133 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
A COMMON SENSE GUIDE TO HI-FI
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Many people do not comprehend the very obvious logic of how to
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assemble a hi-fi system. This is easy to understand, given each
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man- ufacturer's claims that the particular component that they
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produce is THE most important in any system.
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Speaker manufacturers far outnumber all other manufacturers com-
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bined, so it is only natural that the hi-fi industry as a whole
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places the most emphasis on speakers. This is a serious mistake.
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A new loudspeaker can change the character of a hi-fi system. It is
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unlikely, though, that it will offer any real improvement to a
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system, unless the current speaker is already the weakest link in
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the system (rarely the case!).
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The place to start anything is at the beginning, and the beginn- ing
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of a hi-fi system is the source. In a record playing system, the
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source is the record and the hi-fi components occur in the following
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hierarchy:
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1) The Turntable
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2) The Tonearm
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3) The Cartridge
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4) The Preamplifier
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5) The Power Amplifier
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6) The Loudspeakers
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If you do a poor job of getting information off the record at the
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beginning of the system, it is impossible for any component fur-
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ther down the chain to improve upon that signal. It is not possible
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for an amplifier to improve upon the signal that is put into it. It
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is not even a matter of how good the amplifier is; it simply cannot
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improve the signal that is fed into it. The same is true of
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speakers - in fact, improving the speakers when there is a fault
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earlier in the system will only serve to more clearly reveal the
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fault.
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The turntable is the platform for the arm and record and is the
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component that assumes the primary responsibility for maintaining a
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fixed relationship between the record and the cartridge body. It is
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this relationship that is critical in recovering any signal from the
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surface of the record (the cantilever has to move while the
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cartridge body stands still with respect to the record surface, in
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order to generate a signal). For this reason, the turntable is the
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first, and most fundamental component in a hi-fi system. A very
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good turntable, even with a budget tonearm and cartridge and a
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budget amplifier and loudspeaker, will produce a very acceptable
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level of performance. In other words, the performance advantage of
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the turntable is fundemental to everything downstream.
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Next in importance comes the arm, which is the interface between the
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turntable and the cartridge. The capabilities of the tonearm are
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more important in the hierarchy of a hi-fi system than the capabili-
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ties of the cartridge. If the arm can't hold the cartridge still,
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then the cartridge can't work. It makes much more sense to have a
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very good arm with a budget cartridge than to buy a moderately good
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tonearm with a very good cartridge.
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The next component in the chain is the cartridge, and if the
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turntable and arm have both been optimized, then the cartridge will
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be the next limiting factor. It is important to realize, however,
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that all high-quality cartridges will impose demands on the preamp-
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lifier. If may be that a very wide bandwidth cartridge will satur-
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ate the preamplifier or overload it with signals it cannot handle.
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So, it is sometimes necessary to improve the preamp before, or at
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the same time, that the cartridge is improved.
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The preamplifier is next in the hierarchy, followed by the pow- er
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amplifier. If these items are optimized, it becomes possible to use
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a pair of budget loudspeakers at the end of such a system with
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extremely good results. Indeed, it will be impossible to surpass
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the result obtained with such a system than by using the best
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available speakers with a lesser turntable or an inferior amplifier.
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Only when all these components have been optimized does it make
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sense to use the best speaker available. If you think about this
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proposition for a moment, it is self-evident, logical, sensible, and
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obviously correct. Unfortunately, hi-fi magazines have for many
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years attributed most improvements to loudspeakers. They apparently
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believe that because loudspeakers are big and produce the sound
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(good or bad), they are the most important component in the system.
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This is completely absurd. You have to examine the signal path and
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the hierarchy of a hi-fi before a system can be rationally sel-
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ected, upgraded, or built. A competent retailer will be prepared to
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demonstrate every component in the chain and its relative
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importance. It will be readily apparent in a fair, blind
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demonstration that any departure from this hierarchy will produce an
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inferior result.
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For example, if you take a Heybrook (Linn or Sota, as well)
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turntable with a Sumiko MMT tonearm and Talisman III-S cartridge
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played through a budget amplifer driving a pair of budget loudspeak-
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ers, the system will produce a sound which is fundamentally and ob-
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viously superior to a Perreaux tri-amp system employing a Sumiko
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"The Arm" and Monster Cable Alpha Two cartridge, but with an infer-
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ior turntable as the source. Although the price disparity will be
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in the region of 10 to 1, the cheaper system will out-perform the
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system which is ten times more costly.
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I hope that this brief discussion of the hierarchy of a hi-fi system
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has provided some insight into the proper assembly of, or
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improvement to, your hi-fi system. It is still critical however,
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that any change that you plan to make in your system be carefully
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evaluated by actually listening to the component in question. Any
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competent dealer will have demonstration facilities which are suf-
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ficiently good to clearly and quickly demonstrate the hierarchy of a
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system and to allow the necessary comparisons to be made. Confusion
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will only arise if the dealer's demonstration facilities are inade-
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quate (for example, if he has more than one pair of speakers in the
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room at one time), or if some other fundamental error is being made.
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Your best safeguard against that is a basic understanding of the
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hierarchy of a hi-fi system and system set-up Armed with this know-
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ledge, you can quickly evaluate a dealer's understanding of the bas-
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ics of hi-fi.
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==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The following names compose a monument to last forever in the electronic
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highway: Patrizia Bravi Alessandra Bravi Glenda Frank Marcelle Dumont
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Donna Reznik Valentina Bravi Britt Warner Jennifer Gruen
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--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--
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