Audio misconceptions that stuck with you

[glum]

Im talking about a rule of thumb or some thing that you went by in making audio purchase that you later found out was bogus.
My miss information that I stuck by cost me quite a bit of cash before finding the truth.
It was that your speakers have to be rated at least double the watts of your recever ,amp and in doing that you are ashured that you will never blow a speaker ...bull....
Well now I know why I keept Cerwin-Vega's service center hopping.They were sending me new mid's and tweeters every month for acouple years till I got a pair of aAR9's i was unable to pop them.
What was yours.

 

[chadnliz]

Here come the cable debates, same arguement wrapped in a new package

 

[whoaru99]

Hehehe...I'll be more generic (or would it be more encompassing) than that.

"Night and day" differences....I find far fewer than often reported, but that is not to say I find no differences.

 

[Tangent]

Specs rule!

I once bought a Bryston pre & amp combo that was pure, clean power many years ago. I paid maybe $1,300.00 at the time. Big bucks then - big bucks even now! 100 watts (or was it even more?)! 0.000000000000000001% distortion!

Sounded HORRIBLE!

Had it for less than a week - I took it back.






Now I'll bet that everyone thought I'd jump into a cable debate. Nope! I did try different speaker wire at that time but the difference was so small that it was not worth the cost - or the difference was in my imagination. :drunk:

 

[Andyman]

Hehehe...I'll be more generic (or would it be more encompassing) than that.

"Night and day" differences....I find far fewer than often reported, but that is not to say I find no differences.

Yep, more like splitting hairs in many, many cases....

 

[SaSi]

"Metal tapes wear out the deck heads". I never bought metal tapes when they were available.

 

[Scuzzer]

I was told that speaker wires had to be the exact same length or else the soundstage would get smeared.

 

[Markw]

"The more you spend the better the sound."

After many years in this hobby, it has been replaces with the following observation:

"Sometimes you have to spend a lot of money only to learn you didn't have to spend a lot of money to get excellent sound."

 

[glum]

Here come the cable debates, same arguement wrapped in a new package

No not at all(Well that was not my intention) its a fact that under powerd amps Will clip and kill tweeters and mids if there freqs are cliped as well.
I said nothing about wires or opinions.I was talking about miss Misrepresentation or misconceptions of facts.such as:I was told that speaker wires had to be the exact same length or else the soundstage would get smeared.
I guess I wasnt clear enough.
I wasnt compairing brands with the tweeter fact ,that AR can take what CV can't.
My question was about the mith that.
Ifyou buy speakers that have a power rating of double the amp and you will not be able to blow them.Wich is the opposite of the truth.

 

[drknstrmyknight]

I was told that speaker wires had to be the exact same length or else the soundstage would get smeared.

I must have told you that. It is an immutable law.

CD's are better than records.
I bought into this early and big time.
Duh.

 

[glum]

"Metal tapes wear out the deck heads". I never bought metal tapes when they were available.

I rember hearing that one to.

 

[Satch]

I thought for years the gear was important, untill I started listening to music.

 

[Mister Pig]

Well There Is This One....

Component X(insert your choice) is a GIANT killer!

This is like chasing the white rabbit down the hole. Buying one fabled product after another to find they are good, but not all that.

Giants are giants...well for a reason. Cause they are big, bad, and formidable. Giants do not reach their titanic proportions by being easy to kill. Up until the point where they meet their demise, they have subdued everything in their path, until they meet a bigger, stronger, craftier opponent. Which is a giant in its own right.

My personal peeve. There are great components for the money spent. But I think giant killers are mythical, meant for the fleecing of hopeful hobbyists.

Course this is just the opinion of a barnyard animal. Want another one? Go ask the cows. Don't talk to the chickens, as fowl cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[timofred]

Nobody buys those separate components anymore............

 

[bryblob]

thats old

 

[JohnVF]

I thought vintage gear was better.

Now, I'm of the opinion that there's quality gear from any and every time period including the present.

I also thought vintage solid state receivers were the bees knees, and that vintage box speakers really just sounded incredible. I no longer think that. I just got out and heard a lot more gear as I got into the hobby and things that I thought sounded great early on in this adventure, were proven to not sound so hot to me the more I heard other things. I've learned to take everything I read online, here and elsewhere, with a grain of salt. It's all a learning experience and I still run and love a lot of vintage gear...but would also run an all-modern system in a heartbeat, too.

By the way...I think this thread poses an excellent question. It's really easy to get stuck in your ways in this hobby. Or, at least, it was really easy for me to get that way. It took me a long time to admit to myself that everything I thought didn't really apply anymore.

 

[OvenMaster]

During the 70's watt wars, all the salesmen told me that the electronics -- receivers, power amps, preamps, integrateds -- all sounded the same, regardless of brand. Same for CD players in the 80's. I pretty much believed it until about the mid-90's when I started swapping gear around piece by piece but kept the speakers the same. Ear-opening.

Tom

 

[Mr. Lin]

CD's are better than records.
I bought into this early and big time.
Duh.

As of now I think it's difficult if not impossible to say that one is better than the other, but, along those lines:

CDs suck.

Having listened primarily to lps for many years now, and being more than a little impressed after upgrading turntables, cartridges, and phono preamps, I figured the lowly compact disc couldn't hold a candle to records. From what I've heard, there's still something special in lp playback that digital can't quite touch (at least the stuff I can afford and/or have heard), but now that I own four excellent CD players, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world. That is to say, my vast CD library that was once relegated to listening in the car now reveals its true potential, including a level of musicality that comes awful close to vinyl playback in many ways.

 

[chadnliz]

Component X(insert your choice) is a GIANT killer!

This is like chasing the white rabbit down the hole. Buying one fabled product after another to find they are good, but not all that.

Giants are giants...well for a reason. Cause they are big, bad, and formidable. Giants do not reach their titanic proportions by being easy to kill. Up until the point where they meet their demise, they have subdued everything in their path, until they meet a bigger, stronger, craftier opponent. Which is a giant in its own right.

My personal peeve. There are great components for the money spent. But I think giant killers are mythical, meant for the fleecing of hopeful hobbyists.

Course this is just the opinion of a barnyard animal. Want another one? Go ask the cows. Don't talk to the chickens, as fowl cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

Regards
Mister Pig

So true, "giant killers" time and time again are more hype than anything else and in 6-12 months these items flood Audiogon and Ebay cause folks try them and find its nothing spectacular. With the internet now items and hype seem to go viral like a kid getting whacked in his balls on youtube, be it Emotiva, VR4jr's, DK Design, Samsung HD841...all these items are examples of viral hype that came and went.
There is no need to spend alot to get good sound IMO but many items are expensice cause they are simply better for a number of reasons over lesser priced gear and it just comes at a premium.

 

[chadnliz]

As of now I think it's difficult if not impossible to say that one is better than the other, but, along those lines:

CDs suck.

Having listened primarily to lps for many years now, and being more than a little impressed after upgrading turntables, cartridges, and phono preamps, I figured the lowly compact disc couldn't hold a candle to records. Now, IMO, at least from what I've heard, there's still something special in lp playback that digital can't quite touch (at least the stuff I can afford and/or have heard), but now that I own four excellent CD players, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world. That is to say, my vast CD library that was once relegated to listening in the car now reveals its true potential, including a level of musicality that comes awful close to vinyl playback in many ways.

Another BULLSEYE!
CD's dont suck, and they are also not perfect but both myths still stand up to debates to this day. Vinyl is never going to be huge again but I am glad its still doing "OK". Those who say Vinyl rules, or CD's rule or CD's suck are all lost in bias and opinion plain and simple. Both are fantastic, both have flaws and serious ones..........both have serious strengths and any truely serious music lover should embrace both, if you dont you are IMO not a true lover of music.
You cant avoid Vinyl even if its a pain and expensive for the soul reason some great music never has and never will make it to CD. You also cant ignore CD's and call yourself a true music lover cause even if its not as warm sounding and the packages are not as nice there are thousand upon thousands of albums that will never make it to a Vinyl release.
So all you "true" music lovers get over the bias and BS and embrace it all!