Help a new guy learn the "trade"

[Nixxon]

Hey guys, I'm an electronics technician in the Air Force, however not extremely experianced on an engineering level yet (Thats what Im going to night school for).

Anyways I was wondering if anyone has any guides or any good sites for learning about audio systems. Speaker setups, external amplification, noise filtering circuitry etc.

I love music and currently just bought a Zune and I'm looking to first purchase some good headphones that cover my ear (for in home listening and computer gaming) and some buds for when I to go the gym and I don't really know what to look for. Eventually build a home entertainment center around a quality sound system. So insted of just asking what all you would get, I want to learn what to look for to hopefully build my knowladge base for future use.

Thanks to anyone that can help!

 

[phide]

To start things off, thanks for keeping those birds in the air (if that is what you do).

If you want to learn more about audio systems in the home and in the professional world, my best suggestion is to pick up a few mags. There are probably a dozen or so industry rags that cover the higher-end home audio stuff, while catalogs and web forums can give you a better idea of where you probably want to end up going (mid-end). For headphones, check out Head-Fi, and for home theater, check out the AVS forum. Some of the pro mags are somewhat specific (mostly music production), but you can learn quite a bit about audio systems in general by researching audio systems for live sound (this is called sound reinforcement).

If you have questions, you may as well shoot 'em off here. Although technically "Computer Audio"-oriented, audio-oriented questions in general are good enough for the mods.

 

[Nixxon]

I actually work on ground to air radio communication and airfield navigation and landing systems and weather equipment. Its pretty broad.

I'll check those sites out. Having the budget I do I'm mostly going to get mid-range items with a few high end peices.

Thanks for the help

 

[sluzbenik]

Well, it's all down to taste anyway.

Also check out audiogon.com if you want to go audiophile. You can build a very reasonable mid-fi system with used components (or new for 40-50%) more, the problem is finding a shop that will let you listen to lots of stuff so you have an idea what you want.

Arcam, Rotel, and NAD are good "budget" names to check out for amplifiers and digital sources. There are lots of nice affordable speakers now in the mid-fi price range ($500-1500). Personally I like B&W and Paradigm, but there are tons of others.

 

[towert7]

What's others have said is good advice.

Surprisingly, you can find a lot of information for free on the web, just by browsing this sub forum or the head-fi.org forums. These are a HUGE resource of information. There are also plenty of online review sites out there.

But, if you are just starting out, and don't know your amps from your preamps, then you may want to check this book out (from the library if possible): The Complete guide to high-end audio. Although it's slightly dated, it'll give you a good introduction to most things audio related. After reading this, you'll have the foundations to then branch off into many other things.

~Hope this helps, and sorry about your wallet