A whole new world

[kavorka19]

I've tried peeking in this audio forum before, but I was too timid to ask wtf was going on. There's so much to take in.

Can someone point me in the direction (or give me a basic run down) of a place to start with all of this stuff?

What are all of these components in these pictures and why do you need them? For example, the tube amps look cool, but are they really that different from a digital amp? etc.

Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[N4CR]

Difference between tube and other amp designs is sound. Chiefly the distortion is different in a tube design, often higher amounts, but to many, more pleasing to the ear, natural, golden, whatever you want to call it.
I enjoy it too but prefer the precision of a very well built transistor based amplifier chain. They can be a little clinical but when matched properly, best of both worlds in my opinion.

That said, when it comes to guitar amps... a high end tube sure is magic.
Beware though, plenty of fake hifi stuff with tubes and leds under them for show...

Then you can get stuff like Burson, which is transistor based with matched analogue op amps. Bit of both really..

There are so many different opinions and views on audio. Very subjective. One piece of advice, listen to your ears. Don't be afraid to try things as simple as different cables.
Yes, you may find a difference between a coathanger and a high grade, long grain copper cable with appropriate design. Same reason why cables for various applications, often have standards and ratings.

If you want to see a really geeky, near esoteric hifi site, sort of the Hardocp of hifi, just to pique your curiosity, check out 6moons.com. Some of the finest stuff available appears there.

If you want to start cheap and learn from scratch, check out diyaudio, avsforums, etc. Also don't be hooked into paying heaps for amps/etc. Speakers can be tricky to construct, but DIY amps, with electrical knowledge or help, can be done at a fraction of the price. $100k amps being crapped on by $2000 high end diy jobbies with far better quality.
edit: http://aussieamplifiers.com/ highly regarded, great pricing and support.
I have an NXV800rev1 monoblock pair ready to assemble, gold track PCBs, really really high end build and components, customisable etc. If you do go down this sort of route, consider custom transformer toroids to have oversize cores, this makes it a touch cleaner, reduces magnetostriction - noise, heat, etc.. Krell (100k stuff..) does this

Don't be afraid to buy books or ebooks to read about it all, once you know where you want to head.

P.s. Hifi is a hobby and lifestyle in one. Enjoy!

 

[rudy]

Every bit of sound you listen to goes through most of the same steps. A phone with a pair of headphones does, a TV does this, and a theater does the same. The difference is that a phone seeks to combine all the components into a small single product as does a TV and as such they have major compromises. And a really robust sound system seeks to separate them all into separate components to give the users power and control for the best quality sound.

So you have sound data files (flac, mp3)
software to play the data files (windows media center etc....)
Software or hardware to apply alterations to the sound (room correction, equalization)
Digital analog converters to turn the sound into electrical current
Amplifiers to increase that electrical current power
And speakers to receive the current and make sound.

Generally for a new person you would combing all the stuff in the middle into one device we call the receiver. For about $300 you can get a nice one. A receiver also has many inputs for the sound and video signals so you can plug many different things into a single device and switch between them quickly. I can tell you if you are willing to spend about $1000 on a sound system you will see a revolutionary difference in what you hear. With sound at the beginning as you spend more money you get great gains and massive improvements if you shop carefully. After a while you start to get diminishing returns, the exception is if your space is big, then you just need tons of size and power.

I started out with a sound system that was about $800, I enjoyed it so much and got so much use out of it I became willing to spend a lot more. But if money was tight I would still find that $1000 price point great. I would highly recommend EVERYONE always have a sound system at around that value. If you want to go higher great but even people who are not audiophiles can easily appreciate the sound in a 1 K system.

There is no replacement for displacement.