Posts (page 2)

From time to time my friends will ask me to go with them to help pick out good audio gear or will ask me to recommend what speakers sound good.  For this question I always give out the same advice encouraging people to trust their own (y)ears of experience.  The way to find the best audio system is this . . . Pick out 4 of your absolute favorite CDs, ones that you have listened to over and over again for hours without end, and take them to the store with you.  Make sure you get an assortment of the types of music you like to listen to and try to include one male vocalist, one female vocalist and something really full with a lot of different instruments playing together.  Just get the sales staff to hush up long enough to let you sit back and listen.  If you sit there and find that you love it, you are now a qualified audio professional.  If you don't have an emotional reaction to the sound, walk away and try another until you want to play everything you own because of how good it sounds.

Inevitably, the second question asked is, "What about Bose?"  My answer to this is that part of enjoying a home audio system is enjoying how it looks.  Interior design is important and Bose has made great success balancing the visual design with audio quality.  There is no question that listening to music will be much more pleasant without the resident interior designer shaking their head in disgust when passing through the living room.  As far as audio quality goes, conducting the same listening session using your own favorite CDs will reveal whether or not the design is right for you.

The speakers are the most difficult and expensive part of the audio system to design and manufacture.  They also follow the "You get what you pay for rule" more than any other part of the system.  It then follows that to get the best audio quality for your money you should spend all the money you have on good speakers and then buy a reasonably priced receiver/amplifier.

One helpful tipp is to look for used studio monitors online.  Musicians and home studio professionals buy really good gear, take good care of it and then want to upgrade from time to time.  I bought 6 small bookshelf monitors this way from 3 different people for between $70-$120 each and made a great home theater surround system out of them with a $350 receiver.

Happy shopping!

let me just say that this is a bit like having an open microphone in your hand at a radio station, only with less information about the demographic that may be listening.  For friends and family I will post the most recent pictures and news here for your enjoyment on a regular basis.  Hopefully, this will clear up the "When are you going to send pictures?" problem.  The general public will get the more interesting material without having to sit through vacation slideshows ;)

One of the things I enjoy most about my career is having the opportunity to teach seminars on pro audio at the tradeshows.  The interactive part is the most fun and I am looking forward to seeing if the same type of energy is captured with an interactive blog.

Looking Forward!