August 2024

Don't Just Throw Money At It!
How to really get better sound from your system.
Article By Roger Skoff

  Many years ago, I was invited by a hi-fi dealer in a very wealthy community to come and speak to the Hi-Fi Club that held its monthly meetings at his store. The dealer carried what was, for its time, very good stuff – Avalon speakers, Jadis electronics, Goldmund turntables, Koetsu phono cartridges – all good and all very pricey – and most of the club members had and enjoyed systems made up of the best of his products.

I spoke to the group for about an hour and, when I was done, I opened the floor for questions and was surprised to hear this owner of very costly and very sophisticated gear ask questions that I would have expected to hear, not from them but a group of novices – or even people who had had no exposure to High-End Audio at all.

Another time, I was invited to speak in the Philippines to the members of the top local Hi-Fi Club and, afterward, was invited to the homes of two of its members to hear and be impressed by their systems. Both had very heavily and expensively acoustically treated listening rooms; both had systems – one vacuum tube, one solid state – consisting entirely of someone's self-claimed 'A-Rated' components, loudspeakers, and accessories; and both were... awful.

What they had done was what altogether too many people in our hobby (or just innocent bystanders who bought systems just for the love of music), and walked into a dealer saying "Give me the best you've got" and just buying whatever they were told was good.

There are at least three problems with doing that, even with the most knowledgeable, honorable, and well-meaning dealer: The first and perhaps most difficult is the meaning of the word "good".  What you think is good – either in the type of music you listen to or in the aspects of the sound that most please you – may be entirely different for the two of you, and yet, because tastes do differ, both of you may be absolutely right.

On that issue, because of differences in the tastes and preferences of the designers, and because all may be diligently (and expensively) striving toward different ideas of perfection, with different approaches and different levels of skill, more expensive doesn't always mean better, and, because of diminishing returns to scale, even where tastes and goals are identical, ten times the cost may buy well less than ten times the sound. It's the 'Law Of Diminishing Returns'.

The second problem is that even if all of the parts of a system are good in themselves (including the room that they are set up in, they may not (as with those two systems in the Philippines) "like" each other. Synergy really does matter, and really good pieces can go together to make a less-than-good system. Or, as is the case more often than you can imagine, they do like each other, and still don't sound good together. That's where set-up comes in.

How well a system is set up can make more difference than many thousands of dollars of extra cost. Set-up matters in everything, including electronics, accessories, and even cable placement, but the two most obvious places where set-up is crucial is in a phono system, where even tiny differences in tracking force, tracking angle, and vertical tracking angle (VTA). Stylus Rake Angle, anti-skating force, and many other crucial adjustments can make the difference between sonic splendor and just okay sound. And speaker placement is vastly more than just a matter of putting the speakers where they look good. They're not there for looks, but to make a great sound, and unless you take the trouble to place them to sound their best, no matter how much money you spend for speakers, you won't be getting the sonic quality you've paid for.

There are many ways to get your speaker placement right, but the easiest and best one I know is simply to take a mono signal (if you don't have a mono source or a mono switch on your preamp or receiver, you can make one by using a stereo sound source and a cheap "Y" "splitter" adaptor, available from Amazon or many other sources. To use it, simply run ONE channel (Right or Left doesn't matter) from any source into the female RCA end of the splitter and connect the two Male outputs of the splitter (right and left channel ) to the Right and Left channel inputs of one of the selectable positions (AUX, Tuner, or CD, for example) of your preamp or receiver. This will give you a mono signal to send to your speakers.

Once you have a mono signal, leave the leads of your LEFT speaker properly hooked-up (RED to RED. BLACK to BLACK) and reverse the leads of your RIGHT speaker (RED to BLACK, BLACK to RED) and, after you have placed your speakers in what seems like it ought to be near the right positions, feed a signal (now MONO) to both speakers and play something. (Spoken word is recommended, but anything – a single instrument, for example, that should be easily localizable from a good recording will work).

Play the source and listen from your regular listening position. Where does the signal sound like it's coming from? The object is to get it to sound like it has no source but is coming from all around the room. Keep moving your speakers, one at a time, a little at a time, until the sound is as hard to locate as you can get it. (This is also a good way to find acoustic problems in your room. I once had the voice sound like it was coming from behind me and to the left. It turned out that there was an open vase there that was resonating and acting as a secondary sound source. I filled it with pebbles and the problem went away.)

The "blobbier" and less localized you can get the sound the better! Then, when it's as bad as you can get it, test by restoring the RIGHT speaker leads to their correct position (RED to RED, BLACK to BLACK) and listen again, if you've got it right, the voice should be tightly focused exactly between your speakers, and your speakers will be perfectly placed, Finally, go back to a stereo signal and enjoy! One of the reasons that this works so well is that it's simply easier to tell when a sound is perfectly out-of-focus than when it's perfectly correct.

Try it. You'll be pleased.

The third problem is that even when everything likes each other and is properly set up, it won't stay that way, little mechanical things go out of adjustment on your turntable, just in the course of using it – especially if your tonearm has a changeable headshell. Speakers, too, can get moved slightly in the course of cleaning or just everyday living, and they, too should be checked from time to time (An audiophile trick, here, is to use masking tape on your floor or carpet, to mark the corners of the speakers for their exact position. That's a big help but, especially on carpet, the tape can "creep" and eventually lose its position.

Another thing that should be done – even if nothing at all has changed except the passage of time is that connections can corrode or oxidize, materially affecting sound quality. Make it a point, therefore, to regularly (once a year, at least) take your system apart, unplug everything from everything else, and clean all of the connectors, both input and output, (Using something like Caig Labs De-Oxit can be a big help and provide long-lasting protection) and put it all back together again. Even if you were satisfied with your sound before you started, you'll be glad you did this.

Making sure you picked the system you like and that the parts of it "like" each other, proper set up (of both the system and the acoustic environment of your listening room), and proper maintenance of your system can easily make more of an improvement to your listening enjoyment than spending another couple of thousand dollars for the wrong reason.

If your system just isn't giving you as much musical satisfaction lately, don't throw more money at it, make sure that it's still properly set up, clean and re-connect it, make sure that everything's right and...

Enjoy the music!

 

  Roger Skoff