Top 10 Mistakes Audiophiles Make

that sounds great said no audiophile ever in the history of audio files ten

mistakes

blunders raise hifi enthusiasts tend to

make

audio files of course i have never made any of these

mistakes

and i hope with these 10 things you guys might be inspired and you might not

make

the same mistakes that i've made but more than once or twice in some situations today's video is being sponsored which is totally awesome. I want to thank World Wide Stereo for sponsoring today's video for those familiar with the world. wide stereo you can see them all over the world stereo comm they have free shipping they have 60 day returns and their website is beautiful it's easy to navigate not to mention they do giveaways i'm checking out their site right now and you can enter to win the macintosh rs200 wireless speaker , sign up right now.

They have two locations in Pennsylvania. I'll leave the links below for those two locations and their phone number. They can contact them if they are interested in doing business with them. They're actually clearing out a lot of inventory right now with up to 75% off holiday deals so definitely check out the website bookmark it know the drill and World Wide Stereo thank you so much for patronize this video, we certainly appreciate it. Number 10 speaker stands come in all shapes and sizes. The advice I'm about to give doesn't apply to all speaker stands, but it does apply to many speaker stands if you're buying a speaker stand that's hollow, meaning it has a cavity inside and doesn't there's nothing but air, please hear me out, please don't make the mistake of putting your bookshelf mount speakers on top of them and just playing them and thinking everything is going to be fine. those holders with litter with kitty litter and even rice is always a good idea actually wait a second this is a hammer and this is a holder that is filled with kitty litter it is made of metal ok this is also a holder that is made out of metal and it's full of nothing that sounds great said no audiophile ever in the history of audio files Oh okay I think I've made my point there yeah if you're standing make sure you fill them with some again as i mentioned before you can use sand you can use kitty litter or you can go ahead and use rice raw rice listen to me don't cook rice and put them in the speaker stands they will do nothing but make a big mess and that's not me i wonder if that would improve the sound oh ok i got my notes here number nine speaking of the speakers the fans get the height right and this might seem like a no brainer but too often i get emails i get questions They say how I do it.

Do you know what kind of speaker stand height I need? How can I know? What advice do you have for me? Ron, well my advice is pretty simple. You may need help with this. Have someone with a tape measure like you. you are sitting in the listening position find out where your ear is in terms of how high you are off the ground which should be the reference point of the speaker now its easy to say it will always be the tweeter most of the time thats true but not all the time so what I'm saying is you might want to figure out what the reference point of the speaker is sometimes it's the tweeter and sometimes it's actually halfway between the tweeter and the woofer like so ask the manufacturer find out from them what they think if they can't help you then here comes number eight trust the dealer for help if you just bought something from world stereo then you should be able to reach them call them and say hey just from buying these speakers i just bought these speaker stands i'm trying to figure out where the reference point is on the speaker can you guys do some digging and see if you can figure it out and if they aren't? able to find it then i'll eat my hat in a future video number seven so if you ever find yourself maybe doing some spring cleaning decide to dust off the old gear maybe take it apart put back together or swap out a few pieces of gear . you sit down and listen and it sounds awful, you don't know what the hell is going on but something is definitely not right and you can spend weeks and in some cases even months hating your gear and can't figure out what the hell it really is. going well, here's a little tip for you to check the polarity of your speaker wires.

I've made this mistake and I've had subscriber friends contact me who have made the same mistake and we can all laugh because I feel like it. we've all been there once or twice in our life as a hifi enthusiast, you actually unplugged everything, put everything back together, and on one of the speakers you changed the polarity so that positive goes to negative and negative goes. on the positive and that my friends will drive to a horrible sound rig and pull their hair out trying to figure out what the heck is going on to make your system sound bad after you just made some changes check polarity you'll be shocked at times from the company that you might be making this mistake and it's easy to miss it then this is a speaker spike and it's certainly something you should consider using this on the other hand it's not a spike this is a speaker device isolation this is the EVPs of AV room service, you can check the links below.

I'm a big fan of these. I also like spikes, depending on the situation, the room in which you are working. have tile if you have carpet all of those things are going to determine what is going to be the right tool for the job these guys isoacoustic this is also an isolation device it's like a puck here and has a little bit of give to it so whatever you do noise, anything that vibrates, look, I'm not here to sell you anything, but I would say that you should explore these types of products and you might be surprised at how much better your system can sound as soon as you start playing with the spikes so soon as you start playing with isolation devices so consider spikes consider isolation devices that can safely make a difference without them now when it comes to your listening room something i would consider a lot is room acoustics .

Consider what you're working with, and understand that not every room we're listening in can be made into a dedicated listening room here in my house. I worked with my wife and we actually work together to try to make our family living room entertainment room as friendly as possible we want it cozy we want it warm there are a lot of different types of acoustical panels out there that even you can make them yourself and that's very affordable but don't underestimate the importance of room acoustics so here's a quick tip before you buy gear buy new music and what i mean by that is we could be listening the exact same music every time we get bored of that music and think, I've listened to all this a million times and my system doesn't sound any better.

I need to replace something. Listen. That could be the case. That could be the case. because it's been my experience that once I start to dive into new music and explore new music, I hear my system in a whole new light and I appreciate it even more as I start to dive into new music and explore new music, so that its definitely something i would absolutely recommend so one of the biggest mistakes i see over and over again is the speakers are just too close to the walls move them away from the walls i will leave a tutorial below it will be the secrets of Soundstage Revealed I did this in a previous video for Frequency Friday.

I highly recommend taking the time to see that I'll give you a nifty little trick on how you can get an unbelievably awesome soundstage out of your speakers and it's certainly not hard to do. The end result is to move the speakers away from the walls. Don't worry about how they look. Pay attention to how they sound. That is the most important. and in many cases that is the situation for me. Now I have three young children and I can't get the speaker six feet across the room, but it's not that hard to get them out and back when I'm done listening, so be prepared. your speakers away from the walls I promise you are in for a treat as soon as you start testing it by experimenting with it you will be amazed at how much better your system will sound now that this one is a bit slippery the truth is many of you may be in a place where they can't hear the speakers before they buy them.

I'm just saying if you have a choice, definitely go for it. There are audio shows if you can get a plane ticket or if there's you know hopefully near town you can make it to the show which is a fantastic way to at least experience the team to some degree given that these are in small hotel rooms and unless the manufacturer is really working hard and bringing room acoustics it's hard to get fantastic sound out of those rooms but at least it will get you in the right direction so the end result is Try to listen to two speakers before you buy, last but not least, and I think number one is the most important. on my list pay attention to reviews pay attention to what reviewers have to say about things but at the end of the day listen to me trust your ears i cant get this across enough its the most important tool you have in your bag of tricks is your own ears I can't tell you whether or not you'll like a speaker and I'm not going to tell you whether or not you'll like a speaker I can tell you my experience I can tell you based on my taste in music I can tell you based on the equipment I have in home i can tell you based on my listening room with all the stuff i have working for me what i'm hearing and what i'm experiencing but at the end of the day what's unique to me is my experience so that's my story, doesn't mean that whatever I'm celebrating or whatever I might appreciate or like is an instant win for you, we all have different ears we all have different tastes and music and I think it's important that at the end of the day if you like the way in which a loudspeaker sounds and if you've heard me say things that don't really match what you hear again that's okay trust your ears they won't mislead you and it's the most important piece of advice I can give you because our subjective enjoyment when it comes to listening to speakers that's what reigns supreme you could talk about frequency response all day we can talk about linear response all day we can talk about sensitivity all day none of that matters when it comes to whether or not you can sit , press play and enjoy the music, thanks so much for stopping by, I certainly appreciate it. i had a lot of fun making this if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up leave your comments below if you have any recommendations or suggestions for videos that will be like this then please let me know and yes what about you guys what are some of the mistakes what have they committed?

Join the conversation comments below and see you in the next video.