or separated, braided cables or non braided, the location and how many other cables will be around, and cable gauge (how thick or thin a cable is). I think there is space for many episodes just on cables. 

I was skeptical about cables at first, I used the cables that came with my first hifi system, which were just normal copper cables with positive and negative running attached to each other, very basic, very common cable type, nothing fancy. I don't know how old those cables were, but I can tell you that they were not new and the copper was not shinny, so from there I decided to buy brand new roll or copper cables, did some experiments with different lengths (another talk point), did I hear anything different between one and the other ... no, but also the system was compose of Yamaha A-S202 (bottom range) and Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers so it was what it was... but I did not quit there and then, I thought people can't be making this stuff up, so I did a bit more research and ended up getting a pair of Van Den Hut Clearwater cables, now I heard the difference straight away, tiny differences but it was there - they continue to be my go to cables and my preferred cables to date, the only moment I have preferred another cable was a recent pair that I made myself, all braided and I believe it calculated 9 AWG, made with copper cable, nothing fancy - so I do believe that the material, thickness, length and how the cable is ran can impact on the sound - I was also told to run my cables always in the same direction, if one side has been on the amp, then it should always be connected on the amp, seems that the burn-in of the cable also has impact - but that I don't have enough experience with, in fact any vulgar copper cable I have that is not terminate I must have connected in opposite sides a hundred times

3. Try the equipment as much as you can in your own environment, same way you expect to have a test drive in a vehicle, if you have a local hifi shop they should be able to provide you with gear on a loan, in my case I'm fortunate that the local shop is quite local and they allow me to put down a deposit (normally half the retail price) and take it home to test, send it back and get the money back if I'm not purchasing (I don't use this enough, but I should).

I wanted to write so much more but it's too lengthy already, thanks for taking the time to read.

[mikecampbell]

I bought my first hi fi set up in 1975 when I was in the Navy and still have a lot to learn. It has been a fun journey!

[semperfi-]

Ive learned everyone has their own budget and taste. And your right what works in one house maynot work in someone elses. Ive got a few setups and love them but slowly getting my perfect setup. Once thats in place ill be done. Great video.

[stiannobelisto]

As someone who is just getting into vinyl, this is the best channel I found so far! Your personality is great, just cosy to watch, I almost want to light up my fireplace and I don't even have one

[brucermarino]

Another excellent video. Thank you! Your comments on tweaks are well taken. It may even be more complicated, however. Since some tweaks may compromise others. So, a new tweak may sound even better if an earlier one is removed or changed. Also, the importance of vibration control is essential and can be verified by ear and and measurement. Burn in time is a bit more complicated since we are also adjusting our fairly malleable perception. Thanks again, my friend: Bella!

[Kmg_]

My speakers are quite low to the ground, unfortunately, due to a distinct lack of free space. That's certainly the only major issue I've noticed with my system. I'll make sure to rectify that once I move house. Another insightful video!

[peterrech]

snakeoil, yep if a good salesperson tells you something really works, and you have just overspent on this you will believe that it works even though it does not. a friend of mine bought a very expensive pair of audio cables from the USA, and believed they sounded great, i had a set of japanese cables that were 10% of the price that sounded the same. We did a blind test where he did not know which cable he was listening to, to his surprise he preferred my cheap cable. i tested all the measurements ad they were the same, he was annoyed, took a knife to the fancy braided outer sheath and was surprised to find that the actual cable was the same Japanese cable inside the fancy sheath. Sound quality is always a matter of perception and belief.... great video by the way.

[sswpp]

Though I'm skeptical, I could be convinced that burn-in is a real phenomenon in acoustic components because it's reasonable that the moving materials might shift on a molecular level in response to forces imposed on them and that maybe that could take some time to happen.
As an electronics engineer I have never heard anyone speak of nor had any experience which would lead me to believe that electronic components perform any different from the first time they are powered up. As an example a couple of years back I was on a team designing a 1000W RF power amplifier. The output power spec has a margin of +/-0.5 dB over all frequency channels and temperature range (0C - 50C I think) which are all compensated for through a calibration procedure as part of the production test procedures. A 0.5 dB deviation in power comes out to 6% difference in amplitude level. These circuit involved hundreds of components. Had the component variations between the time it was tested on the production floor and after hours of operation amounted to just 6% then we would have seen power level faults and products returned from the field as a result.
Furthermore, if burn-in of electrical components was real, the assumption of the pro-burn in camp is always that the burn-in will drive the device from harsh to pleasing. How come there never seems to be a possibility that any given device is optimal from the factory and operating it longer will degrade the performance?

[vinylcity]

Another great video! Good points! I'm glad you're still doing videos! I haven't seen a video from "Michael fremer's analog planet " since this "C-19" stuff broke out! I hope he's ok, I really enjoy his content as well as your wonderful channel!

[leonardopapantoniou]

The difference between a very cheap cable and a better but not expensive cable Is huge but the difference between a middle of the road and a more expensive one negligible

[PreparationH]

Power cleaning makes total sense, my only problem with it is that the gear getting sold in the audio space is very overpriced for what it actually is and does. The audiophile marketing, as it too often does, drifts too much into forgetting there is some actual science and reasoning behind whats going on and then uses that to jack up the price. It creates weird class barriers where they should not exist rather than helping people get the most out of their situation in addition to stiffing productive discussion about the technology. I've seen the same thing happen in other niche spaces where a device suddenly gains a higher price for no other reason than the name of the hobby is on the packaging. Dirty AC is such a common enough problem that its just disappointing that there are people claiming you need to spend 4-5 times what you need to in order to mitigate the problem and thus discouraging both consumers and manufacturers.

[lol-st]

on the snake oil thing around 20 minutes in, i think its also important to consider that the last 10% of getting your setup 100% "perfect" will always involve very minor almost un-noticeable differences for the sake of perfection whereas leaps and bounds are made early on with things like turn tables and not different types of wire /cables/ etc.

[martinmullen]

Love this channel, and respect what you say, but also like to find out for myself.
You recommended some speaker cables awhile back £140 a pair, I bought these OCC copper they were absolutely excellent and a great improvement for the money, certainly for my budget.

[leonardopapantoniou]

A variant of mistake 9: confirmation Review fever. The Compulsion to read reviews of the product you have just purchased in order to reinforce in your brain how good or cool it Is

[pauledwards]

If the music is not doing it for you that day or few days. Don't start messing, it's probably your state of mind. If your system has brought joy to your life before, made your feet tap, make you want to dance or smile leave it along, you are probably having a bad day or week not your setup. To help, try get something that is easy to maintain, as an example, I have had floating sub-chassis turntables that have worked for me but they are so prone to going off and then it's the whole process of setting up again. In the end, a reasonably high end quartz direct drive has proved to be far more consistent. Thankfully aside from turntable most equipment is not prone to going off the boil when the wind changes direction.
On the subject of rooms and speaker placement, for me, and of course, this is just my preference, you can go to far with treatments, I know it will not be for some people but I like having my speakers angled in but reasonably close to side walls, about 0.5M seems to allow the wall reflections (within reason) make the music live in the room.

[RealHIFIHelp]

Thank you for a good video, very REAL content!

[ju]

Yeah man. Youre ears are the measurement of good sound. It has to suit each ones feelings and then it doesn‘t matter how much the gear costs, but I have to admit, that I a am hooked to reviews too😂. I buy old AUDIO illustrates, when there are reviews of some of my gear, for example the Dragon or the AVM evolution V 3 from 1994. I to read those vintage tests abd reviews. They are written so nice and have a lot more technical details than the ones today.

[automatedelectronics]

I find one of the biggest mistakes is in turntable choices. We have to remember that all records are mass produced, whether it is a run of 10 or a run of 10, 000. It makes more sense to consider who is pressing the records, the vinyl mix they are using and who did the mastering. But, one thing you must remember, the vinyl used for records is the least costly of the process, which costs a few cents.

For the overall record quality, RTI in the U.S. and Pallas in Germany are probably the best. In recent history, we lost one of the best and oldest record pressing plants, Rainbo Records. They continually maintained and upgraded their presses and had people operating them who had been in the business for decades. In the past, both Rainbo and Optimal Media pressed the same LP's using the same masters provided to them from the same source. It's like the grass is always greener on the other side. Some said the Optimal pressings are better, but remember they were using the same masters. The difference is in the vinyl mix used. Rainbo used a superior mix of vinyl as many North American pressing plants use. The only better may be RTI and QRP.

The problem with QRP is that they have a problem aligning the stampers, so one side of a record may be off-center. They may even have more defective returns than others. They pressed the U.S. version of the Beatles "White Album" which had a particular problem with LP2 being slightly warped and off-center on one side. Many copies were returned and record stores pulled remaining stock. Optimal did the rest of the world pressings. Comparing LP1 between QRP and Optimal, because of better vinyl, the QRP pressing was superior.

Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions decided to bring back the UHQR LP. In doing so, they put more man labor into the pressing process. Plus, they introduced a new vinyl mix. Their first release was a Jimi Hendrix album, UHQR-0001. The first copy I received was virtually unplayable with surface defects and off-center issues. It took almost a year before I received a replacement, which was great. I found out from Acoustic Sounds that they had a defective return rate of 16%. Considering that some copies have remained sealed, the defective rate could even be higher. Whomever is the first to open one may get a rude surprise. With the number of pressings which were made, 16% defects numbers into the 100's and cost Analogue Productions thousands.

Just to try them out to see how they had improved, I got their latest UHQR "Kind Of Blue" by Miles Davis, UHQR-0004. The first copy I received had a lot of surface noise, ticks and pops. The replacement that I received last week was excellent. But, here's the kicker, the most recent Columbia-Legacy LP's are better sounding. I would think that the Classic Records and MoFi versions would be the best.

So, you don't need to spend a lot of money on a turntable. Some over-priced turntables don't take advantage of lessons learned from the experience of turntable manufacturers before them. Dating back in the late-1940's, the premier turntable manufacturers started using tubular curved tone arms. Later, "S" style tubular tone arms became popular. Here's the key. Sound travels best in a straight line. If you throw a curve into it, sound stays at it's originating source. With a tone arm, that keeps it at the cartridge. We had already started retrofitting our radio station turntables with tubular curved tone arms, and then Technics hit the streets which basically put the traditional turntable manufacturers out of business.


You don't have to invest in a superwhammy Frankenstein turntable to get great sound, especially if they have the old technology straight tone arms. If they could have improved on their tone arms, when Technics re-introduced the SL-1200's, wouldn't they have done so? We are starting to see other premium turntable manufacturers finally seeing the light.

Oh, then there are the cartridges. If you want to guess what they might sound like, look at their specs. Remember, those cartridges were designed to sound like they were meant to with the original stylus that came with them. If you change to another brand or type of stylus, it is going to sound different.