The top 5 audiophile mistakes I have ever made
A look back to my audiophile obsession and lessons learnt
As I come to the ten year mark of my audiophile journey, I have been thinking: What were the biggest mistakes I made in getting here?
Mistakes costing me thousands of dollars, mistakes that lead to years of frustration, mistakes keeping me in audiophile merry-go-round instead of taking me into the music.
And while I believe I have made every mistake possible, in the interest of space, I have limited myself to the top five:
#5 Not working with a good dealer.
When you, as a neophyte, first dip your toes in this hobby there are two paths you can take. The first path is to find a good knowledgeable audio dealer who will spend time with you and understand your tastes, your budget, your room and build you a system with the right synergistic components. The catch: you have to pay retail price.
The second path is the DIY path. Read the forums, reviews, and buy used.
Most audiophiles I know choose the second path (this might be a self-selection bias). The second path is very attractive: the thrill of the ”deal“, buying used gear at half-price, making mistakes — learning from mistakes. Also the first path is tough: you have be very lucky to find a knowledgeable and passionate audio dealer, a dealer carrying a wide range of synergistic equipment, a dealer who looks out for your best interest instead of his pocket.
I had found one such dealer in San Francisco, Tim. I used to visit his store all the time, and he had the patience to entertain my presence to make a sale, he had a great taste in brands, and fantastic system setup experience; but, alas I was young and brash and overconfident and I did not buy my first system from him*, instead I found Audiogon.
Now looking back, I realise, the entry-level system he was building for me at $15000 price point would have beaten 95% of the systems that I assembled for myself in the past 10 years.
Go for a system’s approach, not a component approach. This is best done with a seasoned, trustworthy and passionate dealer who is himself an audiophile and a music lover.
#4 Focussing on the bargain, not the sound.
I have never seen a community more focused on the “deal” than audiophiles. It is interesting to see how focussed a typical audiophile is on bargain, rather than the sound.
This has become such a phenomenon that brands now overprice and then give big discounts: but this is a trap. For example an Accuphase at 15% off ** is a better sonic proposition than a Nagra or an Audio Research at 40% off. You are better off buying a Luxman at retail than buying a Mcintosh at even 50% off. We don’t believe the FOR SALE signs at clothing shops, we should do the same with Audio.
In my Audiogon days, I bought audio gear based on how good a deal I got. This, sadly, kept me on a merry-go-round for years and years until I came back to India and had to buy gear at retail (used market doesn’t exist here). This put my focus where it belonged: The sound quality, not the discount sticker.
#3 Not buying an Integrated Amplifier.
To put it bluntly, 95% of audiophiles should just get an integrated not separates. To put it even more bluntly: If your amplification budget is less than $10000 (or 10L INR); do yourself a favour, buy an Integrated Amplifier.
Personally for me, this harkens to #5, #4: cheapness. As a neophyte I thought to myself, why should I splurge on a Luxman integrated offered by Tim, when for the same money I could buy a used Coincident preamp, and mono block 300b SET power amps — three pieces for the price of one. How dumb!
If I were to start all over again, I would just mate my speakers with a Luxman LX-380 tube integrated amp and call it a day. It beats every separate I have owned until the Shindo+Nagra came along and costs 1/8th of that.
#2 Not giving a component enough playtime.
It takes months to understand the sound of an audio component. Sometimes it takes years (especially for someone as slow as me). It took me a few years and many amplifiers and cables to truly understand what my Devore speakers could and could not do. It took me three long years to finally make my Nagra amplifier sing.
This is why in the recent months I have lost interest in equipment shootouts, the mainstay of audiophile entertainment. In my experience, they can give you some datapoints, but to draw any concrete conclusion from such shootouts is an exercise in futility. They are entertaining but useless. Even very experienced audiophiles who ought to know better spend 1000s of hours and 1000s of $$ on such flawed endeavours.
There’s a Youtube personality I used to follow for years on Audiogon : whitecamaross, who now goes by Jay’s Audio Lab — a prolific audiophile who has gone through 100s of very expensive amplifiers and DACs and speakers and preamps and cables in his garage. I used to be in awe of him and the knowledge he must have acquired; but these days I have lost interest in his activities, I don’t think he’s learnt much or knows much, how can he? I believe a speaker/amp/DAC costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars needs to lived with for a long time to really understand its nuances and its capabilities.
Does this mean we can never really compare audio gear? We can. Of course. An Accuphase is far superior to a Bose, no contest — the first note will tell you that. But still, take any review that has a comparison or a shootouts of high-end equipment with a large tablespoon of salt, it’s just a data point, that’s all it is. It is not a gospel, even if it comes from the orifice of some self-styled audio guru or a reviewer. Or even yourself.
#1 Trying to bypass a preamp.
This was a real kicker. There are very few good preamps; most preamps lose resolution but add musicality and oomph and presence to the sound; the really good ones don’t lose resolution; but they are few and far in between and typically very expensive.
I bought two very (very very) expensive DACs in my journey because they had an “analog volume control” (whatever that means). I wanted all the resolution I could get, and I wanted to save money; this does not work. Although it’s the power amplifier that gets most of the attention and the dollars of a typical audiophile, it is a good preamp that is at the heart of a truly high-end audio system. Period.
My audiophile journey in success when this axiom finally penetrated my thick skull and the Shindo Vosne-Romanee preamp came into my life.
P.S: This is another reason why most audiophiles should re-read #3 and get an integrated; good preamps are hard to find and expensive to boot.
* I did buy a Rega turn table from him.
** The USA is an exception, Accuphase is way overpriced there.