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HIGH-END AUDIO ON A BUDGET Getting the Very Best Stereo / HiFi Systems Assembled at the Least Possible Cost & Avoiding the Problems with Audio Today Click on your country to view or order this book: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN The aim is for this book to serve as a guide to better sound in any system-building endeavour, at any level – from the low-budget system (less than $2k) to the highest of the high-end (still at relatively low cost) with world-class realism from any system at any level. Even the seasoned veteran may make new discoveries here – as I certainly did after decades of hifi involvement. _________________________ This book was expanded from the article of the same name. There are no pics in the book, but here are a few pics and excerpts from the original article: Mainstream audio-magazines would like to have you believe that there are earth-shattering breakthroughs in high-end audio every month their mags hit the streets. They perpetrate, and perpetuate, this fallacy with rave-reviews of the best-ever this, or the best-ever that, on a regular basis. Every month we're confronted with a new 'best-ever', only for it to be eclipsed the very next month by the latest 'best'. This is what sells magazines and keeps their advertisers (manufacturers/distributors) happy - to the detriment of the consumer. Audiophiles are encouraged to join the circus in 'upgrading' their equipment every few years - even months. To each, his own. I take a different view. I'm certainly not saying that there haven't been advancements in audio over many years. I'm definitely saying, though, that these advancements are far fewer, and of much less magnitude, than some would have us believe. Let's just look at a few cold, hard facts: |
The Great 'Advancements' in Audio
There is evidence that the better moving-magnet turntable cartridges (costing approx $500, more or less) are more natural, realistic, and 'master-tape like' than the majority of the allegedly 'highly advanced' moving-coils which fetch prices of, up to and exceeding, $10,000...
Today's amplifiers and pre-amps, despite claims to the contrary, have made very little progress over their outstanding equivalents from the long distant-past. For instance; !950s-era amps from the likes of Ampex, Stromberg-Carlson, and even Magnavox, have been proven to outperform modern-day stalwarts from the likes of Manley-Labs and A.S.L., among others which are even more expensive. The better, and best, pre-amps from the 1980's-90's era (Audio-Research, Conrad-Johnson, Counterpoint, etc.) are also still absolutely competitive with their 'highly-advanced' counterparts of today - even those from some of the same companies. And 80s-era solid-state amps from the likes of UREI and Quad have been known to outperform some expensive and highly-reputed latter-day examples from the likes of Mark-Levinson and Krell - just to name a few...
Digital sources were...
Turntables are...
Tape machines will...
Speakers won't be...etcetera & etcetera!
So what does one do with all this ground-breaking information? Well, one could actually build a world-class audio-system which sounds much-much more realistic than most, for a fraction of the cost of most. That's, basically, what one could do, actually.
Refer to the book for this and much more...
Building the best audio-systems for the money - on almost any budget...
HIGH-END AUDIO ON A BUDGET
Getting the Very Best Stereo / HiFi Systems Assembled at the Least Possible Cost & Avoiding the Problems with Audio Today
Click on your country to view or order this book: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN
Getting the Very Best Stereo / HiFi Systems Assembled at the Least Possible Cost & Avoiding the Problems with Audio Today
Click on your country to view or order this book: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN
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