the ten biggest lies in audio

[Stripey]

have a read of this

http://www.theaudiocritic.com/downloads/article_1.pdf

[David]

all pretty obvious really

the one i find most amusing is the 'better' power cords one (number 8: the power conditoner lie) if purely for the fact your houses wiring isnt going to be super audiophile grade cabling, so what difference will a couple of feet between the plug and unit make? any degredation (and improvement from replacing with decent stuff) is going to happen a long time before it hits the plug, and better cabling there cant bring back any losses

thats ignoring the fact that the power supply in the unit will completely change the supply from the mains supply (a 240v 50hz sine wave) to a dc supply of the required size

vacuum tubes, i will agree on for audio, a transistor should be equal or better at least compared to a valve for clean, full range amplification. where they do rock is in instrument amplifiers, where we actually want them distorting, where the way they distort does sound better than a transistor

most of the higher end audiophile market seems a bit pointless to me, i bought myself a decent stereo (just under 500 worth) and it makes a hell of an improvement over my old 80 jobbie, but i cant really see too much point in spending too much more than that, if anything else, do you listen in an acoustically perfect room? i doubt it, in most rooms there are furniture and square walls and many other factors which will influence the sound a lot more than a 1500 over a 800 hifi, and really when you get to a decent enough level, is there even that much difference that can be made between the 'better' units

and one thing to add that i saw in a hifi magazine a while ago, audiophile level cabling for connecting up an ipod to a hifi, surely if you are going to notice the difference in cabling between bog standard and 100 level, you will find the compression of the ipods audio unlistenable through your posh hifi compared to 'perfect' cd's or vinyl

for the best audio, i remember one of the guys in holburn hifi telling me that he thought records werent the best available, since every time you listen to it and move the record from sleeve to turntable it will deteriorate slightly and more background noise and pops and clicks will appear, so he buys as vinyl (the best available new) then records the first play to tape to capture the best quality he can, then stores the records for later and uses the tape of it

note, this is proper reel to reel tape (of which i cant remember the size) not little cassette tapes, which arent that great

a semi decent hifi and a few cds will do me nicely i think

David

[Balvack]

you will find the compression of the ipods audio unlistenable through your posh hifi compared to 'perfect' cd's or vinyl

Yep, good enough reason to me for not having an MP3 player, iPod or not.