This guide is currently not finished.
Last Change: March 31, 2007
Welcome to the speaker and home-cinema guide.
Reading this guide can help you buy the right thing for your listening enjoyment. Once again, I have structured this guide into two parts.
First, what I call the "Walkthrough Guide". It's a step by step guide to the wonderous world of audio. After that, check out the Recommendation list with some products that will not steal your money and rape your dog.
During this guide I will basically just tell you how shit is and NOT why. I want to keep things simple.
If you want to know why, check out the advanced guide. This supplies you with much inside knowledge but isn't necessarily important for just buying consumer electronics.
Content:
1. Walkthrough Guide
- 1.1 Picking the source
- 1.2 Deciding on stereo or surround
- 1.3 Picking the amplifier
- 1.4 Picking the speakers
2. Recommendations
- 2.1 Speakers
-- 2.1a Computer Speakers
-- 2.1b HTIB
-- 2.1c Studio Monitors
-- 2.1d Bookshelfs
-- 2.1e Floorstanding
- 2.2 Amplifiers
-- 2.2a Stereo Amps
-- 2.2b Surround Receivers
- 2.3 Source
-- 2.3a DVD players
-- 2.3b Soundcards
3. Definition List
4. Advanced
- 4.1 Source and Vodoo
- 4.2 Acoustics
- 4.3 Loudspeakers
- 4.4 Amplifiers
Walkthrough Guide
Your equipment to play audio data, your chain, always consists of the following components:
Source -> Amplifier -> Loudspeaker -> Room -> Your Ear
While beeing sent through this 'chain', the signal becomes distorted and loses quality. The amount of influence on quality ranges from left to right in ascending order. So, the source has the smallest influence, while your ear obviously has the biggest. Try to calculate your budget accordingly:
50% (or more) Loudspeakers, 30% Amplifier, 20% or less Everything else
Step 1: Picking the source
The source is what transforms the signal from the medium used to something the amplifier can use. Most likely, you will already have a source. Examples are:
Note down your choice(s).
- Consumer Computer
Many will use an audio programm like Winamp or Foobar to play music through the soundcard. Most consumer soundcards use 3,5mm Mini Jacks to output a signal. Usually, you will need an adaptor to RCA jack or 6,3mm jack.
- DAW Computer
If you want to use a computer for high quality playback, for example for recording/mixing purposes, you will want to use an audio interface that connects via PCI or Firewire and has good DA converters.
- Mp3 Player
This is basically the same as the computer as those also connect via 3,5mm Mini Jack.
- DVD Player
Todays multiformat DVD players usually offer a good quality even in the cheapest segment. Please note that it is not feasonable to spend more than 200$ ever for a DVD player. Contrary to what the companies tell you, audio quality will not get better. DVDs and CDs are digital. You can either connect the player digitally via optical or coaxial cable (which one doesn't matter) to your receiver, or you can let the DVD player decode the data and convert it to an analog signal first. Then you will use RCA cables. The first option is usually better because the AD converters in your receiver will most likely be better. If your player and receiver support HDMI, this is the best option.
- CD Player
Just use your RCA cables to connect to your amplifier. Today, having a decent soundcard, your computer might be a better choice than to buy a new CD only player. Advantages are that you do not need a computer and CD players are often cheap. Downside is that you often pay for audiophile bullshit.
- Radio/Cable Box
This obviously depending on what's available. If you do not use your PC, it's always smart to set up your chain next to your TV, so that you can connect your cable box/satellite to your receiver and watch those movies in a proper fashion.
- Blue Ray/HD-DVD
I recommend using HDMI. Really. If you buy a BR or HD-DVD player, I would expect that you have a receiver that can process HDMI. Obviously, this makes things relatively easy. Just plug it in you big lama.
Step 2: Deciding on stereo or surround
You might think this is a no-brainer, but this decision is actually very important. The reason is that surround setups in a lower pricerange (up to around 400$) suck at playing music for some basic scientific reasons (which you can read below).
So if you mainly listen to music, you should think about not going for the surround option.
Be honest here. The advantage of having occasionally sound from behind isn't as great as a sucky music reproduction is a disadvantage.
If you use this setup for 60% music or more, you should buy a stereo setup first.
If you plan on expanding to surround at a later date by buying additional, high quality loudspeakers, you will have to get a surround receiver/amplifier now anyways.
Step 3: Picking the amplifier
Signals coming from your source have "line level", which means that they have not enough energy to power a speaker. So you need an amplifier to actually power those speakers.
What's the difference between a receiver and an amplifier?
The amplifier is just the technical part that amplifies the signal. A receiver is one type of amplifier that has a tuner built and the option to connect multiple sources in. An amp that does not offer this, is usually just called amplifier.
Both types actually consist of two parts of amplifier, the Pre-Amplifier, which makes the signal usable, and the Power-Amplifier, which brings the signal up to power.
Analog, Digital, Transistor, Tube, Class A, B and AB WHAT THE FUCK
Yes. Ignore the classes of amplifiers for now. Just note that there are analog and digital amplifiers. Digital amps aren't really digital at all, they rather use switching. They produce less heat and more power. They are also smaller, which makes them become more popular (even though they are around since 1950 or so).
Analog Amps are usually transistor amps. That's just your usual amplifier.
The other type of analog amp is the tube amp, which usually costs a lot of money and colors the sound in a certain way which some people find pleasant.
All in all, don't worry too much about the type of amplifier.
How much Watt do I need????!?!
While power output is important, how much muscle an amp really has is very hard to measure. Since there is no guideline how to measure wattage, you need to take it with a giant grain of salt. What you are looking for is the term "RMS". This gives you a ROUGH idea on how much power the amp outputs. If you see the term "PMPQ", it means someone wants to bullshit you and you should not buy the product.
As for how much you actually need, this can not be answered easily. It depends on how much the amp outputs, how effectively the speaker uses this output and on how loud you want it. Usually, 60-100 Watt are enough for most speakers and rooms.
So it doesn't matter what amp I get?
Not entirely. Any given amp can output a perfect signal. But a speaker is very complex to drive because it doesn't have a constant impendance and it also channels nasty stuff back to the amp, which may or may not result in a certain "sound".
Usually, modern amps will not have a problem with this kind of stuff.
From a scientific standpoint, I suggest you don't worry about it because you will not be able to hear it.
From a standpoint of "I am doing to drop 2000 bucks on an amp", I highly suggest you audition the amp in your OWN LISTENING ENVIRONMENT (your home) and how the amp works with your speaker.
What to look for when buying a surround receiver
- Try to buy from an established company like Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha, Harman Kardon, Kenwood, Samsung or Marantz
- Dolby Digital and DTS decoders (usually they have the logos somewhere on the front)
- Bass Management with the ability to set a crossover frequency for a subwoofer
- Enough inputs for your needs
- Do you own LPs? Then the Receiver needs a built in phono preamp.
- Proper speaker cable plugs. Not the little plastic ones that snap back on the cable. You want the ones that you can screw on and off
- Digital Inputs, either optical or coaxial
- Is the fan very loud? Check if it bothers you.
- Enough power for your speakers, obviously
- Can it power speakers with a 4 or 6 Ohm impendance (if you have those), or it is 8 Ohm only?
What to look for when buying a stereo amplifier
- Compare price and power output, are you buying low powered audiophile bullshit?
- Does it have enough inputs for all your stuff?
- Does it have the proper plugs (see above)?
- Can it power speakers with a 4 or 6 Ohm impendance (if you have those), or it is 8 Ohm only?
Step 4: Picking the speakers
Speakers are the most important part of your chain because they have to change energy forms from electricity to motion, which is very hard to do correctly.
What is an active speaker?
An active speaker has a built in amplifier. You do not need to buy one, if you get an active speaker. You just plug the source in. Common types are computer speakers and studio monitors.
What is a subwoofer for?
It's very hard to reproduce the lowest bass frequencies. A lot of air needs to be moved, making the speakers huge, bulky and ugly.
Scientists discovered that because of the long wavelengths of bass waves, our brain can not discern where the bass is coming from (frequencies of 80hz and lower). So they started "outsourcing" the bass cabinets into subwoofers.
Then, smart marketing people invented the ".1" sets (2.1, 5.1) that you see everywhere. Suddenly it was en vogue to have a subwoofer. If you look at the satellite speakers, you can see why this can not work. They have to reach down to 80hz, which they surely do not. So the subwoofer needs to reach up - something that a subwoofer doesn't want to do, because it becomes a regular speaker now and sounds rather shitty. Also, you might have a frequency hole between sub and satellite, where the sub doesn't quite reach up and the satellites do not quite reach down. Whoopsy. So what you have now is a regular speaker system with one instead of two bass drivers. Not good.
A dedicated subwoofer only EXTENDS the range of your speakers. It never "adds" to your bass. If you have speakers with a good low-end responce, it will cost SERIOUS money to get a subwoofer that can reach lower.
Why the rage on sub-100$ speakers
Just like cars, speakers can not be produced for 10 cents a piece. The drivers and magnets always cost money and there is a limit to how low you can go before it becomes utter crap. The magical limit seems to be 50-100$. Below that (per pair of speakers), it's a waste of money. On the other side of the extreme, over 4000$ a pair, speakers usually just become different, not objectively better.
Some types of speakers
Computer Speaker 2.1/5.1 sets
For example Logitech, Creative, Klipsch Promedia
Advantage: cheap, surround, active
Disadvantage: boomy bass, music reproduction quality bad
HTIB - Home Cinema in a Box
Bundled with a receiver, sometimes DVD player
Advantage: everything included, surround, cheap
Disadvantage: worse sound than individual components, often small satellites
Studio Monitors
Available in all price ranges, best deal for music
Advantage: Great sound, active, waveguided, neutral (depending on price), often equalizer built in
Disadvantage: -
Bookshelf Speaker
Advantage: good sound for music, compact, nice design
Disadvantage: bass lacks deepest frequencies
Floorstanding Speaker
Advantage: good sound for music, nice design, complete frequency range
Disadvantage: often huge, decent amp needed
Step 5: Almost there
Now that you have an overview about what's available, you can note down what exactly you need and get on to the recommendations. If you spend your hard earned money, I strongly suggest you audition every component before purchase and compare them to what you know. It might not make a huge difference for you now, but when you own good speakers, you automatically start to refine your taste. Take music you know with you!
Ultimately, I believe now is the time to get a computer as a media center instead of a dedicated amp/dvd-player etc. Usually, the combination computer+studio monitors produces currently the best sound for the least money. So if you have no preference at all, I suggest you look into this option first!
Recommendation
Computer Speakers
There are currently three big names when it comes to computer speakers. Logitech, Creative and Klipsch. From those three, Klipsch and Logitech are the ones I will recommend. And if you have to pick between those, i'd go for Klipsch as this is a renowned speaker manufacturer.
Creative is said to create inferior products, and if we look at the X-Fi bullshit marketing, I think we can pretty much agree that buying speakers from them isn't exactly what you want to do.
They do have a sister company called Cambridge Soundworks, which creates decent products.
Once again, except for Surround sound, I do not recommend buying computer speakers. There is no reason to buy a 2.1 set, ever.
Logitech Z5300
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1
Home Cinema In A Box - HTIB
If you are looking for a complete package for watching surround dvds and playing games, then you can spend 250$+ on a HTIB package. This includes everything you need, like a DVD player and a receiver. The issues are largely the same with the computer speaker sets by Logitech and such: Music quality is inferior to a stereo setup.
If you are specifically looking for surround sound to plug into your TV, this is what you can shoot for. A small advantage over computer speakers is that you might be able to keep the receiver and dvd player if you upgrade.
User Blaise's account of Onkyo packages:
I currently own the Onkyo HT-S580 (the 590 is the current model). It is a 5.1 system and can be had for $250 or so at CircuitCity and sometimes for $200 at hoponkyo.com if you buy refurbished.
I also had a close friend buy the Onkyo HT-S790 setup for $400 at circuit city a few weeks ago. I personally think that the speaker quality is the similar to my less expensive model, but the amplifier itself sells for $400 when purchased seperately and features everything under the planet except HDMI, meaning that it would be an excellent place to start as you get more money and buy nicer speakers.
I'm sure people can add to this, I don't want to post anything that I do not know for fact personally. I would like to say that I personally think it is a completely waste of money to buy any surround sound package that costs less than $250 and is not an Onkyo or Yamaha. I've had many friends purchase these (including the god-awful DVD-combo ones) only to be stuck with worthless speakers and an amp a year down the road.
The Onkyo HT-S590
Other viable alternatives are Yamaha, Samsung and Kenwood sets. Try to stay over 250$ and please consider that the audio quality will not be very good. It's for watching movies and having surround sound.
Active Monitors
So you have decided that you will be using your setup for music, possibly over your PC? And, in addition, you have not much money to spend and not an old amp flying around somewhere? Well, it's your lucky day because the active monitor segment of the market has until now been kept largely bullshit free and therefore offers some good deals.
Monitors ? you say, But monitors sound boring and dry!
No, they don't. No really not. Wherever that myth came from, you can safely forget it now. As great as entry level monitors are, they are not magical machines of neutral happiness. They use relatively cheap drivers which will not be flat like "real monitors".
But alas, monitors do offer some general advantages.
Here are some offers to consider.
M-Audio StudioPro3 129.95$ MSRP
M-Audio Studiophile DX4 200$ MSRP
ESI nEar04, 05 around 200$
For this price range, also check out Behringer and Edirol.
Now, for the more expensive ones 300$+.
Behringer Truth Series
Probably the only product Behringer produced that doesn't suck. Those are actually pretty damn good for the price!
TASCAM VL-X5
This is probably the best studio monitor for sub 300 bucks and it can compete easily with monitors in the price range from 500-800 bucks. The only downside is that the bass is very linear, so it is usually not enough for hifi needs. Make sure you can use an equalizer when you get these.
Yamaha HS50M and HS80M
Solid choice. Those two are a little bit more hifi than the Yamaha MSP series.
EMES Cobalt
This one rocks. It just look funny.
Mackie TAPCO series
See Yamaha.
All of the above are very good overall speakers and they do not require an amplifier. This saves money! Your money! As always, auditioning these is mandatory.
Bookshelfs
Floorstanding
Amplifier Recommendation
Stereo Amplifier
Surround Receiver
Definitions
Audio Chain: This is the set of equipment you need to play music. The basic form is:
Source -> Amplifier -> Speaker -> Room -> Your Ear
The importance is ascending from source to room. Room Acoustics (read more below), are about 35-40% of your overall sound quality, speaker about 35%, amps 0 to 10% and so on. So structure your budget carefully!
Source: The source can be a CD-Player, LP-Player, Tapedeck or your computer. The signal out of your source is "line level" or unamplified over RCA cable, for example. It doesn't have enough energy to power a speaker, so an amplifier is necessary.
Dynamic Range / Dynamics: The dynamic range of a media or piece of equipment is defined as the difference between the loudest sound and the noise floor. The noise floor occurs when the signal has the same volume as the noise the equipment outputs (which is the case with every analogue part at a very low volume). A "very dynamic" loudspeaker simply can reproduce volume differences very good. One way to measure it is the SNR - signal to noise ratio.
D/A or A/D converter: There is a general difference between the analogue world of audio, where the sound is transferred by electricity voltage/current and the digital world, where it's transferred in ON/OFF commands - bits. To change between them, you need converters. They have some to very little influence on your sound.
Frequency in hz/khz Sound is actually pressure differences that occur form of a wave. Particles move and influence particles next to them to also move, which creates the wave. The pressure difference, much like a wave, reaches a local high and a local low. The time between the extremes is called the periodic length T. The frequency f is defined as f=1/T and measured in hz. 1000hz are 1khz.
The human ear can hear from 20hz to 20.000hz (20khz). 20hz is very low bass and because of the extreme particle movement very energy rich (you feel the bass). 20khz is a very high pitch.
Hearing ability declines with age. At the age of 20, 18khz or 19khz is usually the maximum and with old age some people can only hear as low as 8khz!
Tone A tone is a wave at just one frequency and doesn't occur naturally. Often found in synths and such. Also used for audio measurement.
Sound The sound of an instrument, for example, is defined by a basic tone and it's harmonics, which are exponents of the base frequency (f^2, f^3 etc.) The even harmonics sound pleasant, while the odd often sound harsh. The harmonics define how an instrument sound. While both piano and guitar can play an "E", they sound different because they have different harmonic frequencies. We'll leave it at that.
Clipping When a piece of equipment reaches its max headroom or volume, it clips. The effects are different. Tube amps, when clipping, produce harmonic frequencies, which make them sound warmer (so this is desirable). Digital stuff just cuts the signal hard, which results in "crackles".
If an amp clips, it the loudspeakers pull too much power. This can damage the loudspeaker because the clipping amp will "spit out" shit that might damage the tweeter.
Noise Noise is a sound with all or random frequencies and harmonics. There are different types of noise, but I will not get into this right now.
Three-Way / Two-Way / X-Way This tells you how much individual speakers a box has. Usually at least two are used, a bass cone and a tweeter. The sonic quality is defined by the quality of the speaker, not the quantity. There are One-Way speakers that sound better than most Three-Way speakers. This is no indicator for quality.
Subwoofer A dedicated speaker that outputs energy-rich frequencies below 80hz, which can not be located in the room (yet still suffer from the same acoustic phenomenon)
ADVANCED PART
Source and Vodoo
The source can be your DVD Player, your CD Player or your computer or something else. Taking your computer is fine, but if you invest into your chain you might find your soundcard is crappy. Don't worry - there is a soundcard guide flying around somewhere here!
If you use a DVD Player or a CD Player some people might call you on the quality of that element of your chain. Most of the time, every regular DVD or CD player works fine. A 40$ computer CD-ROM drive WILL read the media 100% correct. The error management is perfect. If you have reasonably clean CDs, do not worry about it.
Meridian players, one of the most expensive brand out there (which cost more than your car), use regular CD-ROM drives. I shit you not.
The difference to standalone players is, that the standalone players have to convert the digital bits into analogue signals.
Some years ago this had to be done by numerous expensive filters and D/A converters. This is where the audiophiles got their idea of "player sound". You can still buy a CD player for over 5000$, but here is the catch: with the introduction of 1bit D/A converters and modern error management, your normal DVD player will output THE EXACT SAME THING (except something is wrong with it or the design is crap). You can still invest in good CD players for the overall quality reasons, support etc. but the sonic quality certainly does not improve. Small audiophile companies CAN NOT even design their own components. They stuff the same things into their players as your 40$ drive and sell it for 400$. Don't be stupid.
There is a lot of bullshit flying around about Jitter and all of it is made up. Trust me.
Something that might affect your sound are A/D converters or converters in general. Changing to a bit system (digital) is somewhat critical because there are indeed calculations involved that, on a low level of quality, can affect your sound. But usually, you will not even use A/D converters in your setup (converting analogue to digital). But even then, the influence on your sound is minimal. I'd say trained ears are necessary for a distinction.
What about LPs? Audiophiles claim they sound more neutral and better. This is bullshit.
LPs are much more limited than CDs. They are simply the inferior media. But they do something cool - they don't sound absoltely correct. Sometimes they sound really warm. If you like that then indeed, they sound better. But there is no objective reason to prefer LPs for sonic quality. I do have quite a few and there are many things I enjoy about them, but CDs are superiour.
Audiophile Media
There are so called SACDs and DVD-Audios on sale right now that are supposed to have several advantages. For one, the dynamics improve because the SACD can use high bitrate audio which naturally allows for more headroom.
A normal CD is also limited to a certain frequency range that corresponds to the frequencies we humans can actually hear.
The SACD goes well beyond that, extending the frequency range over 20khz.
You will probably ask why we would need that, especially when most humans can barely hear anything up to 18khz... Well, audiophiles say that since real instruments produce frequencies well over 20khz, this would be more true to the source and also humans could percept those frequencies, just not hear them (much like very low bass, which is another story).
This doesn't really make any sense to me and I for one call bullshit.
In addition 90% OF ALL CDs TODAY do not even extend to the limitation of the media. Really, many modern recordings are shitty and don't even need the CD quality and additional dynamic headroom because, well, they're compressed to shit anyways.
Technically, SACDs and DVD-As use 24bit/96khz. Imagine the 96khz to be the resolution of the signal. By theory, you need double the amount khz of the signal to reproduce. What? Ok let's say your music can go up to 20khz in frequency. You would need at least 40khz resolution to reproduce the tone properly. The CD has a resolution of 44.1khz and this is sufficient.
24bit defines the dynamic range or just the amount of free headroom that is available to a signal. Everything is recorded to 24 bit today. So this is one advantage over the CD, which is 16bit because the "downsampling" to 16bit might have influence on the sound. This is not in any way proven and should not be substantial. But, technically, it is possible to record something that actually uses the whole 16bit of dynamics of the CD. In fact, when recording this happens a lot. Then again, once recorded the signal is predictable and can fit easily on a CD. Let's just say the difference is marginal.
One cool feature of SACDs and DVD-As is the 5.1 aspect. Yep, you can listen to 5.1 music. There are several ways of mixing this for the engineer. Sometimes you are put "right into" the music, sometimes the surround speakers just produce echo and reflections that mimic a certain room. It is definitly worth checking out.
Of course you need 5 identical speakers, otherwise it will sound very shitty. I also recommend getting at least bookshelf size speakers for this, as the few SACDs out now are really serious about beeing audiophile and they WILL have an acoustic contrabass in your left surround speaker...
Bottomline: There is no need for a better medium. Nobody ever had reason to complain about the limitations of the CD. On the contrary - music starts to fit more and more to mp3 limits...
OH GOD, mp3s kill the music
People very much despise mp3. Not only audiophiles do, but also people who are half serious about sound quality. Mp3 has a bad rep, so to say.
The basic principle that you need to understand is that mp3 does not try to keep the whole information for storage. It is a "lossy" codec, it loses information.
But, what mp3 does try to achieve (and when I say mp3, I really mean mp3, ogg, mpc etc.), is transparency, or the inability for you to distinguish the file from the orginal. This level is different for every person. But the good news is: mp3 has achieved this goal. There is no person on earth that can per se detect an mp3 file no matter what quality.
The matter is complex and would deserve it's own wiki entry. To summarize:
mp3 is the container. To fill it, you need a codec. The only codec you should use today is called "LAME". Use the current version. On the matter of quality, the setting -q2 --vbr-new has proven to be transparent for 90% of the listeners.
Let's talk about VBR for a second. VBR means variable bitrate and adjust the bitrate mp3 uses to the musical content. For some songs, less bandwith is needed and so on. ONLY USE VBR.
CBR, constant bitrate, is redundant. If you hear anyone say "I can distinguish a 192kbps mp3", he is full of shit because using vbr there is no "192kbps" mp3.
When is q2 not enough?
People have experienced problems when having audio with a lot of complex high frequency information. If trained, a person can usually hear artifacts or "ringing" in this range. Then, a higher setting is in order. Usually this is only the case with special "error samples".
Let me get this straight right away: Mp3's do not sound dull, muffled, tinny or lack bass
This is all vodoo. The codec either works, or produces artifacts. Everything else is bullshit and produced by people who do not understand how the encoder works.
A term you might run across is "Joint Stereo". This technique uses two settings to save stereo information depending on wether or not full stereo is needed. Because with Joint Stereo you often have only to encode one channel (the rest can be calculated while decoding), the quality is often actually superior to true stereo!
Vodoo
Before we get to the good stuff, let me talk about some more bullshit in this business. People sell all components of the hifi chain for more money than I might ever earn in a year. But most of the time it is not worth it.
The most famous example are cables.
RCA- or speakercables carry an analogue signal in the frequency range from maybe 20-20000hz. Why this range? This is the range of frequencies a human can hear.
Monster cables have a low inductivity and therefore should have a better sound, no? What the salesman forgot to mention is that the inductivity only becomes important at frequencies of several MHZ, not KHZ. Don't worry if you didn't understand a word. Fact:
For a properly constructed cable the only audible or important factor is the resistance(impendance). The impendance is higher the longer the cable is. It is also reduced by the thickness of the cable. Therefore - if you have loudspeakers far away from the amp, make sure your cable is thick enough.
Do not invest in audiophile cables as they do nothing for your sound.
Why do people hear so much difference then?
Because of two additional important factors in Hifi. First, your brain, second the room!
If you see an expensive cable, feel it, plug it in etc. you WILL probably hear a difference. Our ears are not perfect, but the brain has learned how certain things have to sound. If you listen to a crappy recording your brain is able to ADD information. Psychoacoustics is more powerful than you think. If you listen really hard for a difference, you'll probably find one.
Second, the room. Noise spreads, gets reflected and reflected again. If you shift your head a few millimeters, the sound at your ear will be different already! If you stand up to plug in new cables and sit back down, yes, the sound will differ.
Here is a list of changes you can expect in the sound from decent equipment without construction errors in your frequency range
-> CD Player (any kind) +/- 0,01db
-> Amplifier +/- 0,1db
-> Loudspeakers (800$) +/- 4db
-> Room acustics +/- 15db
As you can see, a smart person would invest in room treatment and speakers.
However, you can optimize on each field.
There is the following consequence out of this:
Whatever sounds good to you, is the right choice
Sound is perceived different by every human beeing and the choices made in hifi equipment reflect that. You should buy whatever satisfies your needs, not somebody elses. You can shoot for objective perfection and I will show you how, but at the end of the day the only thing that counts is how you like your sound.
If you want to objectively test wether or not something affects your sound, you need to do an ABX or double blind test. The procedure varies depending on the stuff you are actually trying to test. Wikipedia can give more in depth information.
Amplifiers.
First, you need an amp with at least 500 Watt P.M.P.O
If you hear anybody say that, punch him in the face. Watt is used as universal power rating but nothing could be further from the truth.
I can say: For any sane person 2x20 Watts are enough. Might I be correct?
It very much depends on how it is measured!
The only reliable watt standard is a DIN-norm of old with ridiculesly low requirements. The amp has to hold output energy and hold the THD, the total harmonic distortion, under a certain value. This measurement is the continous sinus power measurement.
This can be combined with the RMS, or "music power". Punch it into wikipedia if you want to know more. Here is the summary:
An amp that will output 500 Watts in PMPO (Peak Music Power Output) might be able to output 500 Watts, but only for a split second (a peak). In RMS, it will be maybe 50 Watt, because it is a different measurement. And even than it depends on the energy supply how reliable that fact is. A good energy supply in the amp will make sure you really have that power, even for longer stress situations. Bottomline - when you buy an amp, do not primarily look for the Watts, look how it is measured.
One example:
A modern Yamaha 5.1 receiver has 130 Watt power rating per channel.
An older Harman Kardon AVR 80 has 80 Watt power rating per channel.
Yet, the Harman Kardon is more powerful, because the measurements differ.
1) The Harman Kardon is measured with all 5 channels in use at the same time, which puts more stress on the power supply, the Yamaha is measured for each channel discrete.
2) The Harman Kardon is measured for the frequency range from 20hz-20khz, whereas the Yamaha's values are measured for the frequency range at 1khz. The difference is that the output will differ in inductivity and capacity for each frequency, complicated physics stuff.
Bottomline: RMS can give you SOME indication, but when comparing products make sure they are measured the same way!
Once again, there are millions of amp reviews that claim a different sound for each. How much of this is really true? As long as you do not buy a really cheap amp you can expect your frequency range to be flat, as in neutral (or "perfect"). There really is not reason for any decent amp today to be sounded (unless, this is desired. Example: Tube Amps).
Your total dynamic distortion should be under 1%. Over 1% the human ear can hear it. Once again, modern amps should master this with ease.
The dynamic range should be as high as possible. This is the difference between the loudness of the signals that the amp can output. However, more than 96db is NOT necessary for CD use. The CD has 16bit and more can not be stored.
The slew-rate is of no interest in modern amps.
The dampening factor, or the output impendance is important because it dictates what speakers your amp can handle. If the impendance of the speaker is too low (for example 4 ohm for an amp that is designed to handle 8 ohm) than your amp has to output more power than it is designed to - it might break down.
Let's sum it up: Do amps sound different? We have no indication for it, but people seem to experience it every day. If you invest serious money you really might want to test how your amp works.
A cheap AVR might have problems with its dampening factor or power supply which will impact your frequency range more drasticly, resulting in more distortion.
A decent amp that has adequate power stability for your speaker will not sound.
I just talked about amplifiers, but most of you will actually own a receiver. What's the difference? The receiver has an integrated amplifier AMONG other stuff. And if you go out and buy a receiver, this is what you should look for:
- Adequate power for you speakers and your room and dampening factor
- If you want surround, get a 5.1 or 7.1 setup obviously
- For surround: Good bass management with enough crossover settings for the subwoofer
- Decoders for Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro Logic 2/DTS Neo6, if you need surround
- If you have LPs, you need a PHONO PREAMP
- HDMI is on the rise. If you buy a receiver for that purpose, make sure it supports HDMI in all its versions
One last note on Stereo vs. Surround.
Stereofanatics often claim the sound of surround receivers is crappy for stereo. This is not entirely right. The sound of the amps is most likely identical.
Most surround receivers, however, have a lot of filters in the signal way that MIGHT or MIGHT NOT influence your signal. If you believe there is a difference, you can always get a receiver that has a "direct stereo" knob you can push to disable those filters.
Loudspeakers
Loudspeakers are the most critical element in every hifi-chain. In fact, you should at least spend two thirds of you budget on speakers. Why is that? Because speakers have to change energy forms - power into sound. This is the most difficult task.
What should you look for in a loudspeaker?
There are virtually no outside signs for performance. Wether the speaker has 3 chassis (speakers) or only one, wether it is big or small, made out of wood or stone, it doesn't matter.
The perfomance CAN indeed be measured by certain factors BUT - EVERY SINGLE ONE of those factors react to the room acustics. If you buy any speaker, listen to it first. If you buy an expensive speaker, do yourself a favor and listen to it in your room. If your acustics suck too much the sound WILL be bad no matter how much money you spend on speakers. Every sound in your room is manipulated by room reflections and effects. Even if you had a perfect speaker (see below), the sound that reaches your ear would be distorted.
What are those factors?
There frequency range shows us the first two: what frequencies the speaker can output, and how loud they are.
If you look at the frequency range I stole somewhere you will notice that the volume differs when a different frequency is played. The frequencies are somewhat nonlinear because they correspond to the octaves of our western music. Since music consists of many frequencies at once, the perfect speaker would have a FLAT line from 0hz to 20khz! This speaker does not exist, of course.
The Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 is a bookshelf speaker in the entry price segment. As you can see here, the lower frequencies, the bass, are much louder than the midrange. The highs are have some "holes" and at the very end of the frequency range the speakers drops in volume.
This would mean the following for the sound: Good bass (as in loud), good midrange and low highs. And indeed, this is a "British" sounding.
Next, let us look at the bass a little closer. On the Y axis you can see how loud the frequencies are played. How deep a speaker can play depends on the lowest frequency it can output at a reasonable volume. First, ignore whatever the company tells you. It might be something with 20hz or 30hz and indeed you can see here that the Diamond reaches 30hz - the volume is just so low that it is inaudible.
Look for +/- 3db. A signal that is +3db is already twice as loud as the source because db is a logarithmic measurement. According to the 3db rule, the Wharfedale Diamond reaches about 45hz. This is a decent value for a bookshelf speaker!
Next, have a look at this baby.
What you see here is a very good loudspeaker. Why good? Because it is neutral. It outputs almost exactly what you input. But there is a difference - This speaker does barely reach 100hz.
So which of the first factors is more important? Bass or neutrality? Naturally the latter is not so easy to achieve and the Lagrange 98 does cost a bit more than the Wharfedale Diamond, but to answer the question is up to you. As I pointed out earlier, the speakers are influenced by acustics, the signal and your needs. A perfect loudspeaker might even sound worse when you play hip hop or techno on it, because it will have less bass.
I will repeat it: PLEASE ONLY BUY SPEAKERS IF YOU LISTENED TO THEM FIRST.
What are the other factors, you ask. Well, those are not so easily explained. Even the "almost perfect" Lagrange speaker has flaws. One of them is how the sound spreads. Depending on frequencies the sound either spreads directional from the speaker (highs) or in every direction (bass). Because of this the sound will reach your ear at different volume levels and at a different time. As always, room acustics play a HUGE part in this.
If you turn the speaker a little to either side, the frequency range will no longer be neutral.
The Wharfedale Diamond does a good job with spreading equally. This is usually how home-speakers work. You can run around in your room and the sound doesn't change too much.
The perfect speaker, however, would be different. It would spread only very narrow waves, usually with the help of waveguide technology etc. Why? Because that means less reflections. Less reflections means more neutrality.
You can see this employed in studio monitors. By any means, studio monitors are usually very close to the perfect sound. But this might not be the sound you want.
What you also see here is the so called waterfall diagramm. It shows how long the membrane of the speaker moves and how long resonances are reflected around inside the speaker cabinet after playing. The perfect speaker would just output a sound and then be perfectly quiet without any resonances. The spikes in this particular diagram are from the bass reflex hole etc.
What about subwoofers?
Subwoofer use the wavelength of deep basses to be effective. Under 80hz one usually can not discern WHERE the bass comes from. So if you have good bookshelf speakers and one or two subwoofers you can reach a good sound.
There are many 2.1 systems today that have satellites that barely reach 120hz. Of course this means there will be a noticable sound hole. The crossover is almost never perfect. For your ear, the bass around 120hz is highly critical.
This means: All satellite (mini speakers+sub) systems suck for music. No exception.
Most people have never heard "tight", deep bass. Every 5.1 boxed system I listened to EVER had boomy bass that was not very deep. If you have a highend system you will notice that the bass seems a lot more quiet, but really tight and punchy. This is good bass.
Once again, your personal taste or your acustics might negate this argument completely.
the double bass array
I haven't researched this throughout, but if you use one subwoofer you usually have to battle standing waves which are generated by reflections depending on the size of your room, the wavelength (the lower the tone, the longer the soundwave) and the aspect ratio of walls.
For example - if you sit in the middle of a quadratic room, your bass will be almost nonexistant because the reflections cancel each other. Sound is the movement of air pressure. Therefore, if you first pull the air in one direction and then the opposite - the movement will be none.
Here is one example
Now, if you'd use two subwoofers at one side while doing a decent job combating early reflections you would get this
Those pictures aren't really 100% precise but you see that the waves for low bass are more balanced.
This is a single bass array (two woofers). The circle-formed bass waves add and cancel into a single, straight wave that has less reflections at the side walls!
This is also one reason why a cheap 5.1 setup is inferior to two decent speakers, which basicly form a SBA (single bass array) whereas a 5.1 setup just uses one woofer.
For a double bass array you can add two subwoofers at the top and bottom of the room each, so that you cancel the waves from the floor and ceiling.
The only standing wave you'd have left is at the back of the room.
BOSE IS NOT HIGH END; DO NOT EVER BUY BOSE, EVER
Alright buddies, this wraps it up.
I hope I was able to help anybody with this guide.
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