10 Things I USED to BELIEVE about HiFi and Home Theater & what changed 

★ *NEW MERCH: **bit.ly/3y550bU* ★ *QOTD: What Hifi/Home Theater Beliefs Do You No Longer Hold?* ★ *Love our conversation/outtakes? Be sure to watch to the end* ★ *COMMENT RULES: Please be respectful. No outside links, URLs, email addresses, etc. Violations are automatically deleted.*

Normal people use their sound system to listen to their music. Audiophiles use their music to listen to their sound system.

“Your gear shouldn’t need a trip around the sun to sound it’s best” - Well done, Mr. Robinson. Funny stuff

A man who admits when he is wrong is a man I respect. I'm subscribing.

So true...I was "that guy" who calibrated their system for hours... And still was not happy with the outcome. But as I cook dinner on a Friday night and watch the video it makes me wonder... It seems (unintentional or otherwise) it's mental health week in the UK... I'd say this video works well to explain modern life, chasing the approval of others, not listening to the music and instead looking at the specs compares is an excellent metaphor for modern life in general. Ultimately if you don't enjoy something make the change, the only one who needs to enjoy the sound of your system is you (or something that that effect) Great video 👍

Good morning everyone! Appreciate you joining us for this fun video.

I'm both a musician and a recovered audiophile. You would be stunned at what speakers are used to mix down most records. The Yamaha NS-10 (with its bass response sharply rolling off below 70hz. plus its grating, 7db response lift starting at 2K and running through 10k) and the 5"-only driver, Auratone (a.k.a. "the grot box") were adopted in the '70's & '80's and are still industry standards for mixing today (Tradition!!!). However, listening to both of these speakers would send most audiophiles down into the well of sheer madness. Yet some of the best albums in popular music, e.g. Roxy Music's "Avalon" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" were mixed on these speakers. So enjoy your music on whatever playback system you have and remember, it's your ear, not the gear that matters.

I listened to a set of Magnepans close to 30 years ago in a high end shop in SoCal. HiFi wasn’t a hobby for me much back then. The sound was so enveloping and euphoric that it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since. As I listen to more gear, and analyze it, critique it, that feeling becomes less and less, which makes chasing that experience, more and more difficult. Honestly, if I were to hear that system now, I probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as impressed by it. Being an Audiophile has been part of my life for decades now, but honestly, may have actually ruined my enjoyment of the experience as much as I had when I was “green“. I think it might be Time to step back from it for a little bit, relisten to my gear, reevaluate what’s important, which is enjoying the music, and starting over.

The bonus conversations with Kristi are quickly becoming my favorite part of your videos! She brings in such an awesome perspective. Love the channel, y’all have really helped me to let get over these audiophile mind blocks.

I used to put my receiver in pure direct mode and play music from Qobuz thinking I was getting something out of listening to high res music without any processing "coloring" it. BS. I've stopped chasing purity and admitted I like how it sounds better with the room correction EQ.

High priced HDMI cables… had an argument with an engineer and asked him can you explain to me how your ones and zeros are clearer than my ones and zeros?

Vinyl forces you to go back to the old-school method of listening - pick an album and play it through. With digital you have so many options and you can hop from track to track, you lose focus or it becomes background music as opposed to a listening session.

A music lover will use its sound equipment to listen to recordings An Audiophile will use its recordings to listen to its sound equipment

A superbly different video! And that's why you have all the good reasons to call yourself a recovering audiophile. I owe you great respect for this.

Break-in is 95% your ears adapting to a new sound.

I build speakers and amplifiers for over 30 years. It took me while, but I can appreciatie any system by it self now. I build very expensive things for others, but I am happy with very little. Over the years I gravitate to small amplifairs and high efficiency speakers, but I love small speakers. Funny.... I learn every day, and applicatie a sense of wonder, because it is truly amazing how we percieve the world thrue sound.

Thank you! What I’ve learned: The most important things for me are: enjoying the sound for long periods of time with out fatigue or headaches, being able to hear/feel the deep notes of a pipe organ, and the sound is believably realistic if listening to great acoustic music. My ears are pretty good from an “audiophile” perspective, ( I’ve been known to walk out of “high end rooms” because they weren’t set up well and sounded bad.) but I’m not an audiophile cause I can’t afford to be. I just want to enjoy the music and movies for a long time.

Your point about breaking through is a good one. Twenty five years ago as a young mx and road motorcycle racer I thought that I had to have the most expensive brand to be legitimate. While visiting the high end dealer, the owner proceeded to talk down to me and was just generally snobby even though I probably had more riding experience than he did. He would have know if he’d had asked. Fast forward about five years when I opened my first Yamaha dealership where I never forgot the attitude that owner showed me and subsequently effected how we would run our shops. We were all inclusive no matter what or how well you ride and, it paid dividends. People called us the Cheers of moto shops and we were consistently ranked in the top five in the country for customer service. First several times. Although I sold the dealers a few years ago, I still implement the same inclusive style in the business I have now and low and behold, it still works.

You are absolutely right Andrew and do you know why? There is also a life next to audio although music is beautiful of course, but without joy next to you it ain't worth anything! So, enjoy music as well as life and peace inside your heart will catch a lot of laughter. 😊

When I was younger, I basically didn't even consider the quality of the equipment I listened to music on unless it was horrifically bad (like an internal PC speaker for example). My interest in audio equipment only really started about a decade ago when I decided to see how much difference a set of £80 AKG headphones would make over the entry level gaming headset I used at the time. The difference was night and day. The natural progression of thought raised the question: How high is the ceiling? I've taken a rather cautious approach when it comes to educating myself about the topic. I wanted to hear both sides of the various arguments one stumbles across, but ultimately experience and facts have been what have guided my journey. Life in general teaches us some important lessons. Companies lie, advertising misleads, people can convince themselves of anything and objectivity is a useful tool. I'm fortunate that my interest lead to my current job, which is selling hi-fi, TVs and other electronics, so I get to test gear that I cannot afford to purchase for myself. I've quickly learned some important things. The law of diminishing returns kicks in more quickly than many people might imagine with many pieces of equipment. With certain pieces of equipment, you don't need to spend very much to reach a level where your ears and brain become the weakest link in the audio chain. Performance doesn't scale linearly with price and in fact, it is common for something that looks good on paper to be underwhelming and for something that's underwhelming on paper to wow you. I haven't had the opportunity and don't own the equipment necessary to test everything I would like. I am also open to new information and future experiences changing my view, but here's my current take based upon either first hand experience, research or my own personal suspicions: 1) Expensive audio cables don't make an audible difference. My research of the topic lead me to Ethan Winer's null test. I will openly admit that my scientific knowledge is not sufficient to take this as fact, but I'm always trying to educate myself and regularly watch videos from channels that specialise in science (anything from the likes of Vsauce to content about quantum theory) and Ethan hasn't said anything to make me doubt him. What I haven't really done sufficient research on is headphone cables. It doesn't sound too far fetched that they could make a difference considering the massive variation in impedance and sensitivity of different headphones/IEMs, but I just don't have enough knowledge to form any conclusions. 2) A very modest amp (for speakers) will be indistinguishable from amps costing tens of thousands in a blind test in the vast majority of situations. Unless you are going out of your way to buy exotic speakers with crazy impedance curves and current requirements or you are running an underpowered amp for the desired output level (basically not allowing sufficient headroom and running it at/near its limit) as I stated earlier, the weak link in the audio chain will be you. Do you really think you can tell the difference between 0.05 THD and 0.005 THD or hear a 0.2 DB variation between 20Hz and 20 kHz? Based on the numerous blind studies that have been conducted on your behalf as members of the human race, you can't. 3) Based on my personal experience, headphone amps are a completely different beast than speaker amplifiers. Generally speaking, speakers and amps are much more standardised whereas the variation in impedance and sensitivity of even non-exotic headphones and IEMs is huge. Something that will drive a pair of HD600s beautifully may be completely inappropriate for a set of relatively sensitive IEMs and vice versa. Headphones in general is an incredibly deep rabbit hole to go down and perhaps more than any other area of hi-fi, subjectivity rules. 4) Generally speaking, once you are over the threshold of having "competent" source equipment, the difference between one source in a given price bracket to another will pale in comparison to the difference between two sets of speakers in the same price bracket. In my experience, a CD player, turntable or network streamer of a given price will perform very similarly and have a comparable feature set to one from another brand. With speakers however, the difference in performance between two pairs of speakers in the same price bracket can be enormous! 5) You can have the finest equipment in the world, but if you place them in the wrong environment, it will sound awful. We once had a customer bring back a pair of speakers and turntable. He was extremely rude and was "not at all happy" because the speakers sounded terrible and nothing like they did in the shop. To cut a long story short, he'd placed the speakers on a glass table, right next to the window, inside a conservatory he'd converted into a bar with tiled floors and he was playing old dusty records that were almost devoid of bass. 6) Human perception is extremely flawed. Never mistake yours or anyone else's impression of something as a reference point for absolute quality. My biggest frustration with this hobby is the lack of objective measurements and bench tests. I think it's wrong that the vast majority of consumer advice is from the subjective experience of reviewers (some of which seem completely unaware of how fallible their senses are). If a product isn't delivering the measurements claimed on the manufacturer's website, it should be known to the public. Look at the way PC tech reviews are done. Many different reviewers individually test the claims of the manufacturers and if the product doesn't deliver, everyone knows about it and the manufacturers basically get called out for false claims by the community as a whole. In the world of hi-fi, people can make the most fantastical claims they like and we have to take the word of a self proclaimed authority on the subject, based on having listened to a lot of stuff, that it's worth the money or not without a shred of evidence. Honestly, think about it. Someone can, with a straight face, make the claim that they could replace your £25,000 amp with something that cost £250 and you wouldn't be able to tell, and that could spark a debate where nothing gets definitively settled. It's crazy!

I used to swear by Separates, now I’m perfectly happy with my Pioneer Elite SC-95.

I really enjoyed your take today! I was wondering if you would consider doing a Top Gear like episode where you set a budget and go out and buy a used system. Like you said Audiophiles love a deal and I think for people who are interested in experimenting with sound seeing what is available at what price point and from what marketplaces (Craigslist, eBay, Nextdoor, etc) could be helpful.

Here's some free advice: Don't buy into the audiophile snake oil, it's 99% marketing BS. (No, you NEVER, EVER, EVER need 1K cables, 5K DACs, 10K AMPs or 15K speakers to listen to good music) If you're getting old, live your you mid-life "crisis" with dignity, spend your money on travel and going to live music shows and rather than attempting to find "your sound" and trying to quixotically emulate live music. If you're a hipster, save your paycheck rather than running into debt trying to impress your friends, so you don't end up eventually having a mid-life crisis.

All of my gear belonged to my Dad and was given to me when he passed away a few years back. It's not high end by any means, but I wouldn't part with it for anything. It puts a huge smile on my face when I fire it up and put an album on and share the music with my daughters like it was shared with me growing up.

After being turned off to hifi in the 70’s and 80’s by stereo magazines that seemed to be talking to someone else and not me, today there is so much affordable gear and do much information about it so anyone can have a great sounding system. I consider one an audiophile if they spend time thinking about the sound of their beyond the initial purchase; a non-audiophile decides that they want a system but aren’t interested in the building or the end result. I believe today’s message is not “You can’t be in the club” but more like “You haven”t spent enough to be in the club”.

Break-in is real! The more I play my tube gear for thousands of hours the worse it starts to sound. It's called aging! Who said break-in is always a positive phenomena? Also note how recommended break-in time always without exception exceeds the warranty or return period!

got rid of your Linn? LOL. Here's a quick Linn story. I bought my LP12 in the early 1980s in Brooklyn NY. Used it for many years. Eventually moved to CDs, didn't sell, was dumb enough to throw away all my albums, and my Linn was placed in my basement in a plastic bag. Decades later I took it out and it wouldn't turn on. It went back in the bag for another ten years or more. Then I watched a youtube video of a guy repairing one. Knew I couldn't do it but he looked like he knew what he was doing. But he no longer took them in to fix and local high end place wanted a grand to look at it. However, there was a comment on that video by a guy who applauded his technique but also went into such detail I knew he was an expert. I replied. His comment was a year old. What's the chance he'd reply back? What's the chance he was in the same stratosphere? Well, reply he did, almost immediately, with his phone number. Lived less than an hour away from me, has been setting up turntables for high end stores for decades. Brought it to him and the rest is history. I'm listening to vinyl again.

I live in Chile. Right here there is a forum called HiFiChile, at some point, somebody asked if the at-lp120x was a good turntable, to which a lot of people said no that you needed to get a technics or it wasn't worth it. Then someone said "shouldn't we ask people to what they aim before sending them to buy 1000 dollars turntables?". The popular consensus was "if you don't have any money don't be an idiot and don't get into this hobbie". That really is just another example of audiophiles being the obstacle to wanting to get into this hobbie.

I think one has to allow themselves to be happy with what they have by discovering all the minuscule and not-so-minuscule wonders of their chosen gear. It’s kinda like looking at a familiar painting or sculpture and seeing details you missed before, it’s suddenly new again, and that’s always a good thing.

It's so funny how "right" we think we are but then we look back on life and ask ourselves "WTF was I thinking!?". Shows real growth when you can look back and laugh at your former self. I feel for those people who are unable to see the truth within their own lies.

Men... I've searched specs in audio machines my whole life and I never realized the one simplest thing: whatever machine /speaker makes you connect with music, that's the best "spec" you'll ever need! Thank you for that, sincerely!

This is so spot-on ! I have tried expensive things that didn't make me more happy and got to learn what truly matters to ME. I have always been more obsessed by audio than most of my friends. They would often ask for my advice when buying a new system and I tried to have them build a great system within their constraints. They were ready to make a big expense and listened carefully to the demos in the shops, consulted with their wife (the famous wife acceptance factor). They were almost going for my recommendations... but eventually ended up buying a Bose system. It used to drive me mad ! But I ended up understanding that this was in fact a very good living room system with very few trade-offs and most importantly, it makes THEM very happy, and we all want our friends to be happy 🙂

As an audio design engineer ( design the electronics for them) I stand by everything you said. Its more a point of some very expensive equipment is only expensive because it can be.

As someone relatively new to the “HiFi community”, I love Kristi’s take and the general idea of appreciating what you have and just enjoying the music. I love these videos discussing general HiFi topics. Vinyl sucks is my favorite and sums up exactly how if feel about LPs. Your channel is awesome, keep it up!

"How YOU doing, Kimber?" Oh crud! LMAO! Can't ... sputter ... stop ... sputter... sputter!

I used to photograph real estate and even the best home theatre rooms basically just looked tacky and RE agents were never really a fan of them, and would often try to convince the customer to change it before selling.

My wife felt the same way thinking a soundbar sounded amazing until we upgraded to a way better home theater ! Then she left me and took all my Hifi components lol

As a 54 year old semi-pro musician I can attest to: 1) I'd rather spend dough on gear to make music and perform. So my home system(s) are stuff like Elac, Yamaha and Sony. 2) We aging rockers like class D. Try lugging around 2000+ watts of AB for the monitors and mains and then tell me how much better it is than class D. I'm still sporting a tube amp for my guitar so I gotta save weight where I can! 3) When Pink Floyd were cutting Dark Side at Abby Road they weren't running through cables that cost 100 bucks a foot. Why folks think they need such nonsense to play the record back in their homes has always boggled my mind. I have a few guitar leads that I spent 70 or 80 dollars on but that's because they will take serious abuse and not fail on stage not sound better.

Fun and educational video. Like your perspectives and agree with most. One thing I would say though is if someone is purchasing more expensive hifi media (vinyl mastering/pressings and/or SACD etc), then I think you need to have hifi gear that will help your hifi media shine. Otherwise purchasing hifi mastered vinyl records if not matched up with the right hifi gear you won't get the benefit of the hifi media. But agree 100% buy whichever media and gear that makes you happy, that's what really matters.

Excellent video as always: I would like bring the perspective of a 30 year veteran of retail HI FI sales: Do cables matter? Too many people obsess about the price of the cable and do not consider about where the cable is going to be used. In a Mid FI system, no one is going to spend more on the cables than what the system is worth. On the other hand, in the luxury group, someone with means to afford, the MBL Extreme, Wilson, Chronosonic, The Sonus Faber Aida, The Infinity IRS V's, or Focal Grand Utopia just to name a few, is not going to use a monoprice cable because it measures well and is cheap. If there is a rule of thumb, 5 to 20% is a reasonable amount to spend at the Mid Fi level. So if a customer comes to me to purchase speakers for music enjoyment and is not an audiophile and they are purchasing a $1500.00 pair of speakers, I would recommend spending $ 100 to $200.00 on speaker cables. If he doesn't want to, I sell him lamp cord and tell him to enjoy the music & have a nice day. I, also, mention if he gets the itch, to purchase the better cable at a later date with a full refund policy of 2 weeks. Then the customer can decide for themself if it is worth it. As far as break in is concerned, I can't remember any of the equipment manufactures recommending 100's of hours of break in. If they do, it is 25 to 100 hours: If it matters, I don't know, but its free and it is the buyers choice to do it or not. The more important break in is the listener getting used to the new purchase. If someone owns a piece of electronics for 10 or 30 years, a new piece of equipment is a radical change & it takes time to accurately evaluate the change. As far specs go, they only matter in the design phase as a guide to the end result. As soon as the product is unboxed, the room rules the final result. I hammer this point with every customer. If you purchase the equipment with the best specs and measurements, then put it in a room lined with glass, a tile floor with no rug, its going to sound terrible! Also, specs do not determine harmonic differences which is what I tell a customer to listen for. Its the harmonics that matter most and what makes a particular brand have its sonic signature.

I would love to see a video showing how you make your cables!

I love a good addiction prevention video every once in a while. Thanks very much!

I used to believe that “better” gear and file formats would more often provide that wonderful out-of-body audio experience. No. They DO raise the average level of a typical listening session, but the audio nirvana seems to depend on me (mood, chemicals, comfy chair) rather than the expense of the gear.

One of your best RU-vids, Andrew. For me it's really all about music appreciation. Getting a convincing true-to-life, 3D sound really enhances the music appreciation but ... many audio enthusiasts become more concerned with the minutia surrounding the activity. Some enjoy listening to the sound of their equipment and some enjoy listening to the music. They're generally two separate activities but not necessarily mutually exclusive.

This video needs more likes 🙂👍 The audiophile community is so murky. As a music producer and mixing engineer I've been mocked in the audiophile community for not being a "true" audiophile and I have been told that audiophiles have "higher standards" than what is essentially my life's work. What gives?

There are quite a few audiophile channels that I like but Andrew Robinson‘s channel is my favorite. I love the down to earth, never snobby reviews which makes me feel respected as a beginner with meager means. I also enjoy Kristi‘s perspective, please engage her more often. Keep up the great work!

These are my favorite kinds of videos Andrew! Love it when you do “columns” on audio advice and HiFi. Always so much in these!! 🖤🖤

Gatekeeping is a pathology. It says more about the person displaying it than the area/hobby/job.

I'm happy that you have gotten through your earlier stages of being an audiophile and are able to enjoy music/ audio products. Thanks for the honesty with your journey. As someone with far less experience but having fun learning about higher end sound, it's good to remember to enjoy what you have (and should afford). Contentment is a good quality to not forget in this hobby, and, in the end, is needed to most fully enjoy it. I really enjoy your channel. Hope your mother is continuing to progress in a positive direction

WOW! How much coffee do I have to spit out. This video was awesome. Love the new graphics and editing. The comic relief clips were out of this world. Really enjoyed it. Great topic. I hope you two survive the night from 'those' cable and class D people. HAHA That guy! HAHA

The comment about the “velvet rope” really hit home with me! As if “our club is open to anyone, but only if we invite you in!”

Andrew. You nailed it here. I have owned everything from commercial recording studio gear to inexpensive Radio Shack PA amps. There is so much nonsense in the audiophile universe. I believe that audiophiles are chasing some obscure dream of perfection which is not only unobtainable, but pointless. Music is what makes me happy, and some of my happiest musical experiences were played on cheap, low performance gear. Things like AM radio, 45’s played on crappy record players etc. By comparison, all of the modern gear sounds really good to me, even streaming on cheap class D amps. This is the first video of yours I have seen, your plain spoken truth is refreshing.

This is what I have learned from being an audiophile for over 20 years. It doesnt matter what anyone else thinks or tells you what to think about gear. Buy what makes you happy.... If you like buying cables and it sounds better to you then it does. The only thing that all audiophiles should be on the same page about is the science/ techniques in following the correct placement of speakers, sound deadening, and not putting your gear in the middle of your main speakers. Spoken from Jim Smith from Get Better Sound, Jason Corey - Audio Production and Critical Listening Technical Ear Training, and Robert Harley - The Complete Guide to High-End Audio.

First time viewer and music lover. Wouldn't call myself an audiophile but I did want to just say you nailed something right on the head. I'm in a couple audiophile groups on Facebook and never in my life regarding one hobby seem such elitist self entitlement when newer guys start asking stuff lol Good stuff brother!

This guy is my favorite audiophile host. Both he and his wife are really sweet.

Audiophile literally comes out to lover of sound/music, not lover of HiFi equipment. Love the message of follow the love, not the perfection. ✌🏻

I spent some of my career in Consumer Electronics. I still remember the Sound And Vision magazine from ca 1986. They did a test with "experts." Blind testing was done with expensive speaker wire and baling wire. IIRC, the experts chose the baling wire at just over 50% of the time. I also was around when HDMI cables were all the rage. Look, you're sending "ones and zeroes" down a wire. The equipment did all the work. All that said, I still had customers who insisted on so called better interconnects...

Thanks to you I decided to try a pair of Crown XLS1002 with my Magnepan .7. Yup, they're staying put! Also added a pair of SVS SB1000 Pro subs. Using SVS's upgrade program I traded in my SB1000 for the two SB1000 Pros, love that you can do all the adjustments from your listening position. Some people can't deal with people driving Maggies with the Crown, THEIR LOSS!

Hey Andrew. I am one of those audiophiles that spent a large amount of money over the years to reach my own personal "Nervana" for music reproduction. I have spent well over 20+years going through much (if not all) of what your previous beliefs about high end audio. I have had other audiophiles listen to my system and they have said that "they have never heard music sound like that before, ever". I am not trying to sound arrogant here. Just been through a lot of learning over the years (and still learning). Such as "music is physics". Or more over, "the flow of electron theory". I have to say that I need to express my opinion on your 10 so called "miss beliefs" you had in the past. #1 Cables - Since we are dealing with voltages (the transmission of voltage), it is the material and the windings of the cable that are most important here. As voltage/amperage pushes current (electrons) from one component to another, this creates fields through the cable windings, thus reducing the flow of electrons (resistance) loosing transmission efficiency. So cables do matter, but $5000+ cables are BS. Good IC and speaker cables should have quality materials used in there construction. A bit more money to be sure but do help in a systems response current draw needs. #2 Gear as an investment - Yep, it looses value as soon as you unbox it. #3 The right GEAR can make you an audiophile - Your right. Absurd! If you love to listen to music and wish to spend money (hopefully not too much money) and time on it's reproductive value, your an audiophile. #4 Specs Matter - Actually they do provide a basis from where to start (frequency response range, power requirements, ect.). But is comes down to how the components/speakers are made and what materials are used in their construction. #5 Class D Sucks - Such a misconception. Class D amplification (IMO) is made for home theater systems (I have 2 systems. My sound system and my HTS). Class D MOSFET switching is perfect for movies scenes that ramp up the sound quickly (such as sudden explosions) and drop for quiet passages is excellent. Even good sound systems (music) performs well with class D amplification. #6 More Subs = More Bass - You nailed it! In producing low frequencies, the driver needs to be able to push air (as fast as possible) for the lower end frequencies to be reproduced. 2 subs in an HTS is good if your using satellite (book shelf) speakers to supplement the lower response range. Beyond that, it will over drive the lower frequency response ranges. #7 Pro Audio isn't HiFi - Well, when mixing and mastering music, you want a very neutral speaker for reference. Using the same type of speaker for home audio would thus be more towards neutral sounding. If that is what you like then sure. #8 All Musicians are Audiophiles - I would tend to think they identify with certain sounds systems depending on their influences. I'm sure that musicians are a nich type of audiophile that might prefer a sound system that they are accustomed to hearing. #9 Break in is Real - YES! It is! But it depends on the component and what is driving it. Remember, this is voltages we are discussing. I have a pure tube (NOS) built system. Tubes require at least 10 hours before their output sound starts to settle in (it only starts to settle in). Tube amps/pre require even more break in time with the advent of multiple tubes. Cables need to flow electrons for a sufficient time before they are most efficient with the current draw. I could go on, but YES, break in is a real thing, but it depends on what type of component your dealing with. #10 Vinyl Sucks - You hit the bullseye on this one. While the response range and DB are much higher with digital sources, vinyl mid range reproduction is outstanding! You have to (re)master digital to even get close to the midrange of pure analog playback. Just my personal take on this. The more you understand the "physics" of electron flow, the more you understand how the sound is reproduced. Higher end components/speakers should be designed with all of this in mind. This is why we now have more efficient speakers and better current (clean power) amps/pre's.

As the old saw goes, "You learn from experience, and experience is expensive." It's always good when someone clues us in so we can avoid that "expensive" part. Thanks, guys. I had to learn most of this the expensive way, but that was long ago, before the internet and friends like you.

Your honesty is more than refreshing. This is an awesome video. Your experience and opinion is what and why I enjoy your channel. Admitting your mis-beliefs and changes of opinion on major audiophile issues is noble of you. I've been in audio for a while, and will concur with all of your points.

You should do a video on making your own cables. Showing what wire and terminations you use.

I love listening to Atmos mixes on vinyl, it isn't east synchronizing 6 record players together, but it's worth it.

As an audiophile I feel a bit like a junky sometimes. I miss the days when none of the gear really mattered and I was into music just for the sake of listening and loving music. I can totally resonate with your experience on listening more to the performance and capabilities of the system instead of the music itself; that happens, a lot! And that even changed the kind of music I listen to! I got to a point where I see myself listening to things that I don't really like just because they are better recorded and can enhance the strenghs of my system. I'm no longer listening, I'm analyzing... By acknowledging this, I'm on my way to recovery I guess. Thanks a lot for the great video!

One More: Don’t buy expensive Hi-Fi when your room acoustic sucks. And most of our rooms are NOT perfect, unless you live in a recording studio.

The notion of "not listening" because you're caught up in specs (specs of equipment, specs of music, etc.) is so relatable. I find myself with access to all the music in the world and great gear for my liking, still looking over the specs and obsessing about them more than getting lost in the music. Finally trying to break that cycle to just sit and LISTEN. Just enjoy it, as we once did on our little CD players, tinny PC speakers, iPods and MP3 players. I see very similar trends in the gaming world - everyone obsessed about resolutions and framerates and ray tracing instead of just playing the games and having fun.

Great video, Andrew and Kristi. Your honesty and openness are refreshing to see on RU-vid. My past beliefs/habits are definitely break-in and striving for impossible perfection by over-analysing the market (before purchase) and my setup once home. I feel a lot better not worrying about those things anymore, instead simply tweaking the settings once or twice at the beginning and then USING the sound system for the intended purpose - enjoyment. 🙂

Disagree about cables making minimal difference. They can be used to 'tune' your system to some degree, using copper to 'warm' a sound or silver to 'brighten.' More expensive cables are better but laws of diminishing returns apply. The main thing is finding cables which combine with your system and room to best subjective effect. They don't have to be super expensive but if that high end cable does the job for you, just be happy with your purchase. Experimentation is the answer. But I've found that the three most important factors to consider are the room resonances, control of vibrations in equipment and clean mains. Get those three things right and the environment is there to attain that elusive sense of musical connection, mainly because of the reduction of the chaotic factors which prevent the communication of the myriad of fine musical structures necessary to affect us psychologically and get to 'feel the music.' You can try out countless combinations of equipment and never find true satisfaction if you don't first control room resonances, vibration and mains accuracy / purity. Get those three environmental factors right and you will have the ability to pull something musical out of the great majority of assembled components. Spend time on the environment first and then worry about system synergy between source, amp and speakers. It saves a lot of time and money chasing your tail for a magical 'combination' of equipment that will never truly sing as a system because you never controlled the surrounding environment for optimal results. When you get those aspects right, it is obvious because you can feel not just the details of a performance but the overarching intent and emotion, even from a humble red book CD.

I am glad you and your better half have these videos they have helped me not being caught up in the tools of hi fi. You two along with Darko have helped so much in getting what makes ME happy in listening to music. Thanks

Such great advice, I use to have all the high end audio such as Sonus Faber, BBE(processor), REL (SUB), MIT(cables) and McIntosh (amp). I had a life altering situation that knocked me to the bottom. So I looked for the best for the buck, and you know what. Im happy with a much cheaper system and the sound to my ears is not much different. I went from a 40k system to a 5k system, and I love it. Thanks Andrew for all the entertainment and good advice.

Break in is just about giving your ears time to adjust to the sound signature of a component. That's it.

Imagine a rich person buying a $60,000 system and he get's home and listens to his/hers all time favorite song on the new expensive system and discovers the original recording of the fave was a crappy recording....To sum up....SOUND IS SO DEPENDENT OF THE QUALITY OF THE RECORDING ALMOST MORE SO THAN GEAR. "Your Honor, I rest my case."

Ya know, there's people out there that collect rare guitars, and don't play them. They might not even play guitar. I wonder if there's not some people that collect stereo gear as well.

I started off collecting records BEFORE I got into high-end audio. I basically got an expensive turntable to serve my massive record collection!

I thought having the same surround speakers as your front mattered. But no, they just have to produce loud sounds. Just use whatever suits you best. And they don't have to be placed or mounted exactly as Dolby or DTS etc. tell you. Be experimental! I once placed a surround speaker behind me on the floor straight next to the rear wall and it produced a wall of sound. It was amazing!

Kristi really hit the nail on the head. When I first went in the military in the early 70s, building a good stereo system was important but mainly for volume. When I got a bit older I bought whatever was available. The audiophile angst didn’t bother me until a RU-vid channel “expert” told me I need a “real” system with a DAC between my pc and Sony Receiver, and tried to get me to buy one. Luckily, the store I went to had an owner who had the integrity NOT to sell me a DAC. He told me my system (an older Sony DE-975) already had all it needed since I was running optical from the pc to the receiver. You and Andrew have given good advice and sadly integrity like this seems rare in audiophile land.

I can't tell the difference between the the TechnicalPro Receiver and the Music Hall integrated amp. I'm gonna hide from the tomato throwing audiophiles now.

Andrew, this might be your best video since you been doing this. Really good!

Loved my first system that I had in high school. It was a Midland stereo system that put out 2 watts per channel. It came with 5" full range speakers too. Hooked up a BSR changer and it was total heaven. I went down that bigger is better for a while. Now I have a restored Marantz 2230 and some stuff from Schiit that's all I need. And no $ 5,000 cables. Got rid of them and just use Amazon interconnects.

You nailed it Andrew across the board. As someone in the hobby for over 30 years I have had almost every one of these discoveries myself. I have gotten to the point where I know anyone should be able to produce a great sounding $20k+ piece of equipment or speaker, but it is now more interesting to find that enjoyment without being so distracted by how something sounds critically. Just enjoy the music after all. Well done.

This video helped me. I started out as a wannabe audiophile and fell for the cables lie told to me by my wannabe audiophile friends years and years ago. After a break for having a family, I’m slowly upgrading my aged system and I STILL struggle with the cables lie. I have a musician friend who’s been upper middle class type of successful both on and off the stage, for years. When he told me about the surround he was putting in with his new 70+ inch TV, then later told me his TV speakers sounded better than that, I KNEW what you were saying was TRUE. Thankfully, I’d seen this video so I was somewhat prepared for that revelation. Plus, in the back of my mind were the words, “The only person who has to like the sound……”. Those words actually had a tussle with “No highs, no lows….”, but in the end, your words won out. You should be proud of yourself.

My belief in audio as in entertainment is hearing all the music,when a symphony plays,I hope to hear all the instruments playing good or bad. I think I can achieve this in most of the products that are cheap and or expensive. I love music. Thanks for your honesty.

I’ve come full circle in my audiophilia. Since I was 5 year old and got my first record player 45 years ago to today when I just bought my first “entry level” audiophile gear, I’ve gone from vinyl only to vinyl sucks/CDs rule, to CDs suck, mp3/AACs rule, to streaming services RULE and now back to collecting vinyl. I’ve always been an “audiophile” in the sense that music has been an essential part of my life since I literally can remember but I never considered myself an “audiophile” because I didn’t have a $50,000 system. For the first time in my life I have a system that would qualify as “audiophile” gear, albeit entry level, and I love it. I have a turntable for the first time since 1988 and although I would never say vinyl is a better format to digital....I LOVE IT. I love the ritual of putting on a record and sitting down with the album art and liner notes and just listening to an entire album. I also set up my system so I can stream Apple Music through my system... and I love it too. It sounds as good and the convenience and selection of just puttin on one my hundreds of playlists is technological marvel. I have infinite “mix tapes” and can make them in minutes. What an incredible time in audio.

You mentioned one very important tthing: I started listening to music because of my love for music and ended up listening to physics... Took me years of abandoning high end audio all together to get rid of that habit and to enjoy the musical and emotional aspects of music again.

Congratulations Andrew, this has been one of your best videos yet. I have a mix of DIY, custom made gear and vintage equipment in my system and love it. I haven’t been in bricks and mortar store for years as all they sell is what they advertise in hifi magazines not what you might find playing in an audiophile society meeting. The best equipment I have heard and owned is not massed produced unless it’s a upgraded or modded.

Good conversation. Bottom line, it has to be fun and make you happy. I am having a blast resurrecting some of my old electronics from the 90’s. The challenge of finding a good set of speakers to mate with the old electronics is exciting. In doing research I’m learning. Thanks for videos and reviews, they really do help.

In the early days of my hi-fi journey I was dissatisfied with the first system I had. I felt, that even with all the research and recommendations it could be improved upon. One dealer offered a demonstration room where I could bring in my equipment and set it up and they would compare it to their preferred choices at different price points. The room had a sofa and armchairs but was otherwise empty. Several things surprised me. 1) my choices were very good, but not together. Swapping my speakers for more efficient ones boosted the quality level considerably. Changing the amplifier to a more powerful one make my speakers really show what they were hiding. 2) Some components made more of a difference than others for the same increase in cost. 3) Get the equipment nearly perfect and even a crap source (well used vinyl that should had been better cared for) could make you forget the imperfections and just allow the recording and to artist come through. The person demonstrating the equipment was not happy with the sound. I couldn't hear what he did and it seemed brilliant to me. But near the end of our time he found the stylus to be slightly damaged. Not having another high end cartridge to use he put on one at a tenth of the cost and played another LP. Five minutes in and we realised we had not hear any equipment anymore - just the music. If you don't sit back and do an A/B comparison many systems can take you on that journey where you listen to the music and not the technology. You then only have to work out how much more you can justify to get very little improvement in sound quality. I have found this often - being able to listen to music or watch a film and forget the equipment; until all of a sudden you think that there is in fact something missing and only then might switch over to the "better" system. In many systems today and for a board range of music you can argue and agree on differences but not agree on "better". Hence your system only has to please yourself (and perhaps your better half). I did go on to spending more time setting up and swapping selected components to narrow down my choice but I was using my own albums and controlling the volume level and how I would listen to the music. It was fortunate for me that the hi-fi shop allowed me to do that - I did spend more than an annual salary. Nearly ten years later I upgrade my turntable. I was going for upgrades to be fitted to my existing turntable but the shop offered me a good trade in deal - but still was not allowed to take the new Linn Sondek away with me until they had "set it up" and "tuned it". The Pre-amp and active speakers have been repaired and are now 40 years old. I may have to get something different as one power amplifier in one speaker in particular spends too long getting repaired but I do not expect to be able to afford any that are, according to my older ears, any better now but hope to find something that I can live with and that I can afford.

I still have my AR 11’s and Sony psx-5 turntable that I bought in 1977! They still are amazing to me and continue to make me happy. As for new gear the Marantz 8006 amp made everything come alive. Love your take and agree do what makes you happy!

I think the both of you hit the nail on the head. My system is based on a 7.1 Denon AVR with with 4 Bang & Olufsen vintage speakers, 2 Mitsubishi vintage speakers and a Polk Audio SW that make me happy! Thanks for your affirmation!🙂

Yesterday I bought a Denon DNP 800NE and connected it to my Edifier R2750DB with Edifier T5 subwoofer. And I am absolutely happy with the sound quality of my system. Rock and electronics sound great on it. Prior to that, I used a Sony CDP 213 CD player with burned discs from flac. And it sounded great too! I bought Denon only because of the convenience of digital media and the good price of 375$ 👍

The biggest takeaway is to stop chasing gear and take the time to try and optimize what you have instead of trying to find solutions for a problem that might not even exist. If you're happy then you are closer to end game than someone who is constantly buying new things and chasing after a unicorn that doesn't exist. Maybe they're trying to justify why they're doing it somehow but at the end of the day it's needless mental gymnastics over little things that don't really matter in an effort to legitimize excess spending.

Hi Andrew, just wanted to say thanks for this video. The idea, that you keep pushing, about only the taste of the listener matters and not all the show off is a big inspiration to me.

Loved this video (the principles of which would apply to many purchases such as wine and golf clubs). Regarding cables - who else remembers having conversations about oxygen free digital cables ? Yup ! I believed that !

I needed this video today. I was getting a bit fanatical and neurotic I think. This grounded me again. Informative, educational, well shot and entertaining. You two are at the top of your game here.

Thank you for this honesty. It's much needed. The last part with your partner was truly the best and illuminates the issues in the industry that needs to change. The good old boys clubs need to die out and open up to all with no barriers or judgements.

Hi, I bumped into this channel a few days ago and I'm so glad I did. It's the naked truth about musicians assumed being audiophiles but appear to be not and rather buy gear which is not that fancy or high-end, it's all about what the ears perceive and freedom in choices of gear as common as possible when it comes to mastering soundtracks... I know because I'm a musician :) Also I love the convo between you and Kristi at the end of the video, she is so right about how she explains about believes and the funny part is that it is so recognizable in the way I'm having such convo's with my wife. But furthermore it was wonderful to hear you both had such an open mind to each other and to the market which was really refreshing. Keep up the great work you both, it's a great pleasure to watch this channel where affection, knowledge and honesty comes together.

The Grass is Greener saying comes to mind. There's something liberating about coming full circle in hobbies that you love. I had the same realization with my retro gaming setup. The same can be applied to so many hobbies. That's why I love this channel. Your honesty goes a long way.

I enjoy listening to music. I do not own or ever owned hi-end gear. My hi-end was Sony and Bose. Today, I have powered speakers by Edifier. I can hear my streaming services and play my mp3s. Thank you for sharing

Immutable laws of audiophiledom The most important contributors to high quality audio are; 1) Your hearing. Can you pass an audiologists hearing test without major dips in frequency response? 2) The recording itself. Is it decent? 3) The speakers. 4) The listening room. 5) How the speakers interact with the listening room. All else is insignificant compared to the above, especially wires, amps, phono cartridges, etc. Do they measure with low noise and distortion? If so, they're a non-factor. Oh, and active speakers will ALWAYS kick the crap out of their passive counterparts, but few people want to deal with the extra power cords and outlets.

Thank you for another great no BS video! From my somewhat similar experience I would also add that over the years my paradigm shifted from investing more in the gear to investing more in the records. Way more enjoyable and rewarding, provided, of course, that you have built a reasonably good setup and you can keep that itch to buy more and more equipment at bay.