• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

The Two Most Frustrating Things about Hi-Fi...

D

drp1003

Well-Known Member
How far have you gone down the hi-fi rabbit hole? A mile or two? Hi-Fi Nirvana can be a fickle, illusive thing. I think I've traveled to the fourth or fifth circle of hi-fi hell once or twice. Can I get an amen?

Why is only the left channel of my amplifier making that weird noise? How did I end up with two different length speaker cables? Why do old receivers have spring clip speaker wire harnesses and new amps have banana plugs? Why did Prince have to die so young? My receiver stopped working? Three. Hours. Later. Oh, I accidently threw the TAPE MONITOR switch on! Idiot!

What am I talking about? Frustrating things about Hi-Fi. For me personally, the two most frustrating things about Hi-Fi are.... Drum Roll Please!

1) I can spend hours and hours tweaking the location of my speakers (speaker placement) in order to eek out another ounce of soundstage width and depth. If you ask me, speaker placement is the most important aspect of Hi-Fi. Nothing else even comes close. Speaker placement can make your system sound amazing, better than anything

How far are your speakers away from the back wall, are they equidistant from the side walls, how much toe-in do I need? And how far apart should my speakers be from each other? Did you know you can throw off a perfect stereo image just by accidentally bumping into your speaker and moving it by 1/4 inch? Did you know that you can throw off the center vocals by moving one or the other speaker forward or back by just one millimeter? Did you know that tilting your speaker back can improve soundstage? But how much tilt? One day things sound amazing, the next, vocals of some of my favorite songs have shifted slightly to the right! WTF? You have to keep your amp on all the time, and warmed up, just to maintain a perfect soundstage. Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Lovin' with it's tornado surround sound effects sounded amazing yesterday, why doesn't it sound the same today? Holy hell, pass the Tylenol! I have nightmares about equilateral triangles.

I'm down to controlling temperature and humidity of my listening space, that's how kooky things have gotten! Just kidding - I'm not that crazy... YET!!

2) The second pet peeve is not nearly as bad as the first, but still irks me. And that's RCA cables and the RCA jacks where the cables get plugged into. I've learned to hate this, for the lack of a better term, 'system of getting a signal to and fro'. I've gone through dozens of RCA cables, some are noisier than others, most couldn't hold tight to the plug-in if it's pathetic life depended on it. RCA jacks can get loose as well. I love spending a weekend soldering in new RCA jacks instead listening to music. Who doesn't!

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MOST FRUSTRATING THINGS ABOUT Hi-Fi?
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
It's a journey that takes many years to achieve your goal. For some it don't take long to be content.
I'm done and very pleased with my rigs and room treatments.
It's like a big candy store. You have to try many flavors out. Till you hit the sweet spot.

I wasn't frustrated. It was all fun
 
drp1003 said:
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MOST FRUSTRATING THINGS ABOUT Hi-Fi?
Click to expand...

Complication, in the sense of "why do simple when we can do complicated ?" - Jacques Rouxel / Les Shadoks / 1968

lfjjxGIMt0ExBpf7U9qVAIpZ2qm1Miw81v6y4S37tRy7VBhigKMeGnTQwgWtQw_hZYfsam1ntUeScAlRdoxOQw_8uBrH75Ml9OMIfna8s0.gif

T
 
Mine is that I don’t have $30,000 for 6 $5,000 power cables. I know if I did the blacks would be black hole black and he sound stage would be a mile wide. Maybe I should start driving for Uber eats as a side hustle so I can get there
 
One big disappointment for me was when I found a 1980's Yamaha A500 amplifier for a decent price. I had to replace a couple resistors and jumpers that the glue dissolved. I removed all the glue, replaced the filter caps since the glue had corroded one. Adjusted the bias and was done. Being able to operate in class A or a hybrid class AB mode I expected it to sound quite good. Well my Sansui A80 amplifier I had been using still sounded better. That plastic sided press board bottomed amp bested this large Yamaha amplifier. The Yamaha had a very detailed sound but no warmth so I sold it. I thought I had found my last amplifier oh well. I owned the A80 for 12 years until a couple years ago when it died and I replaced it with a Cambridge AXA-25 that I am quite pleased with.
 
Last edited:
1) I can spend hours and hours tweaking the location of my speakers (speaker placement) in order to eek out another ounce of soundstage width and depth. If you ask me, speaker placement is the most important aspect of Hi-Fi. Nothing else even comes close. Speaker placement can make your system sound amazing, better than anything


Imo you’re partially right with this, while the speakers and dialing them in to the smallest degree make a huge difference it’s your room that they’re in that will be the factor on how they sound after dialed in. Acoustic treatments be it DIY, bought and or furniture placed in the room make the biggest difference over anything, once you got that right it’s fairly smooth sailing from there.


Audiofreak71
 
Last edited:
Well... and I say this as someone who isn't nearly obsessed with perfect sound as some folks are - I listen to plenty of music that I love but is relatively low-fi and am fine with it... BUT there are certain recordings that seem like they should sound better than they do and this bugs me. It might be the pressing, the mastering or just that the original thing wasn't as good as I think it was, but I'll put on certain things and immediately ask myself "why is that so flat sounding?" Other things, which tend to be older recordings, recorded in a really basic way, I think of the lack of fidelity as being part and parcel of the music and it doesn't bother me at all...

There's also the fact that I get a really low level of residual distortion (really low, but enough to bug me) coming through the speakers (and headphones, the rare times that I use them). I'm willing to bet that this has everything to do with all of the power and RCA cords connected in the back of my system (there are a lot) that are crossing over each other in all kinds of wrong ways. I've gone behind the thing and tried to organize everything better so that there are less crossed points, but they way my equipment is set up, all of that is really difficult to get to and even doing the best I can I realize that I just can't get everything even close to being ideal.

If I may be permitted a #3 it goes back to the last thing, that everything, power cords, RCA cables, speaker wire, etc is really difficult to get to and I dread having to swap anything out, or even worse troubleshoot some possibly loose wire...
 
RunOutGroove said:
Well... and I say this as someone who isn't nearly obsessed with perfect sound as some folks are - I listen to plenty of music that I love but is relatively low-fi and am fine with it... BUT there are certain recordings that seem like they should sound better than they do and this bugs me. It might be the pressing, the mastering or just that the original thing wasn't as good as I think it was, but I'll put on certain things and immediately ask myself "why is that so flat sounding?" Other things, which tend to be older recordings, recorded in a really basic way, I think of the lack of fidelity as being part and parcel of the music and it doesn't bother me at all...

There's also the fact that I get a really low level of residual distortion (really low, but enough to bug me) coming through the speakers (and headphones, the rare times that I use them). I'm willing to bet that this has everything to do with all of the power and RCA cords connected in the back of my system (there are a lot) that are crossing over each other in all kinds of wrong ways. I've gone behind the thing and tried to organize everything better so that there are less crossed points, but they way my equipment is set up, all of that is really difficult to get to and even doing the best I can I realize that I just can't get everything even close to being ideal.

If I may be permitted a #3 it goes back to the last thing, that everything, power cords, RCA cables, speaker wire, etc is really difficult to get to and I dread having to swap anything out, or even worse troubleshoot some possibly loose wire...
Click to expand...
If your cables are a mess and on the floor cable elevators work well in separating them from laying on each other as well as relieving tension off heavier cables plugged in to the back of components.


Audiofreak71
 
drp1003 said:
If you ask me, speaker placement is the most important aspect of Hi-Fi. Nothing else even comes close.
Click to expand...
This goes hand-in-hand with room acoustics. The cheapest modifications with the biggest impact is acoustics. Controlling reflection, modes and reverberation makes the biggest difference in my listening enjoyment.

The biggest pain is having to listen to all that music. It really detracts from the time I could be working, making cables, or futzing around with the innards of the gear. :biggrin:
 
Audiofreak71 said:
If your cables are a mess and on the floor cable elevators work well in separating them from laying on each other as well as relieving tension off heavier cables plugged in to the back of components.


Audiofreak71
Click to expand...
They aren't on the floor as everything is raised - on cabinets, including all of the AC stuff, which goes into a surge protector thing that sits on top of (and behind) the cabinet that my TV sits on...
 
Last edited:
my main source of frustration was getting it sounding right then having some irreplaceable and unrepairable vintage component fail on me and going back to the start, like snakes and ladders.

All been good for a few years now and it's a blessed relief. Now I just buy music and listen to music like I did back when I started in the 1980s.

RCA interconnects - yes. In the end I got a meticulous/obsessive friend to make some up for me. He insists on using expensive wire and connectors (KLE) so they cost a fair bit but they've not fallen apart or had any other problems for years now so money well spent.

Moving speakers about not so much since there's only one place I can really put them. But the room acoustic is good (made sure of that before I bought the house) and whilst having a holographic soundstage is fun it's not a deal breaker for me. And it's mostly either on the recording - or not - anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom