From: hera!gfl@uunet.UU.NET (22402-lenahan)
Subject: Re: Need help for buying a $5000 system
Summary: a different opinion
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 13:05:47 GMT
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for rec-audio-high-end@uunet.uu.net); Wed, 12 Aug 1992 11: 22:05 -0400

(Frank Ricciardi) writes:
> 
> 	First listen to different loudspeakers. They will be the most important
> purchase you will make. All loudspeakers are designed differently, and thus 
> they can greatly affect the sound of the completed system. In choosing loud
> speakers, ther is NO RIGHT AND WRONG choice, they have to sound good to YOU.

Good advice, often speakers exhibit more differences in type than in
absolute quality.  This is basically because speakers are basically
inaccurate, so large each excels in something else.
> 
> 	As a general rule, your amp is at max power output with minimal 
> distortion at around 1 o'clock on the volume dial.

Um, no.  Any correlation between potentiometer position and maximum
amplifier power is coincidental.  This confuses gain with power.
The basic considerations you must have, once speakers have been
selected is:
	-adequate power to drive them without clipping
	-impedance matching and stability considerations
	(into the chosen speakers)
	-egenral level of quality and subjective traits

I'm not going into all the details of this, but before you
spend $5000, I'd read up on system matching, both from an
engineering point and from "coloration cancelling" eg: a bright
and with bright speakers yeilds tinny sound.

> Thus even at
> low volume levels, a high powered amp will give better (cleaner) sound.

There are good amps and bad amps, but this is catagorically
correct only if the smaller amp is ovcerdriven with respect to
either maximum voltage, current , or both.> 
> 
> 	As far as a disc player, they really sound pretty much the same.

Oh, no! Let's be logical.  If analog stages in preamps
and amps sound different, then why not the reconstruction
(LPF) filters and drivers of CD players, which, by the way,
have a much more demanding job?  Most CD p[layers exhibit 
the following:
	-less than 16 bit linearity / monotonicity
	-high uncorrelated THD and IM products
	-poor differential phase performance
	-high output impedance
	-poor power supply rejection ratios

This list is to end the technobabbly about perfect CD sound.
In practice, listen to the players.  I can't beleive the
poor quality out of most "affordable" players, nor the great
relative quality obtainable at moderate cost ion a few
players that I and others repeatedly reccommend on this
group.  For &800-$1200 you can get some first class sound.
But all the same?  Don't beleive it for a minute.


I think Frank's advice to strt with the speakers and work
backward is super advice - if and only if you recognize
the advantage you have in doing a full system at once.
Make sure that your amp can drive your speakers, then take
the opportunity to select components that are synergistic
with each other [I really don't like balancing one
inaccurate component off another, but to a small degree
its unavoidable].  I mean, if you buy minimonitors, don't
select a Krell amp for that deep bass, but rather an
amp with a sweet midrange and top; the very qualitities
that good minmonitors can deliver - if they get a clean
signal in the first place.

And try to avoid the "technoterm of the month" club.  Too'
many hobbyists and magazines misunderstand and misuse
technical terms - and miss the importance of actual, good,
enjoyable evidence.  That's the only way you'll judge the system
in the future anyway.

Grant
gfl@hera.cc.bellcore.com