Audiophiles - You're wasting your money!

That's been my conclusion, particularly in the case of my battered hearing. I suspect I've lost about an octave in the high end. So if equipment is detailed above 10k Hz, that factor is worthless to me. Of course, looking for gear that is not defined in the high end would be a silly way to shop but when comparing two units, one of which is said to be more detailed in the upper ranges (more "air" for instance) it might be a factor.

i like audio pro A48

Do not listen to this guy! He is click bait! Make tests, and see by yourself.

Thank you

As far as speakers go I´m totally happy with my B&W Nautilus 801. I use them both as a unforgiving worktool while mastering but also enjoy them for sitting down and be overwhelmed by good music. They are however a ruthless magnifying glass that exposes bad productions. Mainly from the loudness wars era. If you have money and can optimize your room acoustically for these speakers, I highly recommend them.
Per Lindberg / PlingPlongStudio - Malmö, Sweden.

There is no perfect speaker, but there is likely one that comes closest to perfection. In an objective sense, speakers need to behave like a perfect piston to achieve this. To attain that behavior, three principles are required, which are inherently contradictory: a speaker needs an ultralight yet extremely rigid cone, coupled with excellent damping. The combination of materials and specifications that allow a speaker to approach this behavior makes it the closest thing to perfection.

The term “audiophile” I filled with snake oil bs… many so called, “audiophiles” spent thousands on speaker wires, interconnects, etc believing that just because they spent thousands they’re getting a better sound 😂 but in actuality, they’re not! Placebo effect is a mofo! Especially when it involves spending their money…

Another consideration is taste, 2 people's ears might hear exactly the same music, but they prefer different sound profiles. One prefers the sound of an expensive system the other a cheap system.

Speaker quality makes a huge difference to me. I have Klipsch and Sansui receiver in one room. This setup is so clean and crisp. Plenty of power with no amp noise. I love it but some might not like the cabinets. I think some speakers made will please most everyone. With so many opinions there can’t be a perfect speaker. I like my different speakers and Amps for different types of music.

The best sounding amp I first heard was from a little Voice of Music reel to reel player I purchased from the thrift store for about $15. I plugged my CD player into the unit put on a Howlin' Wolf cd and stood in amazement, wondering how did he get into the room. That's when I learned about the 3D sound of tubes. I actually heard something even more amazing when I ran a reel to reel tape through an old portable player and was even more shocked. Next came guitar amps from solid state to tube, no comparison, deep, rich nice. Distortion in tube amps is there with EL84 amps and 6V6 amps especially however as you move to the bigger tubes and amps things change. I noticed the Leak 12 you mentioned was a dual EL 84 and so I would expect distortion in the low end. What makes another difference is the size of the transformers. The output transformers on my vintage HF 20 Eicos are 13 pounds, it makes a difference. Not saying that bass amps are better off with tubes as solid state can definitely cover the bass better in many situations although the Ampeg SVT bass amp is one of the greatest and uses tubes, problem is tube amps require larger transformers and so the Ampeg SVT is a monster to pack to the gig. I am kind of confused on the Leaks as one site said they used KT66 which is a very strong tube but all the pics show it with two EL84's.

I will say that the mid range HiFi equipment I bought 30 years ago was just as good as the many products I bought at the same price point today. As said, I enjoyed the ‘experience ‘ of different products, with slightly better or maybe worse sound’ hence the need to ‘upgrade’.For example the best all-round floor stander I had was the Linn Keildh a hard act to follow with then a £200 MF B1 amp and CD1 player.
Today I’d say I’m a ‘cured’ Audiophile. I stream in the main to SONOS and a pair of KEF LSX active speakers. It’s more than enough, no more cables, over heating amps, oversized boxes, LPs or CDs to store. My ears are older, tinnitus has arrived and music sadly not so important in my life… it’s simply there if I want it esp on my BT headphones in the gym!! Be careful, HiFi Is a money pit and you’ll never be satisfied tbh, the journey is a long road, but a joyful experience if you ever get it right!

so yeah ive always perscribed to this train of thought , which until this point i thought mine only. i wish my old ears could hear what my 17 year old ears heard when hooked up my new heppner car speakers. these things were built ,un matched clarity , that sound i still chase today im very afraid that it will not return as a music memory. Its like trying hear good sound again while wearing ear protection. there is alot of things i wish i could get back that only a 17 year body could give me

That pounds joke got me laughing a bit too much.
Great video sir.

It is a new fashion statement: let us help the poor, stupid audiophile 🙈

Mahler is another world. Fully blessed with counterpoint skills, harmony, orchestration, masterful timing and control of the architecture of large works. His music is true A+++ along with Bach and Beethoven. I love Mahler as a friend. I even believe he was prophetic with his music, and didn't realize it. Prophetic of the culture that was about to collapse. I thank Our Father in Heaven for these great composers dedicating their lives to praise God.

Imagine for a moment John Borwick, one time audio technical expert that wrote for the Gramophone magazine, saying this: ""We" have come a long way from the first attempts to register vocal/instrumental effects on reproducible hardware yet there remains one ineffable logic; viz that the difference between the most original primitive "recordings" and the results via the latest "magical" hardware will always be less than the difference between the latter and the "real thing"". Of course, those who formed some kind of agreeable acceptance of what J.B. might have said will know he never would have said such a thing ! "...... and why not ?" as Arnold Brown was wont to say.

With turntables, differences disappear fairly fast with increasing price. Then it's a cartridge game.

What great info, I thought I was strange for endlessly buying and never really fully completing my system, I have core NAD equipment well over 10 years old and my major integrated amp C340 over 20 years old now but I was taken by the sound, thinking about just getting a separate DAC or maybe separate amp but the new stuff is getting so far out there with digital sources and different methods of playing them and wondering if the files are locked it gets me irritated which is why I mostly prefer the older analog simplicity.

😂😂😂💯

perfect speakers? NO. but i can sure hear what i like in a set of speakers and what i don't. Some of the more expensive speakers i have listened to i did not like.

Nonsense! All these naysayers and audiophools are deaf !! Their stuff can't possibly be any good if they don't include stuff hand carved from solid BS & Unobtainium by Virgins. To see the remarkable benefits of such devices, send me US$100 in used bank notes. No Confederate money please. :)

You forgot to mention the two most important things after speakers in a Hifi system, room treatment and DSP :)

these Wilson Audio you showed on the video are impressive. The best combination I've heard was they were paired with the Momentum by my friend Dan D'Agostino. He truly has an ear for top quality stuff. And I too am a concert goers (when I am not on the podium conducting orchestras - hence I know what the true sound of music looks like). The Wilson are indeed impressive. The best upgrade I suggest is a two weeks thermal therapy at the Sirmione ear treatment spa in Lake Garda.

It's truly hard to hear the difference between 3 great transistors amps (of more or less equal power). Valves vs transistor will be more audible but the big difference is to be found in the preamps. Also, I was recording at Abbey Road Studios (they have top gear there). Well, the difference between the live orchestra and the recorded version was huge.. no matter what your system is out here cannot match live music!

Very refreshing, thanks. I suppose the lesson is just go with your ears and not what some hi-fi magazine says!

I have £10,000 hearing and a £500 budget, I’m screwed

Thank U ! This makes a lot of ( cents Ha ) sence . There's no value in hi fi equipment that is better than your hearing except for bragging rights . The difference would be largly undetectable , except for the actual speakers sound

Genelec 8351, engineered and digitally processed to make them perfect (limiters, frequency response, etc). If you're listening to passive speakers these days, you're behind....

Get a job that pays you what you want to do and btw Planet Fitness is only 10 bucks a month

It amuses me how audiophiles spend up to $100,000 to listen to a record that may have been mastered in a studio with speakers the may have cost around
$400.00

I recently had to buy a new amp system because my vintage sansui brokedown and I got tired of repairing. So I happen get an old Acuruscsystem off a friend for $600. So I then decided to uograde a few other things. I first bought some Dynaudio speaker used $ 1400, then a Pontus ll $1800 and Roon server running through a sonoremicro usb. In the end I have come to conckusion after movibg old components in and out that my old paradigm mkll se speakers $200 used, annd Maverick tube magic d1 $300, sound better than many higher end systems Ive had the fortune to listen.. mind you Im running a tube buffer and 4 band eq between my pre and power amp. Synergy is everthing!

good video

I think the price point on great speakers starts low, at least for small rooms, and gets higher for larger rooms. Few (if any) hi-fi speakers sound any better than pro studio or theater monitors, which can also be expensive. Anything above $10k/pr better look pretty too.

But,But, but, I want people to think more of me because i bought klipsh jubels !! lol. you are 100% right. Why spend a lot money when you literally cant hear the difference?

How to make aclock-radio sound better.
Listen to the music, not the clock radio.
How to make the best system sound even better.
Listen to the music, not the amazing system.

You just like to express your crap and be right😊

I totally agree, don't waste your money. You don't need a British deluxe Bentley Rapier car to go from A to B, you can just as well drive a far less expensive but excellent Russian LADA Niva and you'll get from A to B in the same way, you will hardly notice any difference and you'll waste 100x less money! And when you do so, you will have enough money left so you can buy the best possible DAC if you are a music lover!

You have no idea how wrong you are I Am so old my hearing is trashed with tinnitus. I can still hear a bad digital cable and easily hear the difference between iem cables. I have been building valve amps for 30 years. You can hear the dcr in a choke or output trans. All my tv system is tube I out of here your talking drivel.

there is no such thing as the perfect pair of speakers since your listing space/environment has the biggest impact on the way they sound. You can review and audition the speakers in the perfect listing room but you are always taking a leap of faith when you then try and apply them to your own room😭

I had the actual studio monitors for 15 years. In 1-2 day I'll get the new ones. After 15 years I upgrade my monitors. No speaker is perfect, that's why producers, audio engeneers, don't change monitors often. One got to know the monitors before make critical decisions listening to them! So for the next month I'll have to learn my new monitors! I believe that there is no need for further explanations in the context of the discussion from the clip.

What a complete load of hot air

Power amps and DACs are, theoretically, solved problems. But a lot of so-called HiFi products are nowhere near state-of-the-art performance, probably even distorted by design to differentiate them in the marketplace. This is such a weird hobby...

My sister's husband was HIFI crazy. Spent years building a power amplifier and remote control for it. The speakers were the size of a piece of furniture. He lived in an apartment building where he couldn't listen loud enough to be happy. It didn't matter because he didn't have any taste in music. How high or low in frequency he got mattered.i´m music lover and saw that was torture.

Most important is your room...

I had once the opportunity to listen to active studio monitors, a guy used in his HiFi system. I was so impressed by the neutrality of reproduction that I changed to these (Mackie HR824) which were much cheaper than anything at the HiFi dealer up to 5000 Euro a piece. At least I was not able to spot any significant differences to the monitor speakers. I did a direct comparison there. Since then I do rely very much on active speakers which are the perfect solution for me.