If you read into the literature far enough you can frequently identify the truly great equipment. Examples are the Airtight PC 1 Supreme and the Parasound JC 1.
Trusting someone else's hearing is a sure recipe for disaster. Human sound processing was not designed for qualifying music but for locating danger. Music is like color. When shown a shade of blue, those of us that are not blue green color blind will identify the color as blue. When shown a variety of shades of blue one may prefer one shade over another. Others will prefer a different shade. Why do we have these preferences?
Music and sound are no different. We all prefer and listen to music differently from genres to parts of the audible spectrum. Even the descriptions we use to quantify music are vague at best, sometimes even meaningless. It usually comes down to, "mine is best." Of course it is. You designed your system based on what you want to hear which might not be what everyone else wants to hear.
Assuming something performs it's job better because it looks better or costs a lot more is another common trap. Saying something sounds better because I say so is just a way to avoid asking or answering the question as to why this should be or admitting the existence of a glaring defect. It was designed by Alfred E. Newman but it's the best sounding because I say so. The Linn LP 12 is such an example.
Yet there are systems that go beyond the usual and there are solid reasons for this. It is here that we can look for these reasons and try to implement them. The key is to look for the ones that have an explanation unlike cable elevators which do not. You want to puke? Take those $10K speaker cables apart and look what is inside. Just wire. Just wire in a pretty casing which does nothing other than look sharp. On the other hand, there are circumstances like high powered passive subwoofers, where 24 gauge wire is not going to cut it. Can't handle the current.
The reasoned response has a better chance of being right than the emotional one.
Trusting someone else's hearing is a sure recipe for disaster. Human sound processing was not designed for qualifying music but for locating danger. Music is like color. When shown a shade of blue, those of us that are not blue green color blind will identify the color as blue. When shown a variety of shades of blue one may prefer one shade over another. Others will prefer a different shade. Why do we have these preferences?
Music and sound are no different. We all prefer and listen to music differently from genres to parts of the audible spectrum. Even the descriptions we use to quantify music are vague at best, sometimes even meaningless. It usually comes down to, "mine is best." Of course it is. You designed your system based on what you want to hear which might not be what everyone else wants to hear.
Assuming something performs it's job better because it looks better or costs a lot more is another common trap. Saying something sounds better because I say so is just a way to avoid asking or answering the question as to why this should be or admitting the existence of a glaring defect. It was designed by Alfred E. Newman but it's the best sounding because I say so. The Linn LP 12 is such an example.
Yet there are systems that go beyond the usual and there are solid reasons for this. It is here that we can look for these reasons and try to implement them. The key is to look for the ones that have an explanation unlike cable elevators which do not. You want to puke? Take those $10K speaker cables apart and look what is inside. Just wire. Just wire in a pretty casing which does nothing other than look sharp. On the other hand, there are circumstances like high powered passive subwoofers, where 24 gauge wire is not going to cut it. Can't handle the current.
The reasoned response has a better chance of being right than the emotional one.